Secret Taoist Cloud Scripts and Talismans EXPLAINED

Chinese characters have a long history, from the oracle bone inscriptions, to the rounded style of the small seal script, to the characters we know today which took their shape as the clerical and official scripts during the Han dynasty 2,000 years ago. And along the way we have some alternative writing systems, such as the Tangut characters of the Western Xia dynasty, which look like those fake Chinese characters made up by AI when you ask for an image of Chinatown, which is these elongated characters, kind of like the Chinese version of Elvish. But there are even more writing systems that have evolved over the years in China, and today I want to talk about one such writing system which looks out of this world, and is related to mystical Taoists, secret cults, and magic talismans that protect you from evil. I am of course talking about cloud script and Taoist talismans, and this is their story. In the book of the Huainan masters, over 139 years BC, there is a section that talks about the invention of Chinese characters by Cangjie, this dude with four eyes. I really can't look at that for too long. Anyway, it states, when Cangjie invented writing, the heavens rained millet and ghosts cried at night. What does this mean? Well, the idea is that Chinese writing has power. Characters are not just ink on paper, they are connected to the heavens, and have the power to influence the physical and metaphysical worlds. In other words, the strong energy of Chinese characters could cause changes to happen in the world we live in, and scare off ghosts in ethereal realms. Now Chinese characters were used by Taoists, obviously to write down their teachings, but also to create talismans that could protect the bearer, or cause something to happen on a certain day, by attracting help from spirits, or just the energy of the universe. Now before we get into talking about Taoist writing and talismans, let's just give you a background on the Taoist magic arts. And by magic, we don't mean this. Borrowed top hat, magic gesture, two taps, and out of the hat comes a rabbit. No, the Taoist magic arts were more about fending off evil spirits, predicting, like, rain or disasters, increasing your luck for something to happen on a certain day, or even channeling the spirits of the universe to give you the power to do things in the human world. Right, something like that. He-Man has a magic sword, the Taoists had magic pieces of paper with characters written on them. I'm sure they had magic swords as well. But anyway, Taoist magic used the prehistoric He Tu and Luo Shu diagrams, as well as the eight trigrams of the Book of Changes, the theory of yin and yang, and the theory of the five elements to make predictions that something could happen on a certain day. Like, if a certain day had a strong water element, it would be likely to rain. Perhaps not the ideal day to plan your wedding on. But then Taoist masters could also use these magical theories to increase your luck on certain days, or just in general, like if you were going to fight a battle or cross the mountains, basically they would be communicating with spirits to protect you, like a medium. But you couldn't take your Taoist wizard with you on your trip through the mountains, so they would write for you a special talisman which acted as the medium to communicate with the supernatural world and achieve the same effect. For example, the Ru Shan Fu would protect you on your trip through the mountains. In the book the Bao Pu Zi, it states, of the five talismans described above, all are Lao Zun's talismans for entering the mountains. Lao Zun is a Taoist deity, by the way. Use cinnabar ink to write them on peach wood. Write the characters big so they fill the whole board. Hang them on doors and windows, in the four directions and four corners, also at important points along a path leading to where one resides within 50 paces, and they will repel mountain spirits and ghosts. They can also be hung on beams and pillars within a house. All those who reside in mountain forests or temporarily enter the mountains can use them, and the various creatures will not harm them. And here are the actual five entering the mountain talismans, or Ru Shan Fu, that the Bao Pu Zi was talking about. Now, you may notice that these talismans look kind of like Chinese characters, but a little bit different. They're not really made up of the same radicals that comprise the official or clerical scripts, which are standard. They also contain components that look like the lines and dots of the He Tu and Luo Shu diagrams, but every part does have meaning. So while some Taoist talismans did use regular Chinese characters, like this one I had a go at writing out a couple of years ago. Pretty good for a Laowai, right? It's basically it, right? Many use different scripts or symbols, even glyphs, mixed together with Chinese characters, Oracle Bone script characters, and the trigrams of the Yi Jing, or Book