The goal of Taoist rituals is to “help the living and deliver the dead from purgatory”. So there are two different types of rituals: one that invokes the gods to bless the living and purge their guilt, and the other which prays for the salvation of the souls of the departed from purgatory so that they can go to Heaven or on to another life.

The most important salvation ritual conducted by the Quanzhen School of Hong Kong is the Taoist text Xian Tian Hu Shi Ji Lian You Ke, or The Anterior Heaven Ritual for Feeding, Saving and Refining Ghosts. Its earliest extant version is a woodblock print copy from the Sanyuan Temple in Guangzhou, dating to the first year of the Tongzhi reign (1862) in the Qing dynasty. Researchers attribute its source to as early as the Southern Song dynasty. This is a ritual of the largest scale and longest among all others often held by the Quanzhen School of Hong Kong. At least ten ritual masters take part, with up to over a hundred participating at times. It can be deemed a representative ritual of the Quanzhen School.

This Anterior Heaven Ritual consists mainly of three parts: feeding hungry ghosts, giving alms to those in the netherworld, and refining souls of the dead for deliverance. First, the high priest uses his positive spirit and energy derived from Taoist ways to turn earthly food into consumable food for souls from hell so their hunger will be relieved. Next, the high priest counsels and guides the dead to refine their negative thoughts and free them from spiritual suffering. Lastly, the high priest deploys his essence and vital force to transmute the dead so they will ascend to heaven.

This section contains some of the texts and vessels used for the said Ritual to give readers a better understanding of this ritual characterized by humanism and often conducted in Hong Kong.