The ''Divine Incantations Scripture'' is the oldest-known
Chinese classic text that details an
apocalypse
Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...
.
History
The earliest portions of the book have been traced to the beginning of the fifth century CE, with subsequent commentary attesting an origin in the early fourth; the book likely integrates older traditions.
These traditions offered a new route to
transcendence that was different from the
Way of the Celestial Masters from which it branched. The ''Divine Incantations Scripture'' sought to clarify the general function of gods as "merely the officials of the
celestial bureaucracy". It also mentions
Li Hong – a
messianic liberator who appears at the chaotic endings of time cycles to restore order in
heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
and on
earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
.
This text was unique for its time in that it promised the aid of celestial "ghost troops" to aid upholders of its teachings, and acknowledged the dynamic obedience and simultaneous danger of various "
daemon kings" that also inhabited a fantastical version of the
metaphysical world. These characteristics draw interesting parallels with the cosmic and celestial warfare depicted in the ''
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
'' completing the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
canon of the Christian
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
. The book also urges Daoists to "assiduously
convert the unenlightened", and demands scriptural exclusivity in receiving the ''Divine Incantations Scripture''.
Notes
References
Works cited
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Taoist texts
Apocalyptic literature
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