佛祖歷代通載 19.66

19.66

（四十二）　十一月上御寶籙宮。度玉清神霄祕籙會八百人。凡天神降臨事。蓋發端於王老志。而極於林靈素。及為大會。林講經據高座。上為設幄其側。林所講無殊絕者。雜以滑稽喋語。上下為大鬨笑。莫有君臣之禮矣。時道士有俸。每一齋施動獲數十萬。每一宮觀給田亦不下數千頃。皆外蓄妻子置姬媵。以膠青刷鬢。美衣玉食者。幾二萬人。一會殆費數萬緡。貧下之人多買青衣幅巾以赴。日得一飫飡而襯施三百。謂之千道會（云云）○十一月（有星如目徐徐南行而落。光照人物與月無異。出宋史）。

(Forty-two) In the eleventh month, the Emperor attended the Baolu Palace to confer the secret registers of Yuqing Shenxiao upon an assembly of eight hundred people. All the matters concerning the descent of heavenly spirits originated with Wang Laozhi and reached their culmination with Lin Lingsu. When a great assembly was held, Lin ascended the high seat to lecture on the scriptures, and the Emperor had a tent set up for himself beside it. What Lin lectured on was nothing exceptional; it was mixed with comedic jokes and chattering, causing superiors and inferiors to burst into uproarious laughter, devoid of any etiquette between sovereign and minister. At that time, Daoists received stipends; every vegetarian feast or donation readily brought in hundreds of thousands, and the land granted to each palace and abbey was not less than several thousand qing. They all kept wives and concubines outside, brushed their temples with glue-lacquer, wore fine clothes, and ate jade-like delicacies, numbering nearly twenty thousand people. A single assembly cost nearly tens of thousands of strings of cash. Poor people of low status often bought black garments and headcloths to attend; daily they obtained a hearty meal and three hundred coins as donation, which was called the 'Gathering of a Thousand Daoists' (and so forth). ○ In the eleventh month, (there was a star shaped like an eye moving slowly southward and falling; its light illuminated people and things no differently from the moon. Taken from the History of Song).