Read, reflect, pray
Taishang Ganying Pian 03: The Gengshen day and the hearth god
English rendering of the Japanese reader’s section 03. The 24 divisions are this site’s editorial divisions, not original chapters.
English rendering
The gods of the Three Terraces and Northern Dipper stand above people’s heads, recording offences and reducing their allotments of life. The Three Corpses within the body ascend to the heavenly offices on every Gengshen day to report faults. On the last day of the month, the hearth god does likewise. Major faults reduce a greater allotment, minor faults a smaller one. There are hundreds of such faults. Those seeking long life must first avoid them.
Reading note from this site
The stellar gods, Three Corpses and heavenly offices belong to this text’s religious account. This is not a single explanation of every Japanese Kōshin tradition.
Chinese source passage
又有三台、北斗神君，在人頭上，錄人罪惡，奪其紀算。又有三尸神，在人身中，每到庚申日，輒上詣天曹，言人罪過。月晦之日，竈神亦然。凡人有過，大則奪紀，小則奪算。其過大小，有數百事，欲求長生者，先須避之。
Based on the classical text and this site’s independently prepared Japanese rendering. Classical source edition