The Precious Scroll, as Preached by the Buddha, of the Handkerchief: How Wang Zhongqing Lost Everything

This chapter discusses the Precious Scroll, as Preached by the Buddha, of the Handkerchief: How Wang Zhongqing Lost Everything, which shows all the typical formal characteristics of precious scrolls of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It highlights the sections of the Precious Scroll that includes an opening song and a passage in prose. It also covers the couplet of two seven-syllable lines, passage in ballad verse, hymn, and quatrain of the Precious Scroll. The chapter reviews the liturgical opening of the Precious Scroll and its liturgical conclusion, which are identical to those found in many sectarian texts and make reference to the Unborn Old Mother. It mentions the scholar Che Xilun, who suggested that the Precious Scroll represents an adaptation of the story by a preacher belonging to one of the new religions of the Ming.