The Scripture on the Five Emperors in the Five Directions: Evidence of the Spread of Taoism Amongst the Naxi.

As residents of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, the Naxi people have their own native religion, which manifests a mixture of indigenous beliefs with Tibetan Bon and Buddhism. A pictographic Scripture on the Five Emperors in the Five Directions discovered in Lijiang reveals in detail for the first time the influence of Chinese Taoism on the Naxi manuscripts. By analyzing the manuscript and the related religious rituals, it is proved that the prototype of the main figure in the manuscript comes from the Taoist classic of TaiShang DongYuan Zhao ZhuTianLongWang WeiMiao ShangPin 太上洞淵召諸天龍王微妙上品and its narrative is derived mainly from "LingBao WuDi GuanJiang Hao靈寶五帝官將號," of the TaiShang LingBao WuFuXu 太上洞玄靈寶五符序. It is also the only Naxi manuscript published to date that shows Han Chinese dragon worship among the Naxi people, though the detailed narrations are not identical to those in Chinese or Tibetan sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]