作為道教開端的天師道並未在創教初期提供適用的喪葬儀式，面對亡故先祖因為罪愆造成子孫疾厄的情形，天師道所提供的儀式更多表現為驅邪性質，幾乎未見亡者救濟，更遑論打算將他們自死後世界解救出來。時至東晉末期，興起於江南的靈寶經派先後繼承了傳統的「天文」概念以及佛教的「說經」傳統，結合這兩種不同神聖文本概念，並運用神聖經典所具有的不可思議功德力作為亡者救濟的力量來源。本文即以三部初期成立的《靈寶經》作為素材，討論其中度亡議題是如何逐漸發展，進而寫就以亡者救濟為主要經德的經典。首先，以最早成立的《元始五老赤書玉篇真文天書經》作為開端，我將說明自地獄拔度亡魂令其返回尸形、重新復活的功效如何作為真文開顯或施用真文時所能獲致的經德，而為後來道教亡者救濟思想奠定基礎。其次，我將分析作為《元始五老赤書玉篇真文天書經》具體施用方法之解釋性作品──《太上洞玄靈寶赤書玉訣妙經》，以之說明《元始五老赤書玉篇真文天書經》所提出的經德概念如何被進一步發展為具體可行的修行法門。東晉末、南朝初期興起的靈寶經群便是以這兩部作品作為核心發展而成的。其中，與這兩部作品存在一定連繫，卻又極具創發意義的《洞玄無量度人上品妙經》延續了上述作品的重要概念，極力發展亡者救濟面向，以其成為說經或誦經的主要功德。如此誦經功德被運用在超度臨終或新喪的同學道士，成為最早的道教喪儀；而此拔度魂神上升南宮的救度觀更成為後來道教喪儀的核心內容。由此，《度人經》可以說是度亡議題在靈寶經發展初期的一個階段性成果。

The way of the Celestial Masters, as the initial form of Daoism, did not offer appropriate funeral rituals in its early stage of establishment. In the face of sickness and adversities deemed to arise from ancestral sins and suffered by the offspring, exorcism was the most common method adopted by the way of the Celestial Masters. Rituals of relief to the dead were hardly offered, and salvation for the dead was rather neglected. In the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Ling-bao School, developing in the Jiangnan area, not only inherited the traditional concepts of “Celestial Writing” and the sutra chanting of Buddhism, but also combined the two holy texts as the source of salvation for the dead. This study, adopting three of the Ling-bao Scriptures as its source material, aims to explore how the issue with regard to salvation for the dead developed, and then how the issue evolved to become the core merit of the Ling-bao Scriptures. First of all, the study, by discussing the Yuanshi Wulao Chishu Yupian Zhenwen Tianshu Jing, will not only explain the effect of salvation for the dead namely, returning the spirit back to its dead body and reviving the dead, but it also explains how the Yuanshi Wulao Chishu Yupian Zhenwen Tianshu Jing was practically applied and established as the basis of salvation for the dead for future Daoist believers. Secondly, the study analyzes the Taishang Dongzuan Ling-bao Chishu Yujiue Miaojing, a work exploring the application of salvation, and explains how the “merit concepts”, deriving from the Yuanshi Wulao Chishu Yupian Zhenwen Tianshu Jing, were extended to the further development of the practice of spiritual cultivation. Rising in the late years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the early years of the Southern Dynasties, the Ling-bao School developed with the two works mentioned above as its core. In addition, the Dongzuan Wuliang Duren Shangpin Miaojing, which was linked with the two works to some extent, creatively extended the core concepts of the two works in an effort to develop the concept of the salvation for the dead, then to achieve the prominent merit by means of sutra chanting. Such a merit was later applied to release the souls of Daoist priests who had passed away. It thus became the earliest form of Daoist funeral rituals. The concept of helping souls to travel to Nangong was later taken as the core of Daoist funeral rituals. From this perspective, the Duren Jing could be viewed as an initial result of the exploration on salvation in the early development of the Ling-bao Scriptures.