of Changes, like this talisman for attracting compatible love. And that brings us to one type of script, which is probably the coolest of them all. Cloud script. Taoist cloud script was developed out of the curvy characters of the small seal script, or Xiao Zhuan. Remember those wavy characters that we talked about at the beginning? And cloud script is considered a type of seal script, i.e. a script used in seals that are stamped on documents or artworks. And you can see this in the Chinese name, yun zhuan, which means cloud seal. Another name for this type of writing is tian shu, or heaven writing. You can find charts on the internet that show you the cloud seal characters and standard Chinese characters side by side. And it's actually very hard to guess what characters each cloud script character would correspond to. In general, the writing style gives you an otherworldly feel. It is truly like the writing of Taoist immortals floating in the clouds. Now, why would they write like this? Well, in the Treatise on Literature of the Book of Sui, or Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi, there is a passage that talks about tian shu. In the Taoist classics, it says, there is yuan shi tian zun, or the primeval lord of heaven. He was born before even the most primal state of the universe. The scriptures spoken by him do not exist in the world. They are kept and not spread. If the universe goes through great catastrophes, ushering in a new era, the true teachings will naturally emerge and be seen. This teaching has eight characters, but contains all the mysteries of the Tao. And it is called the heavenly writing, or tian shu. The characters are one zhang, or 10 feet tall, and radiate light in eight directions. Their radiance illuminates startling hearts and dazzling the eyes. So there is a belief that the original writing style in the heavens is not like that on earth, but instead it follows those wavy lines in the style of seal scripts that were common in the Warring States period and Qin Dynasty. And so Taoists kept developing writing styles using wavy lines, even when the rest of China had gone all straight and box-like. You can also see from that passage the fact that true teachings are not casually revealed to the world. So Taoists writing stuff in wavy characters that average people couldn't read would mean that only a really worthy man who had gone to great lengths to learn a new writing system could read their teachings. And naturally, the cloud seal style was used in talismans too. You can see here some modern examples of how the talismans are created using cloud script in vertical format. The three dots at the top represent the three pure ones, of which Yuan Shi Tian Zun is the highest deity. Then below you have a linguistic structure like subject, verb, object written out in cloud script characters. Here is another example of a vertical cloud script talisman, again with the symbol for the three pure ones at the top. They can also be arranged in a grid like this good luck talisman written in cloud script and arranged according to the Luo Shu. So that is basically the background on cloud script and talismans or Fu Lu in Chinese explained. These things are used in Taoist rituals like Zhu You Ke or Zhu You Shi San Ke, the number 13 subject of Zhu You. The number 13 makes it sound kind of sketchy to Westerners like witchcraft. I guess it kind of is because this is about writing characters, talismans, burning them, burning incense, reciting incantations, which are basically spells. And it's said to be able to heal people's illnesses. But the idea is that you're kind of inviting spirits to help you. And what do you have to give them in return? I wonder. So I lump this stuff together with things like tarot cards and Ouija boards that we have in the West. You don't really know what you're tapping into. It's not what they call the Da Dao or Great Dao, which is all about self-cultivation and leads to enlightenment and an understanding of the cosmos that one directly experiences, as well as many supernatural skills that are innate to one's own body, directly using your own energy. You don't need to write down characters to attract help from gods or spirits. It comes from your own heart through years of bearing hardships and giving up worldly desires. And the most famous example of a cultivator of the Great Dao is the immortal Zhang Sanfeng, the creator of Tai Chi. If you want to hear his story, check out the two part video series on screen now. Otherwise, please subscribe to our channel if you're new. And if you want to support us as a member for $4.99 a month, it really helps us keep creating content like this. Traditional Chinese topics aren't exactly viral material on YouTube right now, so your support really helps. We do currently have one members only video and we hope to do more in the future. Of course, you can still just subscribe and see all our regular videos for free. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye bye.