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==Origin of the Rituals of Refinement and Salvation==

The Rituals of Refinement and Salvation are often performed in Daoist Fasts and Offerings ( 齋醮 Zhaijiao ). Refinement refers to the refinement of the souls of the dead with Perfect Yang Vital Breath ( 氣 Qi ) which has been inwardly refined by the Ritual Master ( 法師 Fashi ) as the [[High Priest]] ( 高功 Gaogong ) who performs the ritual. Salvation means to save and transform the souls of the dead with the living persons' Perfect Yang Vital Breath, thus making the souls of the dead acquire a body without form. They thus attain the perfection of [[the Complete Perfection]] ( 全真 Quanzhen ). Therefore, the Rituals of Refinement and Salvation refer to rituals by which the ritual masters save the dead by means of the living, and save others by means of themselves. There is no record of these rituals in early Daoism, and it is said that the elder Immortal Ge Xuan of the Jin dynasty transferred them. In the fourth Yongle year of the Ming dynasty, Zhang Yuchu, the Celestial Master ( 天師 Tianshi ) of the 43rd generation, proclaimed in the ''Preface to the Inner Skills of the Supreme Ultimate Offering and Refinement'' ( 太極祭煉內法序 Taiji Jilian Neifa Xu ) that "the refinement and salvation of the souls of the dead is of greatest importance in [[the Numinous Treasure tradition]] ( 靈寶 Lingbao ). The simplicity and directness of refinement and salvation are mainly due to the briefness of the offerings and refinement, and to great moral achievements. The Elder Immortal and Perfect Sovereign ( 真君 Zhenjun ) Ge has ascended to the rank of Immortality since he preached the teaching." But evidence has not yet been found in the literature about [[Ge Xuan]] and Daoism in the two Jin dynasties. '' [[The Book of Salvation]]'' ( 度人經 Duren Jing ), an early scripture of the Numinous Treasure sect, contains a sentence saying that "the souls of the dead are refined and immortalized into human beings", but records of the Rituals of Refinement and Salvation are not found in the literature on rituals edited by Du Guangting, an eminent Daoist of the Tang and the Five dynasties. The ''Inner Skills of the Supreme Ultimate Offering and Refinement'' ( 太極祭煉內法 Taiji Jilian Neifa ), a monograph by Zheng Suonan of the last years of the Northern Song dynasty, relates in detail the rituals of refinement and salvation. According to the fact that there are a lot of records about rituals of refinement and salvation in many collections of rituals compiled in the Southern Song dynasty, we may suppose that the rituals were already widespread in the area south of the Yangtze River controlled by the Southern Song government at that time. The sources also show that Liu Hunkang, the eminent Daoist priest of Mt. Mao, may have contributed to the accomplishment and dissemination of the rituals. After the Song and Yuan dynasties, the rituals of refinement and salvation gradually became the main rituals of the Yellow Register ( 黃籙 Huanglu ), and they are still performed at present in the mainland of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.