Historical Dictionary of Daoism

Ronnie L. Littlejohn

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

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Copyright © 2020 by Ronnie L. Littlejohn

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To my Dipper Stars, Greenley, Brant, Georgia, Dean and Gram
 Contents

Editor’s Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Reader’s Note xv

Acronyms and Abbreviations xix

Chinese Dynasties xxi

Chronology of Daoist History xxv

Introduction 1

THE DICTIONARY 15

Appendix A: Pinyin to Chinese Characters: Term List 231

Appendix B: Pinyin to Chinese Characters: Texts 247

Appendix C: Pinyin to Chinese Characters: Names 255

Bibliography 259

About the Author 279

ix
 Editor’s Foreword

Daoism (sometimes called Taoism) is one of the three major branches of

religion in the Chinese world, although it is much smaller and more diffuse
than Confucianism or Buddhism and also much harder to define. It is the
“way” that should be followed, although this way has varied throughout time
and with different authors, and it is not even certain whether the most notable
of these, Laozi, actually existed. More serious, although smaller, and one
would think not a serious threat to the state, it has periodically been rejected
and even persecuted by authorities, whether emperors, the earlier Republic of
China, and today’s massive and almost monolithic People’s Republic of
China (PRC). Yet, time and again Daoism has recovered and been reborn,
and this may be happening again today. So, it should not be written off, for it
contains concepts and philosophies that have appealed to the Chinese
throughout the ages, attracting attention much more broadly in modern-day
China.
For those interested in learning more about Daoism, we are pleased to
publish a new edition of Historical Dictionary of Daoism. The chronology is
the best place to start to grasp why the “way”—this is probably better than
saying religion—has been around for two and a half millennia—a long time,
even for religions, and despite all forms of persecution—should be with us
for a long time to come. Just how long and which dynasties it has traversed is
shown in a handy table. The introduction gives a more thorough overview of
its trajectory and contents. But the most important section remains the dic-
tionary itself, with entries on concepts, practices, books, and a rather special
vocabulary that has to be mastered to understand it. This goes well beyond
such familiar terms as harmony and balance, and includes Chinese vocabu-
lary that requires some interpretation. Obviously, this book can only be the
start to a long path of learning for those who are attracted to Daoism, and
further reading can be found in the bibliography.
Whereas it was almost impossible to find suitable authorities when the
previous edition was published, there is now a growing and flourishing circle
of scholars who study—and teach—Daoism. One of the most prominent is
the author of this work, Ronnie Littlejohn. He combines the two essential
strands of Chinese studies and philosophy, being both Distinguished Profes-
sor of Philosophy and director of Asian studies at Belmont University in
Nashville, Tennessee. Littlejohn is author of nine books on such topics as
Daoism, Confucianism, and Chinese philosophy, and coeditor of Riding the
Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic, as well as three
xi
xii • EDITOR’S FOREWORD
dozen journal and encyclopaedia articles, and works in various scholarly
anthologies. He has received many awards, notably one from the Henan
Province Ministry of Education, and spoken at the dedication of the Laozi
and Daoist Culture Center in Zhoukou City, PRC. Littlejohn is also on the
editorial broad of the Journal of Daoist Studies and the board of directors of
the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, among other organiza-
tions. He now shares his knowledge and insights in this historical dictionary.

Jon Woronoff
Series Editor
 Preface

The time is right for a new Historical Dictionary of Daoism. When the first
edition of this project was compiled and written by noted Daoist scholar
Julian Pas in cooperation with Man Kam Leung (1998), we were only at the
beginning stages of the explosion of scholarship on Daoism and the global
reach and manifestation of the tradition in lands far beyond its place of
origination. Pas’s Historical Dictionary of Daoism was a welcome contribu-
tion to the knowledge of Daoism, accessible to and specifically targeted at an
informed nonspecialist readership, even if scholars also found it helpful and
meritoriously done. When Pas published his work, scholars of Daoism al-
ready had available to them two massive works, although both were directed
toward non-English-speaking users. The Encyclopedia of Chinese Taoism
(Zhonguo Daojiao da cidian) made its appearance in 1995, at more than
2,207 pages. Several hundred authors contributed entries to that work. The
Japanese Dictionary of Taoism (Dokyo jiten), published in Tokyo in 1994,
has 1,141 entries, written by 132 contributors.
Since the late 1990s, two other significant works have collected some of
the best modern research on Daoist concepts and figures throughout the
history of the tradition, and both are available to readers looking for an
English-language guide: The Encyclopedia of Taoism, edited by Fabrizio
Pregadio (2008), and the Daoist Handbook, edited by Livia Kohn (2004).
But in spite of the many merits of these volumes for scholars, in particular,
neither of these texts is set up to provide a ready-at-hand, accessible diction-
ary for key terms, texts, and people for a general readership. The Encyclope-
dia of Taoism provides longer entries and precise detail that routinely reaches
beyond what a well-informed nonscholar user might require. The Daoist
Handbook is set up in such a way as to require the user to pursue the
definition of a term only by using its index entries and following a path of
understanding through several articles.
In the present work, a user may approach by use of the English language,
find the entry, and gain a substantial and direct definition. I have provided
encyclopedia-length entries for only the most dramatically important texts or
movements. These are longer than would be normal in a dictionary, but the
idea is to make crucial points about a major item in Daoist history within the
volume the reader is using as a dictionary.

xiii
 Reader’s Note

As with the other volumes in the historical dictionary series, this work makes
generous use of cross-referencing as an aid to the user who wishes to follow
various ways in which a term, text, or person is webbed into the larger
tradition. Three types of cross-reference are used as follows:

1. Example: BIQI 閇氣. See BREATH RETENTION. The use of “see”

in the main entry alerts the user to the fact that there is no information
under the term BIQI, but the entry for “BREATH RETENTION” pro-
vides the information for BIQI. This practice is particularly helpful in
this specific dictionary because a user may have only the Pinyin Ro-
manization of the term available. The dictionary will direct the reader
to the English language translation entry for the Pinyin term.
2. Example: See also EIGHTY-ONE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LORD
LAO, THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PRECEPTS SPOKEN BY
LORD LAO. In this form of cross-reference, there is more information
available on the same or related matters under one or more other en-
tries. The “see also” designation is placed following the last sentence
of the entry if the entry is short or following the last sentence of a
paragraph within the entry where the cross-reference is appropriate.
3. Example: “In fact, Tao Hongjing writes disparagingly in the Declara-
tions of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016) that, “Ge Chaofu fabricated
the Lingbao classics, and the teaching flourished.” In this entry, de-
voted to the important Daoist Ge Chaofu, the user is pointed to other
entries of interest by using bold font as an indication that the dictionary
contains separate items for the bolded terms. In this way, the reader
may follow a path of understanding in multiple ways.

The entries in this dictionary are arranged for finding by English title. Cross-
references are given to Pinyin versions of the English terms, in case a user
has available only the Pinyin. In the dictionary, there is no separate listing or
cross-reference for the Chinese of a term; however, for almost every entry an
English translation is given, along with the Pinyin and the Chinese. For
proper names, for instance, key Daoist figures, the name is given in Pinyin
and the Chinese is provided, along with dates as known. If a person’s name is
provided but there is no date given, this is generally because the figure is
legendary or mythological. This is especially the case with immortals and
deities. Except in the case of the bibliography, in which some sources are
xv
xvi • READER’S NOTE
used repeatedly, for example, the Daoist Handbook, I have elected to contin-
ue to use the full titles of texts. For example, I do not use the abbreviation
“DDJ” for Daodejing but employ the complete title. Abbreviations used in
the bibliography are shown in the front matter of that section.
In keeping with Rowman & Littlefield’s style, I have italicized Pinyin
terms if they are not in standard English dictionaries; however, there is some
inconsistency, even among quite authoritative sources. I do not italicize prop-
er names, titles of movements, or names of places. So, I have italicized dao,
as well as yin and yang, although these are rather common in English gram-
mar now. Because the dictionary is targeted rather toward making ease of use
for a native speaker of English one of its principal goals, I have not inserted
Chinese in the text, except for a few occasions. I do provide Chinese for
terms in the content sections of entries when two Chinese terms have the
same Pinyin but quite different meanings. One example of this occurs in the
entry for “Wang Bi” and distinguishes his use of ordering Principle li 理
from the Confucian rites of propriety li 禮.
Many Daoist are texts referenced in the dictionary. This is because users
need to know where an idea may be found and the English title for a source.
Almost without exception, I have followed standard English translations for
texts from the Daoist Canon. My practice is to give the English title, fol-
lowed by Pinyin and Chinese, and then the location of the work in the Daoist
Canon when it is present. In citing from the canon, I have used the limited
designation CT (Concordance du Tao Tsang, after Kristofer Schipper, Paris,
1975). This is done to make it easy for a user to locate the work. An advan-
tage of using the CT number of these texts is that the work may be located in
Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, The Taoist Canon: A Historical Guide
(2004), which will provide the user with a clear and authoritative abstract of
the text’s complete contents. The list of acronyms and abbreviations shows
the designations used for the much less frequently cited source collections,
for instance, the Stein collection of Dunhuang manuscripts, Taisho Buddhist
Canon, and Yunji qiqian (Seven Lots from the Bookbag of the Clouds).
To assist those users who would like to move from English, to Pinyin, to
Chinese, I have provided three appendixes: Pinyin to Chinese for terms,
Pinyin to Chinese for texts, and Pinyin to Chinese for names. In the case of
names and texts, not every item mentioned in the dictionary shows in the
appendixes. This is because a simple finding procedure can yield the correct
characters for many names of individuals and texts that are quite prominent
in Daoist or Chinese history. In the appendix for names, I have included the
Chinese for less well known and perhaps less accessible names referred to in
the dictionary contents.
A word needs to be said about the choice of terms for the dictionary itself.
Since this is a single-author work, I readily admit that I have almost certainly
overlooked some important, even quite important concepts and figures. Al-
 READER’S NOTE • xvii
though there are more than 275 full-content items in the dictionary, a large
number of additional terms, texts, and figures show up in the content of
entries even if they do not have a discrete item designation of their own. To
qualify as an entry in this dictionary, one measure I used was whether the
term, text, or figure shows up repeatedly in the literature or practice of
Daoism. I also considered whether the item is used or known across Daoist
lineages and throughout the history of Daoism. Accordingly, the breadth
across lineages and the length of historical usage were both decision factors
with regard to the inclusion of an item. In the cases in which a term had a
restrictive appearance on either of these criteria, its sheer importance to a
particular lineage was the deciding factor. I had the decided advantage of two
extraordinarily significant works: The Encyclopedia of Taoism (2008) and
the Daoist Handbook (2004). Inclusion and frequency of citation in either or
both of these works also counted in favor of a term’s inclusion in this diction-
ary.
In writing the definitions and explanations for entries in the dictionary,
two goals have been more important than any others. First, I have tried to be
accurate and clear, with any disputes or alternative readings mentioned suc-
cinctly and without prejudice. Second, I have tried to write the explanatory
content for each entry objectively and dispassionately. This means that I have
avoided the use of “allegedly,” “fictitiously,” “reputedly,” and the like. The
content is offered in a straightforward manner and phenomenologically just
as it might be reported by the source text or the Daoist adept. In keeping with
my intentions to present the material as descriptively as possible, I have
made choices like the following: Instead of translating 經 (jing) as “scrip-
ture,” I have consistently rendered it as “classic.” Another example is my
choice to translate 治 (zhi) when used of the regional administrations of the
Celestial Masters (Zhengyi Daoists) as “center” and not as “parish.” I think
my reasons for choices like this might be obvious, but my goal has been not
to prejudice the user toward a reading that is necessarily religious. For the
same reason, the entries generally speak of shen 神 as “numinal beings,” not
as “gods” or “Gods,” although there are some exceptions, especially when an
entry addresses the Daoist pantheon specifically.
 Acronyms and Abbreviations

BCE Before the Common Era

CDA Chinese Daoist Association
CT Concordance du Tao-tsang: Titres des ouvarages (1975)
DH Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (2004)
ET The Encyclopedia of Taoism, 2 vols., ed. Fabrizio Pregadio
(2008)
PRC People’s Republic of China
S Stein collection of Dunhuang Manuscripts
SUNY State University of New York Press
T. Taisho Buddhist Canon
TC The Taoist Canon: A Historical Guide, ed. Kristofer Schipper
and Franciscus Verellen (2004)
YJQQ Yunji qiqian (Seven Lots from the Bookbag of the Clouds)

xix
Chinese Dynasties

xxi
xxii • CHINESE DYNASTIES
Years Dynasty Periods of Capital
(Eras and Sub-eras) Coexisting (Modern City Area)
Kingdoms
c. 2100–1600 Xia dynasty Zhenxun (Luoyang),
BCE Yangcheng
(Dengfeng),
Zhengzhou
c.1600–1046 Shang dynasty Yin (Anyang)
BCE
c. 1046–256 Zhou dynasty
BCE
c. 1046–771 Western Zhou Fengjing and Haojing
BCE
c. 770–475 Eastern Zhou Spring and Autumn Luoyi (Luoyang)
BCE period
475–221 BCE Eastern Zhou Warring States
period
221–206 BCE Qin dynasty Xianyang (Xi’an)
206 BC–220 Han dynasty Chang’an (Xi’an)
206 BCE – 9 Western Han (former Chang’an (Xi’an)
Han)
9–23 Xin dynasty Chang’an (Xi’an)
25–220 Eastern Han (Later Luoyang
Han)
220–265 Three Kingdoms Kingdom of Wei Luoyang
221–263 Kingdom of Shu Chengdu
222–280 Kingdom of Wu Jianye (Nanjing)
265–420 Jin dynasty Luoyang
265–316 Western Jin Luoyang
317–420 Eastern Jin Jiankang (Nanjing)
304–439 Five Hus and
Sixteen States
420–589 Northern and
Southern dynasties
386–581 Northern Dynasties
386–534 Northern Wei Pingcheng (Datong),
Luoyang
534–550 Eastern Wei Yecheng (Handan)
535–557 Western Wei Chang’an (Xi’an)
550–577 Northern Qi Yecheng (Handan)
 CHINESE DYNASTIES • xxiii

557–581 Northern Zhou Chang’an (Xi’an)

420–589 Southern Dynasties
420–479 Song Jiankang (Nanjing)
479–502 Qi Jiankang (Nanjing)
502–557 Liang Jiankang (Nanjing)
557–589 Chen Jiankang (Nanjing)
581–618 Sui dynasty Daxing (Xi’an),
Luoyang
618–907 Tang dynasty Chang’an (Xi’an),
Luoyang
907–960 Five Dynasties and
Ten Kingdoms period
907–923 Later Liang Kaifeng
923–936 Later Tang Luoyang
936–946 Later Jin Kaifeng
947–950 Later Han Kaifeng
951–960 Later Zhou Kaifeng
907–1125 Liao dynasty Shangjing (Chifeng)
960–1279 Song dynasty
960–1127 Northern Song Bianjing (Kaifeng)
1127–1279 Southern Song Lin’an (Hangzhou)
1038–1227 Western Xia Xingqing (Yinchuan)
dynasty
1115–1234 Great Jin dynasty Huining (Harbin),
(Jurchen dynasty) Zhongdu (Beijing),
Bianjing (Kaifeng)
1279–1368 Yuan dynasty Dadu (Beijing)
1368–1644 Ming dynasty Yingtian (Nanjing),
Shuntian (Beijing)
1644–1912 Qing dynasty Beijing
1912–1949 Republic of China Beijing, Wuhan,
Nanjing
1949–present People’s Republic of Beijing
China
 Chronology of Daoist History

400s BCE Traceable appearances of masters of techniques (fangshi) appear

in the ancient states of Yan and Qi.
350–300 BCE Zhuang Zhou is active at the Jixia Academy and the Inner
Chapters of the work Zhuangzi take form (chs. 1–7).
300–250 BCE Versions of what will become the Daodejing begin to circu-
late from oral to written form. “Daode” essay of Zhuangzi (chs. 8–10) and
“Zhuangzi disciples” (chs. 17–28) take form. Active alchemists search for
plants and herbs of immortality and longevity.
200–139 BCE Huang-Lao Dao thinkers create Yellow Emperor materials of
the Zhuangzi (chs. 11–22). Such thinkers influence the content and shape of
the Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi), presented to emperor in 139
BCE.
100–140 The Great Peace Classic is completed. Movements seeking a king-
dom of Great Peace emerge.
142 Zhang Daoling receives the One True Covenant and Way (Zhengyi
mengwei) from Laozi in Tiangu cave on Mt. Heming. The Celestial Masters
(Tianshi) movement is born.
150–165 Celestial Masters organize into 24 administrative centers, Xiang’er
Commentary on the Laozi (Daodejing). Tablets are established and sacrifices
made to venerate and honor Laozi.
180–215 The Yellow Turban rebellion to gain the Great Peace (Taiping)
kingdom erupts and is crushed (184).
215 Cao Cao defeats Celestial Masters forces, dispersing 24 centers to North-
western and Southeastern China.
226–249 Wang Bi assembles what becomes the “received” Daodejing.
288 The Yellow Court Classic is revealed to Wei Huacun.
300 Wang Fu writes the Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians (Hu-
ahujing).
317 Ge Hong completes the Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces
Simplicity).

xxv
xxvi • CHRONOLOGY OF DAOIST HISTORY
364–370 Transcendent beings Wei Huacun and others transmit the Shang-
qing revelations to Yang Xi.
Late 300s Ge Chaofu collects or creates the fundamental Lingbao texts.
Early 400s The Classic on Salvation (Durenjing) Lingbao text is created.
425 Kou Qianzhi is invested as Celestial Master by Wei emperor, establish-
ing a theocracy in the North, according to a “New Code” for practice re-
vealed to him.
450s Lu Xiujing engages Buddhists and Xuanxue teachers in debates.
471 Lu Xiujing collects the first Daoist Canon on Mt. Lu, dividing it into
“Three Caverns.”
492–499 While on Maoshan (Mt. Mao), Tao Hongjing compiles Declara-
tions of the Perfected (Zhengao), the foundational text of the Shangqing
lineage.
520–569 A series of debates take place at court between Daoists and Bud-
dhists on the merits of each tradition’s beliefs and practices, culminating in
the emergence of “Three Teachings” thinking, valuing each tradition.
618 An apparition of Laozi appears and self-identifies as the ancestor of the
imperial family Li, founders of the Tang Dynasty.
624 Emperor Gaozu venerates Laozi on Zhongnan mountain.
626 Celestial Master (Zhengyi Daoism) is transmitted to Korea.
633–637 Conflict continues in the imperial court between Confucians, Bud-
dhists, and Daoists. The Daoists are raised to supremacy over the Buddhists
in 637.
666 The emperor sacrifices to the God of the Yellow Heaven on Mt. Tai,
giving the title to Laozi.
674 By Imperial edict, the Daodejing becomes part of the textbook package
required in the civil service examination system.
683 Imperial commitment to build Daoist guan (abbeys) in each precinct is
established.
690–705 The Daodejing is first removed from exam system textbook lists,
before being reinstated. Buddhism regains its status and an imperial edict is
issued to build Buddhist monasteries (si) in each precinct.
711 Two imperial princesses are initiated as Daoists.
 CHRONOLOGY OF DAOIST HISTORY • xxvii
721 Sima Chengzhen, Grand Master of Shangqing, is summoned to court and
produces several works, one of which is Essay on Sitting in Forgetfulness
(Zuowang lun).
741 Zhang Daoling is honored with the title “Supreme Teacher” (Taishi).
Tao Hongjing is designated “Supreme Protector” (Taibao).
749 The Yellow Emperor is given honorific titles.
754 Laozi is given more honorary titles.
796 The emperor gives orders to organize court debates among the Three
Teachings.
820 Emperor Xianzong dies, possibly of elixir poisoning.
845–846 Emperor Wuzong, because of his devotion to Daoism and distaste
for foreign influences, institutes the persecution of Buddhism, closes thou-
sands of temples, and returns monks and nuns to lay life. The emperor dies of
elixir poisoning in 846.
859 Emperor Xuanzong dies of elixir poisoning.
961–970 The Buddhist influence at court is restored.
977 Chen Tuan is received at court.
990 Compilation of a Daoist Canon begins.
1007 The Liezi is accorded an honorary title and place.
1014 Worship of the Jade Emperor flourishes.
1117 Song Huizong self-identifies as the “Daoist Emperor.”
1119 The first block printing of a Daoist Canon is made.
1130s Neo-Confucianism flourishes.
1167 Wang Zhe moves from the Zhongnan mountains to Shandong and
begins the “Complete Perfection” (Quanzhen) Daoist lineage.
1222 The Quanzhen Perfected Person, Qiu Chuji, meets with Chinggis Khan,
gaining benefits for the lineage.
1225 The Daoists are defeated in court debates, resulting in the edict to
destroy Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians and prohibition of
Eighty-One Transformations of Lord Lao.
1276 Zhang Zongyan receives imperial appointment to supervise Southern
Daoism (Nanzong).
1281 Mazu is elevated to the title of Celestial Empress (Tianfei).
xxviii • CHRONOLOGY OF DAOIST HISTORY
1304 Zhang Yucai, 38th Celestial Master, is appointed Head of the Teaching
of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi/Celestial Masters) over the three mountain line-
ages (Longhushan, Maoshan, and Gezaoshan).
1406 Yongle Emperor commissions the 43rd Celestial Master, Zhang Yuchu,
to gather Daoist texts and submit a comprehensive Daoist Canon for printing.
1418 Yongle Emperor completes restoration and new construction of Daoist
sites on Wudang mountain. The Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu) is identified
with the 82nd transformation of Laozi.
1445 The Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Reign Period is printed in more
than 74,000 wooden blocks.
1458 Zhang Sanfeng receives honorary divine titles.
1566 Jiajing Ming Emperor dies, possibly from alchemical mercury poison-
ing.
1607 The Supplementary Daoist Canon of the Wanli Reign Period (Wanli xu
daozang) is completed.
1750s Under the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), the Gelugpa school of
Tibetan Buddhism becomes the state religion.
1819 Zhengyi (Celestial Master) daoshi are no longer invited into imperial
court.
1851–1864 The Taiping Rebellion, led by Hong Xiuquan (“God’s Chinese
Son”), destroys hundreds of Daoist abbeys (guan) and shrines (miao) in the
name of a coming Christian kingdom.
1891 James Legge makes the first authoritative translations into English of
the Daodejing, Zhuangzi, and Tract of the Most High on Action and Re-
sponse (Taishang ganying pian) for the Sacred Books of the East.
1919 The May Fourth Movement is founded, in an attempt to stamp out
Daoism as a system of superstition and charlatans.
1950 The Daoist Association of Taiwan is established.
1957 The Chinese Daoist Association is founded, headquartered at White
Cloud Abbey (Baiyun Guan) in Beijing.
1960 The instruction of Taiji quan and other Daoist practices is first recog-
nized in the United States through the work of master Da Liu (1904–2000).
1961 The Daoist Association of Hong Kong is established.
1966–1976 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution takes place, with the
attempted destruction and erasure of Daoism from Chinese culture.
 CHRONOLOGY OF DAOIST HISTORY • xxix
1970 The first Daoist religious organization to receive federal recognition as
a religion in the United States is the Daoist Sanctuary in Los Angeles (now
located in San Diego).
1975 Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008) publishes The One-Straw Revolution,
advocating a form of wu-wei farming.
1979 Da Liu’s The Tao and Chinese Culture is published. The American
Daoist and Buddhist Association is chartered in New York.
1980 The Religion Department at Sichuan University formally begins uni-
versity study of Daoism, with master’s degrees beginning in 1983 and the
doctorate in 1991.
1991 A movement to establish Daoist retreat centers begins in China as
sanctuaries from pollution and health and cultivation centers.
1992 The Daoist Studies Institute is founded in Seattle, Washington, United
States.
1994 The Great Dictionary of Daoist Religion (Dajiao dacidian) is published
by the Chinese Daoist Association.
1998 Taoist Resources, the first scholarly journal in English devoted exclu-
sively to Daoist studies, is absorbed into the Journal of Chinese Religion.
2004 Three Pines Press is founded in the United States under the editorship
of Livia Kohn to publish scholarly works devoted to Daoism.
2009 A full curriculum is established at Kundao Academy for training fe-
male Daoists.
2010 Daoist master Li Yi is convicted of fraud and manufacturing “mira-
cles.”
2012 The Center for Daoist Studies is established at Peking University.
2017 The Association Française Daoiste opens a center under Karine Martin
near Montluçon.
 Introduction

Daoism is the oldest indigenous philosophic-spiritual tradition of China and

one of the most ancient of the world’s spiritual structures. The name
“Daoism” comes from the term dao, which is often used for a “way” or a
“road” through the field or woods to one’s village. It is also used for the
“way” to do something, for example, the way a master craftsman carves a
candlestick, makes a bell, or even butchers an ox. But dao is also used as a
nominative in the history of Daoism. It is used for the energizing process that
permeates and animates all of reality and moves it along simply as the
“Dao”; however, both text and practice in this tradition insist that dao itself
cannot be described in words. Dao is not God in the sense of Western
philosophy or religion. Daoism has no supreme being, even if there is an
extensive grammar about numinal self-conscious entities and powers, for
which the Chinese use the word “spirit” (shen). For example, the highest
numinal powers of Daoism are variously called Taishang Laojun (the deified
Laozi), the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi tianzun), the
Jade Emperor (Yuhuang Shangdi), or the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu). But
these are expressions of dao in specific shen. They are not identical with the
Dao, except in the most unique case, when Laozi, the putative founder of
Daoism and author of its major work, Daodejing, is said to be one with the
Dao.
Daoism is the spiritual tradition at the roots of Chinese civilization, but it
defies any single typological characterization as either a philosophy or a
religion. In fact, while these terms have been used by Western and Chinese
scholars alike to understand Daoism, such categorization distorts the historic-
ity of the tradition itself by forcing it into modern conceptual categories that
do not exhaust the richness of practice and belief found within it.
Admittedly, until recently it was common to speak of “philosophical
Daoism” (daojia) and “religious Daoism” (daojiao), suggesting that the for-
mer was transformed into the latter or replaced by it. Western scholars did
not create this distinction. The name daojia, later used for philosophical
Daoism, was a creation of historian Sima Tan (d. 110 BCE) in his Shiji
(Records of the Historian), begun in the 2nd century BCE and later com-
pleted by his son, Sima Qian (145–86 BCE). Sima Qian’s use of this term is
more like “school” than “philosophy.” Daojia is listed as one of the Six
Schools known to him: Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist, Legalist, School of
Names, and Daoism.

1
2 • INTRODUCTION
Sima Qian probably did not have in mind what Western intellectuals of the
post-Enlightenment period mean by “philosophy” as opposed to “religion.”
Moreover, scholars today know things about Daoism and its origin that even
the great Chinese thinkers of the past, for instance, Sima Qian, did not know.
For example, there is a critical appreciation for how the classical texts of the
tradition, the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, are more like anthologies than single-
authored works. Additionally, within the Zhuangzi there are records of peo-
ple and practices that are recognizable as what may assuredly be called
religious or spiritual in any modern definition of religion. So, we cannot
think that there was some original, pure “philosophical Daoism” that later
morphed into “religious Daoism.”
The strange desire to bleach out Daoism’s religious identity shows up
rather early in Chinese history. For example, Guo Xiang (?232–312), editor
of what we now call the “received” Zhuangzi, tells us that he removed large
blocks of material, reducing the text from the 52 chapters delivered to him to
its present 33. We do not know why this was done, and Guo does not tell us.
Livia Kohn has suggested it was because he felt the excised materials con-
tained “superstitious” ideas and practices to which he and other educated
intellectuals, like his Confucian literati colleagues, objected (Knaul 1982).
While this claim is still speculative, Ronnie Littlejohn (2011) has argued that
the 4th-century text Liezi may contain passages from the “lost” Zhuangzi in
its second chapter and that these are indeed seemingly fantastical in their
content.
One way of thinking about whether to label Daoism as a philosophy or a
religion is to follow scholar Isabelle Robinet (1997) and consider religious
Daoism the practice of philosophical Daoism. This approach can claim sup-
port from a growing repository of new discoveries about ancient Chinese
texts, practices, and artifacts that have led scholars to appreciate more fully
the dynamics of change and continuity in Daoist tradition.
Putting aside this distinction between philosophy and religion as a guiding
interpretive frame, how can we best understand the identity of Daoism?
Kohn and Harold Roth (2002) have collected a set of scholarly essays that
explore just this problem of identity. The model that I think commends itself
to us is to focus on how the development of the practices and teachings that
show up in Chinese history and display what Ludwig Wittgenstein called
“family resemblances” to one another. These we may group, then, as a fami-
ly, under the concept of Daoism. These teachings and practices do not repre-
sent the “essence” of Daoism, because like a human family, there are conti-
nuities and differences, with no identifiable movement or historical period
containing all of them in an exact way, just as no human family possesses the
same traits in each of its members. The resemblances that may be called the
 INTRODUCTION • 3
Daoist family (daojia) represent a set of repeating, overlapping, and inter-
secting activities, beliefs, and strategies for engaging in the project of follow-
ing dao and achieving biospiritual transformation.
Early in Chinese history, certainly by the 4th century BCE but probably
earlier, some individuals invested their lives and energies in developing tech-
niques for unifying and harmonizing themselves with dao and thereby
achieving awe-inspiring biospiritual transformations. We can call the people
who succeeded in this project “masters of dao,” although the classical texts
call them such names as Perfected Persons (zhenren), sages (shengren), ut-
most persons (zuiren), and immortals/transcendents (xian). Sadly, little is
fully appreciated about who those people were and how their teachings are
reflections of their practices. Their names are hardly known to anyone, but in
the pages of the Zhuangzi, traces of their activities and teachings do seem to
be present.
Beginning sometime probably in the mid-300s BCE, these people attracted
followers and interested students. We may think of the formation and interre-
lationship of these teacher-adept lineages as the analogy of a climbing organ-
ic plant like a vine growing from a solid trunk. The vine, which is most often
called a “lineage,” draws its sustenance from the roots sunk into the organic
and life-giving source. If we think of the dao as the source of spiritual energy
and wisdom employed by these teachers, who became the trunk, then stu-
dents or groups of students became the vines. In the 300s BCE, some stu-
dents began to collect their masters’ teachings and the tales told to them
about those who had undergone biospiritual transformations of various sorts.
These collections we now know as the Daodejing and Zhuangzi. These great
classical texts, which are more like anthologies than works by one person,
began to circulate among teacher-adept lineages and even found their way
into the libraries and homes of the well-educated and the aristocracy. Archae-
ological discoveries in recovered tombs like those at Guodian, dating to 300
BCE, contain some versions of these works. From these classical texts, all
subsequent outgrowths of the tradition gain their strength in varying meas-
ures. Even as new teachers had experiences of enlightened and alternative
consciousness throughout history, the new lineage vines they created never
abandoned these two classical texts.
Already in the Zhuangzi, we find records of many teachers and their
adepts, and we notice the interchanges and overlaps between these teacher-
adept lineages. One teacher may send an adept to another for further instruc-
tion or to receive knowledge in an area in which the teacher feels insufficient.
This is exactly what happens in the story of Gengsang Chu, in the Zhuangzi
chapter by that name. This suggests that even the process of following dao
often involved apprenticeship to more than one teacher in more than one
location. Later, the classical texts were formed by recording and collating the
records of what was taught and practiced by various masters. It should come
4 • INTRODUCTION
as no surprise, then, that we find already in a work as early as the Zhuangzi
(c. 300–250 BCE) some internal differences on such subjects as whether an
adept or master should engage in political activity, or whether reason and
argument can move one toward an understanding of what is most fundamen-
tal about existence, or even what one’s attitude toward death should be. The
Zhuangzi is a compendium of textual blocks (logia) arranged by an editor or
editors. This seems not to have been a haphazard process, as such scholars as
Harold Roth (1991), Michael La Fargue (1992), Liu Xiaogan (1994), and
Ronnie Littlejohn (2010) have identified linguistic, historical, doctrinal, and
literary criteria useful in classifying the strata in the text.
This process of growth did not stop with the creation of the classical texts
but continued, as it was driven by two major forces: 1) lived experiences of
consciousness, which we may simply call “revelations,” and 2) the emer-
gence of new sources (e.g., the Shangqing and Lingbao texts) and the devel-
opment of new interpretive methods used in approaching the classical
sources (e.g., Xuanxue, or Mysterious Learning).
Each new vine on the Daoist trunk or branch represents a lineage that leads
back to a master, even if that master is sometimes thought of only as a spirit
medium (jitong) for another higher voice. New lineages each tell a story of
their origins. These narratives are usually tales of confirmations given
through extraordinary encounters with numinal beings or while one is in an
alternative state of consciousness, such as we find in the revelation to Zhang
Daoling (34–156) on Mt. Heming. At other times, ways of following dao are
disclosed by Perfected Persons through spirit mediums, as in the case of
Yang Xi (330–386), or by means of the discovery of books containing mysti-
cal messages, for instance, in the “secret formulas of the Celestial Heart”
(Tianxin bishi) buried in the ground at a spot where Rao Dongtian (fl. 994)
was guided by a heavenly light.
We can imagine that some initial growth, just as a vine extending from its
trunk, succeeded and others failed, dropped off, and died out. Just how many
atrophied vines there were, what the masters of them taught, and why they
failed are issues now lost to history. But what is important is that by using
this analogy, we will not think of Daoism as a single identifiable movement,
but as the living tangled vines of teacher-practitioner lineages.
One early vine recognizable in this process was what we call now Yellow
Emperor-Laozi Daoism. This teacher-adept lineage shows up in the Zhuangzi
and in the intellectual exchanges set up by Liu An from roughly the 160s to
120s BCE in the city of Huainan. Liu gathered a great number of thinkers and
practitioners of divergent views at Huainan, and one result of their exchanges
was a new compendium known as the Book of the Masters of Huainan
(Huainanzi). The importance of this project should not be overlooked in a
study of Daoism. Its main goal was to overcome tensions and internal con-
flicts within the Han imperial system by creating a sort of encyclopedia of
 INTRODUCTION • 5
learning. In this work, the collected materials offer a new understanding of
rulership in which the emperor would not only be well educated in literati
learning (i.e., Confucian texts), but also a practitioner of the signature Daoist
behavior called wu-wei. The text suggests that acting in this manner can be
achieved by following the disciplines and methods associated with the Yel-
low Emperor of ancient days and advocated by lineage masters present in
Huainan; however, when the Book of the Masters of Huainan was presented
at court in 139 BCE, the text was not accepted as a policy manual or plan for
the future. Perhaps if the outcome had been different, the Han dynasty might
have been restructured and prosperous.
Nonetheless, the Han dynasty continued in disarray, but the lineage vines
that sought a new age of Great Peace (Taiping) grew. They show up in
Chinese history in several places. One of these is in the Yellow Turbans, who
rebelled against the Han in the 180s. The revolutionary zeal of this move-
ment and the program it envisioned for a new era is preserved for us in the
Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a). Then, sometime before
142, a Confucian-trained scholar named Zhang Daoling moved into the
Heming mountains in Sichuan probably with the intention of setting up a
kingdom of Great Peace in that remote region away from the Han imperial
eye. One day, while in a state of clarity and quiescence in the Tiangu cave,
Laozi appeared to Zhang and gave him the One True Orthodox Way (Zhen-
gyi mengwei) between Heaven and Earth. Zhang began the Way of the Celes-
tial Masters (Tianshi dao or Zhengyi Daoism).
Unlike the Yellow Turbans, the Celestial Master lineage created commu-
nities and began to practice Daoism as something other than an individual or
small, collective method of transformation. Zhang and the leaders who fol-
lowed him set up 24 administrative centers dedicated to the way of Great
Peace. The Celestial Masters leaders (libationers) began to produce their new
texts for guiding their Daoist communities. One of these was a commentary
on the Daodejing (Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi, S. 6825, Bokenkamp
1997). The families that made up these centers in Sichuan province were
dispersed and resettled in 215–216, by Cao Cao, king of Wei. They were
scattered in both Northern and Southern China.
The impact of this dispersion greatly weakened the unity of purpose and
political power needed to realize the political goals of the Celestial Masters.
To guide these newly settled communities and keep them within the path of
the One True Orthodox Way, a revealed text emerged known today simply as
the Commands and Admonitions for the Families of the Great Dao (Boken-
kamp 1997). Later, Kou Qianzhi (365–448), often called the founder of the
Daoist Northern Theocracy, worked to reform the Celestial Masters commu-
nities. The History of the Wei (Weishu) reports that, while practicing in the
Songshan mountains of Henan, Taishang Laojun (the Highest Lord Lao)
appeared to Kou in 415. Laojun revealed a “New Code” for the people of the
6 • INTRODUCTION
dao, and we know some of the details of this new revelation through the text
Classic on the Precepts of Lord Lao Melodically Recited in the Clouds (Lao-
jun yinsong jiejing, CT 785). The emperor was convinced to put the “New
Code” into practice, and Kou was the designated administrator of this new
civil order and addressed as Celestial Master. The “New Code” was extended
into towns throughout the Northern provinces, and the theocracy reached its
height in 440, when the emperor himself was ordained and changed his reign
title to Taiping Zhenjun (Perfected Lord of Great Peace).
Some of the Celestial Masters adherents from Sichuan settled in the re-
gions of Jiangsu, the province from which Zhang Daoling came. One form of
renewal for the movement in this area occurred when the spirit medium Yang
Xi (330–386), a retainer in the prominent Xu family in Jurong (near Nanjing,
Jiangsu province), began to receive revelations stretching from the years 364
to 370, and originating from perfected beings dwelling in the dimension of
Highest Clarity (Shangqing). One of these perfected beings was the numinal
Wei Huacun. Yang wrote down the revelations and delivered them to Xu Mi
(303–376) and his son, Xu Hui (341–?370). These revelations became the
foundation for the Shangqing lineage of Daoism.
There was not only the Xu family in the Jurong region, but also the Ge
family. Ge Hong (283–343), who identified himself as the “Master Who
Embraces Simplicity” (Baopuzi), was a student of classical Chinese texts and
Daoist writings, and a collector of the methods for gaining transcendence and
the stories of those who achieved it. Ge Hong was extremely interested in the
unique contribution external alchemy (waidan) could make to the methods
for becoming transcendent and even immortal. His Baopuzi collects a wide
array of techniques and how to practice them. It was Ge Hong’s grandneph-
ew, Ge Chaofu (fl. 402), who began to receive revelations so powerful that
when they were written down, they became talismans of numinous treasure
(Lingbao). These texts disclosed new rituals and provided teachings that
created a kind of synthesis with the emerging understandings of Buddhist
practice and belief then known in China. The Lingbao texts are mentioned in
a list of works by Lu Xiujing (406–477) dated to 437.
By the 400s, then, Daoism had two new major teacher-adept lines that
joined that of the lineage of Celestial Masters; however, the Shangqing texts,
unlike those of Lingbao, became foundational for an actual movement
known as Shangqing. Lingbao seems to have been largely a set of texts
exchanged between teachers of both Shangqing and Celestial Masters prac-
tice. Shangqing’s development into a movement occurred through the efforts
of a brilliant thinker named Tao Hongjing (456–536). As a result of his work,
Shangqing developed its own liturgies, precepts, and rules of order, identifi-
able holy sites, and lineage of patriarchs and masters.
 INTRODUCTION • 7
Tao, like Yang Xi and the Xu family, as well as Ge Hong and Ge Chaofu,
was from Jiangsu. He was born in Moling, not far from the modern city of
Nanjing, in close proximity to Jurong, the home of the Xus and Ges. In 483,
Tao became interested in the Shangqing revelations that had been granted to
Yang Xi, and he decided to collect the original texts because he felt there
were already a number of forgeries and false teachings circulating and claim-
ing to have their source in Yang Xi and the Perfected Persons that had
disclosed themselves to him. In fact, Tao writes disparagingly in his work
Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016) that, “Ge Chaofu fabricat-
ed the Lingbao classics and the teaching flourished.” Tao knew the Lingbao
writings well because he studied with Daoist master Sun Youyue (399–489),
who had been a disciple of Lu Xiujing, the standardizer of the texts. He even
received training in chanting those texts and drawing supernatural talismans,
both key practices of Lingbao (Pas and Leung 1998). But in 492, Tao re-
signed his position in court and moved to Mt. Mao (Maoshan) with the
intention of editing the Shangqing manuscripts he had collected and writing
true interpretations of their teachings. The result was two major works in the
Shangqing tradition: Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016),
completed in 499, and Hidden Instructions for the Ascent to Perfection
(Dengzhen yinjue, CT 421). Tao was closely associated with Xiao Yan
(464–549), founder of the Liang dynasty, who later became emperor of the
Southern Qi. Tao was supported by imperial patronage while living on Mao-
shan, and Shangqing teachers and adepts were favored with funding and the
construction of various abbeys. The growth of the association of Shangqing
with Maoshan explains why the movement is simply known as Maoshan
Daoism.
Daoism gained official status in China during the Tang dynasty, largely
because the surname of the Tang rulers was “Li” and they claimed descent
from Laozi, who was reported to also have had this surname (Li Er). Such
close proximity to power and rule brought influential Daoists of the Shang-
qing and Celestial Masters lineages to the attention of the imperial court. It
also led them into conflict with both Confucian literati and Buddhist abbots
and monks. Various debates between Daoism and Buddhism were held at
court. Sometimes Daoism seemed to prevail, and the Daodejing was even
included among the textbooks in the civil service exams. But there was no
single trajectory for the relationship between Daoism and Buddhism. One
text used in the disputes between these two traditions was the Classic on the
Conversion of the Barbarians (Huahujing). This work was an incendiary
affront to Buddhism, claiming that the Buddha was actually one of Laozi’s
incarnations. Buddhists responded with polemical works of their own, in-
cluding Daoxuan’s (596–667) defense of Buddhism, entitled Collection
Spreading the Light of Buddhism (Hongming ju). This conflict was not a
mere academic one. At stake were prestige, power, wealth, and influence.
8 • INTRODUCTION
These forces always involve political and social consequences. In fact, every
major persecution of Buddhism, first in 446, under the northern Wei, then in
574, under the northern Zhou, and finally in 845, under the Tang, is at least
partly traceable to its rivalry with Daoism.
Several Song dynasty (960–1279) emperors, most notably Huizong
(1082–1135), promoted Daoism. In 1106, Huizong began a decade-long
search for leading Daoist masters. He issued a call in 1114, that every admin-
istrative circuit should send 10 masters of great powers to assemble at court
in the capital in Kaifeng. The group included the 25th Shangqing Patriarch,
Liu Hunkang (1035–1108), and the 30th Celestial Master, Zhang Jixian
(1092–1126). Huizong wanted to make the Song capital of Kaifeng into a
Daoist community. He created immense gardens in the city, modeled after
his vision of the paradise of Daoist immortals on Kunlun (e.g., the Genyue
imperial garden). He also built the great Daoist Temple of the Five Peaks
(Wuyue Guan). During the Song period, one of the earliest versions of the
Daoist Canon was produced.
One challenge faced during the Song dynasty was creating a national
moral culture throughout the country. The strategies to accomplish this goal
were many, but one was to use a village lecture system. This system made
use of troupes of entertainers and teachers who traveled from village to
village. Daoist teachings became part of the Three Teachings (Sanjiao) effort
to spread a rather uniform moral value system. One way this was done was
by the printing and distribution of morality books (shanshu) and ledgers
(shanshu). The morality books in this system included Daoist, Buddhist, and
Confucian teachings. They were distributed in Daoist abbeys (guan) and
shrines (miao) throughout the country, as well as in Buddhist monasteries
(si). The most prominent of these books was Tract of the Most High on
Action and Response (Taishang ganying pian, CT 1167), still available to-
day.
After the fall of the Song dynasty in the North (1126) and the transference
of the court and capital to Hangzhou in the South, a period of war and
turmoil followed. In 1159, Wang Zhe (aka Wang Chongyang, 1113–1170), a
former military officer, left behind a marginal political career and devoted
himself to the practices of meditation and “nourishing life” (yangsheng),
known as inner alchemy (neidan). Wang was residing in the Zhongnan
mountains in Shaanxi province, where he made a dugout for himself for three
years and spent four more years in a mountain hut practicing austerities. One
day, when he was 48 years old, he entered into an altered state of awareness.
The immortals Zhongli Quan, Lu Dongbin, and Liu Haichan appeared to him
and gave him a set of secret rituals and methods for reaching perfection. In
1167, he traveled to Shandong province, where he accepted a number of
adepts as students. They gathered around his modest hut on the grounds of
the estate of Ma Yu, and he promised to instruct them in a method he called
 INTRODUCTION • 9
“Complete Perfection” (Quanzhen). Among the disciples he had in Shan-
dong, Quanzhen tradition focuses on a group who became known as the
Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren: Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan,
Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Sun Bu’er). They helped Wang
establish five communities (hui) in Shandong and thus began the Quanzhen
lineage, which endures until the present. He had such trust in these seven that
he planned to take four of them with him back to Shaanxi and the Zhongnan
mountain area, but he died in Kaifeng before reaching his goal.
Under the leadership of Qiu Chuji (1148–1227), one of the original Seven
Perfected Persons, Quanzhen gained significant official recognition when he
met with Mongol ruler Chinggis Khan (Taizu, r. 1206–1227) before the
Yuan dynasty was established. The khan summoned Qiu for an audience
because he was seen as influential over a national movement. Qiu received a
number of official titles and political privileges. After this, Quanzhen grew
quickly and began to have widespread institutional identity. Sometimes local
officials reassigned Buddhist temples to become Quanzhen sites. Neverthe-
less, in the 1200s, Daoism had a stormy relationship with the Yuan rulers. In
1281, Shizu (Khubilai Khan) even ordered the burning of all Daoist books in
an effort to control the influence of Daoists throughout the country.
During the Ming dynasty, the Celestial Masters lineage was quite power-
ful, and Quanzhen influence diminished. Daoist centers like White Cloud
Abbey (Baiyun guan) were directed by Zhengyi (Celestial Masters) masters.
Under the rule of the third Ming emperor, Zhu Di (r. 1403–1425), best
known by his era name, the “Yongle Emperor,” Zhengyi Daoism grew sig-
nificantly. The emperor studied Daoist techniques, learning talisman-making
from two daoshi masters, and also alchemical practices. He patronized the
Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu), the Daoist god of Wudang mountain, and pro-
moted him as the numinal protector of the empire. He also gave an order to
have a new canon compiled, and it was printed in 1445, during the reign of
Zhu Qizhen (r. 1435–1449), whose era rule name was Zhengtong. Thus, the
Daoist Canon still in use is officially known as Daoist Canon of the Zheng-
tong Reign Period (Zhengtong daozang).
By the end of the Ming period, the Dragon Gate (Longmen) lineage had
grown within Quanzhen as a renewal movement. The founding legend of the
order goes back to Qiu Chuji. The school’s name is traceable to Dragon Gate
Mountain (Longmenshan) in Longzhou district, Western Shanxi, where Qiu
underwent his training. The history of the movement traces the transmission
of its methods from Qiu down to the Qing dynasty and the seventh-genera-
tion Longmen Master, Wang Changyue (d. 1680). Wang was the abbot of
Baiyun guan (White Cloud Abbey), and he gathered many followers there.
They went on to open Dragon Gate centers throughout China.
10 • INTRODUCTION
The Longmen vine of Quanzhen gained control of a great number of
convents and monasteries throughout the country. The Daoist Canon made
during the Ming period contains 60 Quanzhen works. In contrast to Zhengyi
Daoism, an adept who decided to follow the Quanzhen Longmen way took
up a celibate life. He or she would join a monastery or convent and follow a
three-year novitiate life. Afterward, the adept could be ordained and make a
commitment to a life lived according to monastic precepts. The Way of the
Dragon Gate was and is one of self-cultivation through inner alchemy (nei-
dan). By the Qing dynasty, the Daoist Association of China, with an estimat-
ed membership of more than 23,000, officially recognized Quanzhen (includ-
ing Dragon Gate) Daoists in the country. Its center is now in White Cloud
Abbey in Beijing, under the administration of the Dragon Gate sect masters.
During the Qing dynasty, the Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864), led by Hong
Xiuquan (1812–1864), was hard on Daoist institutions and practitioners.
Hong has been called “God’s Chinese Son,” and he tried to establish a
Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping) in Nanjing following an inter-
pretation of Christianity revealed to him through visions and encounters with
the Heavenly Family of God, including his brother, Jesus, and his sister,
Guanyin. The Taiping Rebellion was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history.
At least 20 million Chinese perished as a result of it. Hong’s armies struck
out at the “idols” of the Buddhists, as well as the City God (Chenghuang
shen) and Daoist temples. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Daoist guan and
miao were destroyed. Among those communities particularly hard hit were
the Celestial Masters centers on Dragon and Tiger Mountain (Longhushan).
At about the same time, Daoism was introduced to the West. James Legge
(1815–1897), who had worked as a missionary in Hong Kong and China
beginning in 1824, returned to England in 1873. He was awarded the first
professorship of Chinese studies at Oxford University and soon joined the
massive project of translating the Sacred Books of the East, edited by Max
Muller. In 1880, Legge published The Religions of China: Confucianism and
Taoism Described and Compared with Christianity (Legge 1880), and, in
1891, he published volumes 39 and 40 in the series, entitled The Texts of
Taoism, containing The Book of the Way and Its Power (Daodejing), the
Zhuangzi, and Tract of the Most Exalted on Action and Response (Taishang
ganying pian).
After the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the Republican government of
1912 sought to confiscate Daoist temples and turn them into public buildings,
schools, hospitals, and senior citizen centers. The May Fourth Movement
(1919) continued this program. In the 1920s, the New Life Movement en-
couraged students to destroy Daoist statues and icons throughout the country.
During the Anti-Japanese War (i.e., World War II), many Daoist temples
were requisitioned as army barracks either by Chinese forces or Japanese
ones. This meant that by the time of the establishment of the New China in
 INTRODUCTION • 11
October 1949, there were only about 300 Daoist temples in Beijing, where a
century before there had been 1,000, and only about 50 in Shanghai, where
before there had been 200.
Daoist practitioners and institutions had a hard time during the Great Leap
Forward (1958–1960), and then came another attempt to eradicate Daoism
during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Daoist holy
sites were destroyed or repurposed as community centers or barracks for Red
Guards. Daoshi of all lineages were forced to cease practice and lineage
rituals. Doctrinal and ritual texts were destroyed. Some daoshi were sent to
labor and reeducation camps. Daoism was banned during this 10-year period
and labeled as a “feudal superstition.”
We have to admit that in many ways, Daoism is still recovering from the
bitter losses of multiple attempts at suppressing its expression and even de-
stroying its very existence from the time of the Taiping in the mid-1800s to
the late 1980s; however, in the late 1980s, leaders of the People’s Republic
of China (PRC) began to recognize Daoism as an important traditional belief
system and a potential focus for physical health and improvement for the
population at large. So, many of the more scenic temples and monasteries
have been repaired and reopened. Daoism is one of the five officially ap-
proved religions recognized by the PRC (Daoism, Buddhist, Islam, Catholi-
cism, and Protestantism). It is administered through a state bureaucracy, one
arm of which is the Chinese Daoist Association (CDA). Daoist practitioners
are required to register with the CDA, which sets rules about education,
ordination, and the construction of Daoist temples and statues, and calls upon
adepts to abandon superstition. While control of Daoism’s development may
be viewed with suspicion and much objected to, it is neither something new
nor exclusively Communist. Emperors and imperial ministries wanted to
control and administrate Daoism as long ago as the Tang dynasty, and they
enacted policies to suppress or encourage it.
It is difficult to know how many Daoist masters there are in the PRC
because a number of Zhengyi daoshi are unregistered and deliberately avoid
the training and official certification procedures of the CDA. Some estimates
are that there are more than 25,000 Daoist masters in China of both the
Quanzhen and Zhengyi (Celestial Masters) lineages, but that number may be
higher. There are more than 2,000 guan and miao in mainland China that are
specifically identified as Daoist, but many Zhengyi masters do their work
through associations with such sites as City God temples and even through
individual contact with Chinese citizens apart from any official institution.
The CDA, through its Daoist Research Office, has encouraged the study of
Daoist history and philosophies both generally and in a few of the major
universities in the PRC. Some of the most prominent and respected univer-
sities in China have established centers or faculties that focus on Daoism or
at least research and write about it historically and philosophically. Several
12 • INTRODUCTION
Chinese universities have also begun new comparative philosophy programs,
many taught in English, which bring international students to China and
foster their study of Daoism and its relationship to the philosophies and
religions of the West.
Anyone interested in the training, belief, and practice of a currently living
Daoist master could hardly do better than to undertake a reading of the
authorized biography of Wang Liping (1949– ), the 18th Generation Master
of the Dragon Gate (Longmen) branch of Daoism, as told to his students,
Chen Kaiguo and Zheng Shunchao. This work was translated under the title
Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a Taoist Wizard, and it tells the
15-year story of Wang’s training, which began in 1962. The work anchors
Wang Liping to his three teachers and gives us an inside look at the develop-
ment of a Daoist master, revealing that much remains unchanged since the
time of Zhuangzi.
It is fair to ask whether a tradition as rooted in China as Daoism can ever
find the right kind of soil in which to grow in other cultures and parts of the
world. At first glance, it may seem impossible; however, perhaps the spread
of Daoism to other global communities is not as unthinkable as it might first
appear. After all, Anglo-Europe and even the Americas became fertile soil
for beliefs and practices attached to a Jewish prophet from Nazareth and an
Arab seer from Mecca.
As early as the Tang dynasty, an initial extension of Daoism into Korea
and Japan occurred because these cultures were interested in all things Chi-
nese (Kohn 2001). In both cases, Daoism was confronted with a full set of
well-established indigenous beliefs and practices. In response, many of the
same philosophical and social dynamics operated in these new cultures as
they had during the period of the Song, when Daoism grew over, grafted
onto, and became a hybrid with a wide range of popular Chinese beliefs,
including Buddhist ones. Daoism’s cosmology of yin and yang, and its tradi-
tions about immortals and numinal beings, as well as its techniques of exer-
cise, meditation, medicinals, and diet, took hold in East Asia outside of
China with varying levels of strength.
A second extension of Daoist influence in Korea took place in the 1500s
and in Japan under the Tokugawa’s (1600–1868). This wave of influence
carried the techniques of inner alchemy and the use of the morality books to
those cultures. In Vietnam during the early 20th century (1920s), Daoist
ritual practices, talismans, and petitions were grafted into the Caodai tradi-
tion by Ngo Minh Chien, its founder.
Nevertheless, the situation with Daoism’s growth in the West has been
different. Edward Said has made us well aware of the problematic nature of
the early constructions of the “Orient” as Westerners began to contact Chi-
nese and other Asian worldviews. Orientalism was a way in which the West
gained strength and identity by setting itself apart from an imaginary,
 INTRODUCTION • 13
dreamy, and romantic Orient. It fed the imperialism and colonial domination
of the West (Said 1978). And, yet, the Western attitude toward Daoism may
not best be characterized under the rubric of Orientalism. Although the early
exposure to Daoism in the West was shaped greatly by such figures associat-
ed with Anglo-European missionary expansionism as James Legge, Daoism
featured only marginally in the Western consciousness during the colonial
epoch. It came into view only at the end of that period (Clarke 2000). In his
work The Tao of the West: Western Transformations of Taoist Thought, J. J.
Clarke explores the rich diversity of the ways in which Daoism has been
appropriated and engaged in the cultures of the West.
From 1927 to the end of World War II, the chief proponent of Daoism in
the West was generally regarded as Henri Maspero in Paris. Michael Saso
was the first Westerner to be initiated as a Daoist priest, and he subsequently
served as coeditor of Taoist Resources, the earliest scholarly journal on
Daoism for a Western audience. Although this journal is no longer published,
it is indexed in most of the standard library collection searches.
William de Bary insists, and rightly so, that “no tradition . . . can survive
untransformed in the crucible of global struggle” (1988: 138). We have been
witnesses to such transformations of Daoism in films like Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon (Wohu canlong, directed by Ang Lee, 2000) and Hero (Ying
xiong, directed by Zhang Yimou, 2002), as well as in the fiction of such
Western writers as American novelist Ursula Le Guin. Le Guin did her own
translation of the Daodejing and grafted Daoism into much of her fiction,
especially Books of the Earthsea and the novel The Dispossessed. These
works represent the hybridization of Daoism into Germanic and Anglo-Euro-
pean contexts and narrative frames in highly creative ways.
With the worldwide advent of the internet, Daoism is once more in flux,
overlapping and intertwining its classical lineages with new versions trying
through their minds and hearts to understand the tradition and its contribution
to biospiritual transformation. Such Daoist cultivation practices as qigong
and its understandings of “nourishing life” (yangsheng) in medicine and diet
are being repackaged and made accessible throughout the world.
Some recent attempts to understand the historical interaction between
Daoism and its new Western soil have been written. With respect to the
United States, Elijah Siegler’s The Dao of America: The History and Prac-
tice of American Daoism is a thorough work that provides a historical frame,
a rather complete list of Daoist organizations in the United States, and a chart
of North American Daoist lineages. In the United States, there are Daoist
temples in Arizona, New York, Hawaii, and a number of other places. The
Penglai temple in Toronto is perhaps the best known of Canadian sites of
Daoist influence in that culture. In England, the British Daoist Association
14 • INTRODUCTION
was founded in 1996, and likewise there is a Daoist Association in France.
Daoism was first established by immigrants to Sidney, Australia, and there is
also a community in New South Wales.
The living vine of Daoism will continue to grow and transform, as we have
seen it do in each new era and culture. The new hybrid that is produced may
have stems and shoots that are short-lived, but other vines may wrap them-
selves around new global challenges and realities, and transform them and
the people involved, just as the Perfected Persons (zhenren) have been made
and remade for 2,000 years.
 A
ABSTENTION FROM CEREALS, BIGU 辟穀. Bigu refers to a diet in
which one avoids eating cereals or grains. In Daoist practice, grains were
believed to be the source of such harmful entities as “corpses” (the three
corpses, sanshi) or “worms” (the nine worms, jiuchong) residing in the intes-
tine and the brain. In short, it was believed they caused the decay of qi in the
host. In place of cereals, Daoists included herbs, minerals, refined breath, and
even talismanic water (fushui). The earliest text explaining this practice is
Refraining from Cereals and Ingesting Qi (Quegu shiqi 卻穀食氣), found
among the Mawangdui manuscript cache. The practice is often associated
with veneration of the Stove God (Zaoshen). According to the Book of the
Former Han (Hanshu), Li Shaojun (fl. c. 133 BCE) taught Han Wudi (r.
141–87 BCE) a method for preventing aging by worshiping the Stove God
and abstaining from cereals (25.1216). Ge Hong (283–343) mentions more
than 100 different methods for abstinence from cereals, some of which are
treated explicitly in his text the Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces
Simplicity).

