道法自然
中元地官赦罪大帝
The Middle Yuan
Festival · 15th day of the 7th lunar month
The Middle Yuan
On the fifteenth of the seventh month — the Ghost Festival — the Official of Earth opens the registers of the underworld and pardons the dead. Lanterns are set on rivers to guide the released souls home.
Festival · 15th day of the 7th lunar month
History · 史记
The Earth Official, Absolver of Sins, is the second of the Three Officials. His festival is Zhongyuan, the fifteenth of the seventh month — when the earth opens its gates to review the registers of the dead and grant absolution. This is Taoism's Ghost Festival: on earth, families set out offerings and float river lanterns to guide the wandering souls of their ancestors.
As Heaven bestows blessings and Water dissolves calamities, Earth absolves. The liturgy assigns him the five mountains, the registers of the earth realm, and the fate of the dead.
On the fifteenth of the seventh month the Earth Official opens the prisons of the underworld; monks and Taoists hold rites of universal salvation, and families float lanterns on the rivers to light the way home for their ancestors.
The Dongjing Meng Hua Lu describes Song-era Kaifeng on Zhongyuan: lantern-boats drift down every river, each flame a guide for one soul — a hundred thousand lotus lanterns burning.
三國志·張魯傳
Records the Three Officials Handwritten Petition rite that anchors the cult of the Earth Official.
荊楚歲時記
Describes the seventh-month offerings to the dead in the southern kingdoms.
東京夢華錄
Records the Song Ghost Festival with its river lanterns and offerings to wandering souls.