Gengshen Night Vigil — Full Observance Complex

Overview

This canonical ID (70) currently groups 2 source layers with divergent titles. Milestone-1 migration preserves every layer below without inventing a single merged narrative. Status: needs-review.

Also attested under these titles

Mahāvairocana-sūtra Ritual System

Research layers

Layer 1: Mahāvairocana-sūtra Ritual System

Source file: 01_Buddhism.md

Japanese: 大日経 Dainichikyō
A foundational scripture for East Asian esoteric Buddhism, combining doctrine with detailed ritual procedures and serving as the textual basis of the Womb Realm maṇḍala.

Core ritual technologies

Maṇḍala construction; initiation; mantra; mudrā; visualization; fire rites; deity placement; ritual purification; consecration.

Source: BDK America, The Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sutra.
Reliability: A.

Layer 2: Gengshen Night Vigil — Full Observance Complex

Source file: 02_Daoism.md

Chinese: 守庚申, shou gengshen
Timing: 57th day of the sexagenary cycle

The vigil is grounded in the belief that internal Corpses/Worms leave the body during Gengshen night to report faults to heavenly authorities.

Historical observance pattern

Determine the Gengshen day using the sexagenary calendar.
Prepare for an all-night vigil.
Avoid sleep throughout the dangerous interval.
Maintain control/awareness of the hun and po in some textual versions.
Recite scriptures, cultivate meditation, undertake morally meritorious activity, or participate in communal observance according to period and community.
Continue until the night has passed and the reporting opportunity is believed to have closed.

Some texts interpret violent or combative dreams on such nights as struggles between the hun and the internal Corpses.

Hazard: sleep deprivation is physically consequential; the entry records the historical rite rather than prescribing medically risky repetition.

Reliability: A/B.