ALCHEMY, DAN 丹. Alchemy is a 12th-century Western term for a kind

of chemistry thought to transform base metals like lead into silver or gold.
During the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), experiments of this sort were under-
taken in China. Gradually, however, alchemy in China turned to the transfor-
mation of the body to increase longevity, suppleness, and resistance to illness
and aging. This form of alchemy in China was called “external alchemy”
(waidan). The elixirs, pills, and powders used were ingested, but the point is
that their source was external to the adept. Turning inward and focusing on
the essence (jing) and energy (qi) of the person to create and enhance one’s
spirit (shen) was a practice involving meditation, concentration, stillness,
quietude, and inner visualization. This practice was called “inner alchemy”
(neidan). The Chinese term dan (丹), common to both types of alchemy,
actually is the name for cinnabar. It is used as a general term, even though in
some external alchemy cinnabar is not used (rarely), and in inner alchemy,
when cinnabar as a mineral plays no role.

15
16 • AUTHENTIC CLASSIC OF GREAT PROFUNDITY
ANQI SHENG 安期生. Anqi Sheng is a legendary immortal (xian). Tradi-
tion says he lived during the reign of the first emperor of China, Qinshihuang
(r. 221–210 BCE). According to the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals
(Liexian zhuan), he was also known as the “thousand-year-old gentleman”
(Qiansui weng). According to the sources, he met with the emperor for three
days and nights. The emperor presented him with a treasure of jade and gold,
and he invited the emperor to meet him on the island of Penglai in the
Eastern Sea. The Records of the Historian (Shiji) reports that famous Han
dynasty alchemist Li Shaojun (fl. c. 133 BCE) also visited Anqi Sheng.
According to the Biographies of Eminent Gentlemen (Gaoshi zhuan), dating
between the years 215 and 282, he learned his alchemical arts from Heshang
Zhangren, a master sometimes identified with the author of a commentary on
the Daodejing, and was also associated with Yellow Emperor-Laozi line-
ages of Daoism.
Anqi Sheng is regarded as one of the earliest Taiqing masters, and the
“Method of the Furnace Fire of Divine Elixir” is attributed to him. He is
reported to have transmitted it to Li Shaojun. His name appears as one of the
Perfected Persons (zhenren) in Shangqing classics, including Tao Hong-
jing’s Chart of the Ranks and Functions of the Perfected Numinous Beings
(Zhenling weiye tu). Although several geographical locations are associated
with him, he is most often linked with the island of Penglai.

ANTHOLOGY ON THE COMPLETION OF PERFECTION BY [WANG]

CHONGYANG, CHONGYANG QUANZHEN JI 重陽全真集. This work is
the largest collection of Wang Zhe’s (Wang Chongyang, 1113–1170) liter-
ary works (CT 1153). He was founder of the Complete Perfection (Quan-
zhen) lineage. It contains 1,009 texts, including poems, lyrics, songs, and
some prose works. Most of these works are designed to teach or encourage
disciples. They are not doctrinal treatises.

AUTHENTIC CLASSIC OF GREAT PROFUNDITY, DADONG ZHENJ-

ING 大洞真經. This text is also known as the Thirty-nine Stanzas (Sanshijiu
zhang), and it is the most important text of the Highest Clarity (Shangqing)
lineage revelations (aka Maoshan Daoism). In fact, the term dadong, which
may be rendered as “Great Cavern,” is used within that lineage as “Great
Profundity.” Dadong is used as a synonym for Shangqing. It expresses the
state of primordial origin; the condition of the One, before even yin and
yang, had begun to move. Several versions of the text may be found in the
Daoist Canon, all of which date from the Song or Yuan dynasties. The
Shangqing dadong zhenjing (CT 6) is often taken as closest to the original
version.
 AUTHENTIC CLASSIC OF GREAT PROFUNDITY • 17
The origin story of the text is that it was transmitted to the Queen Mother
of the West (Xiwangmu) before the world even existed. She disclosed it to
Wei Huacun (?251–?334), who passed it to Yang Xi (330–386). The text is
meant to provide instructions for uniting with numinal spirits, which show
their presence in both celestial and corporeal ways. Each of the 39 sections
contains material on these ways of existing. The celestial spirits appear in
heavenly contexts, revealing that the practitioners’ ancestors have been re-
leased from death and now can converse with numinal beings. The text is
intended to set the adept on a meditational exercise to transformation. By
reciting its celestial stanzas an adept may summon and even visualize the
numinal energies (gods) who guard the 39 gates of the body and allow the
preservation and purification of its qi. The ultimate goal of reciting this text
is to maintain and enhance the spiritualization of the body (Robinet 1993:
104)
 B
BAXIAN 八仙. See EIGHT IMMORTALS, BAXIAN 八仙.

BAGUA 八卦. See EIGHT TRIGRAMS, BAGUA 八卦.

BAIRI SHENGTIAN (白 白日昇天). See DISAPPEARANCE IN BROAD

DAYLIGHT, BAIRI SHENGTIAN 白日昇天.

BAIYUN GUAN 白雲觀, WHITE CLOUD ABBEY. White Cloud Abbey,

Beijing, is the best-known Daoist abbey in China. It has had several names,
being originally known as the Tianchang guan (Abbey of Celestial Perpetu-
ity), which was established in 739, under Emperor Xuanzong (712–756).
From 1125–1215, it was the headquarters of Daoism. It was once the seat of
Quanzhen patriarch Qiu Chuji (1148–1227), and after his death a miao
(shrine) was built over this grave nearby. The community that grew around
his veneration took the name Baiyun guan. Both Zhengyi and Quanzhen
daoshi have trained there.
In the 1600s, Wang Changyue (d. 1680) assumed the post as abbot and
turned it into a center for training in his own lineage of Quanzhen known as
the Longmen (Dragon Gate) sect. During the Qing dynasty, Baiyun guan
was the most important Quanzhen ordination center in China. The training
prior to ordination was quite rigorous, involving three years of instruction in
the monastery and extremely harsh rites of passage lasting as many as 100
days. Novices were examined on Daoist classics and precepts, were required
to perform tests of body and meditation. Today, Baiyun guan houses a library
that includes the Daoist Canon, and it is also the seat of the Chinese Daoist
Association (Zhongguo daojiao xiehui).

BAO JING (?–c. 330) 鮑靚. Bao Jing, whose birthplace is unknown, was
the descendent of two senior officers of the former and later Han dynasties.
He began his career in civil service in Nanyang (Henan), but upon receiving
a promotion he moved to Guangdong as the governor of Nanhai in 313.
Reports say that he began his Daoist studies with the transcendent immortal
19
20 • BAOPUZI 抱朴子
(xian) Yin Changsheng, who transmitted to him the talisman “Yin Sheng’s
Talisman of Great Mystery” (Taixuan yin feng fu). This text enabled adepts
to achieve “disappearance of the corpse” (shijie). Other traditions say he
received the Charts of the True Forms of the Five Peaks (Wuyue zhenxing
tu) from Zuo Ci (legendary 2nd–3rd centuries CE). Bao met Ge Hong
(283–343) and later became his father-in-law and master in alchemy, trans-
mitting to him the mysterious text Script of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang
wen), which Bao received while in altered consciousness. According to one
record, he was buried in the Luofushan Mountains.

BAOPUZI 抱朴子. See BOOK OF THE MASTER WHO EMBRACES SIM-

PLICITY, BAOPUZI 抱朴子.

BAOSHENG DADI 保生大帝. See GREAT EMPEROR WHO PRO-

TECTS LIFE, BAOSHENG DADI 保生大帝.

BEIDOU 北斗. See BIG DIPPER, BEIDOU 北斗 (AKA NORTHERN DIP-

PER).

BENMING 本命. See BIRTH STAR OF DESTINY, BENMING 本命.

BIANHUA 變化, TRANSFORMATION. At its heart, Daoism is a set of

lineages that teach biospiritual transformation from one form to another.
Passages from the Zhuangzi through the Shangqing tradition confirm this
perspective time and again. The following passage reflects just one testimony
to this belief:

Suddenly Master Lai grew ill. Gasping and wheezing, he lay at the point
of death. His wife and children gathered round in a circle and began to cry.
Master Li, who had come to ask how he was, said, “Shoo! Get back! Don’t
disturb the process of change!”
Then he leaned against the doorway and talked to Master Lai. “How
marvelous the Creator is! What is he going to make of you next? Where is
he going to send you? Will he make you into a rat’s liver? Will he make
you into a bug’s arm?”
Master Lai said, “A child, obeying his father and mother, goes
wherever he is told, east or west, south or north. And the yin and yang—
how much more are they to a man than father or mother! Now that they
have brought me to the verge of death, if I should refuse to obey them,
how perverse I would be! What fault is it of theirs? The Great Clod
burdens me with form, labors me with life, eases me in old age, and rests
me in death. So if I think well of my life, for the same reason I must think
well of my death. When a skilled smith is casting metal, if the metal
should leap up and say, “I insist upon being made into a Mo-yeh!” he
 BIG DIPPER, BEIDOU 北斗 (AKA NORTHERN DIPPER) • 21
would surely regard it as very inauspicious metal indeed. Now, having had
the audacity to take on human form once, if I should say, “I don’t want to
be anything but a man! Nothing but a man!” the Creator would surely
regard me as a most inauspicious sort of person. So now I think of Heaven
and Earth as a great furnace, and the Creator as a skilled smith. Where
could he send me that would not be all right? I will go off to sleep
peacefully, and then with a start I will wake up.” (Zhuangzi 6, trans.,
Watson 1968).

While some Daoist texts simply follow the Zhuangzi in putting the trans-
formation of being into the flow of the Dao, others stress that adepts can
control change. Laozi is reported to have altered his bio-spiritual forms nu-
merous times (see EIGHTY-ONE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LORD LAO,
ILLUSTRATED). The Daoist tradition contains several works specifically
devoted to the methods for biospiritual transformation, for example, the Bao-
puzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity), but also the Book of
Transformations of the Imperial Lord of Zitong (Zitong dijun huashu, CT
170) and the Book of Transformation (Huashu, CT 1044 and 1478). Patri-
archs and numinal beings of the Shangqing tradition likewise are reported to
have powers to change their being and become transparent, invisible, or
numinal. The Shangqing text Classic of the Divine Continent on the Dance in
Heaven in Seven Revolutions and Seven Transformations (Shenzhou qizhuan
qibian wutian jing, CT 1331) describes methods for transforming into clouds,
fire, dragons, and other objects.

BIANZHENG LUN 辨证論. See ESSAYS OF DEBATE AND CORREC-

TION, BIANZHENG LUN 辨证論.

BIG DIPPER, BEIDOU 北斗 (AKA NORTHERN DIPPER). The signifi-

cance of the Big Dipper, or Northern Dipper (Ursa Major), in Chinese relig-
ious life is traceable to the earliest periods of Chinese cosmology, astronomy,
and philosophy. The Records of the Historian (Shiji) already testifies to its
role in Daoism. The Big Dipper is the residence of “the Great One” (Taiyi),
and its power expresses as yin and yang. The Dipper is the power of the
origin of all things, the pivot of the universe, and the Daoist concept of
“returning to the Origin” (huiyuan) points to the Dipper. Its movement di-
vides the world into the Nine Palaces (jiugong), and it consists of nine stars,
with the number nine meaning completion and totality. Four stars are in the
bowl, three are in the handle, and two are invisible, except to daoshi. Its
earthly counterpart is Mt. Kunlun.
In the many permutations of Daoist cosmology and physiology, the Dipper
also plays various roles. Each star is inhabited by numinal beings. It is
associated with displaying the origin and related to both the soil and the
22 • BIGU 辟穀
center in the Five Phase physics (wuxing). Since the color of soil is yellow,
alchemical texts sometimes refer to the Dipper as the “yellow star” (huang-
xing). Daoshi ritual garments characteristically have the Dipper embroi-
dered on them, and it is often found on the ceilings of halls in Daoist miao
(shrines) and guan (abbeys). To be efficacious, some rituals must be per-
formed according to the almanac date that indicates the Dipper will be over-
head. Likewise, meditation is particularly beneficial under the Dipper. In
leifa (Thunder Rites), the power of thunder needed to expel evil is sum-
moned from the direction in which the Dipper points. Petitions and invoca-
tions asking for forgiveness are addressed to the powers resident in the Dip-
per. Daoshi may obtain great power and open the gate of Heaven, yielding
profound illumination by “walking the guideline” or “pacing the Dipper.”

BIGU 辟穀. See ABSTENTION FROM CEREALS, BIGU 辟穀.

BIOGRAPHIES OF DIVINE IMMORTALS, SHENXIAN ZHUAN 神仙

傳. The Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) is the second-
largest collection of hagiographies of immortals (xian) compiled in Chinese
cultural history after the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals (Liexian zhu-
an, CT 294), ascribed to Liu Xiang (77–either 8 or 6 BCE). There is no
complete version of Shenxian zhuan in the Daoist Canon; however, the work
may be confidently ascribed to Ge Hong (283–343), and he claims credit for
compiling a text by this name in the autobiographical essay attached to his
Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). In his commentary
to History of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo zhi), completed before 429, Pei
Songzhi attributes the Shenxian zhuan to Ge Hong, as does Tao Hongjing
(456–536).
The Shenxian zhuan has many of the first biographies of important Daoist
figures, including Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan, and Maojun. Some figures
mentioned in the earlier Liexian zhuan are included in Shenxian zhuan but
are given longer biographies. Included in this group are Laozi and Pengzu.
Ge Hong collected these biographies to fulfill his interest in developing
methods to become an immortal. Accordingly, he is best seen as a collector
and unifier, but hardly a systematizer, of a large set of techniques the sole
commonality of which is the goal of prolonging and enhancing the life of the
human biospiritual organism. He arranged these techniques into a hierarchy
based on his view of their respective degrees of effectiveness at attaining a
transcendent immortality and the prestige of their practitioners (Campany
2002: 8). Robert Campany has done an exhaustive study of the work, which
also offers a text-critical and fully annotated commentary.
 BIRTH STAR OF DESTINY, BENMING 本命 • 23
BIOGRAPHIES OF EXEMPLARY IMMORTALS, LIEXIAN ZHUAN 列
仙傳. The Biographies of Exemplary Immortals is our oldest extant collec-
tion of biographies of immortals (xian). The work is attributed to Liu Xiang
(77–8 or 6 BCE), although his name is attached to many other texts from the
period of the former Han in the bibliographical chapter of the History of the
Former Han (Hanshu). For example, Liu is also credited with two other
works bearing similar titles, Biographies of Exemplary Women (Lienu zhuan)
and Biographies of Exemplary Officials (Lieshi zhuan). It is possible that
some sections of the Liexian zhuan could not have been written prior to the
2nd century, so our present received text may have interpolations.
There are 70 biographical narratives in Liexian zhuan, divided into two
chapters. The briefest of these has fewer than 200 characters. The form of the
biographies is rather standard, stating name, native place, and sometimes the
period in which the subject lived on Earth. None of the biographies provide
anything resembling a complete life narrative. The biographies are arranged
in a rough chronological order, beginning with Master Red Pine (Chisong
zi) in the time of Shennong, the mythic deity of China’s ancient beginnings.
Among the famous Daoist figures included are the Yellow Emperor (Hu-
angdi), Pengzu, Laozi, and Yin Xi. Biographies of Anqi Sheng and Dong-
fang Shuo are also provided. Max Kaltenmark has provided a rather standard
translation (1953).

BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE WHO STUDIED THE DAO, DAOXUE

ZHUAN 道學傳. This work is a collection of Daoist biographies compiled
by Ma Shu (522–581). We may include it as part of the tradition including
Biographies of Exemplary Immortals (Liexian zhuan) and Biographies of
Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan); however, many fewer of the characters
in this work are said to gain immortality (xian). They often simply die and
are buried. The complete text is now lost and survives only in fragmentary
accounts of its biographies repeated in many other works. Nonetheless, the
title appears in several bibliographical treatises, notably both histories of the
Tang dynasty (Jiu Tangshu and Xin Tangshu). Chen Guofu located most of
the fragments, collected them, and published them as appendix 7 of his Study
on the Evolution of the Daoist Canon (Daozang yuanliu kao, 1963).

BIQI 閇氣. See BREATH RETENTION, BIQI 閇氣.

BIRTH STAR OF DESTINY, BENMING 本命. In Daoist practice, the

time of one’s birth is under a certain star and associated with the numinal
powers that reside in that star. One’s life and destiny may be propitious if one
knows the star deity ruling at the hour of one’s birth. This belief had its
genesis in popular Chinese religion, but it most certainly informed rituals of
24 • BLESSED PLACES
the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao). Ordination rituals for lead-
ers (libationers) in that lineage included the statement, “The birth star of
destiny (benming) of (name), born on (month, day, and hour), comes under
the authority of the Lord of the (name) star in the Northern Dipper (beidou)”
(see Sanwu Zhengyi mengwei lu, CT 1208). Other rituals preserving this
belief system include the recitation of the text The Most High’s Authentic
Script of the Birth Star of Destiny of the Northern Dipper for Extending Life
(Taishang xuanling beidou benming yansheng zhenjing, CT 622).

BLESSED PLACES. See GROTTO-HEAVENS AND FUDI 福地

BLESSED PLACES.

BODY GODS, INNER GODS, NEISHEN 内神. Daoist texts often de-
scribe a huge pantheon of numinal powers (aka gods) that do not reside in the
heavens but in the adept’s own body. Generally speaking, these are personifi-
cations of such forces as qi and the Five Phase physics (wuxing). They are
thought of as administering the body as in a kind of bureaucratic system. So,
practices of healing are put into language about relating to these gods. By
visualizing them, what is meant is that the adept turns inward to concentrate
on the body’s processes, especially as these might be associated with the five
viscera or organs (wuzang). The Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing) refers
to the gods of the five viscera. The Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor
(Huangdi neijing) gives descriptions of gods of the hair, eyes, nose, ears,
teeth, tongue, and brain.
In his Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity), Ge Hong
elevates one of the body gods above all others, calling it simply, “The One.”
One type of meditation is “guarding the One” (shouyi), which visualizes
“the One” as a god residing within the human being. In Shangqing, “the
One” became the “Three Ones,” and these were said to reside in the various
Cinnabar fields inside one’s body.

BOOK OF THE MASTER OF NO ABILITIES, WUNENG ZI 無能子. The

Wuneng zi is in the Daoist Canon as CT 1028. It is a short Daoist work in
three chapters dating to the latter part of the Tang dynasty. The preface to the
text, written by an “acquaintance of Wuneng himself,” claims that the text
was written in 887, in the inn of a Mr. Jing in Zuofu, a town in the vicinity of
Chang’an (Xi’an). Parts of the text are in dialogical form, with Wuneng in
conversation with such figures as Laozi and Confucius.
The most intriguing thing about the Wuneng zi is how it confirms the
views of modern scholarship about the central teachings of Daoism (at least
in the Tang period). Wuneng calls upon adepts to move in wu-wei, being
spontaneous and without intentional action. He teaches that such movement
 BOOK OF THE MASTER WHO EMBRACES SIMPLICITY, BAOPUZI • 25
results in doing what is always fitting and appropriate without consciously
deciding to do so. The result is self-fulfillment and contentment, as one is
free from the social organization and discriminations that twist and problem-
atize one’s existence. An unpublished English translation of the text is by
Nathan Woolley (1997).

BOOK OF MASTER WEN. See WENZI 文子, BOOK OF MASTER WEN.

BOOK OF THE MASTER WHO EMBRACES SIMPLICITY, BAOPUZI

抱朴子. Ge Hong’s (283–343) Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity
contains 70 chapters divided into two parts: 20 inner chapters (Neipian CT
1185) and 50 outer chapters (Waipian CT 1187). The inner chapters are
given to descriptions of immortals (xian), prescriptions and drugs, and meth-
ods for “nourishing life” (yangsheng) and surviving in mountainous regions.
In these chapters, about 282 texts on immortals and Chinese alchemy are
mentioned. The outer chapters principally feature Ge Hong’s political and
social views. While a Daoist in practice, Ge was also a well-educated Confu-
cian in political theory. He thought that the central Confucian virtues of
humaneness (ren), filiality (xiao), and sincerity (xin) were basic to the attain-
ment of immortality (xian). These two sections of Baopuzi originally may
have been independent documents but were combined from the time of the
Ming period until now.
Strictly speaking, a number of scholars have argued that the inner chapters
are actually not necessarily Daoist in their intent and content, but they record
a wide range of local practices. While this interpretive point of view is not
yet resolved, it may have its roots in Ge Hong’s efforts to incorporate many
different bodies of doctrine and practice into work. Doing so often gives rise
to internal contradictions within the text. While some passages seem consis-
tent with lineages we would surely associate with Daoism, some are not. It
seems clear that Ge Hong’s sources are quite varied, as Robert Campany
(2002) has demonstrated. Ge draws heavily from traditions in the region of
his home in Jiangnan, including Script of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang
wen) and Charts of the True Forms of the Five Peaks (Wuyue zhenxing tu).
He shows knowledge of some of the Taiqing lineage writings on elixirs, as
well as texts describing such meditation practices as “guarding the One”
(shouyi). Accordingly, we can consider the Baopuzi as representing an im-
portant link between various lineages of Daoism.
As for the content of the text, chapter 1 offers a poetic description of the
Dao as mystery, while chapter 2 deals with immortals (xian) and immortal-
ity. Chapters 4, 11, and 16 are principally devoted to the practice of external
alchemy (waidan). Chapter 18 is concerned with inner alchemy (neidan)
and meditation techniques. Ge Hong thinks in terms of levels of the mastery
26 • BOOK OF THE MASTER WHO EMBRACES SIMPLICITY, BAOPUZI
of immortality. At the lower level, he places practitioners whom he calls
“coarse and rustic masters of methods.” He associates these masters with
“minor arts” (xiaoshu), which include healing methods, longevity tech-
niques, magic, divination, and dietetic practices. Although he is identified
historically with the practice of traditional Chinese medicine, Ge also thinks
that herbal drugs only confer long life, they do not protect one from external
evil influences, and they cannot assure immortality. In fact, Ge made a dis-
tinction among three different types of immortals: heavenly–celestial, earth-
bound, and delivered from the corpse.
Ge Hong was a master of “nourishing life” techniques (yangsheng). He
recommended breath retention (biqi), gymnastics (daoyin), and various
sexual techniques (fangzhong shu) for life’s enhancement. In his view, these
methods may grant freedom from illness, but they cannot prevent calamities,
bring about happiness, or confer numinal transcendence. Instead, the mastery
of alchemy and meditation make possible the realization of transcendence;
however, ingesting elixirs provides the power to communicate with numinal
beings, prevents the habitation in one’s body of noxious spirits, and enables
one to obtain immortality. One type of meditation he calls “Guarding the
Authentic One” (shou zhenyi) includes communication with numinal realities
and visualizing how “the One” may fill the adept’s body, protecting and
preserving it from spiritual and physical assault. The other type of medita-
tion, known as “Guarding the Mysterious One” (shou xuanyi), enables the
practitioner to multiply himself with succeeding dimensions of transcen-
dence.

BOOK OF THE MASTERS OF HUAINAN, HUAINANZI 淮南子. Ac-

cording to the Book of the Former Han (44.2145), Liu An (179–122 BCE),
the prince of Huainan (in modern Anhui province), and uncle of Han Emper-
or Wudi, gathered several thousand masters of the dao and other experts in
Huainan in the 160s–130s BCE because he wanted to learn their arts and
techniques, and support them in the creation of written works related to these
abilities. The Book of the Early Former Han refers to one of these works,
which is now apparently lost, as a text concerned with becoming a spirit
immortal (shenxian) by the use of the “yellow and white” or alchemy (hu-
angbai) (Csikszentmihalyi 2004: 56).
But the Huainanzi was the most important text composed by the masters
gathered at Huainan. Some traditions say the work was composed by the
“Eight Gentlemen” (bagong) of Huainan. There are strong reasons for think-
ing of the text as a composite and encyclopedic work dating to 139 BCE. The
Eight Gentlemen of Huainan were as follows:
Jin Chang
Lei Bei
 BOOK OF TRANSFORMATION, HUASHU 化書 • 27
Li Shang
Mao Bei
Su Fei
Tian You
Wu Bei
Zuo Wu
Originally, the work was divided into three sections (i.e., inner, outer, and
central/middle). The outer and middle sections are lost, and the extant text
corresponds only to the inner portion. While the text is often said to be a
work on rulership, it is actually much broader, including philosophy, cosmol-
ogy, music, and education, as well as health and longevity. Accordingly,
there are several versions of the text, and the one in the Daoist Canon, which
is the basis for the later ones, is entitled Vast and Luminous Explications of
Huainan (Huainan honglie jie, CT 1184).
While the intellectual bearings of the Huainanzi are eclectic, probably
reflecting a wide variety of ideas from the many teachers gathered by Liu An
in his court, it is generally agreed that the principal organizing philosophical
tradition informing its arguments is Yellow Emperor-Laozi Daoism
(Huang-Lao Daoism). It is largely according to this tradition that a creative
synthesis was formed by the compilers using Confucian, Legalist, Daoist,
Five Phase physics (wuxing), and Yin-Yang teachings. Among the unique
emphases of the text must be included the use of correlative cosmology to
address the origins and processes of reality, and the idea of action and re-
sponse (ganying) tying together morality, longevity, and success into a single
explanatory system. The text is the most detailed exposition of Daoism after
the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, and a comprehensive English translation has
been done by John Major et. al. (2010).

BOOK OF TRANSFORMATION, HUASHU 化書. This work, dating to the

Five Dynasties period (907–960), is a syncretic text of Confucian, Buddhist,
and Daoist thought. It survives in two versions in the Daoist Canon (CT
1044 and CT 1478). It was an influential work on alchemical thought
throughout the Song period. The Book of Transformation was written by Tan
Qiao (c. 860–c.940), although it was published under the name of high Tang
dynasty official Song Qiqiu (886–959). Thus, in most catalogs, the work is
listed under Song Qiqiu’s name and even entitled Book of Master Qiqiu.
After the record was set straight in 1060, by Chen Jingyuan, author Tan Qiao
became associated with Tan Zixiao, founder of the Correct Method of the
Celestial Heart lineage (Tianxin Zhengfa), although whether these two
names actually refer to the same person is uncertain.
28 • BREATH RETENTION, BIQI 閇氣
The book is divided into six chapters, each one dealing with a particular
kind of transformation: Dao’s transformations (Daohua), Techniques for
Transformation (Shuhua), Virtue Transformation (Dehua), Benevolence
Transformation (Renhua), Food Transformation (Shihua), and Frugality
Transformation (Jianhua).

BREATH RETENTION, BIQI 閇氣. The practice of retaining one’s breath

between inspiration and expiration is called biqi. It may have originated
during the Han dynasty and is mentioned several times in the Baopuzi (Book
of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). According to the 7th-century
work Prescriptions Worth a Thousand (Qianjin fang), attributed to Sun Si-
miao (fl. 673), breath should be retained for a time equivalent to taking a
normal 300 breaths. The verification of breath retention is done by passing a
feather under one’s nose to observe that it does not move. The practice is
based upon the belief that retaining one’s qi will increase one’s longevity,
even to the point of immortality (xian). The release of breath was according-
ly associated with eliminating impurity and even healing disease. The tech-
nique was sometimes part of the practice of “walking the guideline” or
“pacing the void” (bugang).

BUGANG 步罡. See WALKING THE GUIDELINE, PACING THE DIP-

PER, STEPS OF YU, BUGANG 步罡.
 C
CAISHEN 財神. See GODS OF WEALTH, CAISHEN 財神.

CALLING DOWN THE DEITIES, JIANGSHEN 降神. During Daoist rit-

uals, the shen (spirits, deities) are called from the numinal realm to the sacred
space where the rites are performed. Sometimes they enter ritual images (xiang)
prepared for the ceremony, and at other times they inhabit the space but not in
any object. At the conclusion of the ritual, they are sent back to the numinal
space. The invitation to the spirits is part of the rite of Announcement, informing
them that a ritual is being performed in their honor. The flag-raising rite, in
which a long banner is raised on bamboo poles, is also used to attract the shen’s
attention.

CAO GUOJIU 曹國舅. Cao Guojiu is of the Eight Immortals (ba xian),
always pictured with castanets. By tradition, he was the younger brother of
the Empress Zao of the Song dynasty. Accordingly, he is represented in
official robes and court dress. He became an immortal (xian) after meeting
Lu Dongbin and Zhongli Quan.

CELESTIAL MASTER, TIANSHI 天師. The earliest usage of this term is

in Zhuangzi 24 (Watson 1968), where it is used for a young boy who has such
extraordinary clarity of mind that he can teach the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi)
how to rule the empire. The Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a)
employs the term for an unnamed teacher who will converse with his disciples
and enable them to become perfected in the coming age of Great Peace (Taip-
ing).
Zhang Daoling (34–156) claimed the title, and it is also used in the move-
ment of Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), which Zhang founded; however, the
term is used much more broadly than for the leaders of that lineage. Kou
Qianzhi (365–448), for example, was called “Celestial Master” by the emperor
Taiwu (r. 424–454). Du Guangting (850–933) was also called Tianshi, as was
Sima Chengzhen (647–735).

29
30 • CELESTIAL WORTHY OF THE FIRST ORIGINS
It is well documented that the Zhang family clan who came to live on and
near Dragon Tiger Mountain (Longhushan) claimed to have descended in an
unbroken lineage from Zhang Daoling, with each successor being a new Celes-
tial Master with the Zhang surname. Such claims were codified by Zhang
Zhengchang (1335–1378) in his Lineage of the Han Celestial Master (Han
tianshi shijia), and they have been critically examined by Paul Amato (2016).

CELESTIAL WORTHY OF THE FIRST ORIGINS, YUANSHI TIAN-

ZUN 元始天尊. Yuanshi tianzun is the supreme deity of the Daoist pantheon,
the highest of the Three Pure Ones. This title is the name for the creative power
of the Dao, and in the imagery of Daoism he is presented in full regalia in the
center of the Three Pure Ones. He is first described in Yan Dong’s commentary
to the Classic on Salvation (Durenjing), written in 485.

CHAN BUDDHISM 禪. The Chinese term Chan is used to translate the San-
skrit dhyana meaning “meditative state.” When Buddhism entered China it had
to be adapted to Chinese intellectual and spiritual culture. This was accom-
plished along many fronts, including translation, parallel practices, mutual teach-
ers, and governmental patronage. Buddhists that entered China already had a
rich practice of meditation and a suspicion of conceptualization and language for
understanding one’s life. Human discriminations in language and pursuit of their
believed reality were understood to be sources of suffering. Teachers and adher-
ents holding such beliefs found a fertile ground in Daoist communities. Bud-
dhists often settled in mountain hermitages already populated by Daoist masters
and their students, including sites in the Zhongnan mountains such as Shaolin
and Louguan Tai. The interaction between Daoism and Buddhism was vari-
ously characterized as Daoism being a fulfillment of Buddhism or its perversion,
and Buddhism being founded by Laozi in one of the eighty-one transforma-
tions of Lord Lao.
Daoists were among the first converts to Buddhism and Buddhists found
ways of incorporating Daoist practices and language into their own teaching.
One such incorporation was Chan, or as it is known in Japan, Zen. Buddhist
communities that gathered around practice rather than text, or who sought a
master who produced a text, were the prime source for the emergence of a
syncretic practice merging Daoism and Buddhism. The stress on experience
found in Daoist practice made adaption to the new land of China more manage-
able for Buddhist teachers, especially those not already devoted to a specific
sutra. The step from Daoist mountain refuges and hermitages to monasteries was
in some ways not a difficult one. Daoist emphases on clarity and quiescence
(qingjing) as well as sitting in forgetfulness (zuowang) fit well into the practice
of the new tradition known as Chan.
 CHAOS, PRIMAL FORMLESSNESS, HUNDUN 混沌 • 31
During the Tang dynasty and the many conflicts between Daoism and
Buddhism a narrative of the origin of Chan was developed, anchoring its
beginning to Bodhidharma (c. 440–c. 528) and five other patriarchs. Tradi-
tionally, the original six patriarchs of Chan are:
Bodhidharma (達摩) c. 440–c. 528
Dazu Huike (慧可) 487–593
Sengcan (僧燦) ? –606
Dayi Daoxin (道信) 580–651
Daman Hongren (弘忍) 601–674
Huineng (惠能) 638–713
Bodhidharma’s hagiographies report that he came into China standing on teach-
ings apart from words and offering a transmission to his disciples outside of any
sutra. The earliest text providing information on Bodhidharma is The Record of
the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang (Luoyang qielan ji), which was compiled
in 547 by Yang Xuanzhi. One account reports that Bodhidharma sought admis-
sion into the community at Shaolin monastery, but being refused, he lived in a
nearby cave, where he faced a wall for nine years without speaking a word, but
receiving enlightenment.
The term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese term
禪. Zen was not introduced as a separate school in Japan until the Japanese priest
Myoan Eisai (1141–1215) traveled to China and learned the practice of Chan. In
1215, Dogen Zenji (1200–1253), a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed
to China himself, where he became a disciple of Tiantong Rujing (1162–1228),
who worked within the Caodang sect of Chan. After his return, Dogen estab-
lished the Soto school of Chan (Zen), the Japanese branch of Caodong.

