Lingbao (Numinous Treasure)
A tradition no longer extant within Taoism.
Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) is recorded within Taoism and is no longer extant. Also written 靈寶, Numinous Gem, Sacred Jewel.
Origin
Founders named in the sources: Ge Chaofu (grand-nephew of Ge Hong), recipient of the revelations, Lu Xiujing (406–477), codifier and cataloguer. Founding date given as 397–402 CE. The Stanford Encyclopedia dates the Lingbao revelations to 397–402 CE, received by Ge Chaofu, and credits Lu Xiujing (406–477) with codifying and cataloguing them; Bokenkamp places the emergence in the early 5th century. Lingbao synthesises Shangqing material, Celestial Master ritual and Buddhist elements, and unlike Shangqing stresses the social obligation of the adept toward others, in a role compared to the bodhisattva.
Continue reading this article
Sign in free to read in full. Become a member to join the discussion without limits.
Sign in free to read- ✓Read every article
- ✓Comment and reply (up to 100 words, 10/month)
- ✓Browse the community
- ✓Reader badge
Citation
English
The language and the date you read it belong in the citation: this corpus is multilingual and articles are revised after publication.
John Shaqi. “Lingbao (Numinous Treasure).” English version. 11 August 2026. https://johnshaqi.com/articles/sect-lingbao-numinous-treasure.
@misc{johnshaqi-sect-lingbao-numinous-treasure-en,
author = {John Shaqi},
title = {Lingbao (Numinous Treasure)},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {English version},
url = {https://johnshaqi.com/articles/sect-lingbao-numinous-treasure},
note = {Accessed n.d.}
}The word count is counted from this edition. The minute estimate uses 238 words a minute, the silent reading rate for English non-fiction reported by Brysbaert (2019). The Urdu, Hindi and Roman Urdu editions carry a word count and no estimate, because no comparable rate has been published for those scripts.