Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
The Wu-Day Taboos of the Divine Empyrean of the Nine Heavens says: Long ago, Emperor Wu of Han loved the Tao and sought immortality. On the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month in the first year of the Yuanfeng era, he moved the Queen Mother of the West to descend. The emperor asked: “Why do the calamities of insects and locusts, floods and droughts come upon the world?”
The Queen Mother said: “It is all because the common people in their ignorance plow and clear the fields on the six Wu days within the four seasons, violating the taboos of yin and yang. As a result the rains do not fall, the hundred grains are not harvested, and the people suffer famine.”
The emperor said: “If the Wu taboo is the gravest, how can it be averted so that these calamities may be avoided?”
The Queen Mother said: “The Wu taboo is the gravest, and there is no way to avert it. Setting aside the calamities of insects, locusts, floods, and droughts, violations in each of the four seasons bring their own disasters, and they must be forbidden. On Wu days one must not water or spread manure, defiling the spirits of the earth. Violating the six Wu days in spring shortens one’s life and cuts off one’s descendants; breaking ground offends the Emperor Star. Violating the six Wu days in summer causes blindness and brings sudden calamity and unexpected disaster; breaking ground offends the ruling stars of the celestial mansions. Violating the six Wu days in autumn brings plague and seasonal sickness; breaking ground offends the Five Peaks and the Four Rivers. Violating the six Wu days in winter brings lawsuits and quarrels and the loss of wealth; breaking ground offends Houji and the imperial altar of the earth. If people of the world can hold heaven and earth in awe and not violate the taboos of the six Wu days, they will enjoy favorable seasons and good harvests, and food and clothing will come of themselves.”
Having finished speaking, the Queen Mother ascended and departed in an instant. The above is from the Heavenly Statutes of Nüqing (Nüqing Tianlü).
Ritual masters, Buddhist monks, Taoist priests, and others who, on any of the six Wu days, burn incense, recite scriptures, hold fasts and offering rites, or submit petitions to the heavenly bureaus will suffer loss of body and life. Those who knowingly violate this bring disaster on their nine generations of ancestors, unforgiven for ten thousand kalpas, with no door to leniency. For those who have not received registers of ritual authority, the offense is reduced by three degrees. But for Taoists, burning incense on Wu days is the gravest offense under the mysterious statutes; for those who violate the taboos of the six Wu days there is no hope of release. How can one not be careful!
The six Wu days are the Wuzi, Wuyin, Wuchen, Wuwu, Wushen, and Wuxu days. These are called the “open Wu” days.
Seasoned practitioners who recite scriptures for their spiritual practice and perform the quiet worship of the Dipper also avoid the “hidden Wu” days. The rhyme for the “hidden Wu” days is: “In the first month, the Goat (Wei days); in the second, the Dog (Xu days); in the third it falls on Chen; in the fourth month, do not violate Yin; in the fifth, Wu; in the sixth, Zi; in the seventh, the Rooster (You days); in the eighth month it circles round again to Shen; in the ninth, the Snake (Si days); in the tenth, the Pig (Hai days); in the eleventh, the Rabbit (Mao days); in the twelfth, the Ox’s head (Chou days), weighing a thousand jin.”