CHAOS, PRIMAL FORMLESSNESS, HUNDUN 混沌. Like many key

philosophical concepts in Daoism, the term hundun has more than one use. It
can be used as a name for a mythical being, describe a situation, or refer to a
stage in the cosmological process. In the Commentary of Zuo (Zuozhuan), Hun-
dun is a son of the Yellow Emperor, who is banished for being incompetent. In
the fascinating book Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), Hundun is an
animal with six legs and four wings that can sing and dance but has no face. In
the Zhuangzi, he is the emperor of the center. As thunder, hundun also sym-
bolizes the energy that begins life. The expression hundun is in the language
family of “something undefined and yet complete” (huncheng) found in Daodej-
ing 25:
32 • CHARTS OF THE TRUE FORMS OF THE FIVE PEAKS
There was something undefined and complete, existing before Heaven and
Earth. It was still and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change,
reaching everywhere and in no danger of being exhausted! It may be regarded
as the Mother of all things. I do not know its name, but I give it the designa-
tion Dao. (chapter 25)

In Daoist cosmology, the expression hundun denotes the condition of reality

before the formation of the world in qi’s movement by yin and yang. There is
no God hovering over this chaos. It gives birth to things on its own. But there is
no one single creation story in Daoism. The emergence of reality from hundun is
described in several ways. Sometimes hundun emerges only after other process-
es have already acted. In the Liezi, hundun is a state in which a unity of qi and
zhi (matter) exists, and they must be divided.
Neidan texts use hundun repeatedly for the state of origin from which the
energy and power necessary to infuse elements with transcendence comes. It is
often used to speak of the inner elixir itself, the substance that expresses the
Original qi (yuanqi). As the “center,” it is also used as a synonym for the
symbolic inner tripod furnace in which the elixir is made, as symbolically the
internal embryo of the sage (shengren).

CHART OF THE INNER LANDSCAPE, NEIJING TU 内景圖. The Neij-

ing tu and another work known as Chart for the Cultivation of Reality (Xiuzhen
tu) are both representations of what might be called the body’s “inner anatomy”
or “inner landscape.” These are not meant to be actual anatomical documents.
They are charts revealing the ways in which the body is not mere matter, as
might be thought in Western dualistic philosophies and approaches. They por-
tray body gods and qi powers. There is no matter/spirit distinction in these
charts. The purpose of the chart is to portray, rather than linguicize, the way the
Five Phases physics (wuxing) produces organs, skeletal structure, and the like,
while still being qi. Such representation must be highly symbolic. An effort to
explain these charts is contained in Charts and Explications on the Classic of the
Eighty-one Difficult Points in the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi
bashiyi nanjing zuantu jujie, CT 1024).
As they stand, everything pictured and captioned in these charts should be
taken symbolically. For example, the head is Mt. Kunlun and the spinal cord a
watercourse flowing from it. The heart is the Pole Star of the Big Dipper
(beidou). Accordingly, these charts may be viewed as devices for focusing
concentration and gaining clarity through inner reflection.

CHARTS OF THE TRUE FORMS OF THE FIVE PEAKS, WUYUE

ZHENXING TU 五岳真形圖. The Charts of the True Forms of the Five Peaks
is a cartographic configuration of the five sacred mountains of Daoism, accord-
ing to which they are regarded as cosmic landmarks. Ancient pre-Qin bronzes
 CHARTS OF THE TRUE FORMS OF THE FIVE PEAKS • 33
and stelae bear sacred mountains on them, although we cannot be sure that the
mountains pictured are those that later became the Five Marchmounts (wuyue).
According to Daoist lore deriving from a 6th-century work, the charts represent-
ed cosmic landmarks established by Laozi. There are other accounts of the
origins of the charts as well. According to Ge Hong’s Baopuzi (Book of the
Master Who Embraces Simplicity), the charts made it possible to access the
numinal medicinals on the mountains and encounter transcendent beings. Two
fragmentary texts recovered at Dunhuang provided information about rituals
performed to honor the deities mentioned in the Charts of the True Forms of the
Five Peaks. The Daoist Canon has the work Introductory Treatises to the
[Image] of the True Form of the Five Sacred Mountains (Wuyue zhenxing xulun,
CT 1281).

CHEN SHAOWEI 陳少微 (fl. ?712/?741). Chen Shaowei was a Daoist

master closely associated with Mt. Heng (Hengshan in Hunan). He is
known for two external alchemy (waidan) texts, one entitled Wondrous
Instructions on Mastering Cinnabar (Dadong lian zhenbao jing xinfu
lingsha miaojue, CT 890) and the other Wondrous Instructions on the
Golden Elixir of the Nine Changes (Jiuhuan jiudan miaojue, CT 891).
These texts contain what many consider to be the most detailed descrip-
tions of cinnabar alchemy in the entire waidan corpus. The first text
contains an account of the formation, varieties, and symbolism of cinna-
bar. In the second text, the material production processes described in the
first text are shown to yield “mercury” (hong).

CHEN TUAN 陳摶 (c. 920–989). Several historical facts about Chen may
be gleaned from a variety of sources. In 937, Chen was in Sichuan to
study the qi control methods of local masters around Tianqing guan (Ab-
bey of Celestial Blessings). In the 940s, he settled on Mt. Hua (Huashan)
in Shaanxi and led in the restoration of guan (abbeys) that had fallen into
disrepair there. Near the end of the Five Dynasties period (c. 950s), he
composed at least one classical work on physiognomy entitled Mirror of
Auras (Fengjian). The other three facts include his associations with the
rulers Shizong (r. 954–959) and Taizong (r. 976–997), and the record of
his death on Huashan in 989. We can have confidence that Chen Tuan was
attached to several high-ranking Song officials, read their fortunes, and
gave them advice.
The legend of Chen Tuan is much more elaborate. It includes the ac-
count of his wondrous encounter with a female star deity during his child-
hood, examples of his remarkable mnemonic skills, the record of a period
of Daoist training at Wudangshan, and stories of his ability to enter a
34 • CHEN XIANWEI 陳顯微 (FL. 1223–1254)
deep state resembling death that would often last for months. In the legen-
dary corpus it seems clear that several episodes reported of Chen Tuan are
borrowed from those of other Masters, including Buddhist figures.
He appears in several Yuan dynasty dramas, notably The Lofty Sleep of
Chen Tuan (Chen Tuan gaowo). Twelve of his incubation practices of
stillness were included in the Ming handbook Marrow of the Red Phoenix
(Chifeng sui), where he is depicted as a master of cosmic energy (qi).

CHEN XIANWEI 陳顯微 (fl. 1223–1254). Chen Xianwei is author of an

inner alchemy (neidan) commentary (CT 1007) to the work entitled
Zhouyi cantong qi (Relationship of the Three, in Accordance with the
Book of Changes). He was a daoshi at the Abbey of the Helping Saint
(Yousheng guan) in Lin’an, Zhejiang province.

CHEN ZHIXU 陳致虛 (1289–after 1335). Chen Zhixu is one of the main
representatives of the inner alchemy (neidan) tradition. Four of his works
are still extant: Commentary to the Wondrous Classic of the Upper Chap-
ters on Salvation (CT 91; 1336); Folios on Awakening to Reality, incorpo-
rated in Three Commentaries to the Wuzhen pian (see Ziyang zhenren
Wuzhen pian sanzhu, CT 142); Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir
(Jindan dayao, represented by CT 1067); and Commentary to the Zhouyi
cantong qi, with Division into Sections (not in the Daoist Canon but
available in more than 15 editions) (see also GOLDEN ELIXIR, JINDAN
金丹).
Chen does not describe physiological practices but stresses that the
essence of alchemical transformation lies in recovering through internal
control the Original qi (yuanqi) of the state known as “prior to Heaven”
(xiantian). He considers the Daodejing to be a neidan text. His commen-
taries reflect a deep appreciation for the Three Teachings (sanjiao), even
though he identifies himself with the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen)
lineage. He provides an account of the transmission of his own teachings
coming down from Ma Yu (1123–1184), one of the Seven Perfected
Persons (qizhen ren) of Quanzhen, although the historicity of his account
has not been confirmed.

CHENGFU 承負. See INHERITED BURDEN, CHENGFU 承負.

CHENGHUANG SHEN 城隍神. See CITY GOD, CHENGHUANG SHEN

城隍神.
 CHINESE DAOIST ASSOCIATION (CDA) • 35
CHENGZU (1360–1424, r. 1403–1425) 成祖, ZHU DI 朱棣, THE YON-
GLE EMPEROR. Chengzu was the second major ruler of the Ming dy-
nasty, the fourth son of Taizu. His birth name was Zhu Di. Daoism pros-
pered under his reign. He gave the order to have the Ming dynasty Daoist
Canon complied, even though it was not printed until 1445. Chengzu
supervised the elevation of Mt. Wudang (Wudangshan) into a major
Daoist center and ordered the construction of many buildings there. He
patronized Zhenwu (Xuanwu), the numinal God of Wudangshan. Accord-
ingly, it is said that Zhenwu protected the Ming rulers, just as Laozi had
done for the Tang rulers (whose surname was Li, the same as Laozi).

CHINESE DAOIST ASSOCIATION (CDA), ZHONGGUO DAOJIAO

XIEHUI 中国道教协会. The Chinese Daoist Association (CDA) was
founded in 1957, with its headquarters at the White Cloud Abbey (Baiyun
guan) in Beijing. The organizational meeting had 91 Daoist scholars and
practitioners in attendance. Sixty-one were elected to various offices, and
Yue Chongdai (1888–1958), abbot of Baiyun guan, was the first presi-
dent. The official purposes of the association are to 1) unite Daoists
throughout the country; 2) promote patriotism and love of Daoism; and 3)
aid Daoists in the construction of a socialist society.
The association suspended its activities from 1966 to 1976, during the
Cultural Revolution. An assembly was held in 1980, and a new president
was elected and Daoist rituals and activities resumed. A journal begun in
1961 was suspended and then renewed with the title Chinese Daoism
(Zhongguo daojiao).
In an effort to establish educated practitioners, daoshi in China are
required to register with the CDA to be granted recognition and official
protection for their work. The CDA supports the Communist Party and is
recognized and approved by the central government of China. The current
abbot of Louguan tai, Master Ren Farong, is president of the association,
a position he has held since 2005.

CHISONG ZI 赤松子. See MASTER RED PINE, CHISONG ZI 赤松子.

CHISONG ZI ZHANGLI 赤松子章曆. See MASTER RED PINE’S ALMA-

NAC OF PETITIONS, CHISONG ZI ZHANGLI 赤松子章曆.

CHONGXUAN 重玄, TWOFOLD MYSTERY. This term finds its origin

in a phrase in the opening of the Daodejing according to which the quest
of the Dao is for a “mystery and mystery again” (xuan zhi you xuan). The
phrase is usually taken to mean that there are two steps to reach the
understanding of the ultimate Dao. One of these is characterized by the
36 • CHONGYANG QUANZHEN JI 重陽全真集
pursuit of learning and reason, and it ends in quandary. The other is by
opening oneself to the presence of the Dao in quietude and stillness. Later
interpreters have interpreted this double movement of the spirit to be at
both a conceptual level and a mystical one.
Chongxuan is not a full lineage of Daoism but more an interpretive
approach to the classical texts of the tradition. The style of reading texts is
very much shaped by Madhyamika Buddhism. Along with Chongxuan
figures who interpreted Daoist writings through a Buddhist lens, there
were also interesting translations made by some thinkers. For example,
Cheng Xuanying (fl. 631–650) translated the Daodejing into Sanskrit.

CHONGYANG QUANZHEN JI 重陽全真集. See ANTHOLOGY ON THE

COMPLETION OF PERFECTION BY [WANG] CHONGYANG, CHON-
GYANG QUANZHEN JI 重陽全真集.

CHUCI 楚辭, SONGS OF CHU. The Chuci is a collection of poetic songs

traceable to the ancient state of Chu, and it is the second-oldest collection
of Chinese poetry after the Classic of Odes (Shijing). It is an anthology of
poems by many authors, although the famous Qu Yuan is a central figure,
both as author and as a subject person in some poems. The poems date to
various periods, but many of them surely reflect beliefs and practices of
the 300s BCE. A substantial number of the poems describe ecstatic spirit
journeys and make allusions to practices that may have influenced early
Daoism and later even the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao).
David Hawkes (1959) has made a standard translation into English.

CINNABAR FIELDS, FIELDS OF ELIXIR, DANTIAN 丹田. The dan-

tian are internal domains within the body according to the teachers of
inner alchemy (neidan). While said to be in the abdomen, heart, and
brain, they have no material substance. The Lower field is below the navel
and is the seat of the jing essence. The Middle field is in the chest,
between the heart and the navel. It is the seat of qi and is also variously
called the Yellow Court (huangting), Crimson Palace (jianggong), or the
Mysterious Female (xuanpin). The Upper field is in the region of the brain
and is the seat of the spirit (shen). It is here that there are Nine Palaces
(jiugong). The Classic of the Yellow Court (Huangting jing) provides an
overview of the three cinnabar fields and their function. It is one of the
most popular of the inner alchemy (neidan) treatises.

CIRCULATING BREATH, XINGQI 行氣. The practice of circulating

breath (xingqi) is well attested in Chinese intellectual history. References to
various methods for circulating breath go back to the period of the Warring
 CITY GOD, CHENGHUANG SHEN 城隍神 • 37
States. Donald Harper (1998) traces this source to an inscription dating to c.
300 BCE. In the Han dynasty, circulating breath is mentioned several times
in the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi neijing). Circulating
breath is often associated with gymnastics (daoyin) and breath retention
(biqi), but it was actually a practice typically performed in a reclining posi-
tion and is related to gaining clarity and stillness. It may be compared to the
Greek practice that Peter Kingsley calls “incubation” (Kingsley 1999). The
practice is based on breathing slowly and inaudibly, and characteristically it
is associated with following a procedure of varying breath cycles for a total
of 300 breaths. This process includes the method of breath retention. One
description of circulating breath technique can be found in Classic on Breath
by the Elder of Great Non-Being from Mt. Song (Songshan Taiwu xiansheng
qijing, CT 824).

CITY GOD, CHENGHUANG SHEN 城隍神. The name “Chenghuang

shen” may be broken down to mean “Spirit of walls and moats.” “Walls and
moats” was an expression for the city itself, and oftentimes the spirit or deity
of a city was compared to its spiritual mayor. Veneration of the City God
emerged in the late Tang dynasty, although worship of the Earth God (Tudi
gong) associated with a place was quite ancient.
The City God was extremely popular in the Ming dynasty, and at one time
virtually every city of size in China had a temple dedicated to him. It was not
until the Ming dynasty that established Daoist practices brought him into the
Daoist pantheon of numinal beings. He is considered a celestial officer who
receives orders from and reports to Taishang Laojun. His duties included
conducting the dead of the city to the courts of hell for judgement, a task with
which he was assisted by “Ox Head” (niutou) and “Horse Head” (matou)
spirits. Scroll paintings and depictions of the Ten Hells are often found in
City God temples, sometimes with the City God sitting at the first court of
judgment.
The Daoist Canon contains a text dating sometime after 1376, provid-
ing the rationale and explanation for including the City God among Daoist
spirit powers. Its title is Wondrous Classic on the Dispelling of Disasters
and Accumulation of Happiness through the Action and Response of the
City God (Chenghuang ganying xiaozai jifu miaojing, CT 1447). The text
provides Laojun’s account for how the City God came to possess the
power to alleviate suffering and provide aid to his citizens. The text
records a list of the god’s assistants and reports his promise to help every-
one in need.
38 • CLASSIC CODE OF ORTHODOX UNITY, ZHENGYI FAWEN JING
CLARITY AND QUIESCENCE, QINGJING 清静. The first use of the
concept qingjing is in Daodejing 43: “Clarity and quiescence, this is the
proper mode of all under Heaven.” Since that time, Daoist masters have
considered qingjing as the ideal meditative state out of which one may
then move in wu-wei. The Xiang’er commentary says, “Daoists should
value their essence (jing) and spirit (shen). Clarity and quiescence (qing-
jing) are the basis [for doing so] (Bokenkamp 1997: 121).” During the
Tang dynasty, the work entitled Classic of Clarity and Quiescence (Qing-
jing jing, CT 620) appeared, with one version claiming to have been
spoken by Laojun (Taishang Laojun) himself (CT 1169). The central the-
sis of this text is that when the heart-mind (xin) is still, calm, and quiet, it
becomes clear. In this state, discriminations and distinctions vanish, mak-
ing it possible to attain the Dao by moving in wu-wei. The Classic of
Clarity and Quiescence was quite popular and widely read. More than 10
commentaries were written on it.

CLASSIC CODE OF ORTHODOX UNITY, ZHENGYI FAWEN JING 正

一法文經. The Classic Code of Orthodox Unity was a collection of the rules
and rituals for the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao). It seems to
have been used in the 5th century and grew to more than 60 scrolls. For the
most part, it has been lost, although the Harvard-Yenching Index of the
Daoist Canon lists 25 texts with the title Zhengyi fawen, nine of which are
extant.
The most cited copy of Zhengyi fawen is CT 1204, which reports a
dialogue between the Most High (i.e., Laozi, Laojun) and Zhang Daol-
ing, the first Celestial Master (Tianshi). When asked why people have
misfortune and illness, the Most High explains that it is because they
disregard the law of action and response (ganying), break the moral pre-
cepts of the community, indulge in sensual pleasures, and do not follow
Dao. They should practice quietude and gain clarity, perform repentance,
give to those in need, sponsor monasteries, and make sacred images
(xiang). The Most High teaches Zhang Daoling that the nine dangerous
states of sickness, as well as imprisonment, war, floods, fires, poisonous
creatures, earthquakes, inner terrors, and hunger and cold, are brought by
ghost demons as punishments on groups and individuals. The text con-
cludes with remedies for these dangers, including worshiping the Celes-
tial Worthies (tianzun), copying and reciting holy texts, and producing
images capable of mediating numinal power.

CLASSIC OF CHANGES, YIJING 易經. The Classic of Changes (Yijing)

is the name for a complete edited work that includes two parts. One part is
an ancient manual of divination known simply as the Changes (Yi), or,
 CLASSIC OF CHANGES, YIJING 易經 • 39
more correctly, as the Zhouyi. It is a handbook traceable to the period and
practices of the Western Zhou dynasty, as is indicated, among other fea-
tures, by its use of language expressions found on the bronzes of that
period (c. 1046–771 BCE). The other part is a set of seven commentaries,
and three of these are composed of two sections each. Accordingly, taken
as a whole, the commentary set making up this second part of the Classic
of Changes is known as “The Ten Wings” (Shiyi). The Classic of Changes
was likely one of the Six Classics of the Ru to have survived the burning
of the books in 213 BCE.
The Classic of Changes is characteristically said to be a work of divina-
tion. Throughout Chinese history until the modern era, it was believed
that the principles of the Classic of Changes originated with the mythical
Fu Xi (?2800 BCE), an early cultural hero in China to whom many ad-
vances in civilization are attributed. Fu Xi reportedly received eight tri-
grams to use in determining the flow of events according to the actions of
yin and yang.
By the time of the sage (shengren) ruler Yu, the trigrams had been devel-
oped into 64 hexagrams (liushisi gua) depicting the possible combinations of
yin and yang in the process of an event coming into experience. King Wen of
Zhou is said to have given a description of the nature of each hexagram.
Divination by use of milfoil or yarrow (shi) was used as early as the Zhou
dynasty to determine the arrangement of the yin and yang lines for the hexa-
gram governing an upcoming situation.
One of the commentaries to the Classic of Changes is known by the
various titles of “Great Commentary” (Dazhuan) or “Appended Statements”
(Xici). The “Great Commentary” is arguably the most important single text to
study for an understanding of early Chinese ontology. What Western philos-
ophy calls reality, the philosophers who created this material generally called
by the compound “Heaven and Earth.” As for the process of reality’s change,
they used the term dao (道). This text frequently employs the term dao as a
nominative (The Dao) and portrays it as operating according to Principle(s) li
(理). It is because of this operation by Principles, captured in the hexagrams
of the divination text, that the patterns of history and nature can be ascer-
tained and referenced in the Yi (the divination manual). But the Dao itself is
self-moving, according to its internal forces of yin and yang, and there is no
thought that these Principles have their source in a mind, intention, or pur-
pose.
In a commentary appended to the Classic of Changes entitled “Discussion
of the Trigrams” (shuogua), the trigrams are also linked as explanatory de-
vices for the emergence in reality of families, seasons, directions, colors, and
various animals. There is no philosophical justification offered in the com-
40 • CLASSIC OF THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS
mentary for these associations, and we should attribute them to the practi-
tioners who sought to provide more concrete interpretations for the use of the
trigrams for the purpose of divination of the future.
The general philosophical term for the process of reality described in this
work is correlative ontology. Correlation is itself the central concept of the
ontological theory of early Chinese philosophy. Yin and yang may be mutual-
ly supportive, or the one may be transforming the other, balancing it, com-
pensating for it, enhancing it, or furthering something new in relation to the
other. They are not opposites or contradictions. The relationship of yin and
yang may be creative and productive, lead to harmony and stability, or it may
deconstruct the present phenomenon and open the way to something new.
Even so, yin and yang are not equivalent to good/evil, and they possess no
mentality or intentionality by which they plan or direct reality. They are
regarded as natural forces.
During the Han dynasty, thinkers that we might associate with Daoism
used the Yijing, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi without making a distinction in
authority or ranking them in any way. Yellow Emperor-Laozi (Huang-Lao)
intellectual trends, which are visible in both the Zhuangzi and the Book of
the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi), take positions on the workings of
Heaven and Earth, as well as human affairs that are traceable back to the
Yijing. The Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a) refers to the
Yijing. Shangqing and Lingbao texts view the Eight Trigrams (bagua) as
possessing apotropaic power. Key figures like Sima Chengzhen (647–735)
and Chen Tuan (c. 920–989) used the exegesis of the Yijing in making their
arguments.
In Lingbao, the Eight Trigrams are connected with the miraculous Five
Talismans in the Prolegomena to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treas-
ure (Lingbao wufu xu, CT 388). One method of their uses includes painting
them on the adept’s body as protection against harmful spirits and processes.
The trigrams are regarded as emblems of the order and processes of the
cosmos, and are placed on Daoist altars, embroidered on ritual robes, and
included in ceiling and floor art of Daoist guan (abbeys). Sentences taken
from the Yijing are used in inner alchemy (neidan) meditation and concen-
tration techniques, and the trigrams are taken as symbols of both neidan and
external alchemy (waidan) ingredients.

CLASSIC OF THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS, HUAHUJ-

ING 化胡經. According to disputed traditions, the Classic of the Conversion
of the Barbarians was composed in its earliest form in about 300, by Wang
Fu 王浮, a Celestial Master libationer (jijiu). Wang often lost in doctrinal
debates with Buddhists and apparently composed the work as an effort to
denigrate Buddhism by creating an account that Laozi was actually the Bud-
dha and the founder of the religion. This argument has its origin in the story
 CLASSIC OF THE DIVINE SPELLS OF THE CAVERNOUS ABYSS • 41
of the dictation of the Daodejing by Laozi to Yin Xi upon leaving the Zhou
court and journeying through the Hangu Pass (Hangu guan) to go to the West
(India).
Already in 165, a court official had presented to the ruler a document
claiming that Laozi had gone into the territory of the barbarians (India) and
became the Buddha. Up to the time of Wang Fu’s writing, this tradition
included strands that reported Laozi wrote Buddhist sutras as well, basically
grafting the two philosophies into one; however, Wang used this to belittle
Buddhism by attempting to demonstrate Daoism’s superiority, pointing to
Buddhism as a perversion of Laozi’s true teachings and unworthy of impor-
tation to China.
By 600, the text had grown to two scrolls and, by 700, to a full 10. The
work Inner Chapters on Mysterious Wonder (Xuanmiao neipian), surviving
only in fragments, contained a hagiography of Laozi’s mother, according to
which Laozi entered the mouth of a queen in India and was born the follow-
ing year from her right armpit to become the Buddha.
Looking at this from the standpoint of comparative studies, the account of
the conversion of the barbarians may also be understood as a justification for
the infusion and adoption of Buddhist ideas and practices by Daoists. Bud-
dhists developed many different responses to this theory. One was simply to
attack the text as full of inconsistencies and absurdities. Another approach
was to claim that bodhisattvas and disciples of the Buddha actually taught the
ancient Chinese philosophers and that Laozi was one of these bodhisattvas
who came to save the Chinese on behalf of the Buddha or as the Buddha.
The text became a point of intense contention between Daoists and Bud-
dhists in debates from the 5th to 7th centuries. The stakes were high, as the
arguments played out in the presence of the emperor. During the Tang dynas-
ty, the text was forbidden and ordered destroyed two times, once in 668 and
then in 705. In the Yuan dynasty, the throne ordered the complete destruction
of the text and other writings related to it. Even so, the old theory appeared
later in a work entitled Eighty-One Transformations of Lord Lao, Illustrat-
ed (Laojun bashiyi hua tu), probably traceable to Linghu Zhang and Shi
Zhijing as its compilers in the late 1100s or early 1200s.

CLASSIC OF THE DIVINE SPELLS OF THE CAVERNOUS ABYSS,

DONGYUAN SHENZHOU JING 洞渊神咒經. This text is in the Daoist
Canon as CT 335. It is the principal example of Daoist apocalyptic eschatol-
ogy. The date of the revelation of the text is not certain, but internal markers
suggest about the 5th century. The author is likewise unknown, but according
to tradition it was delivered through spirit mediumship. Literary critical stud-
ies tend to confirm this attribution based on the meandering, confused, and
repetitive style of the text, which is often characteristic of texts transcribing
42 • CLASSIC OF THE DIVINE SPELLS OF THE CAVERNOUS ABYSS
oral utterances of a medium. The text claims to be the “book of books,” the
ultimate revelation from the numinal world. Du Guangting (850–933) edited
it, and it is his version that we find in the Daoist Canon.
The predictions contained in the work are familiar ones: The end of the
world order is near; it will be preceded by calamities of war, crime, natural
disasters, and diseases. These coming horrors are produced by armies of
demons (guishen) and tortured souls of the dead. People may escape these
coming trials by following the prescriptions in the text. They will then be-
come the “seed people” (zhongmin) for a new humanity of transcendents
(xian).

CLASSIC OF GREAT CLARITY, TAIQING JING 太清經. This text is

now lost, but some parts of it may survive partially in the Daoist Canon
within CT 883. It was concerned with the method for making the elixir of
Great Clarity (taiqing dan), which according to Ge Hong’s Baopuzi
(Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity) (Ware 1966) was ob-
tained after nine cycles of burning cinnabar and other elements until the
final product became what he called “Nine Cycle Reverted Elixir” (jiu-
zhuan huandan).

CLASSIC OF GREAT PEACE, TAIPING JING 太平經. The Classic of

Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a) is one of the most important Daoist
texts dating from the later Han dynasty and was the theoretical basis for
the Great Peace (Taiping) movements of the 2nd century. It seems clear
that the text has multiple source authors. This text survives in two forms
in the Daoist Canon. A 57-chapter version of the original 170 chapters
carries the title Taiping jing (CT 1101a), and a large number of excerpts
from the entire work are used to make up the Excerpts from the Classic of
Great Peace (Taiping jingchao, CT 1101, j. I). These two works form the
basis for the modern collated version of the text edited by Wang Ming
(1960). A most reliable English translation of the work is Barbara Hen-
drischke (2006).
The central idea of the Classic of Great Peace dates back to the period
of the Warring States, as it is hinted at in the Zhuangzi. It is that a coming
era of Great Peace will eventuate in the future if the empire’s governing
authorities will return to the Dao and move in wu-wei. The rulers of high
antiquity governed properly by wu-wei. This future state will mirror that
which existed in antiquity but was lost because of the error and moral
transgressions of human beings. In the coming era of Great Peace, people
will be united because they will “hold on to the One” (shouyi). In the
interim period before the dawn of the Great Peace, all human commu-
nities remain warped and destructive because they share the “inherited
 CLASSIC OF THE NINE ELIXIRS, JIUDAN JING 九丹經 • 43
burden” (chengfu) of human evil, with its meddling with nature and de-
structive forms of discriminations embodied in language. Even physical
disease is a manifestation of these moral failings. This explains why the
Classic of Great Peace is concerned with healing techniques related to
morality, discussion of medicinal plants, uses of talismans, acupuncture,
and the employment of hand gestures of power (shoujue) as healing meth-
ods.
The text teaches that for the coming age of Great Peace to arrive, the
Classic of Great Peace must be transmitted to a person of great virtue, one
who is sent by Heaven as a sage (shengren). This person will rule over a new
theocratic state.

CLASSIC OF THE NINE ELIXIRS, JIUDAN JING 九丹經. The Classic

of the Nine Elixirs (chapter 1 in CT 885) is one of the most valuable extant
texts for an understanding of the practice of external alchemy (waidan) in
Daoism. It was known quite early, as portions of the text are provided in Ge
Hong’s Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). It was
also regarded as one of the three founding texts of the Taiqing lineage and
attributed to Zuo Ci (legendary 2nd–3rd centuries CE) at the end of the Han
dynasty.
There are two versions of this work preserved within other works of the
Daoist Canon. These are the Instructions on the Classic of the Divine Elixirs
of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue,
CT 885) and the Classic of the Flowing Pearl in Nine Cycles and the Nine
Elixirs of the Divine Immortals (Jiuzhuan liuzhu shenxian jiudan jing, CT
952). Taken together these quite similar versions provide an account of the
performance of the elixir compounding process from the preliminary rites to
the conclusion of the procedure in the ingestion of the elixir.
The text begins with an account of the revelation of the method and its
rules for enactment. Then, instructions for making the primary compounds
for luting the crucible to be used in burning the materials to be transmuted
into elixirs are provided. The methods for making the “nine elixirs” follow,
each with independent ingredients but all as related to one another in tech-
nique of preparation.
There is a commentary appended to the Instructions on the Classic of the
Divine Elixirs of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor, which has been
dated to the period between 649 and 686, based on internal markers. The
commentator gives attention to the choice of time for elixir making and the
arrangement and protection of the space used for the process, and offers other
alchemical methods relying on a number of substances. Ge Hong’s Baopuzi
and Tao Hongjing’s Collected Commentaries to the Canonical Pharmaco-
poeia (Bencao jing jizhu) are cited.
44 • CLASSIC OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LAOZI
CLASSIC OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LAOZI, LAOZI BIAN-
HUA JING 老子變化經. This text was discovered among the Dunhuang
manuscripts (S. 2295). It is dated to the late 2nd century on the basis of
the last appearance of Laozi, which it mentions (155 CE). The text was
copied by a monk at the Chang’an (Xi’an) Abbey of the Mysterious Me-
tropolis (Xuandu guan) in 612. It focuses on the divine Laozi as an ex-
pression of the Dao that incarnates in various generations to support and
govern humanity.
There are three parts to this work. In the first, the numinal stature of
Laozi is described, as is his supernatural birth to mother Li after 72 years
of pregnancy. His divine physiognomy is described, and his action is
characterized as having been by wu-wei in every respect. He ascends to
Mt. Kunlun with the help of a white deer. He teaches the reader his divine
names, each representing what one must know to become immortal.
In the second section of the book, Laozi is identified with the heavenly
deity called Huncheng (“Chaotic, but Complete”), and his powers and
activities are detailed. The final part of the work represents an address
given by Laozi during one of his last appearances. He describes himself as
the Dao, a resident of Clarity (Qing), and a master over the world and life
and death.

CLASSIC ON SALVATION, DURENJING 度人經. The full name of this

text is Wondrous Classic of the Upper Chamber of the Numinous Treasure
on Limitless Salvation (Lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, CT 1),
and it is the first text in the Ming Daoist Canon. It represents a Daoist
response to Buddhism, especially the idea of the bodhisattva. The text is
given by the Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang daojun), who says he
received it from the Celestial Worthy of the First Origins (Yuanshi tian-
zun) (see also LAOZI DEIFIED, LAOJUN 老君, TAISHANG LAOJUN 太上
老君).
The wondrous effects of reciting the text for the entire community are
described in symbolic language. This work is not a philosophical treatise
but a kind of talisman to be used only in ritual practice. The salvific
power in which adepts are invited to participate actually resides in the text
itself, probably because it contains the “inner names” of heavenly emper-
ors, as well as the taboo names of demon spirits. By knowing their names,
one can control these beings. The secret rhymes of the text also represent
the language of Heaven. Accordingly, the words themselves were be-
lieved to be powerful talismans that are able to not only save the practi-
tioner, but also rescue ancestors from the Hells, avert disaster, and protect
the villages and the realm. The text should be recited only on certain days,
which correspond to the times when the Three Offices (Sanguan) meet to
assess the life and records of every person, living or dead.
 COMPLETE DAOIST CLASSICS • 45
During the Song dynasty, a version of the text was presented by Lin
Lingsu (1076–1120) to the so-called Daoist Emperor, Huizong (r.
1100–1125). The text is still widely recited in Daoist rituals.

COMPLETE DAOIST CLASSICS, WITH PHONETIC AND SEMANTIC

GLOSSES, YIQIE DAOJING YINYI 一切道經音義. This text was the
most important scholarly work on Daoism published before the year 1000. It
was compiled under imperial direction during the reign of Tang Ruizong (r.
684–690; 710–712). It was not the result of a single author but the product of
a commission of scholars formed in Chang’an (Xi’an) and directed by Shi
Chongxuan (?–713), master of the Abbey of Great Clarity (Taiqing guan) in
the capital city.
There were 43 members on the commission, and the preface to the work
was written by Emperor Tang Xuanzong (r. 712–756). The final product
consisted of more than 2,000 scrolls. Relying on the research done in compil-
ing the project, Shi Chongxuan wrote a treatise on basic Daoist teachings,
which is now in the Daoist Canon as CT 1123. The Yiqie daojing yinyi is
now extant, as it only remains in Shi’s text and as brief remarks in prefaces to
other works and a modest number of citations having largely to do with
pronunciations of obscure Daoist terminology.

COMPLETE PERFECTION LINEAGE, QUANZHEN 全真. Quanzhen

Daoism is the leading branch of Daoism at work in mainland China today.
While its principal philosophical doctrines do not differ radically from those
of other Daoist schools, it is a tradition that has practiced celibate and monas-
tic communal living even since its beginning. The Complete Perfection line-
age was founded by Wang Zhe (1113–1170), aka Wang Chongyang, a prac-
titioner of inner alchemy (neidan) who lived in the Zhongnan mountains
and was reportedly guided by the immortals (xian) Zhongli Quan, Lu
Dongbin, and Liu Haichan. It is possible that Wang was influenced by Chan
Buddhism during his formative period in Shaanxi province.
In 1167, Wang moved to Shandong and began to gather disciples, seven of
whom became known as the original Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren)
of Quanzhen. Wang set up five associations for the study of the methods he
was advocating for reaching “complete perfection.” In an effort to spread the
movement, he journeyed back to Shaanxi province, along with four of the
Seven Perfected Persons; however, he died on the way, and his coffin was
carried to the Zhongnan mountains. Later Quanzhen hagiographies of the
Seven Perfected Persons report that the four who accompanied Wang at his
death became the first patriarchs of the movement.
46 • COMPREHENSIVE MIRROR OF PERFECTED IMMORTALS
In the beginning, Quanzhen had no institutionalist sites of its own, but
gradually the masters formed teaching centers targeted mainly at lay inquir-
ers. Because of imperial aspirations to control divergent spiritual movements,
these kinds of foundations were forbidden, and Quanzhen was banned in
1190. Even the main center, built near Wang Zhe’s grave in Shaanxi, was
closed in 1195.
Under the leadership of Qiu Chuji (1148–1227), one of the original Seven
Perfected Persons, Quanzhen regained official recognition, and when Mon-
gol ruler Chinggis Khan (Taizu, r. 1206–1227) summoned Qiu for an audi-
ence, it was because Qiu was seen as influential over a national movement.
Qiu received a number of official titles and political privileges. After this,
Quanzhen grew quickly and began to have widespread institutional identity.
Sometimes local officials reassigned Buddhist temples to become Quanzhen
sites. It is estimated that by the year 1300, Quanzhen lineage monasteries
equaled 4,000.
During the Ming dynasty, the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao)
lineage was quite powerful, and Quanzhen influence diminished. Centers like
White Cloud Abbey (Baiyun guan) were directed by Zhengyi (Celestial
Masters) masters. At the end of the Ming period, the Dragon Gate lineage
(Longmen) grew within Quanzhen as a renewal movement. Longmen gained
control of a great number of convents and monasteries throughout the coun-
try. By the Qing dynasty, the Daoist Association of China, estimated to have
a membership of more than 23,000, officially recognized Quanzhen (includ-
ing Dragon Gate) Daoists in the country. The Daoist Canon contains 60
Quanzhen works.
An adept who decided to follow the way of Complete Perfection took up a
celibate life. He or she would join a monastery or convent and follow a three-
year novitiate life. Afterward, he or she was ordained and made a commit-
ment to monastic precepts, some of which were quite harsh, recommending
poverty and severe diets without fruit or spicy vegetables, and having no
meat. The way of Complete Perfection was and is one of self-cultivation
through neidan. Its center has returned to White Cloud Abbey in Beijing.

COMPREHENSIVE MIRROR OF PERFECTED IMMORTALS AND

THOSE WHO EMBODIED THE DAO THROUGH THE AGES, LISHI
ZHENXIAN TIDAO TONGJIAN 歷世真仙體道通鋻. This compendium in
the Daoist Canon as CT 296 is divided into 53 chapters and contains more
than 900 biographies. It was compiled by Zhao Daoyi (fl. 1294–1307). From
one point of view, the text provides a record of the operations of the Dao in
history. Typically, the biographies are arranged in the chronological order in
which the subjects lived, with only a few exceptions. Zhao did not merely
copy earlier biographies from other sources; he sometimes altered or ne-
glected earlier versions to provide more voluminous accounts. An often-cited
 CORRECT METHOD OF THE CELESTIAL HEART • 47
example of this way of working is the biography of the Yellow Emperor
(Huangdi), which occupies the entire first chapter of the work. Zhang Daol-
ing also receives a full-chapter biography.

CORPUS OF DAOIST RITUAL, DAOFA HUIYUAN 道法會元. This is

the single most voluminous text in the Daoist Canon (CT 1220). It is a
collection of ritual manuals and writings from several schools of Daoist
practice. No copy beyond that in the Daoist Canon is known to exist. The
latest internal date recorded in the documents is 1356. The latest identified
contributor is Zhao Yizhen (?–1382). It is possible that Zhao’s students may
have had a hand in collecting and editing the large group of texts included in
this corpus. Most of the writings provide instructions on Thunder Rites (lei-
fa). Many of the guidelines condone cooperation with spirit mediums (tong-
zi and jitong) and experts in exorcism. There are detailed and illustrated
instructions for the creation and application of talismans (fu).

CORRECT METHOD OF THE CELESTIAL HEART, TIANXIN

ZHENGFA 天心正法. The term “Celestial Heart” or “Heaven’s Heart”
(tianxin) refers to the Big Dipper (beidou) as the locus of power for the
forces that created the universe. The title Tianxin zhengfa points to the meth-
ods used in this movement. Tianxin is a set of methods for healing, exorcism,
bringing rain, hastening birth, curing madness, ending fever, and eliminating
harms caused by ghosts. It first developed in Southeastern China and grew in
influence during the Song dynasty in about the 10th century.
The movement sprang from the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi
dao) or Zhengyi tradition. Its first patriarch was Tan Zixiao (fl. 935–after
963), a daoshi from Quanzhou (Fujian province) who reported receiving a set
of talismans from Zhang Daoling and became famous for controlling ghost
spirits who caused illness. Tan became known as the Elder of Orthodox
Unity (Zhengyi xiansheng). Points of contact between Tianxin Daoism and
Celestial Masters (Tianshi) practices include similar methods of “pacing the
void” (bugang), strategies for controlling and expelling evil spirits that cause
illness, and ways of submitting petitions to numinal beings.
Historically speaking, Tianxin may represent an adaptation of Celestial
Masters teachings to practices of local cults around Mt. Huagai (Huagai-
shan), the site where, according to one tradition, Rao Dongtian (fl. 994) had
unearthed the “secret formulas of the Celestial Heart” (Tianxin bishi) in 994.
Many of the practitioners of Tianxin Daoism around Mt. Huagai in the Song
period also served as spirit-mediums (shentong) and practiced writing talis-
mans while in trance-like states.
48 • CORRECT METHOD OF THE CELESTIAL HEART
In the Tianxin lineage, Zhang Daoling occupied an important role. He was
thought of as the deified spirit who directed the Heavenly Department of
Exorcism, and Tianxin daoshi were “assigned” as executors of this depart-
ment’s work on Earth. This department owed its power to the numinal being
named Northern Emperor (Beidi), explaining the connection between the Big
Dipper and Tianxin belief. He had at his direction a host of heavenly generals
and soldiers on whom Tianxin daoshi could call.
In practice, the Tianxin daoshi would perform a rite of transformation
(bianshen) so that he could be possessed by the numinal powers, take com-
mand of heavenly soldiers, and send them into battle against evil spirits
assaulting the sick and weak. The tradition survives into the contemporary
period largely through its preservation among the Yao people living in
Southern China, as well as some communities in Lao and Thailand.

CROSSING THE BRIDGE, GUOQIAO 過橋. Crossing the Bridge (guo-

qiao) is the Daoist rite that when performed allows the qi spirit of a deceased
person to cross the Naihe Bridge (Naihe qiao), which traverses the “River of
No Recourse” flowing through the underworld and allowing the person to
move along toward paradise. In Taiwan and some places in Fujian, it is
performed as the final stage of the rite of Salvation through Refinement
(liandu) during the larger Ritual of Merit (gongde). In one method of perfor-
mance, a small bridge made of paper and saucers filled with oil is placed on
the ground outside the sacred space where the deceased is enshrined. A
daoshi carrying the Banner for Summoning the Soul (zhaohun fan) steps
over and back across the bridge three times, with a family mourner (or
mourners) following him. Finally, a figure representing the deceased is
placed in a paper sedan chair and carried over the bridge. Then, as with all
sacred icon components of a Daoist ritual, the bridge is burned.

CRUCIBLE, CALDRON, FU 釜. The caldron placed at the center of an

alchemical laboratory is called a fu. According to a commentary on the
Classic of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing), in the Daoist Canon as CT 883, the
crucible is made of red clay and vinegar. Its interior is luted with lacquer
obtained by boiling oak bark. Other methods for its construction are given in
different texts. Sealing the ingredients in the crucible and heating it to the
proper temperatures are the most crucial parts of alchemical work. Failures at
this level will render the product inert of power. The alchemist must perform
a ritual near the crucible before kindling the fire. An example of one such
rite may be found in the Classic of the Nine Elixirs (Jiudan jing, CT 885).

CUN 存. See VISUALIZATION, ACTUALIZATION, CUN 存.

 D
DADONG ZHENJING 大洞真經. See AUTHENTIC CLASSIC OF GREAT
PROFUNDITY, DADONG ZHENJING 大洞真經.

DANTIAN 丹田. See CINNABAR FIELDS, FIELDS OF ELIXIR, DAN-

TIAN 丹田.

DAO 道, “THE WAY”. From the beginning in the Daodejing, followers of

the Way were warned against reifying dao and turning it into an object, or
even using Dao as a name for an object or thing. Indeed, the Daodejing
insists that using language about dao at all will inevitably be misleading: The
name that can be given to Dao is not its abiding or eternal name (Daodejing,
1). In this sense, dao is inexpressible. Another way of saying this is that in
Daoist texts dao is polysemous. The Zhuangzi teaches that the Perfected
Person (zhenren) is in possession of the “wordless teaching” while experi-
encing dao. The text Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching (Daojiao
yishu, CT 1129) says, “Dao is the ultimately real (zhen 真), the ultimately
subtle, and yet there is nothing that is not sustained by its emptiness.” Be-
cause of the many uses of dao, the interpreter does best to follow how it is
being used in a specific text and try to avoid the temptation to offer one
single totalizing translation or understanding.
For example, consider that ancient Confucians also used the term dao to
denote a set of teachings allowing one to live a flourishing life. In a text from
the formative years of Daoism known as the Neiye (Inner Training), dao is
something to be cultivated, similar to qi. In the Daodejing, dao is the mother
of all things, the differentiation between nothingness and being (wu and you).
As Daoism developed, dao was used to describe the teachings transmitted to
disciples and followers (see Sima Qian’s use of daojia) or as an affirmation
of identity, as in the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao).
Although not the “essence” of the meaning of dao, still a broadly accepted
family resemblance of uses is to affirm that ordinary life lacks the touchstone
of an important power and presence that must be regained, achieved, or
acquired by appropriate practice. This use of dao does the work that is done

49
50 • DAOCHANG 道場
in other languages for the “divine,” “numinal,” or “sacred.” Figures in the
Zhuangzi, Zhang Daoling, and transmitters of the Lingbao texts provide
ready examples of this use of dao. These uses are the most direct evidence
that Daoism cannot be completely reduced to a philosophical naturalism that
merely offers meditation as a kind of therapeutic practice. Daoist texts have a
rich grammar about numinal presence. This can only be systematically read
as symbolic at the cost of distorting the tradition. Ritual and activity in
Daoism represent a dao of spiritual transformation, but records of people
who have attained and embodied a cosmic dao are in every strata of the
tradition. But this is not realized as a mystic might come upon the transcen-
dental Absolute (named as Dao). Daoists practice “nourishing life” (yang-
sheng) in all its aspects, and it is in the ordinary doings of life turned into a
way (dao) that biospiritual transformation occurs.

