Green Memorials: Daoist Ritual Prayers in the Tang-Five Dynasties Transition†

Abstract

Green memorials (qingci), instituted by Emperor Xuanzong, mark a new departure for the imperial ancestral cult and the evolution of Daoist prayer texts. By the time of the Northern Song, qingci-memorials had developed into a major genre represented in the collected works of literati and statesmen. The earliest substantial collection of qingci, in the Guangcheng ji of Du Guangting, was composed during the late ninth and early tenth century in the Kingdom of Shu. Commissioned by members of the ruling elite, the memorials document the rise of military and regional potentates as well as innovations in Daoist ritual practice under the late Tang and Five Dynasties. The prayers, expressing the apprehensions and anxieties of the patrons of Daoist rituals, convey vivid testimonies of the violent upheavals of the period.