DAOCHANG 道場. See RITUAL SPACE, SACRED AREA, DAOCHANG

道場.

DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子. The long-standing tradi-

tion in China is that a philosophical master named Laozi was the author of
the Daodejing, which means the “Classic of Dao and De.” The text is also
known simply as the Laozi. The reason for this is not primarily that the
author of the text is believed to be a figure in Daoism’s early beginnings
known as Laozi, but that the name “Laozi” may also mean “ancient teach-
ers,” and the book has been shown by literary critical scholarship to be a
compendium of teachings from previous sources and not just the product of
one person.
The identity of Laozi as a historical figure can be traced to the Zhuangzi.
The Zhuangzi is the first text to use Laozi as a personal name. In that work,
Laozi is often a character who is portrayed teaching and correcting Confu-
cius, and Confucius is put in the role of giving Laozi great respect and honor;
however, like many other names for people in that text, Laozi may well have
been a fictional name used to give a voice to ideas within an influential
lineage of teachers.
Our present Daodejing represents a collection of teachings used across
early teacher-disciple lineages. It is divided into two parts and 81 chapters
(pian), and until the recent archaeological finds at Mawangdui and Guodian,
translations of this work were based on the version edited by Wang Bi, a
commentator who assembled the text between the years 226 and 249. The
two major divisions of Wang Bi’s Daodejing are the “Dao Classic” (daojing,
chapters 1–37) and the “De Classic” (dejing, chapters 38–81). But this divi-
sion probably rests on little else than the fact that the principal concept
 DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子 • 51
opening chapter 1 is dao and that beginning Chapter 38 is de. In contrast, the
much earlier Mawangdui manuscripts of the text place the dejing first and
the daojing second.
In either case, D. C. Lau thinks that the division of the work was probably
done to conform to the traditional story that, upon leaving China, a person
named Laozi wrote a work in two books and presented it to Yin Xi, Guardian
of the Pass to the West (Lau 1982). As for the division of the text into 81
chapters, this, too, is not found in the earliest versions. Chapter divisions and
even titles were added by the author of a commentary known as the Heshang
gong (written in about the 200s).
Archaeological finds at Mawangdui and among the Guodian manuscripts
have shed new light on the early versions of the Daodejing. Mawangdui is
the name for a site of tombs discovered in 1973, near Changsha, in modern
Hunan province. The two Daodejing texts found there have been dated to
before 195 BCE and consist of incomplete editions on silk scrolls. They are
now simply called A and B. These versions have two principal differences
from that of Wang Bi. First, some word choice divergences are present.
Second, the order of the chapters is reversed, with chapters 38 to 81 in the
Wang Bi version coming before chapters 1 to 37 in the Mawangdui versions.
Robert Henricks (1989) has published a translation of these texts with exten-
sive notes and comparisons with the Wang Bi. In 1993, tombs were explored
near the village of Guodian in the Jishan district of Hubei Province, not far
from the city of Jingmen and only a few kilometers from the ancient capital
of the state of Chu. In one of these tombs, dating to about 300 BCE, there
were 71 bamboo slips in three bundle rolls containing material that is also
found in 31 of the 81 chapters of the Daodejing and corresponding to chap-
ters 1 to 66. These bamboo strips are now the oldest known versions of the
Daodejing. They are called Laozi A, B, C or The Bamboo Laozi (Zhujian
Laozi). In all of its versions, the Daodejing is a collection of text blocks, and
these are not arranged to develop any systematic argument. In this sense, the
text is more like an anthology than a book with an overarching theme. The
blocks were gathered and organized into chapters by one, or perhaps more
than one, editor. In some ways, it is helpful to think of these blocks as beads
on a string and of the editor as a jeweler creating a necklace. Recently, some
scholars have helped us detect the rough edges of the way many chapters
have been edited from these smaller units. These include Michael La Fargue
(1992) and D. C. Lau (1982).
Sometimes even translators who agree that the sections of the Daodejing
are composite differ on how a chapter should be divided. Consider the fol-
lowing comparison between the ways Lau and LaFargue treat chapter 15.
52 • DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子
Lau (1963)
15a. Of old he who was well versed in
the way
Was minutely subtle, mysteriously
comprehending,
And too profound to be known.
It is because he could not be known
That he can only be given a makeshift
description:
Tentative, as if fording a river in winter;
Hesitant, as if in fear of his neighbours;
Formal like a guest;
Falling apart like thawing ice;
Think like the uncarved block;
Vacant like a valley;
Murky like muddy water.
15b. Who can be muddy and, yet,
settling, slowly become limpid?
Who can be at rest and yet, stirring,
slowly come to life?
He who holds fast to this way
Desires not to be full.
It is because he is not full
That he can be worn and yet newly
made.
La Fargue (1992)
15a. The excellent shi 士 of ancient times
penetrated into the most obscure, the
marvelous, the mysterious. They had a
depth beyond understanding.
15b. They were simply beyond
understanding,
the appearance of their forceful presence:
Cautious, like one crossing a stream in
winter, timid, like one who fears the
surrounding neighbors, reserved, like
guests yielding, like ice about to melt
unspecified, like the Uncarved Block
all vacant space, like the Valley
everything mixed together, like muddy
water.
15c. Who is able, as muddy water, by
stilling to slowly become clear? Who is
able, at rest, by long, drawn-out movement
to slowly come to life?
15d. Whoever holds onto this Tao does not
yearn for solidity.
15e. He simply lacks solidity, and so what
he is capable of: Remaining concealed,
accomplishing nothing new.

Lau believes chapter 15 contains two originally separate passages. La Fargue

thinks there are more text blocks in the chapter. He also tries to identify
certain editorial transition phrases designed to smooth the connections be-
tween the units and traceable to the editor by placing lines he attributes to the
editor in italics.

Daodejing 道德經, the Laozi 老子 (Themes)

Dao 道. Chs. 1; 4, 8b; 9; 14a, b; 16b; 18; 21a, b; 23b; 24; 25; 30; 31; 32; 34;
35b; 37; 38b, d; 40; 41a, b, c; 42a; 46a; 47; 48; 51a; 53a, b; 54b; 55; 56a; 59;
60; 62a; 65; 67; 77; 79; 81
The term dao is one of the most important concepts in the Daodejing.
Sometimes it is used as a noun (i.e., “the Dao”) and other times as a
verb (i.e., “daoing”). This is the way it changes meanings in the open-
ing lines of chapter 1.
 DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子 • 53
The dao that can be expressed in words (daoed) is not the eternal dao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name (1a).
Many passages in the Daodejing make it apparent that dao cannot be put into
words or named, and this is often known as the “wordless teaching.” We will
also notice this same point of emphasis in the Zhuangzi (14c, 156–58). Con-
sider the following passages:
1) “Music and good food will induce the people to stop by,” and 2) “But using words
to talk about the dao is not satisfying.” (Daodejing, 35b).

There is a thing chaotic yet perfect, which arose before Heaven and Earth.
Silent and indistinct, it stands alone and unchanging,
Going around it is tireless,
We can take it as the mother of Heaven and Earth.
I do not know its name.
I have styled it dao (25a)

In talking about the inability to “explain dao and the inherent inaccuracy of putting a
name to it, for example, “reality” or “God,” the masters whose teachings are
embodied in the Daodejing were pointing to its numinosity and ineffability. From
dao all things have come.

Dao produces the One;

The One gives birth to two,
Two produces three.
Three produces the myriad creatures.
The myriad creatures shoulder yin and hold on to yang, and by blending these qi they
attain harmony (42a).
See also YIN AND YANG 陰陽.
In this brief statement of creation in the Daodejing, the text puts dao prior
to the first thing, what Daoist’s call “the Great One” (Taiyi). Dao gives rise
to all things. It works in ways that we humans take to exhibit design, but
there is no statement that dao plans or has a will.
When one experiences dao the sense of some presence is unmistakable. In
chapter 21, the Daodejing speaks of this awareness by using the characters
(huang hu). If we wonder whether this experience was regarded as a spiritual
one, or as one we might have with physical things, our best guide is to look
elsewhere in Chinese texts for the use of the expression huang hu. In the
Book of Rites (Liji), which records instructions for religious rituals in ancient
China, these characters are used exclusively to refer to a state in which one
encounters a spiritual or numinal presence (Book of Rites 28.214). With this
in mind, the following is the way chapter 21 describes what happens in an
encounter with dao in chapter 21:
The form of profound de (kongde) comes from the dao alone
54 • DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子
As for dao’s nature
it is huang hu
Hu! Huang!
There is an image within it.
Huang! Hu!
There is something within it.
Deep! Mysterious!
Within is numinal energy.
This numinal energy (jing) is undeniably real,
Within this [experience] lies its own proof.
The Daodejing teaches that when we try to make something happen in the
world by our own reasoning, plans, and contrivances, we inevitably make a
mess of it and set ourselves against the flow of dao. But if we take our hands
off of the course of our lives and move with the dao, dao will untangle life’s
knots, blunt its sharp edges, and soften its harsh glare (chapter 56a). In the
ancient past, people abandoned oneness with the “Great dao” (da dao) and
began to make distinctions that became our systems known as morality,
politics, aesthetics, and religion. Humans speak of beauty and ugliness, cou-
rage and cowardice, good and evil. But these are discriminations of our own
making; they do not belong to dao. The Daodejing makes this point in the
following passage by specifically mentioning several of the distinctions
made in Confucian moral and social philosophy: benevolence (ren), appro-
priateness (yi), filial piety (xiao), and kindness (ci).
“When the great dao is abandoned, benevolence (ren) and appropriateness
(yi) appear. When wisdom and erudition arise, great hypocrisy arises, (ch.
18).” This “disease” of making distinctions is likewise condemned in the
Zhuangzi (e.g., 2r, 45–46; 5a, 68–69; 5c, 72; 5d, 74). In Daoism, struggling
with these human-made distinctions is the source of all strife in the world
(chs. 18, 38). The key is not to begin this process at all, or to empty oneself of
it by forgetting such distinctions and returning to the unity with dao, living
out of a sense of its presence and its power, called de.

De 德. Chs. 10b; 21a; 23b; 28; 38a, b; 41b; 49; 51a, b; 54b; 55; 59; 60; 63b;
65; 68; 79
In Chinese, de is used as “excellence,” “virtue,” “power,” or “charismatic
force.” So, it is not a good idea to reduce the meaning of de to any one of
these translations exclusively. In what follows, the term is left untranslated,
and this gives the interpreter a chance to place it in context and see the actual
work it is doing in a passage and then translate it. For example, the text says,
To act with no expectation of reward;
To lead without lording over others;
Such is mysterious de (xuande). (10b; 51b)
 DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子 • 55
If one moves in harmony with dao, he will have de. The Daodejing says,
Cultivate dao in your person, and the de you develop will be genuine.
Cultivate dao in your family, and the family’s de will be more than
enough.
Cultivate dao in your village, and the village’s de will long endure.
Cultivate dao in your state, and the state’s de will be abundant.
Cultivate dao throughout the world, and the world’s de will be pervasive.
(54b)

Wu-wei 無為. Chs. 2c; 3c; 10a; 43; 47; 48; 57; 63a; 64b
De is not shown by striving, planning, or training. It is exhibited with a
sort of effortlessness, for which the Daodejing uses the concept wu-wei to
stand for a way of practicing the dao. But the Daodejing says clearly that
people should be active.
Act, but as wu-wei.
Be active, but don’t let your conduct be intentional and deliberative (wu shi). (63a)
Wu-wei is a type of conduct, but it is not an intentional action or an omission
to do something, but it is a way of doing things that is unique to Daoism and
Daoist master sages (shengren): “Therefore, the sage wu-weis things” (ch.
2c). Wu-wei is similar to a kind of natural or spontaneous movement without
deliberation and intention. It comes directly from the storehouse of dao and
its limitless de. The numinosity of wu-wei conduct lies in the fact that it
accords in the situation with an efficacy that can only be attributed to the dao
and could never have been a result of human wisdom, planning, or contri-
vance.
The Daodejing does not say that this efficacy ignores or has no connection
with the virtues we use as distinctions in language. This is not the point of the
text’s thoroughgoing criticism of such discriminations. It means that follow-
ing the demands and rules set up by convention as though they were ends in
themselves, it will only lead to frustration and misery, whereas wu-wei con-
duct from an experience with dao will result in “gaining the world,” and
things will be in harmony. In wu-wei, everything becomes well ordered (ch.
3c).

Emptiness, Stillness, Femininity. Chs. 5c; 6a; 11; 15c; 20; 28; 45; 48; 61
At first, the idea of emptiness sounds mysterious and vague, and it may not
be clear how this idea applies to what we have said about dao, de, and wu-
wei. We may find it odd that emptiness is represented as full of power in
many places in the Daodejing. In its analogies, the Daodejing says it is what
is not there in a wheel that makes it useful and what is removed that makes
56 • DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子
something like a cup, pitcher, or bowl effective. Only by relying on empti-
ness is a door or window what it is (ch. 11). The point is that since human
discriminations and distinctions fill the mind (lit. “heart-mind” xin), we
cannot act naturally, moving along with the dao. So, those who seek the dao
and its de do not desire the fullness of the world’s knowledge, but they want
to make themselves empty of it, to forget it, to set it aside.
We use such discriminations as success and failure, happiness and unhap-
piness, life and death, rich and poor, right and wrong, but all of these distinc-
tions are of our own making. The dao does not have any of these. Emptying
of such distinctions is the context for the puzzling statement that perfected
rulers “make sure that the people are without knowledge or desires; and that
those with knowledge do not act” (ch. 3b). Emptiness means one reverts to a
natural state. The Daoist adept becomes like uncarved wood that has not been
tampered with, bent, or shaped (compare with Zhuangzi, ch. 9).
Being empty likewise indicates a disposition of receptivity. Just as a bowl
is ready to receive, so is the adept that seeks the presence of dao. Such a one
wants to receive dao and its de. This explains the association of emptiness
with the feminine. The Daodejing makes an explicit analogical connection
between emptiness, the valley, and the female:
Know the male but preserve the female
And be a ravine for all the world.
If you are ravine for all the world, constant de will never leave you. (ch. 28)
In sexual relations, the female receives. In the spirituality of the Daodejing,
the person who becomes receptive to the presence of dao will have its con-
stant de. To the would-be follower of the dao, Daodejing 10 asks, “Opening
and closing Heaven’s gate, Can you play the part of the female?”
When the text speaks of opening and closing Heaven’s gate it is describing
entering into a state of spiritual awareness. Masters of the dao engaged in this
experience on an individual level through quietude, stillness, and meditation.
They also entered this state through ritual action.

Correlativity. Chs. 1; 2a, b, c; 22a, b; 29a, b; 30; 42a; 44; 48; 56a; 63b, c; 77,
81
The masters who were the sources of the Daodejing materials always
moved their students away from the obsession of being fixated on opposites
so common when thinking in terms of human discriminations. They did this
by shifting the conception away from contradictions to correlations, making
use of the Chinese cosmological ideas of yin and yang. The text says, “The
myriad creatures shoulder yin and embrace yang; and by blending these qi
they attain harmony” (ch. 42a). This statement is the only explicit mention of
 DAODEJING 道德經, AKA THE LAOZI 老子 • 57
yin and yang in the Daodejing; however, the theme of correlation is promi-
nent in many places throughout the text, as it warns against fixating on one
distinction rather than another:
Everyone in the world knows that when the beautiful is obsessed with
beauty, it is ugly.
Everyone in the world knows that when the good is obsessed with good, it
is not good. (ch. 2)
In correlational thinking, each contributes to the other, and the way is found
in the harmony and balance of both. One should never be only aggressive or
competitive; sometimes one should be passive and compliant. No male
should be without some female traits and vice versa. Not even beauty should
strive to be only beauty because in this striving, it will destroy itself. Corre-
lativity in the Daodejing often functions as a criticism of human distinctions
and judgments. To have and to lack generate one another. Difficult and easy
give form to one another. The noble and the lowly give content to one
another. Likewise, sometimes one leads, and sometimes one follows. Some-
times one is strong and sometimes weak (chs. 2b; 29b). Not everything that
people call a gain is a gain, and not all losses are losses (ch. 44).
The Daodejing is not saying that an injury is not an injury, or that suffering
is an illusion and unreal. It is saying that an injury is already moving toward
health while it is still an injury. The correlative working of dao cannot be
figured out by reason. Our plans and ways, human contrivances, and “how-
to” tactics, instead of bringing balance and harmony, will actually lead us
into imbalance and greater disharmony. This is why chapter 56 says the
following:
Those who know do not talk about it [dao].
Those who talk about it [dao] do not know.
[Dao] blocks the openings;
Shuts the gates;
Blunts the sharpness;
Untangles the knots;
Softens the glare;
Merges with the dust;
Brings wheels into the same track;
This is known as profound unity (xuan tong). (ch. 56a)
If we think that life’s occurrences seem unfair (a human discrimination), we
should remember that Heaven’s net (tian wang) misses nothing, it leaves
nothing undone (ch. 73). The Daodejing calls this correlative work of dao a
deep mystery. “Within this mystery is yet a deeper mystery (xuan zhi you
xuan 玄之又玄). The gate of all mysteries!” (ch. 1):
Those who are crooked will be perfected.
Those who are bent will be straight.
58 • DAOFA HUIYUAN 道法會元
Those who are empty will be full.
Those who are worn will be renewed.
Those who have little will gain.
Those who have plenty will be confounded. (ch. 22)

Sage. Chs. 2c; 3a, b, c; 5b; 7; 10a; 12; 15a; 16b; 19b; 20 (1st person); 22b; 27;
28; 29b; 37; 46b; 47; 49; 51b; 55; 60; 63c; 64b; 66; 67 (1st person); 70 (1st
person); 71; 72; 73; 76; 77; 79; 81
Sages practice emptiness (ch. 11). They preserve the female (ch. 28). They
shoulder yin and embrace yang, concentrate their internal energy qi, and
thereby attain harmony (he) (ch. 42a). They live naturally and free from
desires, recognitions, and standards given in the distinctions created by hu-
mans (ch. 37). They settle themselves down and know how to be content (ch.
46b). As we have seen, the Daodejing warns those who would try to do
something with the world that they will fail. They will actually ruin it (ch.
29a). Instead of forcing their will on life, sages are yin, pliable, and supple,
not rigid and resistive (ch. 76). Sages act with no expectation of reward (chs.
2c, 51b). They put themselves last and yet come first (ch. 7). They never
make a display of themselves (chs. 22b, 24, 72). They do not brag or boast
(chs. 22b, 24), and they do not linger to receive praise after their work is
done (ch. 77). They manifest plainness and embrace simplicity, never think-
ing only of themselves (ch. 19b). They take the people’s hearts as their own
(ch. 49), and they are good at saving the people (ch. 27). They embody dao in
practice, they have longevity of life (ch. 16b), and they create peace (ch. 32).
Sages cause no injury (ch. 60). Heaven (tian 天) protects the sage, and the
sage becomes invincible (ch. 67).

DAOFA HUIYUAN 道法會元. See CORPUS OF DAOIST RITUAL, DAO-

FA HUIYUAN 道法會元.

DAOGU 道姑. See WOMEN IN DAOISM.

DAOISM AND BUDDHISM. Beginning with the time it entered China in

the 1st century, Daoism and Buddhism jostled for dominance and struggled
to understand one another’s teachings and practices. They constantly affected
one another in a complex pattern of exchanges. They borrowed ideas from
one another. They used vocabularies from one system to translate concepts
from another, and they contended for resources and recognition from imperi-
al governments.
 DAOISM AND BUDDHISM • 59
By the 4th century, there is clear evidence of the absorption of Buddhist
material into the Highest Clarity (Shangqing) writings. Numinous Treas-
ure (Lingbao) lineage texts also often recast Buddhist ideas and practices to
fit the Chinese Daoist context. What is less well known is that some Buddhist
texts show an awareness of these Daoist borrowings (see Sutra on Protecting
Life, T. 2866).
Even a cursory study reveals that both traditions practice quietude and
meditation as a form of spiritual disclosure. The Daoist concept of action and
response (ganying) derived from the Book of the Masters of Huainan and
employed in texts of the Way of the Celestial Masters and in Ge Hong, is
quite similar to the Buddhist notion of karma, although there are subtle
differences.
Debates about which of these philosophical systems contributed most to
human flourishing and even to the stability and success of Chinese imperial
governments often took place within official courts, especially during the
Tang dynasty (618–907). The notorious Classic of the Conversion of the
Barbarians is only one of the most obvious examples of the polemical con-
flicts between these two systems. In fact, state support given to the develop-
ment of an authorized canon of texts was an effort to ensure against the
corruption of subversive, ill-formed, and flagrant incendiary ideas from both
sides. Even so, every major persecution of Buddhism—in 446 under the
northern Wei, in 574 under the northern Zhou, and in 845 under the Tang—
are all at least partly traceable to its rivalry with Daoism.
Social structures of communities created by these two traditions have un-
deniable contrasts. Buddhism never accepted a noncelibate clergy, although
the Orthodox Unity lineage did. Even so, the Complete Perfection (Quan-
zhen) Daoist lineage developed monastic institutions for both men and wom-
en similar to those found in Buddhism. In everyday life, all Chinese faced the
quandary of death, and Buddhism’s well-developed doctrines of the afterlife
meant that many funerals employed Buddhist priests, even if some daoshi
also presided. Such popular texts as the Classic of the Ten Kings of Hell
(Diyu shiwang jing) made room for the Daoist God of Taishan as part of the
bureaucracy of the afterlife.
Nevertheless, by the 6th century, Buddhist thinkers characterized Daoism
as subordinate because it was too “worldly” or “this-worldly.” Interestingly,
out of this type of criticism emerged Chan Buddhism, with its deep connec-
tions to such Daoist practices as “sitting in forgetfulness” (zuowang). A
Daoist work entitled In Search of the Sacred (Soushen ji, CT 1476), included
within the supplement to the Daoist Canon, includes Buddhist cults as popu-
lar forms of practice without criticism or reformulation. The inner alchemy
(neidan) work Secret of the Golden Flower (Taiyi jinhua zongzhi) may be
characterized as a hybrid text, blending Buddhism and Daoism.
60 • DAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM
DAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM. In China, Daoism and Confucianism
are often characterized at the yin and yang of the Chinese people. Daoism is
said to be more reserved, practicing stillness, moving in wu-wei, and seeking
ziran. Confucianism is likened to activism, control, shaping humanity and
government by learning, education, and vigorous effort; however, the rela-
tionship of early Confucianism and Daoism was more complicated than is
sometimes imagined. Some interpreters have imagined that Daoism was a
reaction to or even criticism of Confucianism. Confucianism is typically
characterized as a literati tradition, whereas Daoism is associated with the
popular and uneducated. Confucians held official positions in the imperial
courts of China, whereas Daoists were mountain recluses. A more accurate
appraisal requires moving away such simplistic dualistic characterizations.
Even the most ordinary assumption that Confucianism was founded by
Confucius and Daoism by Laozi is, at best, only partly true and probably
mostly in error. Confucius characterized his own role as a “transmitter” not
an inventor. Laozi may not be a historical figure at all, but even if he was a
teacher whose views came into the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, a straightfor-
ward reading of the Zhuangzi leaves no doubt that he was one among many,
even if perhaps first among them. If the traditions about the Jixia Academy
are accurate, then Zhuang Zhou may have been at that ancient school as a
teacher at the same time, or very near to the time, that Confucian scholar
Mencius (Mengzi, 372–289 BCE) (known as the “Second Sage”) was also
there. Moreover, Confucian thinker Xunzi (?310–?235 BCE) was actually
the libationer (jijiu) of the school, perhaps not long after Zhuang Zhou’s
tenure there. But this is not to say that they all thought alike. Some of the
most serious conflicts arising from differences of teaching and practice were
present during the classical period, before the time of the Huainan academy
(160s–130s BCE). Generally speaking, these may be roughly summarized in
the following way:

1. The Dao in Daoism is not rational or logical, nor is it said to move by

Principles or natural laws. Dao is not a being, has no will and possesses
no mind by which to form intentions to operate in such a way as to
achieve its purposes. While Daoists think that the natural course of
dao’s movement will lead to the best, Confucians believe that educa-
tion and learning are required to alter the natural course of things. In
Confucianism, humans should tamper with nature, change it, direct it,
and redirect it to higher ends and purposes. While this view may be
more obvious in Xunzi, we cannot say that it is absent from Mencius.
His use of agricultural metaphors, according to which we are born,
with natural dispositions that are like the seeds to our moral develop-
ment, leaves no doubt that the rites and education were necessary to
cultivate these inborn seeds to become an exemplary person (junzi);
 DAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM • 61
however, both the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi contain passages that
teach that moral rites and education are enemies of the person’s ability
to unify with dao.
2. Daoist writings in the pre-Huainan texts teach that creating and em-
ploying such moral and social concepts as the cardinal Confucian vir-
tues of humaneness (ren) and appropriateness (yi) get in the way of the
practice of stillness and quietude, which lead to the clarity of wu-wei.
Any willful human intervention and tampering with dao’s processes
will ruin the harmony of the natural transformation process of dao. As
the Daodejing says, “Those who try to grasp the world and do some-
thing with it will lose it” (ch. 29); however, Confucians valorize the
human creation of culture, morality, and the rites.
3. Daoism of this early period stresses wu-wei as a kind of spontaneous
natural action that moves along with dao. Confucians want us to
change the world and be proactive—that is, to act intentionally and
deliberately to set things straight. Confucius admonishes his disciples
to make something out of themselves, to cultivate themselves by carv-
ing themselves like fine jade. But Daoist texts admonish the Perfected
Person (zhenren) to be like uncarved wood, a newborn infant, or flow-
ing water.
4. Arguably, it may be said that generally speaking, classical Daoism
focused on the individual, while Confucianism looked to society, fami-
ly, and interrelationships. Following the teachings of Daoism in the
ways recommended in the classical texts seems to have been possible
in a solitary way, without a community or society of supporting believ-
ers. Daoists moved into the mountains, left the towns and cities, and
found their own way to oneness with dao while alone or with only a
small group of fellow seekers. But in Confucianism, self-cultivation
and the elevation of humanity to a new level embodied in the ideal of
the junzi is realized in relationships. In fact, relationships are necessary
to the achievement of this ideal.
5. In Daoism, the person who wants to know the dao by experience is
basically told not to rely on rationality and argument, to follow no
school of thought, and to open oneself in stillness and “sitting in for-
getfulness.” Confucians placed great value on study, working to
“solve” problems and create policies and political strategies. For a
Daoist, the very thought that some context in life is a “problem,” that
life is sometimes “knotted,” is an understanding that must be emptied
from our minds. As the Daodejing says, “The dao untangles the knots
and turns down the glare” (ch. 56). Dao accomplishes this by itself. It
does not need the help of human contrivance. But in Confucianism,
training, learning, and cultivating the craftsmanship of leadership and
problem solving is absolutely essential to the advancement of each
62 • DAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM
human and humanity writ large. Many analects, especially those found
in the sections on teachings to students by topic, give ample evidence
that untangling life’s knots cannot be done without effort, strategy, and
even political machination.
6. Daoists stressed that humans are embedded in nature and may learn
from and be made whole by nature. Daoists stress that human life takes
place in a natural reality that is not coextensive with human interests or
civilization. In Confucianism, nature has its patterns and movement,
but these are subsumed under the more powerful and promising role of
human reason. Civilization and culture are the blossoms on nature’s
tree, the fruition and highest expression of humankind’s transcendence
of natural bonds, and even supremacy over nature.
7. The ideal person in Confucianism as a junzi is a father or mother who
is much honored or perhaps a ruler and leader. The junzi is known for
generosity and devotion to the rites and traditions, but he is always one
who is learned and cultured. The ideal person in Daoism (zhenren) is
the one who “rides on the clouds,” does not feel the heat of fire or the
cold of the river, and is unaffected by the twists and turns of life. The
Daoist avoids leadership entirely or leads only in wu-wei, eschews the
social and moral expectations placed on him, and moves with the flow
of the dao.

The syncretistic Yellow Emperor-Laozi (Huang-Lao) teachings associated

with Daoism contribute to our understanding of the dynamics between these
two intellectual traditions during the period immediately preceding and in-
cluding the ascendancy of Confucianism as the philosophical currency of the
empire. The texts blocks associated with this lineage in the Zhuangzi present
Confucius in several ways, sometimes as a teacher of Daoism and sometimes
as a student of it. There are actually 35 passages in which Confucius is a
character in the Zhuangzi, but he is presented in various lights positively and
negatively (see Littlejohn 2010). The Book of the Masters of Huainan (Hu-
ainanzi) makes it clear that such Confucian virtues as benevolence (ren) and
appropriateness (yi) are compatible with wu-wei and even expressions of it.
Many Daoist thinkers, from the time of the Later Han dynasty onward,
were well-educated and often studied and succeeded within the Confucian
civil service examination system used to screen and train governmental offi-
cials. Some of them held governmental offices. Clearly, some forms of
Daoist practice were not viewed as contradictory to Confucian teachings or
even service in government ministries. Indeed, according to Ge Hong’s work
Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan), Zhang Daoling was a
Confucian-trained official, and the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi
Dao) Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi (Laozi Xiang’er zhu) valorizes
Confucius and the virtues he taught.
 DAOIST CANON, DAOZANG 道藏 • 63
The Mysterious Learning (Xuanxue) philosophical dispositions shown in
Wang Bi (226–249) and Guo Xiang (?252–312) drew heavily from Confu-
cian teachings and sources. A kind of Confucian renaissance occurred in the
11th century when Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073) used the Daoist “Diagram of
the Great Ultimate” (Taiji tu) in very novel and foundationally Confucian
ways. Daoism wound itself around and together with Confucianism and Bud-
dhism in many new ways to create what came to be called the “Three
Teachings” (sanjiao). Later, the Confucian scholar and master of the White
Deer Grotto Academy, Zhu Xi (1130–1200), made use of Daoist cosmology
and metaphysics to create Neo-Confucianism as a movement.
During the Qing dynasty, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735–1796) promoted
the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism as the state religion (Esposito
2004). But the philosophical system dominating under the Qianlong emperor
was Neo-Confucianism, and it was endorsed as the basis of the official exam
system, much as Tang emperors Gaozang and Xuanzong had done for
Daoism. Daoist practitioners were increasingly marginalized, and the number
of daoshi declined. Their official involvement in Chinese political and elite
society greatly diminished. Daoshi status was lowered, deterring many of the
best and brightest from seeking out a daoshi master to follow and from
whom to learn the arts of transformation; however, this decline in sanctioned
daoshi paralleled an increase in the number of daoshi practitioners closer to
the grassroots and ordinary life of the people.

DAOIST CANON, DAOZANG 道藏. This is the popular name for the
Zhengtong daozang 正統道藏, Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Reign Peri-
od, dating to 1445. It is the most essential source of texts for research in the
field of Daoist studies. There were collections of Daoist texts prior to this one
made in the Ming period. Likewise, there have been supplements to this
canon and collections made by selecting various texts from it to create more
focused compendia. There is not yet a fully definitive study of the Daoist
Canon and its history. Most scholars rely on a text generally thought to be
traceable to the editors of the canon entitled Historical Survey of the Revered
Classics of the Daoist Canon (Daozang zunjing lidai gangmu, appended to
CT 1430).
The story of what became the Ming canon begins with Lu Xiujing’s
(406–477) collection of the Lingbao writings in 437. He then submitted a
catalog grouped into Three Caverns (Sandong) to the Song emperor, Ming-
di (r. 465–472), in 471. An effort to make a complete collection of Daoist
writings was undertaken by Shi Chongxuan (?–713) during the Tang dynas-
ty. The first Daoist canon to be printed was done in Fuzhou, Fujian province,
in 1119, under Song Huizong (r. 1100–1125). Further complications contin-
ued.
64 • DAOIST MASTER, DAOSHI
A decree issued in 1406, by the Ming dynasty Yongle emperor (r.
1403–1424), commissioned the 43rd Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu
(1361–1410) to gather Daoist texts and submit them to the imperial staff so
that wood blocks could be cut for printing them. The work was completed by
1445.
Copies of the canon were presented to major Daoist abbeys (guan) and
shrines (miao), notably the Palace of Highest Clarity (Shangqing gong) on
Longhu mountain (Longhushan), the Palace of the Original Tally (Yuanfu
gong), and Maoshan. A stele inscription dating to 1447 marks the receipt of
the collection at White Cloud Abbey (Baiyun guan) in Beijing.
It is estimated that more than 74,000 blocks were cut to print the 1445
canon. This canon is the successor to the earlier Precious Canon of the
Mysterious Metropolis (Xuandu baozang), completed in 1244. The canon
contains an index of about 1,400 titles as Index of the Classics of the Daoist
Canon of the Great Ming (Daozang jing mulu, CT 1431). The contents are
presented within seven units known as the Three Caverns (sandong) and four
supplements. The major sections, or caverns, are the Cavern of Perfection
(Dongzhen), Cavern of Mystery (Dongxuan), and Cavern of Spirit (Dongsh-
en). Each of the three caverns is divided into 12 units. The four supplements
are texts associated with “Great Mystery” (Taixuan), “Great Peace” (Taip-
ing), “Great Clarity” (Taiqing), and “Orthodox Unity” (Zhengyi).
The first modern edition of the canon was published in Shanghai from
1923–1926, and it was based on the version taken from White Cloud Abbey.
A 60-volume edition was produced in 1977, and others have followed, for
example, the 49-volume installment published in 2003. The Taoist Canon: A
Historical Companion to the Daozang, published in 2004 and edited by
Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, is a comprehensive guide to the
canon, including abstracts on the contents of the texts.

DAOIST MASTER, DAOSHI 道士, DAOIST PRIEST, MASTER OF

THE DAO. Since the 6th century, Daoist organizations have used the term
daoshi to denote an ordained cleric or master who performs rituals of all
sorts. Prior to the 6th century, the term was used more generally for a teacher
of Daoism. The term is also used in the broader community for a person who
is a professional Daoist practitioner. Within various lineages, a person so
designated will have demonstrated the mastery of specific knowledge and
practices carrying efficacy for individuals and the world. A daoshi is author-
ized to employ this knowledge for the benefit of the community. There is no
known complete picture of the roles and functions of daoshi throughout
history. Individual daoshi may vary dramatically in the ideals, practices, and
institutions they espouse.
 DAOIST MASTER, DAOSHI • 65
The earliest attested use of the term is in Han dynasty texts. In these it is
often an alternative appellation for what the Zhuangzi calls the Perfected
Person (zhenren). In some contexts, the term is used for people with uncom-
mon abilities almost as a synonym for a master of techniques (fangshi).
From the early days of the Way of the Celestial Masters movement (Tian-
shi dao), leaders in the community were ranked hierarchically with such
terms as libationer (jijiu) rather than the more general “daoshi.” During the
Tang dynasty, women were ordained as daoshi (Despeux and Kohn, 2003;
Kirkland 2004). Women continue, even in the contemporary period, to lead
Quanzhen liturgies, with the numbers comparable to the numbers of men.
As Buddhist rankings of teachers, abbots, and monks became more widely
known in the culture, Daoists began to standardize their own master ranks.
One such effort from the late Six Dynasties period is Classic on the Causes
of Becoming a Renunciant (Chujia yinyuan jing, CT 339). In this text and
those that followed, the daoshi are distinguished from such lower functionar-
ies as ritual masters (fashi) and disciples (dizi). Many daoshi from the time of
the Tang until the Ming were highly educated and composed both scholarly
and literary works. But since the Qing period, the numbers of literati daoshi
have declined.

DAOSHI 道士. See DAOIST MASTER, DAOSHI 道士, DAOIST PRIEST,

MASTER OF THE DAO.

DAOXUE ZHUAN 道學傳. See BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE WHO STUD-

IED THE DAO, DAOXUE ZHUAN 道學傳.

DAOYIN 導引 GYMNASTICS, GUIDING AND PULLING. “Guiding

and pulling” is a set of gymnastic techniques designed to allow qi to circulate
properly, heal diseases, forestall old-age, and give nourishing life (yang-
sheng). The exercises are performed in reclining, sitting, and upright posi-
tions. They are typically combined with breathing control (fuqi), abstention
from cereals (bigu), visualization, and massage. The term daoyin first ap-
pears in the Zhuangzi, where the movements of this practice are associated
with the imitation of such animals as the snake, crane, dragon, and tiger.
The earliest depiction of daoyin exercises appears in a Mawangdui manu-
script and is entitled Drawings of Daoyin (Daoyin tu, see Harper 1999). The
manuscript contains illustrations of 44 movements. The Inner Classic of the
Yellow Emperor (Huangdi neijing) from the Han period is also cited for the
view that daoyin is to be understood as a therapeutic technique essential to
nourishing life (yangsheng).
66 • DAOZANG 道藏
The single most important early source for this form of exercise is the
Treatise on the Origin and Symptoms of Diseases (Zhu bing yuan hou lun).
Only one source in the Daoist Canon contains an extensive treatment of the
subject: Classic on Nourishing Life through Daoyin (Daoyin yangsheng jing,
CT 818). The earliest attempt to codify a set of movements is called the “Five
Animals Pattern” (wuqin xi), attributed to Hua Tuo (142–219). A competing
set of movements known as the “Eight Brocades” (baduan jin) is described
by Hong Mai (1123–1202). An extension of these techniques, developed into
the “Twelve Brocades” (shi’er duan jin), shows up in 16th-century works.
Less well-known and established versions of daoyin include those based
on the seasons of the year, usually numbered as 24 movements. Such a
version of the practice is associated with Chen Tuan (c. 920–989). Other
methodologies, for example, that described in Lu Zhigang’s Ming dynasty
work Essentials of the Process for Obtaining a Smooth Body (Jinshen jiyao),
divide exercises by gender, having three sets of 12 so-called dragon move-
ments for one gender and 12 tiger movements for the other, along with 12
positions for uniting dragon and tiger.

DAOZANG 道藏. See DAOIST CANON, DAOZANG 道藏.

DAOZANG JIYAO 道藏輯要, ESSENTIALS OF THE DAOIST CANON.

This work is the most important collection of Daoist writings after the Daoist
Canon itself (Daozang). Its first edition was made in about 1700, by Peng
Dingqui (1645–1719). That edition was expanded to its present number of
173 texts. This volume contains an index and table of works, which is partic-
ularly helpful to the study of inner alchemy for women (nudan). In general,
the work is divided into 28 major sections, with subsections in each. The
subsections are sometimes grouped by author’s name, lineage (e.g., Quan-
zhen patriarchs), or type of work (e.g., Commentaries on the Daodejing, or
Commentaries on Zhuangzi). The work survives in an edition dating to
1906.

DAOZHANG 道長. A daozhang is an ordained daoshi who is qualified to

perform zhai and jiao rituals as the chief officiant. While a daozhang may
perform minor rites and ceremonies for clients in their own homes or tempo-
rary spaces, a major ritual will require the formation of a troupe of other
daoshi and musicians. The daozhang then functions as the high officiant
(gaogong daoshi). Only he will have knowledge of the secret instructions
(mijue) necessary for the efficacy of the rite. He will prepare the documents
required for the ritual, lead the chanting, and perform the transformative
dances and recitations that will enable him to visualize and communicate
with numinal beings.
 DENGZHEN YINJUE 登真隱訣 • 67
DE 德, VIRTUE, POWER. The concept of de is central to classical Chinese
philosophical traditions in general, and it occurs in the title of the most
fundamental text of Daoism: the Daodejing. De was connected to the charis-
ma of the ruler and demonstrated in his generosity, humility, and sobering
presence. In Book Two of the Analects (Lunyu), governing by de is com-
pared to being fixed as the pole star, around which all the lesser stars revolve.
In the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, de is displayed when the adept has emp-
tied himself of the discriminations of socialization and conventionalism of
human culture and moves in wu-wei. It may be thought of in this way: An
archer has two arrows. One is fired at the target but misses. The other is
launched and finds the bullseye. In ancient Chinese belief, it is the second
arrow that possesses de. Zhuangzi, chapter 21, has Confucius observe that
Laozi’s de is equal to the power of Heaven and Earth, because he moves in
life along with Dao, just as water flows naturally.

DECLARATIONS OF THE PERFECTED, ZHENGAO 真誥. This text

was compiled probably between 492 and 499, by Tao Hongjing on Mao-
shan (Mt. Mao). It represents a collection of Shangqing lineage revealed
materials and fragmentary teachings derived from Yang Xi (330–386), Xu
Mai (300–348), and Xu Mi (303–376). It is preserved in the Daoist Canon
(CT 1016) as seven pian (sections) and 20 juan (scrolls). The work is divided
into 20 chapters, the first 16 of which contain revelations given to Yang Xi
by perfected beings from the Shangqing heavens. While the Hidden Instruc-
tions for the Ascent to Perfection (Dengzhen yinjue, CT 421) was specifical-
ly addressed to Shangqing practitioners and adepts, the Declarations of the
Perfected was compiled for a wide audience of general inquirers. The materi-
als report the details of the revelations that came to Yang Xi and contain the
instructions given to him by numinal beings.
Other sections of the work recount the answers given by spirit beings to
questions from Yang and the Xus. Tao Hongjing also contributes materials in
which he comments on other circulating Shangqing texts and offers judg-
ments as to their legitimacy and value. Tao includes revelations attributed to
the Shangqing immortal (xian) Peijun (Lord Pei), who was a disciple of the
legendary Master Red Pine (Chisong zi). The text preserves a number of
wonder tales and recipes for elixirs. One of these is the description of a
method for making a numinal sword used to obtain “disappearance of the
corpse” (shijie).

DENGZHEN YINJUE 登真隱訣. See HIDDEN INSTRUCTIONS FOR

THE ASCENT TO PERFECTION, DENGZHEN YINJUE 登真隱訣.
68 • DIAGRAM OF THE GREAT ULTIMATE, TAIJI TU 太極圖
DIAGRAM OF THE GREAT ULTIMATE, TAIJI TU 太極圖. The Dia-
gram of the Great Ultimate in Chinese intellectual history is routinely asso-
ciated with Neo-Confucianism and the work Explanation of the Diagram of
the Great Ultimate by Zhou Dunyi (1017–1073); however, it seems clear that
this diagram originated in Daoist circles, not Confucian ones. It was related
to the works Diagram of the Numinal World (Xiantian tu) and the growing
use of the concept wuji (Infinite) by Daoists. The Taiji tu, derived from the
Daoist Wuji tu (Diagram of the Infinite), was transmitted by Chen Tuan (c.
920–989) in 971.
In Daoist texts the taiji tu has variant forms, meant to capture the last
stages of the precosmic genesis of the Great Infinity (Ultimate) that lay at the
origin of the universe. The term taiji comes from a way of referring to the
ridgepole of a building or structure. By extension, in a philosophical sense, it
means the principle or power that supports the universe. The Supreme Ulti-
mate is not a static thing or being, but the active, creative force and energy of
the universe.

DINGLU 鼎爐. See TRIPOD AND FURNACE, DINGLU 鼎爐.

DIRECTOR OF DESTINIES, SIMING 司命. The use of the name Siming

is quite ancient. It occurs in an inscription on a bronze utensil dating to the
6th century BCE. In Daoism, Siming is mentioned in the Zhuangzi (ch. 18),
where he is the numinal spirit that controls the longevity and fortunes of
human beings, including their transformations. Two poems from the Chuci
(Songs of Chu), known to be an early intellectual influence on Daoist mas-
ters, are devoted to Siming. Siming was used as the name of a celestial body
in the astronomical chapter of the Records of the Historian (Shiji 3.342).
Some lineages considered the Northern Dipper (Big Dipper, beidou) to be
the power symbolized by the name Siming or the Director of Destinies.
In Chinese popular religious beliefs, the Stove God (Zaoshen) was
thought to ascend into the numinal world at the end of each year and report to
Siming on the moral behavior of the members of the household. The fortunes
of the family and the longevity of its members would be adjusted according
to this report. By the time of the Tang dynasty, the belief simplified to
identify the Stove God and Siming.

DISAPPEARANCE IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, BAIRI SHENGTIAN 白

日昇天. To “disappear in broad daylight” may better be understood as “as-
cending to Heaven in broad daylight.” This expression is used for the highest
type of human transcendent (immortal, xian), because this person has at-
tained such a refinement of their physical form that it becomes luminous and
ascends, or simply vanishes. It is a more refined type of transcendence than
 DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CORPSE, SHIJIE 尸解 • 69
shijie, or “disappearance of the corpse.” The Daojiao yishu (Pivotal Mean-
ing of Daoist Teachings), written in c. 700, describes shijie as the second of
three types of transformations an adept may undergo, and these are related to
Ge Hong’s three types of immortals (xian). The first among these is “ascend-
ing to Heaven in broad daylight.”

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CORPSE, SHIJIE 尸解. Daoist understand-

ings of death are conflicting, diverse, and often obscure. While early texts
like Zhuangzi seem to make it clear that death is a transformation of some
sort and that it cannot be avoided, it is also clear that during the Qin and Han,
various practitioners taught that there were ways to not die (busi). Then, by
the time of the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals (Liexian zhuan), com-
piled before 6 BCE, there were accounts of superlative Daoists escaping
death. In these hagiographies, some individuals “disappear in broad day-
light” (bairi shengtian) or vanish completely, leaving no trace, as did the
Yellow Emperor (Huangdi). But another type of survival of death was de-
scribed by the term shijie, often rendered as “liberation from the corpse” or
“deliverance from the corpse,” but probably, by a measure of how the term is
used, the translation should be “corpse disappearance.”
We are not sure whether accounts of people who melt away in entirety in
some numinal transformation (xingjie xiaohua), as is mentioned in the
Records of the Historian (Shiji, 28, 1368–1369) are meant to be examples of
shijie, but there are definite resemblances. The interpretation of this concept
is made all the more complicated by confusing accounts of individuals who
do not melt away their bodies but transform them into something else. For
example, it is reported of Ye Fashan that at the age of 106, he ingested a
divine elixir and transformed his corpse into a sword. A numinal chariot
appeared and took him up in a column of azure rising smoke reaching to the
heavens (see “Biography of Zhenren Ye,” Tang Ye zhenren zhuan, CT 779).
A year later, his coffins (inner and outer) opened by themselves, and only his
clothing, cap, shoes, and the sword remained.
There are many other accounts of shijie in Daoism, and almost all report
only relics being left behind (see, for example, those of female daoshi
Huang Lingwei [c. 640–721] and the Shangqing patriarch Sima Chengzhen
[647–735]). The connection between these tales of the remainders of a per-
son’s effects being left behind and shijie does not actually mean that the
point of the story is that the corpse was changed into the objects found in the
coffin. Sometimes the corpse is buried clothed, but upon later inspection the
corpse is gone and only the clothes remain. The point is the disappearance of
the corpse.
In the most ancient accounts of shijie, Wang Chong (27–c. 100) uses the
analogy to cicada metamorphosis for the process. Understood in this way, the
adept’s ultimate transformation into an immortal (xian) may be compared to
70 • DIVINE EMPYREAN DAOISM, SHENXIAO 神霄
a cicada nymph molting its exoskeleton and leaving behind an exuvia. Ge
Hong (283–343) uses the term chantui (蟬蛻), which means “cicada re-
mains,” to describe Cai Jing’s corpse after three days, when only his outer
skin was left, intact from head to foot, like cicada remains.
Robert Campany reports a possible method of practicing shijie according
to which a document is addressed to the numinal beings who oversee the
years allotted to people. In the document, the person reports his own death,
with quite a lot of detail about names, birthplace, relatives, and the like. Once
this is sent into the numinal world (by burning), a burial is arranged, with
some object substituted for the person in the coffin. The person then leaves
the village and travels elsewhere, using a new name. He can never die be-
cause the gods do not know of his existence, and the heavenly registers are
already cleared of his “previous” identity (Campany 2002)

DIVINE EMPYREAN DAOISM, SHENXIAO 神霄. Shenxiao means

“Supreme Divine Empyrean.” It is a movement with close affiliations to
Daoism that arose during the Song dynasty (960–1279) and was later ab-
sorbed into the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) lineage in about
1300. Key daoshi in this movement were advisors in the Song dynasty court.
They were able to merge elements of the three main Daoist traditions of the
Way of the Celestial Masters, Shangqing, and Lingbao with features and
practices of popular religion. One of Shenxiao’s principal masters was Lin
Lingsu (1076–1120). Lin’s close association with Song Huizong (r.
1100–1125) gained considerable imperial patronage for the movement.
Shenxiao masters practiced the Thunder Rites (leifa) of popular religion
and touted these rituals and their own powers as ways to save the Song
dynasty from its Jurchen enemies. Veneration of the plague-quelling deity
Wen Qiong (Marshall Wen), known for his ability to prevent or stop out-
breaks of disease, was also included in rituals and liturgies performed by
those of Shenxiao training. They performed rites more typical of masters of
techniques (fangshi) and spirit mediums (jitong). Its practitioners seem not
to have undergone ordination within any Daoist major lineage.

DONGFANG SHUO 東方朔 (?160–?93 BCE). The ruler Han Wudi (r.
141–87 BCE) summoned scholars throughout the empire to assist him in
governing the state, and, in 138 BCE, Dongfang Shuo was recruited. His
outlandish and strange behavior won him the nickname “Buffon” (guji), and
he was known as the “recluse at court” (chaoyin). Nevertheless, he served for
a period of time as the Superior Grand Master of the Palace (Taizhong dafu)
but later fell into disgrace. A number of hagiographies made his life the
subject of legendary and fantastical tales. Some accounts speak of him as a
“banished immortal” (zhexian), crediting him with supernatural powers, a
 DONGYUE MIAO 东岳庙 • 71
number of successive identities throughout time, and a miraculous birth. The
text Inner Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han (Han Wudi neizhuan) tells
how he stole the peaches of immortality from the Queen Mother of the
West and traveled to Penglai and other blessed places (fudi).

DONGTIAN 洞天. See GROTTO-HEAVENS AND FUDI 福地 BLESSED

PLACES.

DONGYUAN SHENZHOU JING 洞渊神咒經. See CLASSIC OF THE DI-

VINE SPELLS OF THE CAVERNOUS ABYSS, DONGYUAN SHENZHOU
JING 洞渊神咒經.

DONGYUE MIAO 东岳庙. Dongyue miao may be translated as Eastern

Peak Shrine, and there are numerous such shrines (miao) in China associated
with the god of Mt. Tai (Taishan), the eastern mountain of the Five March-
mounts system. Since the god of Taishan is the Lord of the underworld and
the Earth consisting of prisons in which the moral life of every person is
judged, one finds in these temples depictions of the courts of hell and halls
for veneration of the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak (Dongyue dadi).
Some of these shrines have quite elaborate ambulatories, as can be found at
the Dongyue miao in Beijing. In that temple, there are rooms for each of the
judges in the celestial bureaucracy in charge of the moral conduct of all
creatures.
Such shrines have been common throughout China since the 11th century.
There were at least four such miao in Beijing dating from the 1250s. The
most prominent was founded by Zhang Liusun (1248–1322) in about 1319.
From then until 1949, the temple was managed by Orthodox Unity Daoists.
Dongyue dadi was worshipped as a giver of immortality and the master of
the dead and the moral order of the universe. While Buddhists made him one
of the Ten Kings of the Hells, Daoists gave him a role as ruler of the under-
world, who administered the universe through a bureaucracy of officials of
distinction. The principal practices at the temple included praying for ances-
tors, conducting rituals for relatives who were thought to be in the Hells,
offering incense and prayers to the judges of the Hells, and participating in
organized community festivals and theater performances in venues near or on
the shrine grounds.
The cult of the goddess known as the Original Princess of the Jasper Mist
(Bixia yuanjun), known earlier as the Jade Woman of Mt. Tai (Taishan
yunu), who was considered to be the daughter of Dongyue Dadi, was cen-
tered at the Beijing Dongyue miao. From the 16th century onward, yearly
pilgrimages were organized to her, following a route in front of the miao to
Mt. Miaofeng, the place of her veneration (Naquin 1992).
72 • DOOR GODS, MENSHEN 門神
DOOR GODS, MENSHEN 門神. Door Gods are not distinctively Daoist in
any sense. They belong to the general communal and popular religious prac-
tices of the Chinese people. Indeed, sacrifices to a door spirit are mentioned
as early as the Classic of Rites (Liji). But Daoist texts that discuss the panthe-
on of numinal beings typically include them only as low-ranking deities
whose task is to protect the home and family. They are usually displayed on
doors to intimidate powers intent on bringing evil to the family. They appear
as martial heroes, holding weapons and displaying stern looks. In this way,
menshen may be understood as features of one kind of fengshui apotropaic
provision. In fengshui, other such instruments for defending against malevo-
lent spirits and influences are talismans, mirrors, and the taiji symbol.
The best-known legend of the origins of Door God practice is that Tang
emperor Taizong (r. 627–649) was being disturbed by a ghost spirit entering
the palace at night. Two of his soldiers offered to stand guard. As time went
on, two guards were painted on the palace doors to free the human guards to
return to their duties. Julian Pas (1998) calls attention to a large selection of
color representations of Door Gods in The Art of Traditional Chinese New
Year Print (1991).

DRAGON AND TIGER, LONGHU 龍虎. The dragon–tiger pair turns up

in the material culture of China in deep antiquity. It is found in burial sites in
China dating as early as 3000 BCE, where the images (xiang) are formed by
the use of river shells. From the Zhou period onward, these figures were used
as cosmological symbols, roughly corresponding to yin (tiger) and yang
(dragon). The figures are found on lacquer boxes, mirrors, and sarcophagi.
They often occur together with images of the Big Dipper (beidou). In exter-
nal alchemy (waidan), the pair is used to symbolize the essence of the
alchemical work. They are also aligned in parallel respectively to Wood-
Metal, Fire-Water, Mercury and Lead, qi and jing.

DRAGON GATE LINEAGE, LONGMEN 龍門. The most common line-

age shared by ordained daoshi since the Qing dynasty is the Longmen
school, a branch of the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) lineage. The
founding legend of the order goes back to Qiu Chuji (1148–1227), one of
the original Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren) of Quanzhen. The
school’s name is traceable to Dragon Gate mountain (Longmenshan) in
Longzhou district, Western Shanxi, where Qiu Chuji underwent his training.
The history of the movement traces the transmission of its methods from Qiu
down to the Qing dynasty and the seventh-generation Longmen Ordination
Master, Wang Changyue (d. 1680) (Pregadio 2014). A line of patriarchs
associated with the beginnings at Longmen and going down the generations
was created ex post facto to explain this transmission.
 DU GUANGTING 杜光庭 (850–933) • 73
Wang Changyue 王常月 (Kunyang zi 昆陽子) moved from Huashan (Mt.
Hua, Shaanxi province) to Beijing, where he resided first at the Lingyou
guan (Abbey of Numinous Support), but not long thereafter he moved to the
Baiyun guan (White Cloud Abbey). There he gathered followers. After
Wang Changyue’s death, his disciples opened centers and gathered followers
in many different places, forming a large number of small Longmen
branches. In addition to inheriting the doctrines of its mother lineage, Quan-
zhen, the Longmen lineage is also widely known for its inner alchemy
(neidan) teachings. Among its disciples we find many famous authors of
neidan works. With Wang, Quanzhen arose to represent the Daoist legacy of
belief and practice that it enjoyed under the Yuan but lost to the Zhengyi
lineage during the early Ming.

DU GUANGTING 杜光庭 (850–933). Little is known of the life of Du

Guangting. He appears to have received a typical Confucian education suit-
able for preparing to take the civil service examinations and eventually
undertaking a career in government. Unfortunately, he failed the examina-
tions in about 870. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Mt. Tiantai and became a
disciple of Daoism. In 875, he was summoned to Chang’an (Xi’an) and given
an honorary appointment as Drafter of Compositions at Imperial Command.
While his work principally involved writing documents for the emperor, he
also performed Daoist rites for the court. He was associated with the official
Daoist school in the Taiqing gong in the capital. After a period of turmoil in
the empire, he departed for Sichuan in 887. After the fall of the Tang dynas-
ty, he held various offices in the new Shu dynasty government. He died in
933.
Du Guangting was the most prolific writer and compiler of Daoist texts
prior to the year 1000. He wrote liturgical books, providing protocols for
various kinds of rites and rituals. He wrote commentaries on various Daoist
works, as well as texts on history and geography, and various hagiographies.
One of the most famous of these is Records of Grotto-Heavens, Blissful
Lands, Peaks, Rivers, and Famous Mountains (Dongtian fudi yuedu ming-
shan ji, CT 599). Additionally, his text Records of the Immortals Gathered in
the Walled City (Yongcheng jixian lu, CT 783) contains hagiographies of
women only, where the “walled city” (Yongcheng) refers to the residence of
the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) on Mt. Kunlun. The extant
version of this text contains records of people ranging from the mother of
Laozi to the Queen Mother of the West herself.
Du Guangting assembled several collections of miracle stories and other
supernatural phenomena. The largest of these was the Records of the Numi-
nous Efficacy of the Daoist Teaching (Daojiao lingyan ji), compiled in 905.
There are two versions of this work in the Daoist Canon. It exists as an
independent work (CT 590) and in a collection of excerpts in the Seven
74 • DUNHUANG MANUSCRIPTS
Labels from the Bookbag of the Clouds (Yunji qiqian, CT 1032). The latter
work is a major source of information about medieval Daoist beliefs and
what might be called the supernatural, but it also supplies a wealth of materi-
al on Daoist practices, priest, abbeys, and spirit beings.

DUNHUANG MANUSCRIPTS. Dunhuang is the name of a Chinese city in

modern Gansu province. It served as a crossroads for silk roads leading to
and from Central Asia beginning in the time of the Han dynasty. Buddhists
excavated caves in the area and used them for reclusion and religious prac-
tice. Many frescoes and sculptures decorate the grottoes. The Buddhists were
also collectors of texts.
A large cache of manuscripts discovered in Dunhuang is a major source
for the study of Chinese and Asian social history and religion. The chamber
in which they were sealed adjoins one of the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas
(Qianfo dong) on the border of the Gobi Desert. The manuscripts were dis-
covered in the early 20th century by Western explorers, famously Aurel Stein
and Paul Pelliot. They are now preserved in collections of European and
Asian libraries, including the Stein Collection of the British Library and the
Pelliot Collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
The Daoist-related manuscripts from Dunhuang constitute a relatively
small portion of the huge mass of more than 30,000 documents in the collec-
tion. The main group of authentically ancient Daoist writings dates prior to
the 8th century. Two Japanese volumes are currently the major reference
books on these texts: Ofuchi Ninji’s Taoist Classics from Dunhuang (Tonko
kokyo, 1978–1979), which contains photographic reproductions of the manu-
scripts indexed there, and a collection of essays entitled Dunhuang and Chi-
nese Taoism (Tonko to Chugoku Dokyo, 1983).

DURENJING 度人經. See CLASSIC ON SALVATION, DURENJING 度人

經.
 E
EARTH GOD, TUDI GONG 土地公. Shrines (miao) to the Earth God are
the most common religious buildings in China, considering that every
town and village typically has one or more of them. Belief in and venera-
tion of the Earth God is not uniquely, nor even distinctly, Daoist. In the
system of numinal beings characteristic of various Daoist lineages, the
Earth God almost always shows up as a low-ranking power, given author-
ity only over a localized area and bounded by other Earth Gods adjacent
to his jurisdiction; however, a great many Daoist rituals begin with a
prefatory rite calling on the Earth God of the place where the ritual is to
be performed to fulfill his duties and bless and protect the daoshi and the
ritual space (daochang). One such rite is the “Divine Spell for the Pacifi-
cation of the Earth God” (An tudi shenzhou).

EIGHT IMMORTALS, BAXIAN 八仙. The Eight Immortals is a group

composed of semilegendary and semihistorical figures. They make up
only a small group of the large number of immortals (xian) identified in
Chinese history; however, they are certainly among the most recognizable
figures in Chinese religious history. The names of the exact individuals
included in this group have changed throughout time. Literary works have
adopted many different approaches to their depiction. For example, Du
Fu’s (712–770) Song of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup (Yinzhong
baxian ge) is a humorous depiction of their bouts with inebriation. In that
text, their names are given as He Zhizhang, Li Jin, Li Shizhi, Cui Zonzhi,
Su Jin, Li Bai, Zhang Xu, and Jiao Sui. According to the work Extensive
Records of the Taiping Xingguo Reign Period (Taiping guangji), the
names of the “Eight Immortals of Sichuan” are Li Er (i.e., Laozi), Rong
Cheng, Dong Zhongshu, Zhang Daoling, Yan Junping, Li Babai, Fan
Changshou, and Ge Yonggui.
The most famous listing of the Eight Immortals (baxian), and the one
most frequently cited, is traceable into the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) and
became popularized in the Ming dynasty. Those in that group are Han
Zhongli (Zhongli Quan), Zhang Guolao, Han Xiangzi, Li Tieguai, Cao

75
76 • EIGHT TRIGRAMS, BAGUA 八卦
Guojiu, Lu Dongbin, Lan Caihe, and He Xiangu (a title meaning Im-
mortal Maiden He). With the exception of Li Tieguai, the others in this
group have some personal hagiography. Han Zhongli was Zhongli Quan,
and his biography is in the Records of the Correct Lineage of the Golden
Lotus (Jinlian zhengzong ji, CT 173), which also contains the biographies
of the group known as the Quanzhen lineage’s Seven Perfected Persons
(qizhen ren).
The text reports that Zhongli Quan lived for more than 500 years before
gaining immortality. Zhang Guolao was Zhang Guo, a fangshi during the
Han dynasty, and the biography included in the History of the Tang Dy-
nasty tells that he was able to perform a number of magical arts. Han
Xiangzi may have been Han Xiang, the nephew of Tang writer Han Yu.
Cao Guojiu was the younger brother of Empress Cao, wife of Song Ren-
zong (r. 1022–1063). Lu Dongbin was the second Quanzhen patriarch
after Zhongli Quan. Lan Caihe’s story from the Sequel to Biographies of
Immortals (Xu xianzhuan) gives a description of “his” appearance and
leaves “his” gender obscure, and, indeed, in later times “he” was por-
trayed onstage as a woman. Details of He Xiangu may be found in many
places. She obtained immortality by following the instructions of a divine
person who told her to prepare a “powder of mica” (yunmu fen), which,
after ingesting, enabled her not to die.
Why the particular individuals that make up this group were singled out
is not clear. That there are eight of them probably reflects the Chinese
belief that the number eight is auspicious. During the Ming dynasty
(1368–1644), the figures show up in drama, literature, novels, and folk-
tales. Representations of them in art appear virtually everywhere, includ-
ing on porcelain, embroidery, paintings, bronze work, and ivory carvings.
Easily the most famous image (xiang) of the group is the Eight Immortals
Crossing the Ocean, which depicts them on a journey to visit the Queen
Mother of the West (Xiwangmu).

EIGHT TRIGRAMS, BAGUA 八卦. The bagua refers to the Eight Tri-
grams of the Yijing, each of which consists of three lines. The lines have
two forms: unbroken, representing yang, and broken representing yin.
When the trigrams are joined in pairs, one stacked on another, they form
the 64 hexagrams in that work. According to tradition, the mythical figure
Fu Xi is said to have received the original trigrams. They were revealed to
him as images (xiang) for the interaction of yin and yang in the course of
nature and human events. The received arrangement of the bagua express-
es the entire cosmological and social order in one image. The trigrams are
understood to point to the combinations and forces of change that gener-
 EIGHTY-ONE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LORD LAO • 77
ate the world and everything that inhabits it. The appendix to the Yijing,
entitled Shuogua (Explanation of the Trigrams), offers an account of their
function in divination.
The Shuogua, one of the “Ten Wings” of the Yijing, relates the bagua to
the eight parts of the human body. Much later Lingbao lineage texts like
Prolegomena to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao
wufu xu, CT 388) relate them to the inner spirits who (which) protect the
adept. In external alchemy (waidan), each trigram stands for an ingredi-
ent in the compounding of elixirs (e.g., mercury, lead, etc.). The prepara-
tion of a ritual space (daochang) requires placing the trigrams in what is
known as the postcelestial (houtian) arrangement around the altar. Like-
wise, walking or dancing on the trigrams laid out on the floor is an activ-
ity performed in summoning numinal spirits (see also WALKING THE
GUIDELINE, PACING THE DIPPER, STEPS OF YU, BUGANG 步罡).
Daoshi ritual robes carry embroidered images of the trigrams.

EIGHTY-ONE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LORD LAO, ILLUSTRATED,

LAOJUN BASHIYI HUA TU 老君八十一图. The Eighty-One Transfor-
mations of Lord Lao (Laojun bashiyi hua tu) is an illustrated hagiography
of Laozi that reports his 81 appearances in human form throughout histo-
ry. Among its contents is the theory associated with the tradition of the
Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians, dating back to about 300,
and according to which one of Laozi’s appearances was as the Buddha.
The origins of this text are still controversial, and many scholars rely on
the 1291 polemical Buddhist material in the Accounts of Disputation over
[Daoist] Falsehood (Bianwei lu), surviving in the Taisho Buddhist Can-
on, 2116. This text, shown to be highly unreliable in many respects by
Kubo Noritada (1968), attributes the authorship of Eighty-One Transfor-
mations of Lord Lao to Linghu Zhang and Shi Shijing. A late version of
the work dating to 1598, with the slightly different title Eighty-one Trans-
formations of the Most High Lord Lao of Mysterious Origin of the Golden
Portal, Illustrated and Explained (Jinque xuanyuan Taishang Laojun ba-
shiyi hua tushuo), has the names of Zhang and Shi at its head.
The version now taken as the received Eighty-One Transformations of
Lord Lao contains a series of annotated illustrations, beginning with three
of Laozi himself, along with an inscribed stele reading, “Long live the
emperor.” Other pages portray Daoist masters throughout history. The
depictions of the 81 transformations themselves each have a correspond-
ing short description. Included among these, Laozi appeared as Fu Xi
(number 11). Number 58 relates his appearance to Zhang Daoling.
78 • EIGHTY-ONE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LORD LAO
EMEISHAN 峨眉山, MT. EMEI (SICHUAN PROVINCE). Mt. Emei
(Emeishan), located southwest of Chengdu in Sichuan province, is most
commonly associated with Buddhism. Yet, this mountain also has a sig-
nificant Daoist history. Ge Hong mentions it in the Baopuzi (Book of the
Master Who Embraces Simplicity) as a place where the medicines of
immorality may be acquired. It was one of the original 24 administrative
centers (zhi) of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi). According to various
texts, it is connected by an “earth channel” (dimai) to the grotto-heaven
at Maoshan (Mt. Mao). The History of the Wei (Weishu, trans. Ware,
1934) reports that Laozi transmitted the Dao to the Yellow Emperor on
this mountain. Other traditions report manifestations of immortals (xian)
Lu Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng on Emeishan.

ESSAYS OF DEBATE AND CORRECTION, BIANZHENG LUN 辨证論.

Bianzheng lun (T. 2110), written in about 633, by Falin (572–640), is an
eight-chapter Buddhist work attacking Daoism. It is the most complete
surviving statement of the issues between Daoism and Buddhism during
the Tang period.

ESSAYS TO LAUGH AT THE DAO, XIAODAO LUN 笑道論. Zhen Luan

(fl. 535–581), who was a court official charged with investigating corrupt
ministers, dukes, and other administrative officers, compiled a set of ar-
guments critical of Daoism in the Essays to Laugh at the Dao (Xiaodao
lun), on instructions from Emperor Wu (r. 560–578), ruler of the Northern
Zhou dynasty. Wu was a Buddhist, but he became interested in Daoism
and was initiated into its practices. After his initiation, Buddhist leaders
protested and brought forth many criticisms of Daoism. Accordingly, in
the year 569, the emperor convened three conferences made up of Confu-
cian literati, Daoist masters, and Buddhist monks for the purpose of dis-
cussing the merits of these three teachings. The underlying purpose of this
project was to create a synthesis of the teachings based on Daoism that
Wu could use to bring coherence throughout the empire. Unfortunately,
no consensus was reached. See also DAOISM AND BUDDHISM.
Almost one year later, Zhen Luan presented the Xiaodao lun to the
emperor; however, the emperor was quite displeased with the work and
had it burned. Apparently, Zhen thought that the desire of the emperor
was for him to create a set of critical essays that could be used as a basis
for creating synthesis, but in them he openly mocked Daoism and gave
little attention to any flaws in Buddhism.
Zhen had no objections to the Daodejing or Highest Clarity (Shang-
qing) teachings and texts, but he ridiculed both Lingbao and the Celestial
Master’s (Tianshi) writings. He felt Lingbao texts were obvious and
 EXTERNAL ALCHEMY, WAIDAN 外丹 • 79
laughable plagiarisms of Buddhist sutras and that Lingbao teachers really
only had an elementary understanding of the ideas they stole from Bud-
dhism. As for Celestial Masters practices, he compared the writing of
talismans to crude magic and criticized various rituals, including that of
“merging qi” (heqi). He had a special dislike for the Daoist claim that
Laozi had traveled west to “convert the barbarians.” See also CLASSIC
OF THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS, HUAHUJING 化胡經.
Zhen attacked Daoist practices and teachings on rational and textual
grounds. He exposed contradictions between Daoist writings and objected
to what he saw as obvious exaggerations and fantasies.
The full original text of this work was burned, and only about one-third
of it survives, in the Expanded Collection Spreading the Light of Bud-
dhism (Guang hongming ji, T 2103). Livia Kohn has done a translation
into English (Kohn 1995).

EXQUISITE COMPENDIUM OF THE THREE CAVERNS, SANDONG

QIONGGANG 三洞瓊綱. This is the title of the catalog to the Daoist
Canon of the Kaiyuan Reign Period (Kaiyuan daozang), dating between
713 and 741. In 749, Emperor Xuanzong assigned the Abbey of the Ven-
eration of Mystery (Chongxuan guan) the task of copying the Kaiyuan
daozang and distributing it throughout the empire.

EXTERNAL ALCHEMY, WAIDAN 外丹. There are many methods of

waidan, or external alchemy, in Daoist history. Even so, what unites them
is the focus on compounding elixirs through the refining of natural sub-
stances. We know almost nothing about the origins of this practice or who
the first people were to try it. By tradition, Zou Yan (c. 350–270 BCE) is
credited with the origin of the practice, although no extant documents
have confirmed this. The earliest mention of elixir alchemy is in connec-
tion with the masters of techniques (fangshi) in the 4th century BCE
(Ngo 1976). According to the Records of the Historian (Shiji 28), Li
Shaojun encouraged Han Wudi, in 133 BCE, to ingest an elixir made
from cinnabar.
Our next most detailed source record about this practice is Ge Hong’s
Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). Twenty-four
chapters of this book are devoted to elixir alchemy. One of these is based
on methods depending on minerals, another on recipes concerned with
metals, and so forth. Ge makes principal use of three texts: Classic of
Great Clarity (Taiqing jing), Classic of the Nine Elixirs (Jiudan jing),
and Classic of the Golden Liquor (Jinye jing). He reports that these writ-
80 • EXTERNAL ALCHEMY, WAIDAN 外丹
ings were brought to Jingnan by Zuo Ci (legendary 2nd–3rd centuries), a
fangshi who received them by revelation while living in Shandong prov-
ince.
As understood within the Taiqing tradition, one way to make elixir is to
compound seven ingredients in a sealed crucible. As these are heated, the
essences of the ingredients rise in the vessel and are collected by the
alchemist, who adds them to other substances to make pills. Ingesting
these closes the seven openings of the body and allows the body’s qi to
become refined and powerful. The result is that many powers are ac-
quired, for example, walking across water or passing through fire. Dis-
eases like convulsions or leprosy are healed. Adepts become able to pro-
duce children again, even in old age. Youthful appearance is restored.
Preparing elixirs was as much a ritual process as a quasi-scientific one.
The ritual generally required the following steps:

1. Refining and purifying

2. Ceremony of receiving the texts. recipes. and requests of the gods for
permission to hand down the methods
3. Setting up talismans (fu) to protect the laboratory area and the alchem-
ist
4. Constructing the lab
5. Choosing the auspicious date for the process to begin
6. Kindling the fire
7. Compounding the elixir
8. Consecrating the elixir, followed by ingesting it

The Highest Clarity (Shangqing) revelations of 364–370 added new

understandings of how to practice waidan. They also gave Zuo Ci a key
place among the Highest Clarity numinal pantheon. Tao Hongjing ex-
perimented with various waidan methods. The Relationship of the Three,
in Accordance with the Book of Changes (Zhouyi cantong qi) moved
elixir alchemy somewhat away from the wide range of ingredients found
in Ge Hong and Shangqing, and toward the use of lead and mercury. Chen
Shaowei details the process for compounding mercury from cinnabar by
using cosmological language. The best-known method was the refining of
mercury from cinnabar and adding sulphur to it before heating it over and
over in either seven or nine cycles. At the end of the process, the product
was considered as Pure Yang (chunyang), in a state before the origin of all
things in the differentiation of “The One.”
During the Tang dynasty, alchemist Li Shojun was supported in his
efforts at creating elixirs; however, Zhao Yi’s (1727–1814) work Notes
on the Twenty-two Dynastic Histories claims that emperors Xianzong (r.
805–820), Wuzong (r. 840–846), and Xuanzong (r. 846–859) died after
 EXTERNAL ALCHEMY, WAIDAN 外丹 • 81
ingesting elixirs. Some interpreters have argued that elixir poisoning was
the reason for the decline of external alchemy and the shift to inner
alchemy (neidan) after the Tang dynasty. But Fabrizio Pregadio (In DH,
2004) has shown that neidan was already on the rise in Daoism before the
Tang. Nevertheless, after the Tang dynasty the importance and place of
alchemy in biospiritual transformation was almost totally understood in
terms of inner alchemy.
 F
FANGSHI 方士. See MASTERS OF TECHNIQUES, FANGSHI 方士.

FANGZHONG SHU 房中術, TECHNIQUES OF THE BEDCHAMBER.

The term fangzhong shu refers to intimate practices shared by a couple with-
in their marital sexual interactions. Not all scholars agree that the practices
generally reported in texts should be associated with Daoism; many seem to
belong to Chinese culture generally. Ge Hong (283–343) states that no one
can obtain longevity that ignores the arts of the bedchamber.
Abstention from sex was regarded as at least as dangerous as excessive
indulgence, at least in some Daoist lineages. The sex act was compared to the
union of Heaven and Earth. Just as in their continuous action the myriad
things were created, so in male/female procreation the human being was
reproduced. The Celestial Masters (Tianshi) practiced a rite called “merg-
ing qi” (heqi) that involved ritualized public intercourse. At the other ex-
treme, Shangqing texts sometimes encourage a male practitioner to visualize
spiritual intercourse with a feminine numinal being (Kohn 1993), and Quan-
zhen Daoists, both male and female, are celibate.
One source of confusion on this topic pointed out by Russell Kirkland
(2004) is that while the term jing was used in late imperial times for male
reproductive fluid, it did not have this same usage in early Chinese texts, for
instance, the Daodejing and the Neiye (Inner Training), where the term is
used to refer to the “vital essence” of both males and females. But later
Daoist texts on the arts of the bedchamber use this term differently and teach
that a male’s seminal fluid (jing) is limited and must be preserved; whereas
that of a female is unlimited. Accordingly, in sex, a man should control his
ejaculation, whereas a woman may reach orgasm without restriction. The
added element here is the stress that in bringing a woman to orgasm, a man
can activate her energy to her benefit.
Divergent practices turn up in the texts. For example, there are reports of
women who sought to enhance their own energies while draining those of
their male partner. This has been called a kind of sexual vampirism, and it is
always criticized in Daoist texts as unorthodox and a form of exploitation.

83
84 • FAQI 法器
FAQI 法器. See RITUAL TOOLS, FAQI 法器.

FAR-OFF JOURNEYS, ECSTATIC EXCURSIONS, YUANYOU 逺遊.

There are three main textual sources for the Daoist tradition of far-off jour-
neying: Zhuangzi, Chuci (Songs of Chu), and Sima Xiangru’s (c. 179–117
BCE) Rhapsody on the Great Person (Daren fu). For example, there is this
passage from Zhuangzi: “The Nameless Man said, ‘I’m just about to set off
with the Creator. And if I get bored with that, then I’ll ride on the Light and
Lissome Bird out beyond the six directions, wandering in the village of Not-
Even-Anything and living in the Broad and Borderless field’” (ch. 7).
There were no texts giving instructions about how to go about making
possible such ecstatic excursions until those of the Highest Clarity (Shang-
qing) lineage. In those writings, invocations of numinal beings and the prac-
tice of breathing control (xingqi, biqi), as well as quietude and stillness, are
the gateways to such far-off journeys. The description of the practice has the
adept enter his quiet room (jingshi), where he is transported into the pres-
ence of numinal beings and his entire awareness becomes luminous.
Isabelle Robinet (1993) holds that these excursions of consciousness are
both instruments for and expressions of the cosmicization of the person. In
these experiences, the adept’s consciousness roams on holy mountains, flies
into space, and resides on the isles of immortality (see PENGLAI 蓬萊).

FASTING OF THE HEART-MIND, XINZHAI 心齋. In one of its imagi-

nary dialogues about Confucius, the Zhuangzi contains an account of a con-
versation between the Master and Yan Hui, his most cherished disciple. In
this account, Confucius is portrayed as though he is a Daoist master. He tells
Yan Hui that to find the Dao he must fast. Yan Hui mistakenly takes this to
mean he should avoid eating. Confucius tells him that xinzhai, or “fasting of
the heart-mind,” does not have to do with what one eats but with emptying
the mind of thoughts and distinctions so that one’s qi can unite with the Dao
(Zhuangzi, ch. 6). This state of being is also associated with “sitting in
forgetfulness” (zuowang) and “guarding the One” (shouyi, Zhuangzi, ch.
11).
In Daoism, zhai is a term used both for a major kind of ritual and the
individual practice of “fasting of the heart-mind.” One reason for this close
association may be that this state can arise as both one of the outcomes of
ritual practice and the kind of consciousness needed by the daoshi to perform
the ritual.
Important Daoist texts on the “fasting of the mind” include Sima Cheng-
zhen’s (647–735) “Essay on Sitting in Forgetfulness” (Zuowang lun) and the
writings of modern Qigong practitioner Chen Yangning (1890–1969).
 FENGSHUI 風水 • 85
FENGDU 酆都. Mt. Fengdu has been considered the entrance to the Daoist
hells or earth prisons (diyu) since the 1st century CE; however, the first text
in which Fengdu is mentioned as a place of the dead is Ge Hong’s (283–343)
Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). An entire adminis-
tration of the universe’s moral order is housed in this place. There are various
courts and palaces. Records and ledgers of the dead are kept there. Virtuous
individuals are sent on from Fengdu to the celestial paradises, while those
who have done immoral deeds are sent to the earth prisons for punishment.
The highest officials of this otherworldly bureaucracy were people of virtue
during their lifetimes, whereas those who administer the punishments are
often known only as “ghost soldiers” (guibing).
From a cosmic point of view, the location of this mountain is in the
northernmost quarter of the universe; however, various traditions place the
entry into Fengdu at the base of Mt. Tai (Taishan). The former village of
Guicheng (Ghost City), which was moved as a result of the building of the
Three Gorges Dam on the Chang Jiang (Yangzi) River, had within it a model
of how it was imagined Fengdu looked.

FENGSHUI 風水. Fengshui is not a practice or set of beliefs unique or even

distinctive to Daoism. However, it is related to the root cosmology of
Daoism in the Five Phase Physics (wuxing) and the channeling of qi energy.
Just as in Inner Alchemy (neidan) which seeks to manage the flow of qi
within the body, fengshui is a set of methods designed to direct qi in the
spatial environments and landscapes that form the contexts for existing
things. Fengshui beliefs are also associated with Grotto-Heavens and fudi
(Blessed Places). Fengshui methods were first used in the determination of
auspicious burial places, arrangements of homes, and the placement of pal-
aces. It was important to site the graves of ancestors in good places that
would be unaffected by floods (water) and typhoons (wind). The placement
of the resting places of one’s ancestors was believed to have a direct and
unavoidable influence on the good fortune of the family and village. During
this period, the practice was called simply “planning residences” (tuzhai
shu). The general Meng Tian (d. 210 BCE) who directed the early construc-
tion of the Great Wall was reputed to have committed suicide for having
violated the “dragon veins” (longmai 龍脈) of the earth (Shiji, ch. 88). The
patriarch of fengshui in a Daoist context was Guo Pu (276-324), whose site
selection for his mother’s grave became the model for proceeding in such
matters. The Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao) mentions fengshui
practices several times and one recorded vision of Yangxi offers advice
about burial sites.
86 • FIVE MARCHMOUNTS SYSTEM
Daoshi are often still sought out to help inquirers determine the best loca-
tions for graves, homes, official buildings, and the like. They are called upon
to assist in the positioning of objects in and around the home. Compasses
used to determine beneficial fengshui typically have the eight trigrams (ba-
gua) at the center.

FIVE MARCHMOUNTS SYSTEM. The five sacred mountains of China

are also called the Five Marchmounts, because they are grouped as a special
set of holy or sacred mountains. Today the five sacred mountains are re-
garded as the following:

1. Mt. Tai, the Eastern Peak (Taishan, Shandong province)

2. Mt. Heng, the Southern Peak (Hengshan, Hunan province)
3. Mt. Hua, the Western Peak (Huashan, Shaanxi province)
4. Mt. Heng, the Northern Peak (Hengshan, Shanxi province)
5. Mt. Song, the Central Peak (Songshan, Henan province)

Even with this group of the Five Marchmounts, the system of sacred geogra-
phy of mountains was not static. Political shifts often influenced which
mountains were most revered. Accordingly, it is difficult to pinpoint the
exact earliest use of the Five Marchmounts (wuyue). The most ancient refer-
ence is the “Great Minister of Rites” chapter of the Rites of the Zhou (Zhou-
li), dating to approximately the 3rd century BCE. There, the wuyue are re-
ferred to as the “deities of the earth,” of lesser importance than the national
spirits of the rulers and the heavenly deities of Zhou religion; however, the
mountains are not named. In the Daoist Canon, there are texts for only three
of the five peaks: History of Mount Tai (Daishi, CT 1472); Monograph of the
Western Peak (Xiyue Huashan zhi, CT 307); and three texts on the Southern
Peak, notably Short Record of the Southern Peak (Nanyue xiaolu, CT 453).
It seems clear that as the traditions of the five mountains developed, they
came to be understood as sites where Daoist recluses and masters of tech-
niques (fangshi) lived. The mountains were believed to be places of concen-
trated qi, populated by immortals (xian), full of herbs and minerals suitable
for medicines and elixirs, and sites of visitations by numinal spirits, or as the
locations of secret sacred texts.
The period of the most dramatic rise of the five mountains as a set was in
the Tang dynasty. Indeed, their formalization into a group was the result of
efforts made by Sima Chengzhen (647–735) to codify the grotto-heavens
of the sacred geography, revealing the qi energy meridians of the earth. One
result of Sima’s work was that the Five Marchmounts were gradually placed
under the control of Shangqing Daoists.
 FIVE PHASE PHYSICS, WUXING 五行 • 87
FIVE PHASE PHYSICS, WUXING 五行. The Chinese term Five Phases
(wuxing) refers to a totalizing and comprehensive explanatory system that
has functioned since the time of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–221 CE) to
explain natural phenomena and their processes and configurations into the
objects of reality. These Five phases are wood (mu), fire (huo), earth (tu),
metal (jin), and water (shui). Although this fivefold scheme resembles an-
cient Greek discourse about the four elements from which all things are
formed, these Chinese “phases” are seen as ever-changing qi forces, while
the Greek elements typically are regarded as unchanging building blocks or
substances.
Prior to the Han dynasty, the Five Phase physics functioned less as a
school of thought and more as a way of describing natural processes hidden
from ordinary view. Having become a distinct philosophical tradition (jia,
“family” or “school”) during the Han, wuxing developed into a conceptual
device that was used to explain not only cosmology, morality, and medicine,
but also virtually every aspect of Chinese life and thought.
We are likely on safe ground in thinking that wuxing thought was a subject
of the exchanges and debates of figures at the Jixia Academy, as one of the
figures named as a master teacher in that place was Zou Yan (305–240 BCE),
who is also considered the systematizer of wuxing cosmology. There are
passages, even in the earliest strata of the Zhuangzi, that seem to have
wuxing cosmological assumptions underlying them (e.g., chapters 2, 6, and
7).
During the Han dynasty, one of the most fundamental texts containing
material on wuxing theory was the Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huai-
nanzi, 139 BCE). It strives to draw out the correlations between the Five
Phases in cosmology and morality, and it extends the medical implications of
the system. Sages (shengren) who know what to do with the Five Phases are
able to rule the country, heal patients, and manage the transformations of life
and longevity.
By the 1st century BCE, the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor (Hu-
angdi Neijing), arguably the most significant of the classical Chinese docu-
ments on the Five Phases as related to medicine, attained its final form. The
text most likely developed in a lineage of teachers associated with what is
now called Huang-Lao (Yellow Emperor-Laozi Daoism), which also influ-
enced portions of the Zhuangzi.
In the Huangdi Neijing, two sections are important. The Lingshu (Numi-
nous Pivot), which is largely concerned with technical and thorough explana-
tions of acupuncture, has the Yellow Emperor say that the qi energy merid-
ians of the body (jing mai) are divided according to the wuxing, and these
lines convey energy to the five viscera (wuzang) of the body. The second
88 • FIVE VISCERA, FIVE ORGANS, WUZANG 五臟
section, called Suwen, relies largely on the “mutual conquest” series of how
the Five Phases operate as the preferred explanatory language for medical
ailments and their remedies.
As wuxing thought continued to become ever more labyrinthine, the Five
Phases were incorporated into many arenas of Chinese life, from the way
space is arranged (fengshui) to the art of cooking (sweets, sours, bitters, etc.).
Both military and literary texts in traditional China have incorporated the
wuxing system. The Liu Tao (Six Strategies), also known as Tai Gong’s Six
Strategies [for conducting war]), is a well-known tactical manual of ancient
China. It asserts that, by knowing the enemy’s posture with respect to the
Five Phases, one can then, through the “mutual conquest” series, know how
to select the attacking phase to defeat him.

FIVE VISCERA, FIVE ORGANS, WUZANG 五臟. In general Chinese

medicine, the five viscera are the liver (gan), heart-mind (xin), spleen (pi),
lungs (fei), and kidneys (shen). The Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing) is
the earliest Daoist text containing references to the gods of the five viscera.
Each of these has an inner and outer aspect, connecting to other organs and
physiological systems. In the Five Phase physics (wuxing), these five viscera
are related to the five seasons, five directions, and five colors. The seasons,
stars, and phases can all affect the five viscera of the body. The viscera
organs themselves are not considered body or matter in distinction from
spirit. The five viscera are ultimately qi, just in different five phase forms.
This fundamental rejection of dualism between mind and matter, or body
and spirit, partially explains why Daoist texts, for instance, the Inner Classic
of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi neijing), associate the viscera with emo-
tions. For example, the heart is a container of grief, the liver of anger. But in
Chinese medical practice more generally, the connection between various
viscera and emotions is not standardized and varies in text and practice
depending on the tradition.
In Daoist inner alchemy (neidan), the five viscera may be visualized in a
concentrated state to strengthen qi and prevent illness. In fact, the term wuqi
(five qi) is sometimes used as a synonym for wuzang. One aim in internal
alchemy is to reinvigorate the organs. Sometimes the five viscera are sym-
bolized in language about bodily gods or numinal powers, as in the 9th-
century work Charts of the Strengthening and Weakening of the Five Viscera
and the Six Receptacles according to the Classic of the Inner Effulgencies of
the Yellow Court (Huangting neijing wuzang liufu buxie tu, CT 432). The
biospiritual transformation of a person into an immortal (xian) or numinal
being, or a Perfected Person, is partially a result of harmonizing and rein-
venting the five viscera, transforming them into pure qi.
 FU 符, TALISMAN, CHARM • 89
FU 釜. See CRUCIBLE, CALDRON, FU 釜.

FU 符, TALISMAN, CHARM. In Daoist usage, the term fu is most readily

translated as “talisman,” but it can also be translated as “charm.” During the
Han dynasty, a fu was an agreement or contract between people. Fu stating
that an action needed to be taken would stand for an order of performance.
This intention of a fu was retained in Daoist practice, while the contract was
refocused as between humans and numinal powers. So, a talisman is a kind
of performance contract. While writing or drawing a fu, the daoshi should
recite or chant a formula appropriate to the subject of the talisman that serves
as its activation. It is likely that this understanding is associated with what is
known as a tally (quan). Tallies were used in pre-Han China to verify that an
order or decree had come from the ruler. Most often, a board with an iden-
tifying signature or seal would be split, with half going to the lesser minister
and the other half retained by the ruler. When the ruler sent a message, his
half of the tally would travel with the messenger and its signature would be
matched upon arrival to its mate as authentication.
In Daoist usage, the daoshi writes the characters, usually taken from a
secret or heavenly language known only to the master, and it carries with it
the spiritual power of protection or fulfillment of the will of the spirit being,
as that being would recognize the writing.
Fu are used to bind demonic spirits and cure disease, protect sacred
spaces, and transmit blessings. Sometimes fu messages are simply written in
the air with incense sticks by daoshi during rites and rituals. Daoist fu may
also be diagrams that derive their power from matching the image to its
heavenly counterpart.
The best-known account of fu is in the Declarations of the Perfected
(Zhengao, CT 1016), where talismans are associated with the primordial
form of writing emerging from the birth of the cosmos and still available to
numinal beings and humans who receive it in a proper transmission.
Today, fu are usually written on rectangular pieces of wood, silk, paper, or
even bamboo. While they may include recognizable words or symbols, these
are not meant to be read in the usual way. Actually, talismanic writing is
understandable only by the spirits and the daoshi. Probably the most famous
use of talismans in the history of Daoism is to be found in the method of the
Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), according to which a talisman
would be written for the sick, burned, and then ingested with water.
Several texts in the Daoist Canon have a talisman as their centerpiece.
There are examples of such works in the Lingbao tradition, for instance, the
Prolegomena to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao wufu
xu, CT 388).
90 • FUDI 福地, BLESSED PLACES
Currently, fu are often mass-produced by ordinary printing and copying
techniques, and then activated by a ritual formula or a chant. Still, however,
the preferred method is handwriting or drawing with a brush on an individual
basis. Once completed, written fu require an official stamp in red wax to
authorize the contract. Talismans have been used in several ways, and most
of these continue into the present. They may be hung in the home or any
place needing protection or power. They may be worn around the neck or
waist. Oftentimes they are burned and the ashes mixed with tea, wine, or
water and then consumed.

FUDI 福地, BLESSED PLACES. See GROTTO-HEAVENS AND FUDI

福地 BLESSED PLACES.

FULU 符籙. The term “register” as used in Daoism, combines the functions
of a talisman (fu) and a listing of numinal beings under one’s authority (lu).
These were first widely used in Daoism by the communities of the Celestial
Masters (Tianshi). Members of the community from young children to
adults were given registers. These varied with the age and development of
the recipient. Married couples merged their registers. Some registers became
talismans of great power, listing not only large numbers of numinal beings at
one’s disposal, but also ones of great power. Leaders in Celestial Masters
communities were called libationers (jijiu), and they possessed registers of
great power.

FU YI 傅奕 (534–639). Fu Yi was a noted Tang dynasty scholar of the

Daodejing and also a defender of Daoism and a critic of Buddhism. He
ascended to the position of Grand Astrologer and took advantage of this
authority to attack Buddhism as unfilial, unpatriotic, economically unproduc-
tive, and simply foreign. Some of his polemical positions are represented in
Daoxuan’s (596–667) work defending Buddhism entitled Collection Spread-
ing the Light of Buddhism (Hongming ju). Serious Buddhist counterargu-
ments not merely directed at Fu Yi but at Daoism more generally appeared
soon after his writings became known. One example is Essays of Debate and
Correction (Bianzheng lun, T. 2110), completed in about 633.
See also DAOISM AND BUDDHISM.
 G
GANYING 感應, “ACTION AND RESPONSE”. See MORALITY
BOOKS, SHANSHU 善書.

GE CHAOFU 葛巢甫 (fl. 402). Ge Chaofu, who came from Jurong (near
Nanjing, Jiangsu), was a grandnephew of Ge Hong (283–343), and he is
often credited with the authorship and first transmission of the Lingbao texts
outside the Ge family in about 400. According to the Pivot of Meaning of the
Daoist Teaching (Daojiao yishu, CT 1129), the line of transmission of Ling-
bao texts was Ge Xuan–Zheng Siyuan (Zheng Yin)–Ge Ti–Ge Hong–Ge
Wang–Ge Chaofu–Ren Yanqing–Xu Lingqi, etc. But there is a tradition that
attributes the Lingbao classics entirely to Ge Chaofu himself. In fact, Tao
Hongjing writes disparagingly in the Declarations of the Perfected (Zhen-
gao, CT 1016) that, “Ge Chaofu fabricated the Lingbao classics, and the
teaching flourished.” There is no known conclusive evidence that Ge Chaofu
authored the Lingbao texts in their entirety, only in part, or whether he acted
only as their transmitter.

GE HONG 葛洪 (283–343). The main sources of information on Ge Hong’s

life are the chapters of his autobiography, Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who
Embraces Simplicity), and the brief biography of his life in the History of the
Jin (Jinshu). Ge Hong came from the ancestral home of the Ge family in
Jurong (near Nanjing, Jiangsu). His grandfather and father served the Wu and
Jin rulers in various capacities. In 297, at the age of 14, he became a student
of Zheng Yin, with whom he studied both classical Chinese texts and Daoist
writings and practices. His training ended in 302, when Zheng retired to Mt.
Huo with several disciples and Ge Hong did not go along.
Ge became a military officer and took part in the suppression of Zhang
Chang’s rebellion. He planned to go to Luoyang in pursuit of Daoist texts
and medicinals, but the chaotic political situation there made this impossible.
Instead, he received a position as adjutant of Ji Han (263–306), governor of
the region around Guangzhou. When Ji was assassinated, Ge remained in the
area and continued his study and practice of alchemy, as well as other Daoist

91
92 • GE XUAN 葛玄 (164–244)
teachings. He decided to remain in the Canton area because of its lush moun-
tains, herbs, minerals, and pure waters. In 312, he moved to the Luofu moun-
tains (Luofushan, Guangdong) and became first the disciple and, later, the
son-in-law of Bao Jing (?–c. 330), governor of Nanhai. Of Bao Jing, differ-
ent traditions report that he either found the Script of the Three Sovereigns
(Sanhuang wen) or actually witnessed it being spontaneously written in a
cave on Songshan (Mt. Song, Henan) two decades earlier.
Ge returned to Jurong in 314, where he completed his Baopuzi. While the
Outer Chapters of that work were finished in 314, the Inner Chapters contin-
ued to undergo revisions before reaching their final form in about 330. Ge
received an appointment as magistrate of Julou (present-day northern Viet-
nam) in 332 or 333, while en route, he again decided to settle at Luofushan
(Mt. Luofu). There he practiced alchemy, arts of medical pharmacology, and
the making of elixirs. Surviving accounts of his death are described as “dis-
appearance of the corpse” (shijie).
Aside from the Baopuzi, approximately 60 works are attributed to Ge.
Fewer than a dozen of these works survive, and probably only two of them
are actually traceable to him: Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian
zhuan) and Recipes for Emergencies to Keep at Hand (Zhou houbei ji fang,
CT 1306).

GE XUAN 葛玄 (164–244). Ge Xuan is a mysterious figure associated with

several Daoist traditions. He was Ge Hong’s paternal granduncle. Ge Hong
reports that Ge Xuan received several alchemical texts from the legendary
masters of techniques (fangshi), Zuo Ci, and passed them on to Zheng Yin,
who was Ge Hong’s teacher. In Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian
zhuan), Ge Hong provides a biography of Ge Xuan, recounting his miracles
and his “disappearance of the corpse” (shijie). Ge Hong preserves the tale
that Ge Xuan was once a retainer to the Wu ruler when he drowned on the
occasion of the ruler’s boats being capsized by a storm; however, Ge Xuan
appeared a few days later at court and apologized for having been detained
by the water deity, Wu Zixu.
Ge Xuan came to be regarded as a patron saint of alchemical arts, since Ge
Hong reports that he transmitted several alchemical texts, including the fa-
mous Classic of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing, partially as CT 883), Classic of
the Nine Elixirs (Jiudan jing), and Classic of the Golden Liquor (Jinye jing,
in a version ascribed to Ge Hong as CT 917). Also, according to Ge Chaofu
(fl. 402), Ge Xuan was the first recipient of the Lingbao texts, and these texts
even report Ge Xuan’s receipt of the classics from numinal beings, who also
gave him the title Transcendent Duke of the Left of the Great Ultimate (Taiji
zuo xiangong). Buddhist polemicists name Ge Xuan as one of the founders of
Daoism. The biography of Ge Xuan found in the Daoist Canon traces virtu-
 GHOST, DEMON, GUI, GUISHEN 鬼神 • 93
ally every revealed text in medieval Daoism back to him (see Biography of
Transcendent Duke Geo of the Great Ultimate [Taiji Ge xiangong zhuan, CT
450]).

GEZAOSHAN 閤皂山 (MT. GEZAO, JIANGXI PROVINCE). Gezao

mountain is the thirty-third Blessed Place (fudi) of Daoist sacred geography.
According to tradition Ge Xuan lived on the mountain and thus associated it
with the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao) lineage. It is included among the
“Three Mountains” of Daoism, along with Longhushan (Dragon-Tiger
Mountain) of the Way of the Celestial Masters and Maoshan of the High-
est Clarity (Shangqing) lineage. Although not having the same glorious
reputation of these other two ordination centers of Daoism in the late Tang,
nevertheless it was the site of many halls and hermitages inhabited by hun-
dreds of Daoists. There was also an active pilgrimage routine to Gezaoshan.
Many sites on the mountain were destroyed during the Yuan and the
communities that gathered at Gezao during the Ming and Qing tended to be
modest in size and influence.

GHOST, DEMON, GUI, GUISHEN 鬼神. The term gui is used for spirit
beings in general, but in some contexts it may be used for ghosts (guishen) or
translated as “demons.” In the ancient Chinese physics that also informs
Daoism, everything is made of qi. Thus, the person is qi. According to the
Five Phases physics (wuxing), qi has a stability or crust that is our body. In
Chinese religious language, the term gui often substituted for the po. Qi that
has consciousness was often associated with the term hun. But there are not
literally two souls in Daoist thought, even if there are two grammars for
talking about different manifestations of the same qi. An analogy for this
understanding of language that is shown in English is that there is both a
grammar for brain states and one for mental processes. The one is not redu-
cible to the other. But the language about mental process has the function of
reporting awareness, while the language about physical processes refers to
measurable empirical occurrences.
In Daoism, gui is the word most often used for people whose qi has no po
expression. This also explains the homophone gui (歸, meaning “return”), as
in returning to the state without po expression. The wandering presence of a
person known formally to have had a body (po) now lacks this but may be
able to cause his/her presence to be known. The awareness of such a presence
is often feared and abhorred as a “ghost” encounter.
No group in Daoism has had such a close association with gui as the Way
of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao). Indeed, one way of referring to this
movement was to call it guidao (the Way of Ghosts). Its followers were
called guizu (ghost soldiers). The reasons for this are many. Adepts of this
94 • GHOST STATUTES OF NUQING, NUQING GUILU 女青鬼律
lineage of Daoism believed that illness was caused by moral failure that
weakened the body of qi and allowed gui spirits to enter and possess the
person. Accordingly, devotees had to confess their faults, practice clarity and
stillness, and ingest talismanic water (fushui) to be healed. In addition to this
practice, there was also the work done by people able to bind ghosts, those
masters of techniques (fangshi) who seem to have numbered among them
relatives of Zhang Daoling, the founder of the movement.
What happens to the gui apart from its po? According to the Declarations
of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016), they gather at Fengdu “in the north,”
and there they receive judgment. Some go to the Palace of the Vermilion Fire
(Zuohuo gong) in the heavenly realm and become immortals (xian).

GHOST STATUTES OF NUQING, NUQING GUILU 女青鬼律. This

work is found in the Daoist Canon (CT 790) and represents one of the
earliest texts of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), dating
perhaps to the 3rd century. The text laments the fact that in its day, ghost
spirits (aka demons) were roaming freely in the world and bringing harm to
nature and individuals. The Ghost Statutes provides detailed instructions for
controlling these spirits. It names the spirits, reveals their locations, describes
their appearance, and explains their activities and powers. Using the names
provided in the text is the first technique for controlling the spirits, as calling
out their names repels them. Those who do not know the techniques of the
book will suffer from despair, disease, starvation, and death in war.

GOD OF LITERATURE, LEARNING, WENCHANG 文昌. Wenchang

is revered as the patron divine spirit of literature, the guardian of morality,
and the giver of sons. His name first occurs in the Songs of Chu (Chuci), and
he is grouped in Han dynasty works with other spirits, residing in six stars
appearing above the ladle of the Big Dipper (beidou). Included among these
stars is the Director of Destinies (Siming). As an astral deity, Wenchang
may have become identified with literature because of the association of the
stars and what is called “Literary Glory” or inspiration.
Another explanation for his association with learning and literature is that
the name Wenchang became identified with the god of the village of Zitong
in Sichuan, a thunder-wielding divinity. One temple for this deity was on the
main road to the capital, and those coming to take the civil service examina-
tions often stopped there to venerate him and receive their fortune predicting
the outcome of the test. One form of divination used at this site was spirit
writing, and such a process yielded revelations from the deity. One of these
revelations was a correction and modification of the central Shangqing text
 GREAT CLARITY, TAIQING 太清 • 95
Authentic Classic of Great Profundity (Dadong zhenjing). It was entitled
Transcendent Text of the Great Profundity by Wenchang (Wenchang dadong
xianjing, CT 5).
Wenchang was believed to have had many manifestations, and some of
these are mentioned in the Book of Transformations of Wenchang, which is
preserved as part of the Book of Transformations of the Imperial Lord of
Zitong (Zitong dijun huashu, CT 170). The principal collection of texts by
and about Wenchang is the 1743 work, Complete Writings of the Imperial
Lord Wenchang (Wendi quanshu).

GODS OF WEALTH, CAISHEN 財神. Caishen refers to the gods of

Wealth. Veneration of these gods is very common in Chinese popular relig-
ion. Among the gods of wealth, Zhao Gongming, also known as Marshal
Zhao of the Dark Altar of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi xuantan, aka Zhao
Yuanshuai) is typically one of the four celestial marshals guarding the Daoist
ritual spaces. Early hagiographies of Zhao associate him with preventing
plagues and offering protection and prosperity to villages.

GOLDEN ELIXIR, JINDAN 金丹. Whereas it is now typical to refer to the

practice of the arts of elixir making and external alchemy (waidan), the
Daoist texts often simply refer to the “way of the golden elixir” (jindan zhi
dao). Gold was regarded as something immutable and pure, beyond change
and defilement. While we know that elixirs were developed and administered
at least as early as the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), the first sources to detail
the actual processes of external alchemy are the Great Clarity (Taiqing)
texts mentioned by Ge Hong (283–343).
The intellectual underpinning of alchemical practice rested on the belief
that it was possible to get certain materials to revert from their current form
to their rarefied essence (jing). Cinnabar placed in a crucible (fu), creating
the state of Origins (hundun), would transmute into its essence as mercury.
The Daoist Canon commentary to the Classic of the Nine Elixirs (Jiudan
jing, as ch.1 in CT 885, Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue) associates this
product with the essence that gave birth to the cosmos.

GONGDE 功德. See MERIT, GONGDE 功德.

GREAT CLARITY, TAIQING 太清. Beginning with the Zhuangzi, the

term taiqing was used to describe the inner state of the Daoist Perfected
Person (zhenren) as one of Great Clarity. In later texts it also designates a
level of Heaven as a symbolic reference to the lived reality of an adept who
knows Great Clarity in everyday life.
96 • GREAT EMPEROR WHO PROTECTS LIFE, BAOSHENG DADI 保生大帝
In Ge Hong’s fourth chapter of Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Em-
braces Simplicity), he refers to three texts that form a kind of intellectual
frame for what might be known as the Taiqing tradition. These are Classic of
Great Clarity (Taiqing jing, partially as CT 883), Classic of the Nine Elixirs
(Jiudan jing, as ch.1 in CT 885), and Classic of the Golden Liquor (Jinye
jing, in a version ascribed to Ge Hong as CT 917).
Ge traces the teachings of taiqing with which he is familiar to a set of
revelations from the numinal world given to the legendary figure Zuo Ci.
The taiqing elixirs about which Ge writes were recommended by Zuo to keep
away harmful spirits that might infiltrate the body and cause illness. These
elixirs also could aid in facilitating transcendence (xian) and helped an adept
acquire numinal powers.

GREAT EMPEROR WHO PROTECTS LIFE, BAOSHENG DADI 保

生大帝. The Great Emperor Who Protects Life (Baosheng dadi) is a southern
Fujian regional deity. According to the hagiography of his life, he was a
physician by the name of Wu Tao from a village near the current city of
Xiamen. He gained fame by performing a number of miraculous cures, so the
local people continued to seek healing from him by honoring and venerating
his spirit. Chinese immigrants to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and other parts of
China transmitted the practice of worshiping him to those places. While not
originally a Daoist deity, explicit Daoist features became a part of the rituals
performed at his temples.

GREAT PEACE, TAIPING 太平. The ideal of “Great Peace” refers to not
only a stable social life, but also the state of community in which all are
following the Dao and moving in wu-wei. The notion was common during
the Han dynasty. It was adopted by Yellow Emperor-Laozi thinkers and
part of the program of Dong Zhongshu (c. 195–115 BCE). The hoped-for
community would be based on the harmony between heaven and humanity.
The most important source on the concept of taiping is the Classic of
Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a). This source looks back to a primitive
golden era in which the original qi (yuanqi) from which all things were
created circulated within nature and humanity to support and nourish life. It
was a time of Great Peace. This state of being was ruined by humans, who
imposed their own will and thoughts on others in the pursuit of power and
riches, and who torment themselves in self-destruction by the use of discrim-
inations and distinctions that create inner and outer disharmony. Subsequent
generations of people have inherited these faults, and this is known in the text
as the “inherited burden” (chengfu) of humankind. It is the momentum and
sheer magnitude of this burden that accounts for war, natural disaster, and
 GROTTO-HEAVENS AND FUDI 福地 BLESSED PLACES • 97
even epidemics of disease; however, in the text, if the ruler follows the Dao
and conducts himself in wu-wei, he can begin to lead a cycle that will break
down this inherited burden.
Some political and literati officials, for example, Wang Fu (78–163), took
the position that government policies of their day were reaching toward the
stage of “advancing to peace” (shengping). The Xiang’er Commentary to
the Laozi (Laozi Xiang’er zhu), produced within the Way of the Celestial
Masters (Tianshi dao) lineage, emphasized a call to implement Great Peace.
Other Daoist texts and teachers considered the Great Peace to be a condition
beyond the human world, but one in which people might share in the future.

GROTTO-HEAVENS AND FUDI 福地 BLESSED PLACES. There is a

numinal geography in the Daoist understanding of the landscape. Mountains,
rivers, forests, and especially caverns and caves are filled with qi energy.
These are often the locations in which numinal spirits appear or communi-
cate with those seeking them. Famous mountains and places filled with nu-
minal power are often referred to by the single compound Grotto-Heaven
Blessed Place (dongtian fudi); however, recently the words have been separ-
ated, fudi being “paradise or place of blessing” and dongtian pointing to a
mountain cave or cavern in which one had extraordinary experiences of
alternative consciousness.
In his descriptions of such sites in the Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who
Embraces Simplicity), Ge Hong says they are places in which divine spirits
have appeared, and sometimes earthly immortals (xian) also dwell there.
Numinous medicines grow there. In these places there is peace and opportu-
nity to cultivate the arts of transcendence.
In the Zhuangzi, Perfected Persons (zhenren) and spirit persons or divine
persons (shenren) are often portrayed as residing in caves, where they have
numinal experiences of consciousness (Cf. ch. 28). Caves on mountains pro-
vided those seeking to know the Dao with shelter for living, cooking, and
practicing inward stillness away from villages and towns. The popularity of
some of these mountains led to their ascent as “grotto-heavens.” The caves
on these mountains were called “earth lungs” (difei), and later masters speak
of them as filled with “refined qi” (jingqi). Such caves and other places
thought to concentrate qi attract numinal beings and became “blessed places”
(fudi).
As such sites became more established, when someone approached these
caves, they would notice talismans and markings placed by the master to
protect the space and warn those who drew near that they were entering a
blessed or sacred place of concentrated qi power. Ge Hong’s Baopuzi has
elaborate instructions about the preparations needed to enter such places and
make expeditions to the grotto-heavens.
98 • GROTTO-HEAVENS AND FUDI 福地 BLESSED PLACES
In Daoist belief, a cave is yin, and its mountain is yang. The cave is a
physical place, but it is also a metaphor for overcoming the distinction be-
tween the exterior and interior. Like yin and yang, exterior and interior are
not opposites; they are in a relationship of correlation between one another.
On another level, entering the cave is like entering the womb. It is window-
less and enclosed—a self-contained shelter. When the Daodejing asks rhe-
torically whether a seeker can “become as an infant” (ch. 10), it may be
playing off an analogy between the cave and the womb. In a cave, the seeker
of Dao may enter into quietude and stillness and emerge newly born, and
with a mind emptied of human distinctions and paradigms, able to move in
wu-wei. In the cave, seekers of the Dao meditated, dreamed, and visualized
numinal beings. On the mountains known as grotto-heavens, they conducted
alchemical experiments and rituals.
In the Zhuangzi, Prince Sou of Yue fled for safety to the cinnabar caves
where masters of the Dao lived (Watson 1968). Nanbo Ziqi resided in a cave
because living there aided in his spiritual incubation and stillness, and the
emptying of his mind (Watson 1968).
By the 5th century, Daoists had gathered traditions about these sites. Sima
Chengzhen (647–735) consolidated the lore about the grotto-heavens and
blessed places into 10 major grotto-heavens, 36 minor grotto-heavens, and 72
blissful places, and provided details of their names, locations, and the numi-
nal spirits associated with them. There were several lists of these places. The
one here was taken from the source Chart of the Palaces and Bureaus of the
Grotto-Heavens and the Blissful Lands (Tiandi gongfu tu, YJQQ 27).
Grotto: Xiaoyou qingxu; mountain: Wangwushan 王屋山 (Henan)
Grotto: Dayou kongming; mountain: Weiyushan 委羽山 (Zhejiang)
Grotto: Taixuan zongzhen; mountain: Xichengshan 西城山 (Shaanxi)
Grotto: Sanyuan jizhen; mountain: Xixuanshan 青城山 (part of Huashan,
Shaanxi)
Grotto: Baoxian jiushi; mountain: Qingchengshan 西玄山 (Sichuan)
Grotto: Shangqing yuping; mountain: Chichengshan 罗浮山 (Zhejiang)
Grotto: Zhuming huizhen; mountain: Luofushan 羅浮山 (Guangdong)
Grotto: Jiutan huayang; mountain: Gouqushan grotto 林屋山 (on Mao-
shan, Jiangsu)
Grotto: Youshen youxu; mountain: Linwushan 句曲山 (Jiangsu, in Lake
Tai)
Grotto: Chengde yinxuan; mountain: Guacangshan 括苍山 (Zhejiang)
There is also a list of the 36 minor grotto-heavens and one of the 72 blessed
places in the text, Seven Labels from the Bookbag of the Clouds (Yunji
qiqian, CT 1032).
 GUAN YU 關羽, GUANDI 關帝 (?–220) • 99
Some writers offer detailed descriptions of the grotto-heavens found on
various mountains. In the Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT
1016), Tao Hongjing offers such a description for the grotto-heavens inside
and below Maoshan (Mt. Mao). Grotto-heavens as caves are often described
as inversions of the outer world. The sun and moon shine there, grasses grow,
there are rivers, and birds fly though the sky. There is brightness there but not
from the sun or moon. According to text and oral tradition, the grotto-heav-
ens are linked by means of a vast network of underground passages, analo-
gous to the qi lines of the body, and which are called “earth channels”
(dimai). Each grotto-heaven is associated with at least one Perfected Person
(zhenren), immortal (xian), or numinal being (shen). Not just anyone can
enter a grotto-heaven or have an illuminating experience of clarity there. One
must be trained and practice such techniques as stillness, quietude, visualiza-
tion, and breathing.

GUAN 观. “Guan” means “to observe” or “to look at carefully.” Early obser-
vatories and lookout towers were called guan. Its use in Daoism first shows
up in reference to Louguan, the site of an ancient observatory and lookout,
southwest of Xi’an, and the place closely associated with the first transmis-
sion of the Daodejing. Now, along with gong (palace) and miao 庙 (shrine),
the term guan is used to designate Daoist institutional sites, including what is
translated into English as abbey or temple, whereas miao most often refers to
a sacred shrine, while both guan and gong 宫 may also be used for monaster-
ies. For Buddhist monasteries, the preference is si 寺.
But there is another meaning of guan in Daoist history. Under the influ-
ence of Buddhism, the term was used for a concentrative exercise by which
the mind is brought to stillness and sensory data is suspended, when Daoists
began to teach neiguan, or “inner observation.” This practice is described in
Classic of Inner Observation (Neiguan jing, CT 641). Neiguan is the height-
ened awareness of one’s body, including visualization of its inner processes
(symbolically expressed as inner body gods and palaces).

GUAN YU 關羽, GUANDI 關帝 (?–220). The historical Guan Yu fought

on the side of Liu Bei and his kingdom of Shu (Sichuan area) during the
struggles of the Three Kingdoms period. He was captured by the armies of
the kingdom of Wu and beheaded. Because of his reported valor, legends
grew about him, and he became venerated for many different reasons: as a
protector against bandits and demons, as a guardian of soldiers, as a rainmak-
er, and even as a grantor of blessings. Principally, Guan Yu was regarded as a
model of civic virtues, including loyalty and courage. The origins of his
veneration are lost to history, but his following seems to have first arisen in
Jinmen, in southern Hebei, near the site of his burial.
100 • GUANGCHENG ZI 廣成子, MASTER OF WIDE ACHIEVEMENT
Easily the most famous of Guan Yu’s achievements, and the one that may
have resulted in numerous pre-Ming dynasty temples being erected in his
honor, concerns his defeat of the demon Chiyou. Chiyou had been feared and
served for centuries at the salt ponds of Xiezhou, because it was he who had
made them dry and worthless for planting. Zhang Jixian (1092–1126), a
Zhengyi master, was asked by the Song emperor to defeat Chiyou. Zhang
called upon the Guan Yu as a spirit being for aid, and in a monumental
spiritual battle, he proved victorious. Afterward, word of his power spread,
and many temples for his veneration were erected.
Images of Guan Yu can be found in temples, shops, restaurants, and
homes. He stands strong, displaying a red face and wearing a long beard.
Among some Daoists, Guan Yu is also regarded as the patron of spirit-
writing, and devotees gather in temples dedicated to him to receive mes-
sages.

GUANGCHENG ZI 廣成子, MASTER OF WIDE ACHIEVEMENT.

Guangcheng zi (also called the Master of Kongtong or Kongtong zi) is a
character created in chapter 11 of the Zhuangzi and who lives on Mt. Kong-
tong (i.e., Mountain of Emptiness and Identity). His importance is actually
based on his tie to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi). According to the Zhu-
angzi, the Yellow Emperor went to gain Guangcheng’s instruction about how
to live the Perfect Dao and obtain longevity. Upon his advice, the emperor
abandoned the throne to undertake solitude. When he returned to Guang-
cheng zi, he found the master in a state of utter quietude and stillness. Com-
ing out of this state, he provided the emperor with a way to gain the Perfect
Dao by becoming still and pure, walking through the Gate of Deepest Ob-
scurity to the Dao.
An alternative version of this encounter is related in the Book of the
Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi), where the lesson is instead
that the emperor should be careful coming into the mountains to practice and
avoid snakes. The emperor is told how to hang a mineral from his belt to
ward off all snakes. In later traditions, Guangcheng zi was understood to be
both one of the disciples of Laozi and one of his transformations.

GUANZI 管子. The Guanzi is a collection of syncretic essays attributed to

Guan Zhong (?720–?645 BCE), a minister of the state of Qi who died in 645
BCE. In his translation and study of the text, Allyn Rickett (1985) argues that
the work is composite and certainly not traceable to the historical Guanzi.
Rickett thinks it was likely created at the Jixia Academy (c. 300 BCE).
Among early sources, it is referred to in the Book of the Masters of Huainan
(Huainanzi).
 GUO XIANG 郭象 (?232–312) • 101
GUARDING THE ONE, HOLDING TO ONENESS WITH DAO,
SHOUYI 守一. In typical Daoist practice, shouyi is a form of concentrative
meditation that focuses the being of the adept on unity with Dao. In Daodej-
ing 10, the text asks the adept, “Can you keep the spirit and embrace the One
(baoyi) without departing from it?” One method for achieving this state is in
a work of interpretation related to the Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing,
CT 1101a) entitled Secret Directions of the Holy Lord on the Classic of
Great Peace (Taiping jing shengjun bizhi, CT 1102). A method for experi-
encing internal visualization of “guarding the One” is also mentioned in Ge
Hong’s Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity).
The texts report the results of this practice as possession of long life and
control over the powers within the body and its biospiritual transformation.
Highest Clarity (Shangqing) lineages created a rich vocabulary for expand-
ing the way in which this practice was understood, especially as it transforms
and heals the bodily organs in the so-called three cinnabar fields of the
abdomen, heart, and head.
Later texts, for example, Method of Extending the Number of One’s Years
(Yannian yisuan fu, CT 1271), link this state with a combination of physical
stretches and massages, designed to create stillness, quietude of the heart-
mind (xin), and clarity of one’s qi and will. Entire Precepts of the Three
Caverns (Sandong zhongjie wen, CT 178) teaches that moral integrity is an
essential expression of the stillness and clarity that is “guarding the One.”
The practitioner moves in wu-wei, and this is equivalent to “guarding the
One” or “holding on to Oneness with Dao.”

GUI 鬼. See GHOST, DEMON, GUI, GUISHEN 鬼神.

GUO XIANG 郭象 (?232–312). Guo Xiang was a native of Luoyang, He-

nan province, and he served as a government official. He was a scholar of the
Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, and he excelled in the “pure conversation”
(qingtan) techniques of the Mysterious Learning (Xuanxue) thinkers. He
held several political offices in the area of Shandong province. At one time,
scholars claimed that he plagiarized Xiang Xiu’s (227–272) commentary on
the Zhuangzi, but these accusations are generally now regarded to have been
proven untrue. Guo not only commented on the text, but also edited,
abridged, and rearranged a larger version of the work to create what is now
regarded as the received text.
Guo was editor of the great Daoist text known as the Zhuangzi, and he tells
us that he reduced the text he received from 52 chapters to its present 33.
Why he did this is unknown. Livia Kohn argues that he felt the excised
102 • GUODIAN MANUSCRIPTS
materials contained superstitious ideas and practices to which he and other
educated intellectuals, for example, his Confucian literati colleagues, ob-
jected (Knaul 1982).

GUODIAN MANUSCRIPTS. The site of Guodian (Hubei province) was

excavated in 1993, but the texts discovered in its graves were not known until
1998. There are about 3,000 tombs in this large burial site. Approximately
1,000 of the tombs are grouped in 20 cemeteries, and Guodian is one of
these. The objects discovered in these tombs are of the typical sorts associat-
ed with the Chu culture during which the burials were made. Manuscripts
related to Daoism and Confucianism were found in tomb number 1, datable
to between 350 and 300 BCE.
There are four Guodian manuscripts of significance for Daoist studies.
Three of them are versions of the Daodejing, now known as Laozi A, B, and
C. The fourth is a previously unknown text on cosmogony. Given the date of
the manuscripts, these finds represent the earliest known versions of the
Daodejing. They are not divided into sections/chapters. The flow of the
remarks follows a different sequence from the received version established
by Wang Bi (226–249). Some scholars believe the remarks are arranged by
topic. Generally speaking, while some passages vary from the received ver-
sion, there are few significant differences in meaning.
The manuscript on cosmogony is incomplete. It was given the title The
Great One Generated Water (Taiyi sheng shui 太一生水). The text sets out
the origins of things in this order. First, Taiyi, as the ultimate basis of the
universe, created water; then with the help of water, Heaven followed, and
with the help of Heaven, came the Earth. Heaven and Earth together generat-
ed spirits and the luminaries of space (shenming 神明), and from them came
yin and yang, and from those powers came all the other myriad things.

GUOQIAO 過橋. See CROSSING THE BRIDGE, GUOQIAO 過橋.

GYMNASTICS, GUIDING AND PULLING. See DAOYIN 導引 GYM-

NASTICS, GUIDING AND PULLING.
 H
HAN XIANGZI 韓湘子. Placed in the group of the Eight Immortals (ba
xian), Han Xiangzi is said to have been the grandnephew of Tang dynasty
scholar Han Yu (768–824). In the lore of the immortals (xian), Han Xiangzi
is pictured as the favorite disciple of Lu Dongbin. Being carried into a
numinous peach tree by Lu, when he fell, Han received immortality while
passing through the branches. In pictures of the immortals, Han carries a
flute and is often surrounded by birds and animals, who gather around him
because of his beautiful music.

HAO DATONG 郝大通 (1140–1213). Hao Datong (aka Hao Taigu) is one
of the Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren) who were the original disciples
of Wang Zhe (1113–1170), founder of the Complete Perfection (Quan-
zhen) lineage. Hao was a professional diviner. He was respected for his
knowledge of the Yijing (Classic of Changes). In fact, a substantial portion
of his commentary and interpretation of the Yijing is in his collected works,
the Anthology of Master Taigu (Taigu ji, CT 1161). According to traditions
about his life, he went through a period of ascetic training, sitting for three
years in meditation on a bridge. When he was thrown off the bridge, he spent
three more years sitting in the riverbed. He returned to his native Shandong
province and founded several Daoist communities there and later. His disci-
ples founded other Quanzhen monasteries in Shandong.

HE XIANGU 何瓊. “Immortal Maiden He” is one of the Eight Immortals

(baxian), and she is portrayed with a bamboo ladle or lotus flower. She is the
only female among the group, and she represents beautiful virginal maiden-
hood. Like others of the group, she was brought into the life of an immortal
(xian) by Lu Dongbin, who delivered her from a demon and taught her
spiritual practice. One tradition reports that she was summoned to court by
Empress Wu Zetian during the Tang dynasty, but instead she “disappeared
in broad daylight” and became an immortal (xian).

103
104 • HEART, MIND, HEART-MIND, XIN 心
HEART, MIND, HEART-MIND, XIN 心. The heart-mind (xin) is the ruler
of the person. In Chinese meaning, emotion and reason are not separate
faculties of the mind or soul, as one might find in many Western dualistic
philosophical writings. The xin is a unity of cognitive and emotive forces. It
is an organ of both mental and emotional life. It is the source or “ruler” of the
will, thoughts, and understanding. The actual physical origin of the heart also
possesses openings for the emotions in Daoist physiology. It is called the
Crimson Palace (jianggong). The body and heart-mind are both made of qi.
When one’s heart is empty, quiet, still, and balanced, the qi energy of the
entire person is in harmony, ensuring long life. In Daoism, it is often said one
should be “without” xin (wuxin) or have an “empty” xin (xuxin). This means
that the Perfected Person (zhenren) moves in wu-wei without calculation,
deliberation, or intention. He follows the natural course of things. He walks
the line of the Dao, which is the same thing as saying he moves in wu-wei,
“obtains the Dao,” and “guards the One.”
Some Daoist texts locate the heart-mind in the cinnabar fields (dantian)
of the person, symbolically expressing the significance of the xin to the
biospiritual transformation of the person. The heart-mind acts as the source
of the inner alchemy (neidan) of transformation. These neidan texts may
even speak of three xin: the celestial one, the earthly one, and the human one.
This is simply recognition that the organ of the heart that pumps blood is qi
and has powers in all three of these respects. There are not literally three
hearts. In fact, texts employ other symbols, associating the heart and kidneys
as mercury and lead, respectively. The heart is sometimes called the dragon
and the kidneys the tiger, an obvious allusion to yang and yin. One way of
putting this is that these organs are the images (xiang) of the person’s qi.
Xin is the Dao, and the Dao is xin. But the human heart-mind may warp
the nature and expression of the Dao by overlaying it with thoughts and
concerns. This is why it should be emptied and stilled; only then can clarity
arise and one can move in wu-wei with the Dao.

HEBO 河伯, COUNT OF THE RIVER. In the Chinese popular religious

system, Hebo is the deity who controls the Yellow River, the cradle of
Chinese civilization. The Hebo myth can be traced back to approximately
300 BCE, in the text Bamboo Annals (Zhushu jinian). He shows up in the
Classic of the Mountain and Seas (Shanhai jing) and at least one poem in the
Songs of Chu (Chuci). Some legends portray him as a fearsome deity. In fact,
according to the Records of the Historian (Shiji), it was an annual custom in
the town of Ye in the state of Wei (Henan) to cast a beautiful girl into the
river to be Hebo’s bride. The custom continued until Ximen Bao became
magistrate of Ye and put an end to it.
 HENGSHAN 衡山 (MT. HENG, HUNAN PROVINCE) • 105
HEMINGSHAN 鹤鳴山 (MT. HEMING, SICHUAN PROVINCE).
Heming is one of the sacred mountains of Daoism, located in Sichuan prov-
ince. Two mountains in Sichuan hold claim to be Hemingshan. One is in
Jiange district, and the other is in the Dayi district, west of Chengdu. Heming
literally means “crane call,” and the explanations for the choice of this name
range from the popular belief that the two major peaks of the mountain (in
Dayi district) resemble wings of a crane, with the hill in the middle standing
for the head, to the simple statement that the ponds in the mountain area were
once home to large numbers of cranes.
Hemingshan is best known for its connection to the spiritual experiences
of Zhang Daoling, founder of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi
dao) lineage. According to numerous records, while in residence in Tiangu
cave on Heming, Laozi Deified (Laojun) appeared to Zhang in 142, and
delivered to him the One True Covenant and Way (Zhengyi mengwei). The
mountain is also associated with the activities of Du Guanting (850–933)
and the semilegendary Zhang Sanfeng.

HENGSHAN 衡山 (MT. HENG, HUNAN PROVINCE). Mt. Heng is the

name of a mountain range of 72 peaks that runs parallel to the Xiang River in
Hunan province. The main centers of Daoist activities in the mountain area
were on the peaks west of the modern city of Hengshan. Even in such early
texts as the Book of Odes (Shijing), the area was already called the “Southern
Peak” in the Five Marchmounts system (wuyue), although this designation
has not always remained constant. The firm establishment of Hengshan as
the Southern Peak occurred during the reign of Sui Yangdi (r. 604–617).
Daoshi within the lineage of Highest Clarity (Shangqing) derived from
Sima Chengzhen (647–735) established residences in the mountains and
were called the “Masters of Hengshan,” dating from the 700s through the late
800s. Hengshan was an important site for veneration of Wei Huacun
(?251–?334). Song Huizong (r. 1100–1125) provided imperial patronage to
the Daoists living there, and during the 12th century, Hengshan was part of
the growing tradition of veneration of Lu Dongbin.
Nanyue is another name for this site. Occupying the southern position, the
mountain has been associated with those features of the Five Phase physics
(wuxing) that correspond to the south (e.g., red and fire). Daoist institutions
were first authorized on the mountain by an imperial decree in 726, during
Tang Xuanzong’s (r. 712–756) reign. In his Declarations of the Perfected
(Zhengao, CT 1016), Tao Hongjing (456–536) connects Master Red Pine
(Chisong Zi) to Nanyue. Nanyue became one of the grotto-heavens (dong-
tian) of Daoism and possesses four of the “Blessed Places” (fudi).
During the Tang and Song periods, a tradition emerged about nine Daoists
who became immortals (xian) at various sites on the mountain, and these
accounts were recorded in Liao Shen’s Biographies of the Nine Perfected of
106 • HENGSHAN 恆山 (MT. HENG, SHANXI PROVINCE)
the Southern Peak (Nanyue jiu zhenren zhuan, CT 452). Most people consid-
er Nanyue to be Mt. Heng (Hengshan) in Hunan province, but there are
alternative locations defended as more probable, including Mt. Tianzhu
(Tianzhushan, Anhui province) and even Mt. Tiantai (Tiantaishan, Zhejiang
province). The principal text for Nanyue’s history and place in Daoism is
Anthology of Highlights of the Southern Peak (Nanyue zongsheng ji, CT
606).

HENGSHAN 恆山 (MT. HENG, SHANXI PROVINCE). Mt. Heng in

Shanxi is the Northern Peak of the Five Marchmounts system (wuyue). It is
located south of Datong. Since the time of the Zhou dynasty, the mountain
has been considered a site of concentrated numinal power and presence. The
Shrine of the Northern Peak (Beiyue miao) was erected for the spirit whose
presence manifested itself on the mountain during the Han dynasty and who
continues to visit to the present. Quanzhen daoshi staff the temples and
shrines (miao) on the mountain, but Buddhists have also occupied many of
its sacred places. The Buddhist Suspended Monastery (Xuankong si), built
on stilts and hanging from one of its cliffs, is the best-known site on the
mountain. Hengshan was never a major pilgrimage site or a place of daoshi
training or ordination. It is arguably the least important of the Five March-
mounts.

HEQI 合氣. See MERGING QI, HEQI 合氣.

HESHANG GONG 河上公. Heshang gong 河上公 is actually more of a

title than a name. It means “Old Gentleman by the River.” An early commen-
tary on the Daodejing dating perhaps to the 1st century is ascribed to the
person referred to with this title. While early interpreters thought that the
commentator tried to link the Daodejing and the search for immortality, the
prevailing view today is that the text is much more concerned with “nourish-
ing life” (yangsheng) practices and inner meditation and transformation. The
commentary speaks of the need to cultivate the “three treasures” of vitality
(jing), energy (qi), and spirit (shen), and finds the sources for this activity to
be found in the Daodejing (see also JING, QI, SHEN 精, 氣, 神, ESSENCE,
ENERGY, VITAL FORCE, SPIRIT). Heshang gong sees the Daodejing as a
meditative training manual, calling for what would later be called inner
alchemy (neidan) in a more thoroughly developed form.

HIDDEN INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ASCENT TO PERFECTION,

DENGZHEN YINJUE 登真隱訣. Hidden Instructions for the Ascent to
Perfection (CT 421) is a Highest Clarity (Shangqing) lineage work com-
piled and annotated by Tao Hongjing, probably in about 499. Only three of
 HIGHEST CLARITY LINEAGE, SHANGQING 上清 • 107
the original 24 chapters survive. The text is addressed to Shangqing adepts.
The first chapter provides instructions for practices of spiritual transforma-
tion and “guarding the One” (shouyi). The second contains minor recipes
and apotropaic practices also provided in Tao’s other major work, Declara-
tions of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016). Chapter three contains instruc-
tions for rituals reported to have been given by Zhang Daoling to the
numinal being Wei Huacun (?251–?334). These include methods for writing
talismans (fu), entering a quiet room (jingshi), chanting texts, summoning
numinal beings, and healing illnesses.

HIGHEST CLARITY LINEAGE, SHANGQING 上清. The Highest

Clarity (Shangqing) lineage is also known as Maoshan Daoism. Originally,
the term Shangqing referred to the level of heaven from which came the
revelations delivered to spirit medium (jitong) Yang Xi (330–386) between
364 and 370, by a number of perfected immortals (xian), including Wei
Huacun (?251–?334). These revelations were written down and, together
with other writings and commentaries on them, assigned the highest rank of
texts in the Daoist Canon—the first among the Three Caverns in the canon’s
structure.
The texts, unlike those of the Lingbao lineage, became foundational for an
actual movement known as Shangqing, established by Tao Hongjing
(456–536). This movement, like the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi
dao), developed its own liturgies, precepts, and rules of order, identifiable
holy sites, and lineage of patriarchs and masters. A long textual tradition
developed as well within the master-disciple transmissions of the lineage.
Shangqing grew within aristocratic and highly educated circles. Many of
their texts display highly polished literary and poetic skills.
The revelations that created Shangqing came from Wei Huacun and other
spirit beings and were written down by Yang Xi and delivered to the Xu
family, specifically Xu Mi (303–376) and his son, Xu Hui (341–?370). These
manuscripts were transmitted by Xu Mi’s grandson and later bequeathed to
other aristocratic families. In the dispersions of the texts, forgeries claiming
to be traced to Yang Xi were also produced. The reason that forgeries were
particularly abhorrent to Shangqing masters is that it was believed that when
Yang Xi received the texts from numinal beings, it was through a form of
spirit-writing. This is to say that the numinal being moved the writing instru-
ment or the hand of the human subject to express exactly what should be
written.
According to tradition, Tao Hongjing was able to reassemble the original
body of texts. Because of Tao’s work, Shangqing grew to become the strong-
est and most influential of Daoist lineages from roughly the 6th to 10th
centuries. Several emperors and leading officials, along with their families,
108 • HONG XIUQUAN 洪秀全 (1814–1864)
were initiated into Shangqing teachings and practices. It was not until the
Song dynasty in the 1200s that Shangqing lost its supremacy with the Way
of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) patriarchs.
In Shangqing belief, the transformation of each person is individual. There
are no saviors. Transcendence (xian) is obtained here, in this world. In its
highest form, the unified qi being that is a person becomes a numinal being
through the “nine transformations” (jiuzhuan), and this outcome is a result of
inner alchemy (neidan).
While Shangqing texts preserve the language of earlier teachings, for ex-
ample, the three cinnabar fields (dantian) of the body, the meaning of these
concepts is internalized and symbolized. Shangqing has an active practice of
alternative consciousness. Adepts experience numinal beings as present and
receive guidance from them. Sometimes they are inhabited by them. This is
another way of saying that the individual embodies or may embody many
personages, spirits, or gods. Embracing these experiences transforms one
into a luminous being. Just as the gods may dwell at the same time in the
heavens and in the adept, likewise the adept may live in this world as a
numinal being.
Unlike the Celestial Masters (Tianshi), Shangqing practices did not priori-
tize the writing of petitions. Compounding elixirs and gathering herbs were
minor interests, and sexual practices of the bedchamber (fangzhong shu)
played little role. In place of these practices, Shangqing texts and masters
stress recitations (songjing), visualization (cun), ecstatic transformation of
consciousness (bianhua), methods for having one’s name written in the “reg-
isters of life,” practices for “untying the embryonic knots” that impede the
flow of qi, and instructions on how to go on far-off journeys of conscious-
ness (yuanyou).
The principal legacy of Shangqing Daoism is its move to interiorize bio-
spiritual transformation of the person. The goal is to actualize a different sort
of existence in the here and now, to take on luminosity. The methods and
texts of this lineage are ways set before the individual and are not dependent
on others. Rituals are methods of creating interior changes or participating in
the effects of cosmic forces available to those seeking transformation into a
transcendent or Perfected Person (zhenren).

HONG XIUQUAN 洪秀全 (1814–1864). During the Qing dynasty, the

Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864), led by Hong Xiuquan (1812–1864), was
hard on Daoist institutions and practitioners. Hong has been called “God’s
Chinese Son,” and he tried to establish a Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace
(Taiping) in Nanjing. He followed an ongoing vision of Christianity revealed
to him through encounters with the heavenly family of God, including his
elder brother, Jesus, and sister, Guanyin. The Taiping Rebellion was one of
the bloodiest conflicts in history. At least 20 million Chinese perished as a
 HUANG LINGWEI 黄靈微 (FLOWER MAIDEN) (C. 640–721) • 109
result of it. Hong’s armies struck out at the “idols” of the Buddhists, as well
as the City God (Chenghuang shen) and Daoist sites. Hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of Daoist abbeys (guan) and shrines (miao) were destroyed.
Among those communities particularly hard hit were the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi) centers on Dragon and Tiger Mountain (Longhushan).

HONGTOU 紅頭 AND WUTOU 烏頭. See RED HEAD AND BLACK

HEAD DAOISTS, HONGTOU 紅頭 AND WUTOU 烏頭.

HOUSEHOLDER DAOSHI, HUOJU DAOSHI 火居 道士. Daoshi who

are married are called huoju daoshi. This terms literally means “living by the
fire.” Such daoshi belong to the Zhengyi lineage (Celestial Masters, Tianshi).
They are distinguished from the Quanzhen daoshi, who are celibate and
typically reside in monastic communities, not their own private residences.

HUAHUJING 化胡經. See CLASSIC OF THE CONVERSION OF THE

BARBARIANS, HUAHUJING 化胡經.

HUAINANZI 淮南子. See BOOK OF THE MASTERS OF HUAINAN, HU-

AINANZI 淮南子.

HUANG LINGWEI 黄靈微 (FLOWER MAIDEN) (c. 640–721). Huang

Lingwei was a notable Daoist woman in Tang China. We know little about
her life and must depend almost entirely on Yan Zhenqing’s (709–785) re-
ports. Yan was prefect of Fuzhou, Jiangxi province, where Huang was best
known. He wrote an epitaph for inscription on her shrine in Linchuan. Du
Guangting also reported details of her life in his anthology of materials
about female Daoist figures entitled Records of the Immortals Gathered in
the Walled City (Yongcheng jixian lu, CT 783).
Yan reports that Huang came from Linchuan but does not indicate whether
she was married or had children. He says she was ordained as a daoshi at the
age of 12. The details of her life remain a mystery until she was 50, when
Yan picks up her story again. He tells us that she searched for the long-lost
shrine of Wei Huacun (?251–?334), and Huang is depicted as a woman of
courage and piety for the Dao. She discovered the shrine, and the artifacts
she recovered were seized by Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690–705). Huang con-
ducted Daoist rituals at the restored shine for 30 years. When she was ready
to transform, she instructed her disciples not to nail her coffin shut but only
cover it with crimson gauze. After being laid to rest for a few days, lightning
struck the coffin, exposing that it was empty, leaving only her burial shroud
behind. She had undergone “disappearance of the corpse” (shijie). Du
Guangting called her the “immortal who had descended from heaven.”
110 • HUANGDI 黄帝
HUANGDI 黄帝. See YELLOW EMPEROR, HUANGDI 黄帝.

HUANGDI NEIJING 黄帝内經. See INNER CLASSIC OF THE YELLOW

EMPEROR, HUANGDI NEIJING 黄帝内經.

HUANGJIN ZHI LUAN 黃巾之亂. See YELLOW TURBANS, YELLOW

TURBAN REBELLION, HUANGJIN ZHI LUAN 黃巾之亂.

HUANG-LAO 黄老. See YELLOW EMPEROR-LAOZI DAOISM,

HUANG-LAO 黄老.

HUANGTINGJING CLASSIC OF THE YELLOW COURT 黃庭經.

See CINNABAR FIELDS, FIELDS OF ELIXIR, DANTIAN 丹田.

HUASHAN 華山 (MT. HUA, SHAANXI PROVINCE). Flower, or Glori-

ous (Hua), Mountain is located in the Huayin district of Shaanxi province
and known as the Western Peak of the Five Marchmounts system (wuyue)
of China. The mountain has a perilous precipice that overlooks the plain
below. Narrow stone steps along dangerous ridges of the granite landform
lead to sacred sites believed to have been frequented in the past by immor-
tals (xian) and masters of Dao. The Shrine of the Western Peak (Xiyue
miao), located at the foot of the mountain, was used for Daoist rites, as well
as spirit medium (jitong) practices and popular cults.
The original renown of the mountain may have been associated with its
reputation for being the location for medicinals and herbs necessary for lon-
gevity, transcendence, and even immortality. Natural and man-made caves
formed residences for seekers of the Dao on the mountains near vertical
cliffs. Tradition records that Huashan was the site of Chen Tuan’s (c.
920–989) acquisition of immortality, and the Abbey of the Jade Spring
(Yuqian guan) on the site is dedicated to him.
While the mountain was historically frequented by residents of Shaanxi,
there was no elaborate pilgrimage season for worship there. In 1230, the
Daoist sites on Huashan came under the administration of the Quanzhen
order, and this remains so into the present day.

HUASHU 化書. See BOOK OF TRANSFORMATION, HUASHU 化書.

HUN 魂 AND PO 魄. Although hun and po are terms often translated as

“souls,” they are not souls, nor even separate dualistic objects or entities, as
may be thought in Western religions and philosophies. They are two expres-
sions of qi, the life source of the universe and each individual. Thus, they are
ways of talking about the same single energy. Hun is qi in its luminous and
 HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PRECEPTS SPOKEN BY LORD LAO • 111
volatile form, as described by the term yang. Po is qi in a heavy and somber
form, as described by the term yin. The philosophical grammar describing
them associates them with spirit (shen) or even ghosts (gui). When one’s qi
identity is described by reference to body and physicality, the more the texts
use po. The more the language reports consciousness and intelligence, the
more the texts use hun. But there is no dualism here. These are alternative
descriptions of the same phenomenon, the qi identity of a person. Po, or
body, is like the crust of a piece of bread—still bread but a form describable
and efficacious in a way that the soft meat of the bread is not. Hun and po are
roughly analogous to this example. This is why interpreters will say that at
death, the hun mounts to Heaven and the po remains and returns to the earth
(i.e., the Yellow Springs, Huang Quan).
The understanding of hun and po took many twists and turns, with some
texts speaking of seven po and/or three hun. In some writings, these po and
hun are anthropomorphized and even given names. Why these numbers were
chosen and why such changes in understanding occurred can only be a matter
of speculation, as we have no text explaining them. Ge Hong (283–343)
suggests that po and hun can be visualized by ingesting medicines and the
practice of a method called the “multiplication of the body” (fenxing).
Typically, hun penetration of po leaves it inanimate and incapable of con-
sciousness, although there are numerous stories of the dead who are still
recognizable in their bodily form. So, rites designed to “summon the hun”
(zhaohun) are the means of reanimation of the form that is po. The Ming
dynasty work Return of the Soul (Mudan ting, aka Peony Pavilion), by Tang
Xianzu (1598), has an account of such a ritual performed by a daogu (i.e.,
female daoshi).
Daoist traditions often report the hun wandering into numinal realms.
Techniques were even developed to both make this possible as a practice and
restrain and control it. Reports of immortals (xian) taking along their po
(body form) or getting it to perform in unusual ways are also common.

HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PRECEPTS SPOKEN BY LORD LAO, LAO-

JUN SHUO YIBAI BASHI JIE 老君說一百八十戒. The current version of
the Hundred and Eighty Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao is a set of behavioral
rules translated and edited by Barbara Hendrischke and Benjamin Petty
(1996), and based principally on Classic of the Regulations of the Most High
Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun jing lu, CT 786), although three other sources
are also used. The work is in two parts: a preface describing how the 180
precepts were transmitted to humans and the precepts themselves.
In the preface, when Laozi returned from converting the barbarians in the
West, he was disturbed to see the corruption in the state. The rules were
granted to the people to bring the communities back into harmony with the
Dao. The precepts themselves include both Daoist and Buddhist rules. The
112 • HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PRECEPTS SPOKEN BY LORD LAO
first 140 are prohibitive and the remaining 40 exhort and encouraging posi-
tive conduct. Some precepts seem rather universal (e.g., “Do not steal other
people’s property,” number 3). Others reflect particularistic cultural and so-
cial practices (e.g., “Do not eat off gold or silver ware,” number 72; “Do not
poke your tongue out at other people,” number 99). Some exhortations are
clearly Daoist (“Exert yourself to seek long life,” number 147; “Strive to
ingest qi and eliminate cereals, practicing the Dao of no-death [busi],” num-
ber 149).

HUNDUN 混沌. See CHAOS, PRIMAL FORMLESSNESS, HUNDUN 混

沌.

HUOJU DAOSHI 火居 道士. See HOUSEHOLDER DAOSHI, HUOJU

DAOSHI 火居 道士.
 I
IMAGE, XIANG 象. There are many ways to translate xiang, but the pre-
dominate use of this word in Daoist texts is as “image” or “figure.” Xiang is
used for “making something apparent.” So, as Daoists use it, the image
manifests the numinal or cosmic. This is exactly why the xiang is considered
to be the “real form” of things (zhenxing). Daoist alchemists say theirs is an
art of the image (xiang). The relation of object and image may be thought of
in ways similar to an icon in the West. The objects participate in the numinal-
ity they convey, but they are not identical with it. They transmit it and
mediate it but do not exhaust it.
Daoist language of inner alchemy (neidan) and external alchemy (wai-
dan) is an example of image. The names used in language in both of these
types of alchemy are images themselves but not “mere” symbols. They are
vague and elusive, but within is an essence, that is genuine and authentic
(Daodejing 21).

IMMORTAL, TRANSCENDENT, XIAN 仙. Texts from the period of the

early Zhou dynasty maintained that humans may be able to prolong their
lives beyond the normal course of years usual for humans and that the body
may be transformed. These teachings preceded the formation of the Daodej-
ing and Zhuangzi, and they have been influential apart from Daoism in
Chinese medical and “nourishing life” (yangsheng) practices. Various terms
were used for this phenomenon, for example, changsheng (long life) and busi
(not dying).
Miura Kunio (1989) calls attention to the fact that the graph now used for
xian 仙 was derived from its original form as 僊, which denotes the idea of
relocation, specifically ascending to Heaven. A transcendent person (xian-
ren) is a person who has obtained extraordinary powers, including longevity
or even immortality, as well as the ability to heal, be invincible, become
invisible or translucent, and bilocate, as well as other powers.

113
114 • IMMORTAL, TRANSCENDENT, XIAN 仙
The first descriptions of a transcendent (xian) in any Daoist text appear in
the Zhuangzi, and these imply a state that is achievable for any person, not
just emperors or the elite. Later collections of the biographies of immortals
and transcendents have accounts of people from all walks of life (peasants,
beggars, merchants, literati, empresses) and both genders.

In the far-off Gushe mountains there lives a spirit man whose skin and
flesh are like ice and snow, who is as gentle as a virgin. He does not eat
the five grains but sucks in the wind and drinks the dew. He rides the
vapor of the clouds, yokes the dragons to his chariot, and roams beyond
the four seas. When the spirit within him concentrates, he can keep crea-
tures free of plagues and make the grain ripen every year (Zhuangzi, ch.
1).
The utmost person is spirit-like. When the wide woodlands blaze, they
cannot burn him; when the Yellow River and the Han freeze, they cannot
chill him; when swift thunderbolts smash the mountains and whirlwinds
shake the seas, they cannot frighten him. He is a man who yokes the
clouds to his chariot, rides the sun and moon, and roams beyond the four
seas. Death and life cannot affect him; even less can benefit or misfortune.
(Zhuangzi, ch. 1)

The Records of the Historian (Shiji) is the earliest text revealing the exis-
tence of an immortality cult that emphasizes what later Daoists called exter-
nal alchemy (waidan); however, in this text, the focus is only on emperors
and the elite who are able to summon and patronized presumed experts in the
knowledge of gaining transcendence. The text mentions how Qinshihuang (r.
221–210 BCE) made expeditions to holy mountains seeking immortals and
materials for elixirs in his own quest to obtain this goal. Elsewhere in this
text is the report by Xu Fu to Qinshihuang that there were three mountains in
the middle of the ocean called Penglai that were inhabited by immortals. So,
the early traditions imply that it was believed in the Qin period that immor-
tals live on mountains or islands that can be approached by an ordinary
person.
Both Qinshihuang and Han Wudi associated with people called masters of
techniques (fangshi), who were reputed to be skilled in matters related to
longevity and immortality. Some of them, for example, Li Shaojun and
Dongfang Shuo, are included in the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals
(Liexian zhuan). Such practices were not without their critics. Wang Chong
considered “immortals” to simply be long-lived people who presented them-
selves as immortal. Cao Zhi (192–293), the son of Cao Cao, produced an
essay denying the existence of immortals. The Classic of Great Peace (Taip-
ing jing) distinguishes between longevity and immortality. It offers instruc-
 INCENSE BURNER, XIANGLU 香爐 • 115
tions on special diets, breathing techniques, drug therapy, and moral behav-
ior, and establishes a series of nine graded categories in which people might
exist, with immortals ranking only fourth.
Just when the idea came about that ordinary people could actually become
immortals by compounding and making elixirs or minerals is uncertain. In
fact, the ancient stories, dating into the Han dynasty, are primarily concerned
with the discovery of medicines of immortality, not their creation by hu-
mans. We have little evidence before the writing of Ge Hong for the view
that in principle, anyone could gain immortality or become a transcendent
through the methods of external alchemy. Ge offers a long list of drugs and
recipes, as well as detailed rituals that are to be undertaken in the pursuit of
the elixir, that would make one transcendent. Another example of the view
that people may achieve transcendence by their own effort that lies outside
the writings of Ge is in a work ascribed to Wu Yun (?–778) entitled Essay on
How One May Become a Divine Immortal through Training (Shenxian kexue
lun, contained in CT 1051).
As the understanding of immortals evolved in Daoism, various rankings
and distinctions were made, largely drawing on Ge’s work and including
such categories as celestial immortals (tianxian), earthly immortals (dixian),
and those who had obtained “disappearance of the corpse” (shijie). Immor-
tals became associated with the celestial realm, the grotto-heavens (dong-
tian), and the underworld.
Robert Campany (2002) takes the position that although the term xian is
routinely translated as “immortal,” the texts Ge Hong collated and edited
actually promised neither a once-and-for-all immortality nor an escape from
time and change into an eternal stasis. The levels of xian as Ge categorized
them showed distinct degrees or levels of xian-hood. Likewise, in both Ge’s
writing and other places, the texts sometimes distinguish xian from those
who have simply managed not to die (busi). Accordingly, Campany prefers
translating xian as “transcendents.” This approach preserves the exalted stat-
us of such individuals, revealing that they go beyond what is ordinarily taken
as the limits of the human being and affirming that they have ascended to
links in the chain higher than those occupied by even the best of humanity
but not that they escape temporality into some immortal or eternal state of
being.

INCENSE BURNER, XIANGLU 香爐. Daoist rituals invariably make use

of incense. Daoist abbeys (guan) and monasteries have incense burners in
front of the entrances to their main halls and the images (xiang) of deities
and Perfected Persons (zhenren) venerated in those places. In the Way of
the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), even within the quiet room (jingshi),
incense burning is required. One use of burning incense is equivalent to
making an offering to the numinal beings. The ancient religious practice of
116 • INDEX OF CLASSICS AND WRITINGS OF THE THREE CAVERNS
roasted offerings (fanchai) is probably the origin of the burning of incense.
As Buddhist practices influenced those of Daoism, the purpose of incense
also became expanded. It was no longer only making an offering, but also
believed to carry a supplication or request into the numinal world continu-
ously for as long as it burned, even if the petitioner was not present.
The Highest Clarity (Shangqing) text Great Rites of the Numinous Treas-
ure of Highest Clarity (Shangqing lingbao dafa, CT 1221) gives the practice
of burning incense many different names depending on the function (e.g.,
“incense of clarity and quiescence” [qingjing xiang] or the “incense of wu-
wei” [wu-wei xiang]). In Daoist rituals involving the community, it is normal
to have a daoshi who is specifically in charge of the incense (“master of the
burner,” luzhu).

INDEX OF CLASSICS AND WRITINGS OF THE THREE CAVERNS,

SANDONG JINGSHU MULU 三洞經書目錄. This is the earliest compre-
hensive canonical list of Daoist texts presently known to modern scholarship.
It was presented in 471, to the throne on imperial command, by Daoist Lu
Xiujing (406–477). Lu’s original list does not survive, but by using various
sources, including Buddhist polemical treatises, we can do some reasonable
reconstruction of it.
The original catalog contained 1,228 scrolls of texts. These texts were
divided into “Three Caverns”: Cavern of Perfection (Dongzhen), Cavern of
Mystery (Dongxuan), and Cavern of Spirit (Dongshen). Subsequent Daoist
Canons have preserved this three-cavern structure for organizing the texts of
the tradition.
The caverns contained texts from the Shangqing, Lingbao, and Sanhuang
wen lineages, respectively. The caverns are also listed in descending order,
from Shangqing as the highest and most exalted to the lowest, Sanhuang;
however, given that we do not have information on the contents of about
five-sixths of the list, we do not know whether it included Orthodox Unity
(Zhengyi) writings and, if so, where these were placed.

INHERITED BURDEN, CHENGFU 承負. Chengfu is the concept of “in-

herited burden,” referring to the ways in which liabilities and outcomes of
moral wrongs committed by individuals are transmitted to their descendants.
In this way calamities and misfortune are passed from one generation to
another, eventually reaching such dramatic social outcomes as war, as well as
natural disasters and epidemics.
 INNER ALCHEMY, NEIDAN 内丹 • 117
Antecedents to the belief in an inherited burden from previous generations
are found in the Warring States Period (475–221 BCE). During that time, the
emperor was considered the focal point of the balance between Heaven and
humanity. If he acted contrary to the will of Heaven, the negative results
displayed themselves not only in the royal house, but also with his people.
The most important source on the concept in Daoism is the Classic of
Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a). The text speaks of a golden era in
which the original qi (yuanqi) from which all things were created circulated
within nature and humanity to support and nourish life. It was a time of Great
Peace. But humans corrupted this state of being and created inner and outer
disharmony. These faults are transferred as the “inherited burden” (chengfu)
of humankind. It is this burden that makes problems like war so intractable. It
is also the explanation for natural disaster and disease.
In the Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity), Ge Hong
takes the position that immoral actions reduce the lifespan of not only the
person who commits them, but also their descendants, and they may cause
calamities in society at large. This belief shows itself later in Chinese Daoism
in the morality books (shanshu) and ledgers of merit and demerit (gongguo
ge).

INNER ALCHEMY, NEIDAN 内丹. In Daoism, neidan is a form of alche-

my. It is a type of biospiritual transformation but one in which the processes
occur inside one’s body. The Daoist practice of inner alchemy includes a nest
of theories and instructions based on the Five Phase physics (wuxing) of
China. The traditions transform language originally belonging to external
alchemy (waidan) into language about an internal discipline. These include
“nourishing life” (yangsheng) tradition, “sitting in forgetfulness” (zuow-
ang) meditation, circulating breath (xingqi), and even gymnastics (daoyin).
Concern with diet does not show up in many neidan treatises. Likewise,
moral instruction like one can find in the morality books and ledgers (shan-
shu), even if often connected to the preservation of one’s qi (e.g., as in the
Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi, Laozi Xiang’er zhu), is also not directly
a subject of many neidan texts.
The ultimate goal of inner alchemy is straightforward: the biospiritual
transformation of one’s being into a numinal existence (i.e., becoming a
transcendent or immortal [xian]). This transformation is sometimes associat-
ed with “disappearance of the corpse” (shijie) or “disappearance in broad
daylight” (bairi shengtian ). Neidan may also be practiced in tandem with
external alchemy or by itself.
Internal alchemical arts like “sitting and forgetting” and various meditative
practices are documented into the 4th century BCE in the Inner Training
(Neiye) text and the Zhuangzi, but there seems not to have been any single
method of practice that early on. The traditional view of the work known as
118 • INNER ALCHEMY, NEIDAN 内丹
one of the earliest alchemical texts in China, the Relationship of the Three,
in Accordance with the Book of Changes (Zhouyi cantong qi), is that togeth-
er with external elixirs and moral life, inner alchemy works to synthesize the
transformation of the adept.
The earliest use of the term neidan is in biographies dating to the 5th
century. Some individual neidan teachings appear in the writings of Liu
Zhigu (?663–?756), Tao Zhi (?–825), and Peng Xiao (?–955). The earliest
lineages majoring in neidan practice were the Zhenyuan and Zhong-Lu;
however, generally speaking, neidan practice was undertaken by Daoists of
many lineages and traditions, at least until the establishment of the Complete
Perfection lineage. Neidan became a hallmark of Quanzhen’s way to com-
plete perfection, especially in its Nanzong branch. From the Tang to the
Ming, neidan literature and practice became increasingly refined and com-
plex. By the time of the Qing dynasty, there were five main neidan schools.
Neidan teaching bends language in many ways and is highly symbolic.
The texts go into great detail about the transformation of the whole person as
a qi being, using such images (xiang) as cinnabar, lead, mercury, dragon,
and tiger to refer to organs and systems of the body. One reason for such an
alternative use of these terms compared to what we find in external alchemy
is the central belief in neidan that much of the process of transformation
cannot be put into words but must be practiced.
There are basic and common teachings among the neidan schools. Inner
alchemy is meant to aid in the attainment of the “three accomplishments”
(sancheng). These correspond to the refinement of the most elemental forms
of qi endowment in the human being: refining essence into qi (lianjing hu-
aqi); refining qi into spirit (lianqi huashen); and refining spirit into emptiness
(lianshen huaxu). This entire process is called “compounding internal elixir”
(neidan) because nothing external is ingested. It eventuates in a numinal
embryo of new life (shengtai), which may become immortal because it par-
takes of the power and nature of the Origin of all things (yuanqi). According-
ly, the process is described as a “return to the Origin” (huanyuan). This
return is not an absorption into some amorphous whole or disappearance of
identity. On the contrary, when it occurs, an adept may abandon the physical
wuxing form completely, leaving it behind and continuing to exist as a pure
qi being.
In keeping with the highly symbolic language of neidan teaching and the
efforts of its commentators to connect the practice analogously to a type of
alchemical change of substance, the process is described as though one were
erecting within the body a laboratory for making elixirs. One begins by
creating an inner laboratory, which is actually laying the foundation for the
meditative process (zhuji). Thought and action are merged to create a union
of yin and yang. Internal alchemical medicine (caiyao) is gathered by stilling
the mind and emptying it of discriminations. The numinal embryo is nour-
 INNER NATURE AND DESTINY, XING 性 AND MING 命 • 119
ished through a practice called “fire phasing” (huohou), which, in external
alchemy, is varying the distance of the fire from the tripod, altering the
amount of fuel, and changing the duration of heat and cooling. In neidan, fire
phasing refers to the manipulation of breathing (the fire, huo) to establish
various phases of intensity and rest, quiescence and movement, and darkness
and light (hou). The culmination is the final stage of the creation of a numinal
embryo, a new life for the self.

INNER CLASSIC OF THE YELLOW EMPEROR, HUANGDI NEIJING

黄帝内經. The Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor may be considered the
most important and best-known text of ancient Chinese medical theory. The
text is divided into two major sections—the “Plain Questions” (Suwen) and
the “Numinous Pivot” (Lingshu)—each being a compilation of thematically
ordered theories from various medical traditions or lineages. Scholars usually
date the earliest version of the compilation as being created between the 1st
century BCE and the 1st century CE.
The work contains dialogues between the Yellow Emperor and various
ministers. These conversations are concerned with cosmology, medical diag-
nosis, lifestyle, and therapeutic techniques. The “Plain Questions” discusses
natural and biological processes in terms of the Five Phases physics (wux-
ing). The “Numinous Pivot” provides details on such therapies as acupunc-
ture and moxibustion. There are other books that are known to have had
Huangdi neijing as a prefix to their titles. Some are no longer extant.

INNER NATURE AND DESTINY, XING 性 AND MING 命. As one

finds in Western philosophy, Chinese thinkers also debated whether human
nature is good or bad. Great Confucian thinkers Mengzi (372–289 BCE) and
Xunzi (310–235 BCE) were classical representatives of this quandary, each
taking a different view. Daoism did not have such a debate. In Daoist texts,
human nature is referred to as a “cavern” (dong) or simply called the “gate of
wonders” (zhongmiao zhi men). These concepts point to the emptiness of
human nature but not its nothingness.
Another approach taken in Daoism is to say that xing (nature) is qi and
ming (destiny/fate) is shen. The unity of xing and ming in a person is “lodged
in the Mysterious Pass” (xuanguan). In alchemy, xuanguan is the joining of
the antinomies lead and mercury, Dragon and Tiger, heart and kidneys, na-
ture (xing) and destiny (ming). The Mysterious Pass is an opening of Being
that cannot be accessed by discursive thought or physical movement alone. It
is the “dark gate” (xuanmen) that leads to Oneness with Dao. It is also
described as the “middle” (zhong) for the positioning of one’s self at the
“center of the compass.”
120 • INNER TRAINING
INNER TRAINING. See NEIYE.

INSCRIPTION FOR LAOZI, LAOZI MING 老子銘. Inscription for Laozi

is the earliest-known document that testifies to the divination of Laozi. It is a
stele engraving. The inscription is traceable to court minister Bian Shao and
dated precisely to September 24, 165. It records the making of imperial
sacrifices to Laozi at his birthplace in Bozhou (Luyi in Henan) and the
imperial palace in Luoyang under Han Huandi (r. 146–168). The inscription
provides a summary of Laozi’s biography from Records of the Historian
(Shiji) and a description of the birthplace itself, and it associates the Daodej-
ing with the expression of his ideas. The text names Laozi as the central deity
of the cosmos, who was born from the original substance of the One, mani-
fested himself on Earth, and eventually returned to the numinal realm as an
immortal (xian). The text reports that the king had a dream about Laozi that
led him to make the sacrifices during his reign. A detailed study of the
inscription has been made by Anna Seidel (1969).

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRACTICES WITH THE HAND, SHOUJUE

手訣. Daoist practitioners have a number of different hand gestures and
techniques used during rituals and teaching, and as protections for a wide
variety of physical spaces and situations. Some of these practices have been
influenced by Tantric Buddhism, which employs what are called mudras, or
hand gestures, as channels of power. Shoujue is a practice particularly effica-
cious for commanding numinal spirits and powers. One Daoist ritual that
depends greatly on shoujue is the rite of Universal Salvation (pudu). In that
ritual, the complicated intertwining of fingers of both hands serves to multi-
ply the effects of the ritual so they will be sufficient for the salvation of all.
While the daoshi may “walk the guideline” or “pace the Dipper” by a
kind of ritual dance and walking movement, he may also perform the “walk”
by using his thumb to trace the path and tapping a sequence of points in his
hand. As with an actual ambulation, the touching of points in the hand is a
procedure used to activate numinal power through the body of the daoshi. In
this way, it is quite literally a kind of transformation of the body (bianshen or
huashen) of the daoshi. The earliest written references to ritual practices with
the hands are in Tang dynasty texts.
 J
JADE EMPEROR, YUHUANG 玉皇. Among the ordinary people, the
Jade Emperor is more commonly called the Lord of Heaven (Tian Gong). He
is the supreme deity of Chinese popular religion and also occupies a high
position in the pantheon of Daoist numinal beings. The principal work setting
out the Jade Emperor’s identity and wondrous deeds dates to the Tang dynas-
ty and is entitled Collected Classic on the Deeds of the Jade Emperor
(Yuhuang benxing jijing, CT 10 and CT 11). This text is still often recited in
Daoist liturgies.
Song emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1125) gave the Jade Emperor many pre-
stigious titles and added rituals to him to the roster of official sacrifices. In
fact, as the veneration of the Jade Emperor evolved in Daoism, he came to be
regarded as the chief among the Four Sovereigns (siyu). There are several
texts in the Daoist Canon providing specific instructions for rituals of vener-
ation to him. One example is Precious Litany of Repentance That Moves the
Jade Emperor to Grant Absolution from Guilt and the Allotment of Good
Fortune (Yuhuang youzhi xifu bochan, CT 193).

JIANGSHEN 降神. See CALLING DOWN THE DEITIES, JIANGSHEN

降神.

JIAO 醮, OFFERING, TO PERFORM A SACRIFICE. See RITUALS;

ZHAI 齋, CEREMONY, FAST, PURIFICATION.

JIE 戒. See PRECEPTS, JIE 戒.

JIJIU 祭酒. See LIBATIONER, JIJIU 祭酒.

JINDAN 金丹. See GOLDEN ELIXIR, JINDAN 金丹.

121
122 • JING, QI, SHEN 精, 氣, 神, ESSENCE, ENERGY, VITAL FORCE, SPIRIT
JING, QI, SHEN 精, 氣, 神, ESSENCE, ENERGY, VITAL FORCE,
SPIRIT. Jing, qi, and shen are sometimes called the Three Treasures (san-
bao). Qi is the fundamental substantive energy that underlies all forms ac-
cording to the Five Phase physics (wuxing) of Chinese cosmology. Jing
points to the substance that is the germ of life itself, its essence. Jing is made
of qi, just as all other things are as well. In Daodejing 21, the text says,
“Vague and elusive! Within is an image/Vague and elusive! Within is a
thing/Withdrawn and mysterious! Within is essence (jing).” In the human
body, jing is a creative and sustaining energy of life, and the term is often
used for semen in men and menstrual blood in women. Shen is the form of qi
that has psychic capability and can report its consciousness and awareness. In
neidan practice (inner alchemy), we often find the process of refining jing
into qi (lianjing huaqi), qi into shen (lianqi huashen), and shen into empti-
ness (lianshen huaxu). There are many inner refinement methods used in
Daoism to produce these changes.

JINGSHI 静室. See QUIET ROOM, MEDITATION CHAMBER, JINGSHI

静室.

JITONG 乩童. See SPIRIT-MEDIUM, JITONG 乩童.

JIUDAN JING 九丹經. See CLASSIC OF THE NINE ELIXIRS, JIUDAN

JING 九丹經.

JIXIA ACADEMY. According to the Records of the Historian (Shiji) by

Sima Qian (145–90 BCE), beginning during the reign of King Wei (358–320
BCE) and continuing into the reign of King Xuan (319–309 BCE), an intel-
lectual exchange was fostered by convening scholars in the capital city of
Linzi next to the Ji Gate, giving the exchange its name, Jixia Academy.
Figures named as master teachers there included Zou Yan (305–240 BCE),
who is considered the systematizer of Five Phase Physics (wuxing) cosmolo-
gy; Zhuang Zhou (Zhuangzi, c. 365–290 BCE), an early Daoist thinker and
source of at least the earliest strata of the Zhuangzi; and both Mengzi (aka
Mencius, c. 372–289 BCE) and Xunzi (c. 310–220 BCE), who are among the
major interpreters of Confucian thought. If this is accurate, it is possible that
the careers of Mengzi, Zhuang Zhou, and Zou Yan could have overlapped at
Jixia, and Xunzi might have been there at the same time as a young student
before later returning as a master himself.
 K
KOU QIANZHI 寇謙之 (365–448). Kou Qianzhi is often called the
founder of the Daoist Northern Theocracy in the Chang’an (Xi’an) area.
This theocracy arose as a result of the diaspora of the Way of the Celes-
tial Masters (Tianshi dao) communities following their defeat by Cao
Cao in 215. Although having studied Buddhism under the monk Shi Tany-
ing (?–405/418), Kou had sympathies with the Celestial Masters (Tian-
shi) and wanted to see a reborn form of their communities. The History of
the Wei (Weishu) reports of him that, while practicing in the Songshan
mountains of Henan, Laojun (Taishang Laojun) appeared to Kou in 415.
Laojun revealed a “New Code” for the people of the Dao now known to us
in the text Classic on the Precepts of Lord Lao Melodically Recited in the
Clouds (Laojun yinsong jiejing, CT 785). This code contains 36 precepts,
each of which is directly attributed to Laojun. Many of them have to do
with etiquette and observances more consistent with higher classes of
society than was generally common among the majority of Celestial Mas-
ters adherents. As Kou began to implement these new rules for a commu-
nity some doubted the authenticity of his message.
But, in 423, another set of revelations came from a numinal messenger
named Li Puwen. Li announced that Kou was the new chosen Celestial
Master and bestowed on him a text entitled Authentic Classic of Registers
and Charts (Lutu zhenjing 靈圖真經, now lost). Kou took these works
with him to the court of Emperor Taiwu (r. 424–452) and received the
support of the chief minister, Cui Hao (381–450), a Confucian scholar of
honored reputation. The emperor was convinced to put the “New Code”
into practice, and thus began the so-called Daoist theocracy of the North-
ern Wei. Kou was the designated administrator of this new civil order, and
he was addressed as Celestial Master. The “New Code” was extended into
towns throughout the Northern provinces, and the theocracy reached its
height in 440, when the emperor himself was ordained and changed his
reign title to Taiping Zhenjun (Perfected Lord of Great Peace).

123
124 • KUNDAO ACADEMY
Cui Hao, perhaps with Kou’s support, tried to reinforce the new poli-
cies by suppressing and attacking Buddhist leaders and monasteries. After
Kou died, Cui tried to dominate even his own imperial ministries, result-
ing in his execution in 450, and the end of the theocracy.

KUNDAO ACADEMY. Kundao Academy is a women’s educational and

training academy in contemporary China. There are no differences be-
tween male and female training and education in current Daoist practice.
Accordingly, the women’s academy offers the same curriculum as that for
monks in the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) lineage tradition. Stu-
dents receive general education in Chinese language, political thought,
Chinese history, English, classical architecture, computer skills, calligra-
phy, and basic accounting. The women also take courses on 15 subjects
related to Daoist religion and practice: history of Daoism, taiji quan,
Daoist rituals, Daoist music, Daoist ethics, Daoist cultivation, Daoist
immortals, temple and monastery management, Daoist art, Daoist clas-
sics, Zhuangzi, Classic of Changes (Yijing), Daodejing, Heshang gong’s
Commentary on the Daodejing, and Daoist regulations.

KUNLUN 崑崙. Kunlun is a mythical mountain located in the distant west

and the abode of the goddess Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu). It
is a counterpart to the island of Penglai. Descriptions of the mountain in
the 4th century BCE, Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing),
record how the extraordinary plants on the mountain have properties to
ensure immortality. The Daoist text Liezi contains a narrative according
to which the legendary King Mu climbed to the summit of Kunlun, where
he saw the Yellow Emperor’s palace and visited the Queen Mother of the
West.
It is actually the Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi), chapter
4, that contains the most extensive description of the mountain provided
during the Han period. In this account, the mountain is a nine-layered wall
and 440 gates. On the mountain is a stream that bestows immortality
(danshui), and the four great Chinese rivers flow from its foothills. Ac-
cording to legend, those who ascend to the highest levels of the mountain
become immortal (xian) numinal beings with the power to control the
elements and move freely through space and time.
The Highest Clarity lineage later gave a rather important place to the
Queen Mother of the West and likewise elevated interest in the place of
her abode at Kunlun. One such text offering extensive details about the
mythical site is known as the Record of the Ten Continents (Shizhou ji, CT
598).
 L
LAN CAIHE 藍采和. One of the Eight Immortals (baxian), Lan Caihe is
pictured with a flower basket. Lan is the member of the group whose gender
is not evident. Some consider Lan a hermaphrodite, or a transvestite, or
simply genderless. As with the others of the Eight Immortals group, there are
several hagiographies of Lan. One dating from the Song period says that
when “he” lay in the snow, “his” body gave off a steam-like vapor (here the
connection with qi is obvious). “He” left earth by mounting a crane and
disappearing into the clouds.

LAOJUN BASHIYI HUA TU 老君八十一图. See EIGHTY-ONE TRANS-

FORMATIONS OF LORD LAO, ILLUSTRATED, LAOJUN BASHIYI HUA
TU 老君八十一图.

LAOJUN SHUO YIBAI BASHI JIE 老君說一百八十戒. See HUNDRED

AND EIGHTY PRECEPTS SPOKEN BY LORD LAO, LAOJUN SHUO
YIBAI BASHI JIE 老君說一百八十戒.

LAOJUN 老君, TAISHANG LAOJUN 太上老君. See LAOZI DEIFIED,

LAOJUN 老君, TAISHANG LAOJUN 太上老君.

LAOZI 老子, LAO DAN 李聃. In the Zhuangzi, the preferred name for this
figure is Lao Dan. Actually, the name may not be a name at all but a term
meaning “Ancient Teacher(s).” In his biography, Sima Qian brings together a
number of stories about Laozi, the putative founder of Daoism and author of
the Daodejing. Sima says Laozi came from Quren village in Hu County in
the state of Chu (modern Luyi district, Henan Province). He calls him
“Chong’er” (lit., “Double Ear”) and Boyang (“Lord of Yang”). The received
biography goes on to say that Laozi was an archivist in the Zhou capital.
Actually, Sima Qian’s account conflates information on what seem to be
four distinct people. First, there is the person called Li from the south of
China. Second, there is a historian by the name of Dan (Lao Dan), who
served as librarian in the Zhou archives and was also called the “scribe below
125
126 • LAOZI 老子, LAO DAN 李聃
the pillar.” Third, Laozi is a master who met and taught Confucius how to
perform religious rituals. And fourth, there is a person who is called Laolaizi,
who Sima Qian says wrote a Daoist book in 15 sections.
In later Daoist history, Laozi was venerated as the personification of the
eternal Dao, the ultimate power that makes the universe’s processes exist.
Like the universe at large, he changes and transforms in constant process. He
is the original ancestor of yin and yang. He appears and disappears in every
age.
The first appearance of Laozi as a person is not in Sima Qian’s Records
but in the Zhuangzi, where he is called Lao Dan. In the Zhuangzi, he is an
archivist of the Zhou court and a teacher of Confucius. But it is likely that the
dialogues between Laozi and Confucius in the Zhuangzi are fictional crea-
tions.
A. C. Graham’s analysis of the Laozi myth is up to now the most thorough
evaluation of the early history of Laozi. In this article, Graham argues that
the traditions about Laozi teaching Confucius probably began in circles wish-
ing to emphasize Confucius’ humility and readiness to learn from anyone.
The association of the Daodejing and Laozi, according to which Laozi dictat-
ed this work to Yin Xi, the keeper of the pass leading to the West, was likely
created to provide the text with an ancient teacher as its source, someone who
was also the archetypical Daoist. After the rise of the Han dynasty, Laozi’s
birthplace was given as Bozhou (currently Luyi, Henan province), near the
Han rulers’ homeland of Pei, and he was linked with the Li clan of faithful
retainers of the Han royalty.
Graham’s is a general reconstruction of the Laozi myth. He does not
address the extensive growth of legends about Laozi in the late Han and
afterward. Hagiographies of Laozi placing him as an immortal (xian) in the
stream of masters of techniques (fangshi) are in both Biographies of Exem-
plary Immortals (Liexian zhuan) and Biographies of Divine Immortals
(Shenxian zhuan). The political elite of the late Han offered sacrifices to him
to request aid for political and cosmic wholeness and harmony. Those fol-
lowing the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) thought of Laozi as
the divine spirit who appeared to Zhang Daoling (34–156) and provided the
covenant with humans that would bring about the age of Great Peace (Taip-
ing).
Livia Kohn (1998) summarizes the Laozi myth in six parts.

1. Laozi as the Dao creates the universe.

2. Laozi manifests as teacher and master of methods (the transforma-
tions).
3. Laozi is born and serves as an archivist during the Zhou dynasty.
4. Laozi transmits the Daodejing to Yin Xi.
5. Laozi goes west and converts the barbarians.
 LAOZI DEIFIED, LAOJUN 老君, TAISHANG LAOJUN 太上老君 • 127
6. Laozi ascends to Heaven and returns to give revelations at crucial
times to the founders of Daoist lineages.

From the Tang to the Ming, other hagiographies of Laozi appeared. From the
Song dynasty onward, only Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior, rivaled Laozi in
Daoist tradition, although there is a tradition that Zhenwu was actually Lao-
zi’s 82nd appearance.
See also EIGHTY-ONE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LORD LAO, ILLUS-
TRATED, LAOJUN BASHIYI HUA TU 老君八十一图; HUNDRED AND
EIGHTY PRECEPTS SPOKEN BY LORD LAO, LAOJUN SHUO YIBAI BA-
SHI JIE 老君說一百八十戒.

LAOZI BIANHUA JING 老子變化經. See CLASSIC OF THE TRANSFOR-

MATIONS OF LAOZI, LAOZI BIANHUA JING 老子變化經.

LAOZI DEIFIED, LAOJUN 老君, TAISHANG LAOJUN 太上老君. In

Daoist history, Laozi underwent an apotheosis from a human philosopher to
a numinal being and even to the highest deity in the Daoist pantheon as the
incarnation and localization of the Dao itself. This development may be
characterized broadly as follows (with some alterations of Livia Kohn’s
(1998) stages of the Laozi myth:
Laozi appears as a teacher, master of the Dao, and author of the Daodej-
ing.
Laozi is sometimes counselor to dukes, marquis, and kings, as portrayed
especially in the Yellow Emperor-Laozi sections of the Zhuangzi.
Laozi becomes more than a human in Sima Qian’s biography and in the
details of his supernatural, virginal birth.
Laozi becomes Laojun (Taishang Laojun), a numinal being who mani-
fests in history to save the world. This image was well underway to
concretization by the time of Zhang Daoling and the founding of the
Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) and the Yellow Turban
movement.
Laozi’s apotheosis is validated by imperial orders to offer him worship
and offerings documented in the Inscription for Laozi stele (dated to
165).
The Classic of the Transformations of Laozi continues the myth of Laozi
periodically breaking into human history and playing a salvific role,
even as the Buddha.
Under Tao Hongjing’s reconceptualization of the Daoist numinal panthe-
on, Laozi becomes a member of the supreme triad known as the Three
Pure Ones or Heavenly Worthies (san tianzun).
128 • LAOZI MING 老子銘
Laozi becomes known authoritatively as Taishang Laojun, the supreme
being by whom the undifferentiated origin (hundun) was moved to
bring forth the myriad things in the text, dating probably to the late
500s, entitled Classic on the Creation of the World by the Most High
Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun kaitian jing, CT 1437).

LAOZI MING 老子銘. See INSCRIPTION FOR LAOZI, LAOZI MING 老子

銘.

LAOZI XIANG’ER ZHU 老子想爾注. See XIANG’ER COMMENTARY TO

THE LAOZI, LAOZI XIANG’ER ZHU 老子想爾注.

LEDGERS OF MERIT. See MORALITY BOOKS, SHANSHU 善書.

LEIFA 雷法, THUNDER RITES. The leifa are a set of methods docu-
mented into the 12th century by which a daoshi comes to possess techniques
for using power compared to that of thunder and made possible by the use of
their knowledge of the Five Phase physics (wuxing). The daoshi can harness
this power. There are stories of daoshi using this power to repel enemies in
battle, knocking them back or off their feet. While sometimes used for illicit
purposes, the Daoist lineages whose practitioners employed these powers
insisted they were to be used only for helping people, particularly by exorcis-
ing baneful spirits and influences.
There were differences in practice and rationale for this power among the
Daoist lineages. The Zhengyi (Celestial Masters) adepts used rites invoking
the Five Thunder Deities (wulei shen). Other lineages used meditative and
inner alchemical practices as rituals to gain thunderclap (leiting) powers.
There are several texts concerned with thunder rituals in the Daoist Canon.
Lowell Skar notes that the largest variety of these is in the Corpus of Daoist
Ritual (Daofa huiyuan, CT 1220).

LI SHAOJUN 李少君 (fl. c. 133 BCE). Li Shaojun was a master of tech-

niques (fangshi) and the earliest known Daoist alchemist. He was from Linzi
in Shandong province. According to the Records of the Historian (Shiji), he
advised Han Wudi (r. 141–87 BCE) how to perform a ritual to ask spirit
beings to favor the compounding of an elixir of longevity. He told Wudi that
in the presence of those beings, cinnabar would transmute into gold fit for
casting vessels for food and drink. Eating and drinking from them would
extend the emperor’s life and allow him to experience communication with
the immortals (xian). After communing with them, the emperor would be
able perform the feng and shan rituals and obtain immortality himself. The
Records of the Historian (Shiji) reports that after getting these instructions
 LIEZI 列子, MAN, TEXT, AND CONTENTS • 129
from Li, the emperor devoted himself to alchemical experiments. The ex-
change between these two figures represents the first documented case of
imperial patronage of external alchemy (waidan) practice.

LI TIEGUAI 李鐵拐. Li Tieguai is one of the Eight Immortals (baxian)

who shows up in pictures with a gourd and crutch. His appearance is ugly,
and he is a deformed cripple in body who leans on an iron staff. Thus, he is
known as “Iron Crutch (Tieguai) Li.” There is no solid confirmation of his
historicity, but the hagiographies usually associate him with Laozi, since
they share the same surname. The story goes that Laozi would appear to
instruct Li Tieguai while he was living in the mountains as a recluse. Many
times, Li Tieguai journeyed through the stars into Heaven. While away from
his body on one of these journeys, a disciple thought him dead and cremated
his body. When Li Tieguai’s consciousness returned it had to enter the body
of a beggar who had just died. This is the explanation for his appearance and
defects. Li Tieguai is venerated as one who can conquer death and cure
illness. He is a patron of pharmacologists.

LIBATIONER, JIJIU 祭酒. The term jijiu originally referred to a village

elder or leader who performed the libation at the beginning of the annual
village sacrificial feast. By the Han dynasty, it was used to refer to the
official rank of a leader, usually the head of an educational academy. Xunzi
was called the libationer of the Jixia Academy. The term was used for a
leader and ritual specialist in the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi
dao) lineage. Among the duties of these leaders in the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi) communities was managing the community lodges and storehouses
(yishe); supervising the annual collection of a tax, payable in rice; overseeing
public works for the villages; and performing rites for the community and
individuals. In the beginning, a libationer was selected on the basis of merit,
but by the 4th century the position had evolved into a hereditary office.
Additionally, although open to both males and females in the early period of
the Celestial Masters movement, gradually the institution became exclusive-
ly male.

LIEXIAN ZHUAN 列仙傳. See BIOGRAPHIES OF EXEMPLARY IMMOR-

TALS, LIEXIAN ZHUAN 列仙傳.

LIEZI 列子, MAN, TEXT, AND CONTENTS. THE MAN. Liezi is a

figure first mentioned in the Zhuangzi and perhaps one of the many the
authors and compilers of that text made up fictitiously. In chapter 1 of Zhu-
angzi, Liezi can ride the wind and soar into space. In chapter 7, he is in-
trigued with a shaman he meets and takes him to his teacher. In chapter 21,
130 • LIEZI 列子, MAN, TEXT, AND CONTENTS
he learns about the nonarchery of the archer as a lesson about living. In
chapter 28, he is living in poverty but staying true to his role as a follower of
Dao. In chapter 32, he is struggling with those who wish to follow him and
his example, although he thinks they should find their own way.
THE TEXT. The Liezi is a work of eight chapters traditionally ascribed to
the hand of Lie Yukou, or Master Lie 列子. In addition to the biographical
information about Liezi from the Zhuangzi, the Liezi itself reports that Mas-
ter Lie lived in the Butian game preserve in the principality of Zheng and
only later moved to Wei.
The earliest mention of the Liezi text comes in the work of Liu Xiang 劉向
(79–8 BCE), who in 14 BCE explained the creation of the text by saying that
he rearranged and edited a set of documents, one having five chapters, an-
other three, another four, another six, and the final one two. The result was an
eight-chapter set. The Book of the Former Han (Hanshu) mentions a Liezi of
eight chapters in its section on the Daoist school (daojia). Chinese scholars
came to believe the text was quite ancient; however, no Han dynasty writer
(206 BCE–220 CE) quotes the Liezi, and there is no other mention of this
work known to us until a text of a Liezi shows up along with a commentary
on it by a literati scholar named Zhang Zhan (fl. ca. 370) and entitled the
Liezi zhu.
The preface of Zhang Zhan to the received Liezi tells the history of the text
in his possession, which he received from his father, Zhang Kuang. Zhang
Zhan tells us that his grandfather and two of his friends were book collectors
during the Yongjia period (302–312) and the collapse of the Qin dynasty.
After the disorder quietened down, his grandfather, Zhang Yi, recovered
various passages, and by collating and comparing what was and was not in
the various texts, only then was he able to compile the complete edition,
which came into Zhang Zhan’s possession and upon which his commentary
is based.
What Liezi was originally we do not know. The Liezi in its present form is,
with respect to being a text authored by a 5th-century BCE figure named Lie
Yukou, a spurious document (weishu) dating from the Wei-Jin period in the
late 4th century CE (Graham 1990). The Liezi, however, came late to be
associated as one of the three great classics of Daoism. Tang dynasty emper-
or Xuanzong (r. 713–756 CE) established the Jixian Imperial College of
Daoist Studies and set up a new model of imperial examinations called the
Daoju, which trained those unfamiliar with Daoist texts in the tradition so
they could pass the exams necessary for holding bureaucratic office. As part
of this process, the Liezi was raised to the status of a Daoist classic, joining
the more famous Daodejing and Zhuangzi as a textbook used in preparing for
the exams.
 LIKE UNTO A DRAGON, YOULONG ZHUAN 猶蘢專 • 131
Western scholarship has largely ignored the Liezi. Lionel Giles (1912) did
a translation of the text in 1912, and also concluded that it had material older
than the “genuine” materials of the Zhuangzi (i.e., chs. 1–7). It was A. C.
Graham who undertook serious critical study of the text and provided a
seminal English translation more than 50 years ago. Eva Wong’s Lieh Tzu: A
Taoist Guide to Practical Living (2001) was published as a rendering of the
text in an attempt to contemporize its usefulness and application. Judging
that our inability to trace the text to Lie Yukou is no reason to neglect its
philosophical merits, a group of international scholars recently published a
collection of essays under the title Riding the Wind: New Essays on the
Daoist Classic the Liezi (2011). The contributors to this collection argue for
the Liezi’s historical, philosophical, and literary significance as a work of
novel insight.
THE CONTENTS. The eight Liezi chapters are shown here with the title
translations adapted from Graham (1990).
Chapter Chinese Pinyin Translation
1 天瑞 Tian Rui Heaven’s Propitious
Operations
2 黃帝 Huangdi The Yellow Emperor
3 周穆王 Zhou Mu Wang King Mu of Zhou
4 仲尼 Zhong Ni Confucius
5 湯問 Tang Wen The Questions of Tang
6 力命 Li Ming Effort and Destiny
7 楊朱 Yang Zhu Yang Zhu
8 說符 Shuo Fu Explaining Signs

LIKE UNTO A DRAGON, YOULONG ZHUAN 猶蘢專. The Youlong zhu-

an (CT 774) is one of the most important hagiographies of Laozi. It dates to
1086, and was authored by Jia Shanxiang, a daoshi serving at the Palace of
Great Clarity (Taiqing gong) in Bozhou (Luyi, Henan province). The title is
based on a comment made by Confucius in the Zhuangzi about Laozi, in
which he compares him to a dragon. Confucius said,

At last I may say that I have seen a dragon, a dragon that coils to show his
body at its best, that sprawls out to display his patterns at their best, riding
on the breath of the clouds, feeding on the yin and yang. My mouth fell
open and I couldn’t close it; my tongue flew up and I couldn’t even
stammer. How could I possibly make any estimation of Lao Tan? (ch. 14)
132 • LIN LINGSU 林靈素 (1076–1120)
The work describes Laozi’s wondrous abilities and actions. It recounts how
he created the world and descended several times to guide the ancient dynas-
ties and be born during the Zhou period, when he served as an archivist and
also gave the Daodejing to Yin Xi.

LIN LINGSU 林靈素 (1076–1120). Lin was a daoshi in the Divine Empyr-
ean lineage (Shenxiao) who gained the confidence of Emperor Song Huiz-
ong (r. 1100–1125), widely known as the “Daoist Emperor.” Huizong has
been partially blamed for the collapse of the Northern Song (960–1127)
because of his lavish support of Daoist structures and personages, and for his
own luxurious lifestyle. The Daoist masters who served him as advisors,
notably Lin Lingsu, have been widely criticized for having a negative influ-
ence on the emperor.
An early account of Lin’s life was written by Geng Yanxi (fl. 1127),
entitled simply Biography of Lin Lingsu (Lin Lingsu zhuan), and it became
the basis for later biographies. Some of these later works, for example, the
History of the Song (Songshi) and the Comprehensive Chronicle of the Bud-
dhas and Patriarchs (Fuzu tongji), report that Lin tried to become a Buddhist
but quit after being beaten by his master. There is scarcely any other informa-
tion about his early life.
He was introduced to court in 1116. There he found Emperor Huizong,
who was quite interested and devoted to a pursuit of the Daoist way. Huizong
had summoned other daoshi to the court in Kaifeng, one of whom was the
30th Celestial Master, Zhang Jixian (1092–1126). Lin seems to have gained
the favor both because of his literary skill at writing couplets and songs, and
for his knowledge of certain esoteric techniques. Lin began to have visions in
1116, in which it was revealed to him that Huizong was the incarnation of the
Great Emperor of Long Life (Changsheng dadi), who was one of Shenxiao’s
most prominent deities.
As a result of the favor shown to him, Lin took the lead in compiling a
Song Edition of the Daoist Canon (Zhengde Wanshou daozang). Moreover,
Huizong decreed that Shenxiao temples housing images (xiang) of the Great
Emperor of Long Life should be established throughout the empire, some-
times converting Buddhist monasteries to Daoist abbeys (guan). One ac-
count in the Biography of Lin Lingsu records that Lin failed to prevent a
flood, and it is possible that his influence at court waned for this reason. In
1119, he disappeared, perhaps returning to his home in Wenzhou, Zhejiang
province.

LINGBAO 靈寶. See NUMINOUS TREASURE, LINGBAO 靈寶.

 LONGHUSHAN 龍虎山 • 133
LISHI ZHENXIAN TIDAO TONGJIAN 歷世真仙體道通鋻. See COM-
PREHENSIVE MIRROR OF PERFECTED IMMORTALS AND THOSE
WHO EMBODIED THE DAO THROUGH THE AGES, LISHI ZHENXIAN
TIDAO TONGJIAN 歷世真仙體道通鋻.

LIU HAICHAN 劉海蟾. Liu Haichan was a popular immortal in the Song
period. Tradition says he was the disciple of Chen Tuan (c. 920–989).
Hagiographies within the Quanzhen lineage report that he was a minister in
the state of Yan. According to the tale of his pursuit of the Dao, he met
Zhongli Quan, who convinced him to abandon the life of a minister because
it was too precarious by stacking up 10 eggs alternating between 10 coins.
Afterward, Liu left his official life to seek the Dao and became an immortal
(xian).
By the 13th century, Liu was associated with Zhongli Quan and Lu Dong-
bin as the three immortals most famous for roaming the world and persuad-
ing people to seek immortality. They are considered immortal patriarchs by
both the Quanzhen and Nanzong lineages. Their hagiographies became the
content of many poems and theatrical productions.
Liu was famous for the distinctive calligraphy he would reportedly leave
on temple walls as tokens of his visitation and confirmation of the sacredness
of the site. He is also known for his autobiographical poem expressing his
quest for stillness and clarity of the Dao through inner alchemy (neidan)
entitled Song on Becoming a Daoist (Rudao ge), which is included in his
standard biography found in the Records of the Correct Lineage of the Gold-
en Lotus (Jinlian zhengzong ji, CT 173), dating to 1241. In modern times,
Liu is sometimes considered a “God of wealth,” an assignment not present in
his earlier hagiographies.

LONGHU 龍虎. See DRAGON AND TIGER, LONGHU 龍虎.

LONGHUSHAN 龍虎山 (DRAGON TIGER MOUNTAIN, JIANGSU

PROVINCE). Dragon Tiger Mountain is actually a chain of hills in Eastern
Jiangxi. This site has been included among the sacred mountains of China
since the Tang dynasty. In popular belief, its fame rests largely on its ties to
the Zhang family, heirs of Zhang Daoling (34–156). Accordingly, it became
the administrative center of those following the Way of the Celestial Mas-
ters (Tianshi dao); however, to the extent to which the mountain can be
associated with Zhang Daoling or the regional Zhang family as his direct
descendants is questionable. Paul Amato (2016) has done a careful study of
these traditions.
134 • LONGHUSHAN 龍虎山
Likewise, the claim that the title of Celestial Master (Tianshi), first con-
ferred on Zhang Daoling on Hemingshan in 142, is transferable by heredity
seems to have been an invention of those living on and near the Longhu hills.
Nevertheless, the prestige of the mountain and the name of Zhang both
reached their heights in the official patronage of Zhang Jixian (1092–1126).
After that time, although the honors and recognition of the Zhangs and Lon-
ghu varied with the ruling dynasty, there was still the consistent belief until
1911, that the two were tied together and that the Zhang family had inherited
Zhang Daoling’s role as Celestial Master of Daoism. The Lineage of the Han
Celestial Master (Han tianshi shijia) is the official published history of the
family descent from Zhang Daoling. The current Celestial Master in the
Zhang lineage of descent lives in Taiwan.
A stronger historical case for the authority of Longhushan is that during
the Song dynasty, it became a center for ordination of both Shangqing and
Lingbao lineage masters. In fact, in its investiture rites a major part of the
process was the transmission of registers (fulu) needed by the recipient to
administer various rituals. Eventually, then, by the Ming dynasty, Longhu-
shan had gained precedence over other ordination sites at Maoshan and
Gezaoshan.

LONGMEN 龍門. See DRAGON GATE LINEAGE, LONGMEN 龍門.

LOUGUAN TAI 樓觀台 (PLATFORM OF THE TIERED ABBEY). The

Platform of the Tiered Abbey, or Louguan tai, is a Daoist center in the
foothills of the Zhongnan mountains in Shaanxi, about 70 kilometers south-
west of Chang’an (Xi’an). During the Han, the term louguan was a name for
a high tower used for astronomical observations, and tai meant “elevated
platform.” Both Daoist and Buddhists consider this area to be sacred, and
both had centers of training at Louguan tai. In terms of the Daoist legends
about the founding of the site, the most often cited one is that Yin Xi, the
Guardian of the Pass to the west, built a tower there to watch for those
leaving the country. On one occasion, he saw Laozi coming from far away
because he was giving off a purple aura of numinal radiance. Upon encoun-
tering Laozi, Yin Xi persuaded him to write down his teachings, which we
now know as the Daodejing. Other accounts of this same legend report that it
happened at the Hangu Pass. Actually, many temples and memorials have
been built in this area to commemorate the same event. There are subsidiary
narratives reporting that the earliest buildings at the site were actually Yin
Xi’s private residence.
According to the lost chronicle of Louguan, which is quoted in the Seven
Labels from the Bookbag of the Clouds (Yunji qiqian, CT 1032), the place
was made sacred because King Mu of Zhou (r. 956–918 BCE) ordained
 LU DONGBIN 呂洞賓 (?796–?1016) • 135
seven daoshi at this site and built the first shrine on this spot. Putting aside
the legends, it seems that both communities of Daoists and Buddhists were in
residence at the site during the late Han and early Six dynasties. But the first
documented official record of Daoists at Louguan tai comes from the North-
ern Zhou dynasty (557–581). Later, Tang rulers who believed that the impe-
rial Li family descended from Laozi actively promoted his veneration and
provided a steady stream of funding for the development of Louguan.
Shrines built at the foot of the hills included the Abbey of the Ancestral
Saint (i.e., Laozi) (Zongsheng guan) and later the Platform for Explaining the
Classics (Shuojing tai), constructed to memorialize Laozi’s delivery of the
Daodejing. In 1236, Quanzhen masters took control of Louguan and rebuilt
and expanded it after a period of decline. Qiu Chuji’s westward sojourn to
convert the barbarian Mongols and their emperor, Chinggis Khan, was
understood by Quanzhen officials to be a reenactment of Laozi’s journey.
This was buttressed by the “discovery” in 1233, of a treatise attributed to Yin
Xi entitled Authentic Classic of Master Wenshi (Wushang miaodao wenshi
zhenjing, CT 667). This work greatly helped authorize the reorganization of
Daoist teaching and practice at Louguan by the Quanzhen order. Throughout
the Ming and Qing dynasties, Louguan was a pilgrimage site for Daoists of
all lineages and an active training school for Quanzhen teaching and practice.

LU DONGBIN 呂洞賓 (?796–?1016). Lu Dongbin is usually considered

the leader of the Eight Immortals (baxian), and he is pictured with a sword
and flywhisk. His legendary master was Zhongli Quan, and, together with
Zhongli, Lu is acknowledged as a patriarch of both the Nanzong and Quan-
zhen lineages. There are many hagiographies of Lu, but many interpreters
still insist on his historicity, saying that he was born in 755. At least one
hagiography purports to be an autobiography produced as result of spirit-
writing (fuji) and traced to Yuezhou in Hunan province. Down to the
present, Lu Dongbin is considered to be a patron of many spirit writing cults.
There are actually several different but fairly well-defined traditions about
Lu Dongbin. The one associated with the northern practitioners states that Lu
was a failed scholar who turned to a reclusive lifestyle and met Zhongli Quan
and Chen Tuan on Mt. Hua (Huashan) in Shaanxi. Zhongli Quan gave Lu
10 trials, and after he passed them successfully, he taught Lu the arts of
alchemy and immortality. The second seems to derive from the southern
schools and places Lu’s encounter with Zhongli Quan on Mt. Lu (Lushan) in
Jiangxi province. Qin Zhi’an (1188–1244), a Quanzhen master, reports in his
Records of the Correct Lineage of the Golden Lotus (Jinlian zhengzong ji,
CT 173) seeing another biography of Lu written on a wall of the Abbey of
the Black Ram (Qingyang guan) in Yuezhou. It said that Lu was born in 796,
and acquired the literati jinshi degree in 836.
136 • LU DONGBIN 呂洞賓 (?796–?1016)
Probably the best-known story of Lu is “The Yellow-Millet Dream,”
which tells about the first meeting of the two best-known immortals (xian),
Lu Dongbin and Zhongli Quan. The story was converted into a famous
drama by Yuan dynasty playwright Ma Zhiyuan (1260–1325 CE).

Once he [Lu Dongbin] entered into a tavern in Chang’an (Xian) to see a

daoshi dressed in a gray cap and white gown, spirit write a poem on a
wall. . . . Impressed and attracted to the daoshi’s strange appearance and
unusual old age, as well as to the grace and naturalness of his verse, Lu
bowed to him and inquired his name.
“I am Master Cloudchamber (Zhongli Quan),” he answered. “My
home is the Crane Ridge on the Zhongnan Mountain. Would you like to
join me in my wanderings?”
Lu hesitated to agree to this proposal [because he had the ambition to
be an official], so Master Cloudchamber took him to an inn. While the
daoshi attended to the preparation of a simple meal, Lu reclined on a
pillow. Soon he became oblivious of his surroundings and fell asleep.
He dreamed that he went up to the capital as a candidate of the imperi-
al examination and passed it at the top of the list. Starting his career as a
junior secretary to one of the Boards, he rapidly rose in rank to positions at
the Censorate and the Hanlin Academy. Eventually he became a Privy
Councillor after he had occupied, in the course of his unbroken success, all
the most sought-after and important official posts.
In his dream, he was twice married, and both wives belonged to fami-
lies of wealth and position. Children were born to him. His sons soon took
themselves wives, and his daughters left the paternal roof for their hus-
bands’ homes. All these events happened before he even reached the age
of 50.
Next he found himself Prime Minister for a period of 10 years, wield-
ing immense power. But this corrupted him. Then, suddenly, without
warning, he was accused of a grave crime. His home and all his posses-
sions were confiscated; his wife and children were separated from him. He
himself, a solitary outcast, was doomed to wander toward his place of
banishment beyond the mountains. Suddenly, he found his horse brought
to a standstill in a snowstorm and was no longer able to continue the
journey.
At this juncture in his dream, Lu woke with a heavy sigh. Lo and
behold! The meal was still being prepared. Laughing at his surprise, Mas-
ter Cloudchamber intoned a verse: “The yellow millet simmers yet un-
cooked, a single dream and you have reached the world beyond!”
Lu Dongbin gaped in astonishment. “Sir,” he stammered, “how is it
you know about my dream?”
“In the dream that just came to you,” Master Cloudchamber replied
matter-of-factly, “you not only scaled the dizziest height of splendor but
also plumbed the uttermost depths of misery. Fifty years were past and
gone in the twinkling of an eye. What you gained was not worth rejoicing
over, what you lost was not worth grieving about. Only when people have
a great awakening, do they know the world is but one big dream.”
 LU XIUJING 陸修靜 (406–477) • 137
Impressed by this incident, Lu received spiritual enlightenment. He fell to
his knees before the master and entreated him for instruction in the arts of
transcending the limitations of this world (Kohn 1993: 126–29).

Lu is reported to have been a poet, healer, alchemist, exorcist, calligrapher,

miracle worker, and recluse. Some biographies say he was a seller of ink and
paper, often mingling with the ordinary people without their knowing who he
was. He was particularly looked to for help and guidance by the underprivi-
leged classes, including peddlers, medicinal herb merchants, and even prosti-
tutes. In fact, he became so revered as a helper of the downtrodden that his
name was used directly or hidden in anagrams, poems, posters, and wall
inscriptions when there were protests of civil injustice.
While Lu was known throughout most of China, his most ardent followers
were along the Chang Jiang (Yangzi) from the Jiangnan region to southern
Hunan. During the reign of Song Huizong his images were integrated in
various official temples, and during the Yuan dynasty he was given the title
“Perfected Lord” (zhenjun).
Probably because of the traditions stating that Lu was for some time a
recluse, several inner alchemy (neidan) texts were attributed to him or to
him and Zhongli Quan. These are known simply as the Zhong-Lu texts, and
they are traceable particularly to Daoist centers in Jiangxi and Hunan prov-
inces. Traditional reports say that Lu ascended to Heaven from the Pavilion
of the Yellow Crane (Huanghe lou) in Jiangxi, which became the site of a
stele containing his biography.

LU XIUJING 陸修靜 (406–477). Lu Xiujing came from Dongqian in mod-

ern Zhejiang province. He collected and edited Lingbao materials and cod-
ified an early version of a Daoist canon. He studied Confucianism as a youth
within his aristocratic family. In the mid-400s, Lu brought Lingbao texts to
the attention of the rulers, suggesting that administrating by their teachings
would be a confirmation of the Song dynasty’s right to rule. He left home in
search of immortals (xian) on a number of sacred Daoist mountains, one of
which was Qingchengshan in Sichuan province. From 453 to 467, he was in
residence on Mt. Lu (Jiangxi province), which at that time was an active
Buddhist center.
Lu was called to court to engage in debates with Buddhists and masters of
the Mysterious Learning (Xuanxue) methods. The emperor was so pleased
with his skillfulness that he provided Lu with the Abbey for the Veneration
of Emptiness (Chongxu guan) on the outskirts of the capital. Lu completed
the first comprehensive listing of Daoist texts (canon) and was the first to
divide them into “Three Caverns” (sandong), a structure still preserved in
the current canon.
138 • LUOFUSHAN 羅浮山 (MT. LUOFU, GUANGDONG PROVINCE)
LUOFUSHAN 羅浮山 (MT. LUOFU, GUANGDONG PROVINCE). Lu-
ofushan is a chain of forest-covered hills in far Southern China within the
Boluo district of Guangdong. It is the seventh grotto-heaven (Dongtian) in
Daoist sacred geography. The Daoist centers in these mountains, associated
mostly with Ge Hong, are near current Huizhou. Ge Hong took up residence
in this area and found it abundant with herbal remedies and pure waters
needed for the medicines and elixirs he developed. He built four grottoes
(caves) at Luofushan, although none of these seem to have been literal caves
but more like hermitages or refuges for quiet sitting and rituals of elixir
compounding and medicinal production.
Both Daoists and Buddhists were active in the Luofu mountains during the
late Six Dynasties and throughout the Tang dynasty. The main sacred site,
founded perhaps in the mid-7th century, is built on the place of Ge’s spiritual
experiences and named Abbey for the Veneration of Emptiness (Chongxu
guan). This site may now stand on the location of Ge’s “quiet room” (jing-
shi). It was not until the 18th century that the Luofu sites came under the
administration of Complete Perfection leaders. They made it a dynamic
center of Daoism in Southern China. The monasteries and abbeys (guan) at
Luofu since the 19th century have often been targets for destruction, first in
China’s civil war and then in the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The sites
have been mostly rebuilt. The remains left behind by Ge’s “disappearance
of the corpse” (shijie) are revered in a burial mound there.
 M
MA YU 馬鈺 (AKA MA DANYANG) (1123–1184). Ma Yu was one of the
original Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren) of Quanzhen (Complete Per-
fection). He was a member of an affluent family in Shandong province,
highly educated and a brilliant poet and literary scholar. He met Wang Zhe
(1113–1170), founder of the Complete Perfection lineage (Quanzhen), at a
meeting of local gentry. He allowed Wang to stay at his home, and after
Wang built a hermitage hut in the province, Ma joined the disciples as an
inquirer. Wang, likewise, took Ma’s wife, Sun Bu’er, as an adept and
throughout time tried to convince the couple to separate and pursue their own
perfection without the distractions of marriage. He wrote poems to them
about the slicing of pears (fenli) as a way to indirectly suggest their separa-
tion. In fact, these exchanges are now included in the Anthology of the Ten
Stages of Pear-Slicing (Fenli shihua ji, CT 1155).
Additionally, their romance and dedication became a subject of novels and
plays during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Sometimes the abandonment of
sex undertaken by the couple is linked to other ascetic vows followed by the
Perfected Persons of Quanzhen. One such example is the Yuan dynasty play
Ma Danyang Saves Three Times Crazy Ren (Ma Danyang sandu Ren fengzi).
In that work, Ma convinces Ren, who is a butcher, to cease his career and
forsake killing animals. In 1168, Ma himself took the vows of an ascetic and
even learned to beg in places where formerly he was known to be a rich and
powerful landowner.
Ma traveled along with Wang and three others of the Seven Perfected
Persons (qizhen ren) to the places Wang had undertaken his own spiritual
journeys. When they went west toward the Zhongnan Mountains, Wang
passed away, and they buried him in the Ancestral Court, which had been
Wang’s hermitage in the mountains. After the three-year mourning period,
the other disciples left, but Ma remained behind, gathered disciples, and built
a community of those willing to follow the Way of Complete Perfection. Ma
went through a period of evangelistic zeal, visiting villages and towns to
collect followers, and this brought him unwanted civil attention. According-
ly, he returned to Shandong and revived the communities Wang had begun.

139
140 • MAOSHAN 茅山 (MT. MAO, JIANGSU PROVINCE)
Shortly after learning of Sun’s death, Ma too passed away in Shandong.
Several of Ma’s collections of poetry are in the Daoist Canon (CT 1149,
1142, and 1150).

MAOSHAN 茅山 (MT. MAO, JIANGSU PROVINCE). Maoshan (Mt.

Mao) is located south of Nanjing in Jiangsu. It is considered the eighth
grotto-heaven (dongtian) in Daoist sacred geography and classified as one
of the “Seventy-two Blessed Places” (fudi). There was a common belief that
a subterranean passage network connected Mt. Mao to Mt. Emei (Emei-
shan), Mt. Tai (Taishan), Mt. Luofu (Luofushan), and other sacred moun-
tains. Mt. Mao is filled with numerous caves, and it is known for its medical
pharmacopoeia, abundant elixir ingredients, and numinous mushrooms (zhi).
The mountain has the name “Mao” because of its association with three
Mao brothers (Mao Ying, Mao Zhong, and Mao Gu). Shangqing teaching
identifies Mao Ying as one of its founding deities. According to the biogra-
phy of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) found in Du Guang-
ting’s (850–933) Records of the Immortals Gathered in the Walled City
(Yongcheng jixian lu), Mao Ying received secret teachings, talismans, and
sacred writings from the goddess, and she arranged his marriage to Wei
Huacun (?251–?334). Accordingly, the mountain has been closely associat-
ed with the Shangqing lineage throughout Daoist history.
In 492, Tao Hongjing (456–536) came to Maoshan’s caverns, compiled
texts there, and located materials necessary for making elixirs. Several
Shangqing leaders made it their home, and sometimes that lineage is known
simply as Maoshan Daoism; however, not all Daoists throughout the history
of the habitation on the mountain have been from the Shangqing lineage. The
Monograph of Mount Mao (Maoshan zhi, CT 304) preserves a history of the
mountain through the early 14th century.
Maoshan’s Daoist sites have been targets for destruction several times in
Chinese history in both the 19th and 20th centuries, from Hong Xiuquan’s
Taiping Rebellion to the Chinese civil war period, and in the Cultural Revo-
lution (1966–1976).

MASTER OF WIDE ACHIEVEMENT. See GUANGCHENG ZI 廣成子,

MASTER OF WIDE ACHIEVEMENT.

MASTER RED PINE, CHISONG ZI 赤松子. The name Master Red Pine
first occurs in the “Far Roaming” (Yuanyou) poem of the Songs of Chu
(Chuci), but no detail of his identity is given. Biographies of Exemplary
Immortals (Liexian zhuan, CT 294) provides a hagiography of Master Red
Pine, according to which he was the Master of Rain for the mythical emperor
Shennong. The text also reports his visit with the Queen Mother of the
 MASTERS OF TECHNIQUES, FANGSHI 方士 • 141
West (Xiwangmu) on Kunlun. By the time of the Han dynasty, Master Red
Pine was considered the exemplary model for masters of techniques (fang-
shi) seeking to practice the arts of the transformation or wishing to become
Perfected Persons (zhenren). The Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huai-
nanzi) reports that he was a master of qi circulation (xingqi), and in the
Records of the Historian (Shiji), Zhang Liang asks Han Gaozu (r. 202–195
BCE) for permission to follow the path of Master Red Pine in breath reten-
tion (xingqi) and abstention from grains (bigu).
Various Daoist writings associate Master Red Pine with several “nourish-
ing life” arts, for example, herbal recipes and healing methods (e.g., in the
Prolegomena to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure, Lingbao wufu
xu), the attainment of elixirs for immorality, and methods for calculating
longevity and prosperity according to moral examination and the quantifica-
tion of good deeds (as in told of him in the Baopuzi [Book of the Master
Who Embraces Simplicity]). Lineages that made use of petitions for healing
and auspicious result typically authorized them by reporting they were trans-
mitted by Master Red Pine to the libationers (jijiu) or daoshi of the commu-
nities (see Master Red Pine’s Almanac of Petitions, Chisong zi zhangli, CT
615).

MASTER RED PINE’S ALMANAC OF PETITIONS, CHISONG ZI

ZHANGLI 赤松子章曆. In its current form, this is a six-chapter text in the
Daoist Canon as CT 615, usually dated to the Tang. It is one of the earliest
materials to be associated with the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi
dao). Although the text reports that there were 300 great petitions of Master
Red Pine, the narrator says only a few remain. In fact, the text has 67 model
petitions. The document provides instructions on tokens that must be donated
to perform the ritual of submitting petitions, how to identify when the gates
of Heaven are open to accept them, and the auspicious days on which to
perform the rites. Details are provided for how to write a petition, what
direction to face in offering it, and which officials are to be addressed for the
requested petition. The sample petitions vary widely but include petitions for
disposing of the dead, warding off troubling spirits, and dealing with
drought.

MASTERS OF TECHNIQUES, FANGSHI 方士. Fangshi were specialists

in extraordinary arts or methods of power, but the complete range of their
skills and tasks is not known to us. Originally, they were from the coastal
regions of Qi and Yan (present-day Shandong, Hebei, and Liaoning). During
the Qin and Han dynasties, they were patronized by emperors seeking im-
mortality (xian). They were reputed to have the ability to produce elixirs of
142 • MAWANGDUI MANUSCRIPTS
immortality, provide divinations, physiognomize people, and heal the sick.
Among their methods were those concerned with controlling demons and
other spirit beings that might produce illness.
The earliest reference to fangshi is in the Records of the Historian (Shiji, c.
100 BCE), which describes them as experts in gaining immortality. They
claimed to know the locations of sacred mountains where immortals lived
and where medicines necessary to immortality could be obtained (Shiji 28).
As is well-known, Qinshihuang, the first emperor of China, was a patron of
the fangshi. One such master named Xu Fu sent the emperor to find the
mountains of immortality in the Eastern Sea.
In the Han period, both Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE) and Liu An
(179?–122) were known for their patronage of fangshi. In 133 BCE, Li
Shaojun advised Emperor Wu on how to perform a rite first celebrated by
the Yellow Emperor and enabling the transformation of cinnabar into gold.
Liu An gathered fangshi in the city of Huainan. He sought to learn from them
the techniques of alchemy, known as the “yellow and white” (huangbai).
A funerary inscription of a fangshi named Fei Zhi discovered in Henan
province in 1991, tells of his clairvoyance and reports his friendship with the
spirit being Master Red Pine (Chisong zi). Many techniques of medicine
and alchemy initially used by fangshi found their way into Daoist practices
and texts, with one example being Ge Hong’s (283–343) Book of the Master
Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi).

MAWANGDUI MANUSCRIPTS. The Mawangdui manuscripts compose a

cache of documents written mostly on silk and discovered in December
1973, in tomb number 3 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province. The
tomb in which they were found is that of Li Cang, Marquis of Dai, who died
in 168 BCE. The tomb also contained a rich collection of artifacts.
Some of the most relevant of these silk texts for Daoism include two
copies of the Daodejing, a version of the Yijing (Classic of Changes), and
four manuscripts associated with Yellow Emperor-Laozi Daoism. Texts on
the Daoist practice of “nourishing life” (yangsheng), also found in the tomb,
contain teachings on exorcism of demons, use of talismans (fu) for healing,
abstention from cereals (bigu), and pharmacological remedies. Since these
texts predate 168 BCE, they reveal that many early practices of the Celestial
Masters (Tianshi), as well as the Ge and Xu families, were already in exis-
tence more than 200 years before the movements associated with them.
The Mawangdui Daodejing is in two versions, simply labeled now as Text
A and Text B. Based on the script used, these texts can likely be dated to the
reign of Liu Bang (Gaozu, r. 202–195 BCE). Unlike the Guodian Laozi,
which dates to c. 300 BCE, these texts are complete. Differences between
these two versions and the received text have been explored by Lau (1982),
Henricks (1989), and Gao (1996). As is widely known, one of the principal
 MENSHEN 門神 • 143
differences between the Mawangdui manuscripts and the received text is the
reversal of the order of what is known as the Dejing (chs. 38–81 in the
received text) and the Daojing (chs. 1–37 in the received text).

MAZU 媽祖 (?960–?988). The numinal being Mazu has a large and devoted
following in Southern China, especially in Fujian and Taiwan. More than
400 temples are dedicated to her in those regions. Traditions about her life
are a mixture of historical and legendary materials. They say that she was
born in 960, into the Lin family of Putian, Fujian province, and was known as
Li Mo. She died quite young, at the age of 28. Mazu is regarded as the
guardian spirit for seafarers. In addition to the many temples dedicated to
her, she was given divine titles granted by such imperial decrees as Tianfei
(Celestial Consort) or, more commonly, Tianhou (Celestial Empress). She is
often associated with the bodhisattva Guanyin of the South Sea (Nanhai
Guanyin).
One account reports that Mazu saved the ship on which Lu Yundi, ambas-
sador to Koryo, was a traveler by appearing on the masthead and guiding the
ship through a typhoon. But the most commonly told story of her work
begins with her being caught up in a trance-like state, to the distress of her
parents. When they aroused her, she cried out that she could not save all of
her brothers at sea. Later, when the surviving brothers arrived in the harbor,
they did, in fact, describe the drowning of their eldest brother in a storm. But
they confirmed that their own boat was saved by the appearance of a young
girl. They concluded that this person must have been the projected spirit of
their own sister, Li Mo. In her despair concerning not being able to save them
all, Li Mo vowed to remain single and pray continuously for seafarers. As
her cult following developed, people came to believe she was also able to
answer the prayers of women seeking to become pregnant, which is perhaps
a point of overlap with the understandings of Guanyin of the South Sea.
Many tales of her intervention and protection of sailors are told, including
that she watched over famous Ming commander Zheng He (1371–1435) on
his voyages.
While most of the tales of Mazu are in oral form, the Daoist Canon
contains a text connecting her to Laozi. In the Classic Spoken by the Most
High Lord Lao on the Numinous Efficacy of the Celestial Consort in Reliev-
ing Suffering (Taishang Laojun shuo Tianfei jiuku lingyan jing, CT 649), we
find the story that Laozi became concerned about the victims of drowning on
the seas. To show his compassion, he dispatched the Jade Woman of Won-
drous Deeds (Miaoxing yunu) to offer protection, and this figure became
identified with Mazu (aka Tianfei).

MENSHEN 門神. See DOOR GODS, MENSHEN 門神.

144 • MERGING QI, HEQI 合氣
MERGING QI, HEQI 合氣. The “merging qi” (heqi) ritual was practiced
among those following the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao).
Little is known authoritatively about the actual practice of the rite. Many
remaining descriptions of it are found in anti-Daoist polemical sources dating
to the late 6th and early 7th centuries. These accounts report that heqi in-
volved ritual intercourse of nonmarried individuals. The social purpose of the
ritual seems to have been to bind the couples to the community. The cosmo-
logical intent of the practice was to ensure the harmonious interaction of yin
and yang, and the cosmic processes they represent, resulting in good fortune
and longevity. Because of the cosmological significance of the ritual, com-
plicated calendric and astronomical calculations went into setting the date for
its occurrence. Traces of these may be found in the Yellow Writ of the Cavern
of Perfection (Dongzhen huangshu, CT 1343). The text explains the use of
gymnastics (daoyin), focusing and concentration regimens, massages, and
visualizations undertaken before sexual activity. As the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi) or Zhengyi lineage developed, actual intercourse between individu-
als became an interiorized practice instead of a physical one done in public.

MERIT, GONGDE 功德. The accumulation of merit by moving with the

Dao is gongde. In later Daoist belief, merit could be transferred to a deceased
relative to bring about their release from the earth prisons into the higher
celestial realms. The idea of accumulating merit is present among the follow-
ers of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) and made quite
explicit in Ge Hong’s Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Sim-
plicity). The accumulation of merit is associated with individual transcen-
dence or immortality (xian).
The earliest ritual expression of rescuing the deceased from punishment
by one’s own individual merits is the Lingbao zhai described by Lu Xiujing
(406–477). Such merit rituals were, and still are, performed during memorial
services. These usually last a full day but may be performed on a grander
scale for two days or longer. The daoshi prepares a Writ of Pardon (sheshu)
that is burned and thereby sent to the underworld ritually. The full rite in-
cludes the enactment of the deceased moving symbolically from the under-
world to Heaven by the breaking of the gates of hell. Rituals to transform the
deceased’s inner being include the Untying of the Knots (jiejie) and other
rites of salvation and refinement. At the conclusion of the ritual, the spirit of
the deceased crosses the Naihe Bridge (Naihe qiao) and is led to the Heaven-
ly Hall.

MIJUE 密訣. See SECRET INSTRUCTIONS, MIJUE 密訣.

 MYSTERIOUS LEARNING, XUANXUE 玄學 • 145
MORALITY BOOKS, SHANSHU 善書. Morality books (shanshu) began
to be prominent in Daoism during the Song dynasty. The term refers to a
diverse genre of works meant to exhort commoners to practice proper con-
duct and avoid various evils. These books mix Confucian, Buddhist, and
Daoist moral precepts as examples of the Three Teachings. Morality books
were usually written in the vernacular or very accessible classical Chinese.
They tended to be relatively short in length and uncomplicated in their moral
points.
Underlying the actual set of moral prescriptions given in the diverse works
is a philosophical belief in the process of cosmic retribution in action and
response (ganying) by which good and bad actions have consequences for
one’s success, longevity, and even the well-being of one’s descendants. A
wide range of consequences are tied to moral conduct, for example, the
attainment of social position and wealth, and even the birth of male children.
In fact, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, ledgers of merit and demerit
were used to quantify one’s good and evil deeds. Then the ledgers were often
submitted to join influential societies and obtain various political appoint-
ments. An example of such a ledger preserved in the Daoist Canon is Ledger
of Merit and Demerit of the Immortal Lord of Great Tenuity (Taiwei xianjun
gongguo de, CT 186).
Shanshu texts include collections of miracle tales related to good deeds
(lingyan ji), ledgers of merit and demerit (gongguo ge), stories of virtuous
behavior (e.g., Twenty-four Stories of Filial Exemplars, Ershisi xiao de gu-
shi), and even popular operas played out in the village lecture system from
the time of the Song dynasty through the 19th century.
The philosophical belief in action and response (ganying) predates the
coming of Buddhism to China with its idea of karma. It can be found as early
as the Yellow Emperor sentiments included in the Book of the Masters of
Huainan (Huainanzi) and is also present in the Celestial Masters (Tianshi)
writings, notably the Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi (Laozi Xiang’er
zhu). This idea forms an important component in Ge Hong’s teachings in the
Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity) about the number
of accumulated merits needed to become an immortal (xian).
The most famous of morality books still in use in China and Taiwan is the
10th-century work Tract of the Most High on Action and Response (Tai-
shang ganying pian, CT 1167). In 1936, the Love of Virtue Society (Leshan
she) published a large set of morality books in a single collection entitled
Precious Treasury of Happiness and Longevity (Fushou baozang).

MYSTERIOUS LEARNING, XUANXUE 玄學. Mysterious Learning re-

fers to certain philosophical trends of the 3rd century after the downfall of
the Han dynasty. As a philosophical movement, it may be associated with a
style of interpretation or commentary seeking the hidden meaning of classi-
146 • MYSTERIOUS LEARNING, XUANXUE 玄學
cal texts, especially the Yijing (Classic of Changes), Daodejing, and Zhu-
angzi. Two of its major figures were Wang Bi (226–249) and Guo Xiang
(?232–312). The thinkers associated with this movement certainly drew upon
Confucian influences, and their works often merge interests of both Daoism
and Confucianism. For this reason, Xuanxue is sometimes known as “Neo-
Daoism.”
The teachers working in this tradition were generally committed to the
creation of an ordered society that would be one of peace. Although previous
understandings of both the Daodejing and Zhuangzi suggested that these
works offered strong criticisms of Confucian morality and approaches to
self-cultivation, the Mysterious Learning thinkers did not all share this view.
They thought of Confucian moral virtues as having their sources in the Dao
and believed that moving in wu-wei would result in conduct that Confucian
ethics had identified as desirable. Accordingly, “moving naturally,” in Guo
Xiang’s, thinking was closely associated with living within the role and class
into which one was born or destined. “sitting in forgetfulness” (zuowang)
and “fasting of the heart-mind” (xinzhai) are both major practices in
Daoism that were understood with a modified Confucian interpretation. Both
of these practices would eventuate in one becoming a model citizen. Little-
john (2019) argues that the Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi (Laozi
Xiang’er zhu) is an early version of later Xuanxue interpretive methods.
 N
NANYUE 南嶽. See HENGSHAN 衡山 (MT. HENG, HUNAN PROV-
INCE).

NANZONG 南宗, SOUTHERN LINEAGE. We may think of the inner

alchemy (neidan) methodological lineages as having a Northern and South-
ern expression. The Northern one is Quanzhen, the Complete Perfection
methods that trace their origins to Wang Zhe (1113–1170) and the Seven
Perfected Persons (Qizhen ren). The Southern lineages, known simply as
Nanzong, have Zhang Boduan (?987–1082) as founder. Zhang is author of its
principal text, dating to 1075, Folios on Awakening to Perfection (Wuzhen
pian). In the preface to the work, Zhang reports that he had a sudden sense of
Oneness with Dao upon meeting a Perfected Person (zhenren) in Chengdu
in 1069 (identified in a 12th-century text as Liu Haichan). Afterward, he
was empowered to write a set of 81 poems that became the Wuzhen pian,
dealing with “nourishing life” (yangsheng) through inner “fire phasing.”
Zhang later added another 32 poems to the collection that grew out of his
study of Chan Buddhism.
Actually, reference to Northern and Southern movements of inner alchemy
(neidan) methods is a rather superficial distinction within the larger lineage
of Quanzhen. Both shared monastic disciples, ascetic practices, celibacy, and
meditation.
The Daoist Canon contains a number of commentaries and interpretations
of the Wuzhen pian (e.g., CT 263, 141, 143, and others). There is also Lu
Xixing’s (1520–1601) Short Introduction to the Wuzhen Pian (Wuzhen pian
xiaoxu).

NEIDAN 内丹. See INNER ALCHEMY, NEIDAN 内丹.

NEIJING TU 内景圖. See CHART OF THE INNER LANDSCAPE, NEIJ-

ING TU 内景圖.

147
148 • NEIYE 內業, INNER TRAINING
NEIYE 內業, INNER TRAINING. The Neiye (Inner Training) is a text of
only 1,800 characters preserved in the Guanzi. An important translation of
this text has been done by Harold Roth (1999). It is written in a rhymed form
similar to that found in the Daodejing and may have influenced the composi-
tion of that work. Many of its sentiments are echoed in the Book of the
Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi) and the Classic of Great Peace (Taiping
jing, CT 1101a).
At present, it is our earliest text devoted to explaining and exhorting the
daily inner cultivation that leads to transformation of the person. It empha-
sizes the refinement and regulation of the principal forces of life, including
jing, qi, and shen.
The most basic teaching of the text is that one must practice quiescence to
gain clarity (Qingjing) and quieten the heart-mind (xin). Doing so will aid
in the retention of qi and dao, and contribute to the emergence of numinal
being (shen). Since qi, jing, and dao may come and go from the body, the
body must be regulated by diet and breathing. As these forces are retained,
one grows in virtuous power (de). In the text, one who achieves such cultiva-
tion is called a sage (shengren), a title also given to such people in the
Zhuangzi.
The Neiye, unlike the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, is not interested in recom-
mending a way of rulership, even one driven by transformation in the Dao.
Moreover, the text does not idealize a primitive past of simple people who
are one with the Dao, as is done in the Zhuangzi. It is strictly an individual
manual and guide for cultivation. It does not mention proper names and
makes no reference to historical (or even legendary) events.

NEO-DAOISM. See MYSTERIOUS LEARNING, XUANXUE 玄學.

NIPPON DOKYO GAKKAI, JAPANESE ASSOCIATION OF DAOIST

STUDIES. The Japanese Association of Daoist Studies was founded in Oc-
tober 1950, by a group of 14 scholars. The stated goal was to promote
research on Daoism and other popular religious of East Asia. The association
publishes the Journal of Eastern Religions. It also offers a Daoist Research
Prize to young scholars each year. Many fine papers and presentations came
out of its 35th symposium, “The State of Taoist Studies and Its Issues”
(“Zhongguo daojiao xiehui” [Yoshinobu Sakade 2008]).

NOURISHING LIFE, YANGSHENG 養生. The term yangsheng first oc-

curs in the title of chapter 3 of Zhuangzi: “Yangsheng zhu” or “Mastering
‘nourishing life.’” It has been used in many ways throughout Daoist history,
including as a reference to such techniques as gymnastics (daoyin), breathing
(fuqi), sexual practices (fangzhong shu), dietetics (bigu), massage, and vari-
 NUMINOUS TREASURE, LINGBAO 靈寶 • 149
ous methods of meditation, quietude, and stillness. “Nourishing life” is more
than nourishing the body (yangxing). Nourishing the body alone is insuffi-
cient for attaining transcendence (xian).
Yangsheng methods are described in several of the Mawangdui manu-
scripts, including “Joining Yin and Yang” (He yinyang), “Recipes for Nour-
ishing Life” (Yangsheng fang), and Ten Questions (Shiwen), among others.
The great critical thinker of the Han period known as Wang Chong (27–c.
100 CE) criticized Daoists for thinking that people could become immortals
(xian) by practicing yangsheng techniques (Forke 1907). Nevertheless,
teachers continued to refine and expand yangsheng practices throughout the
Six Dynasties period. Ge Hong (283–343) distinguished yangsheng practice
from the ways of external alchemy (waidan), which he believed to be most
effective in attaining immortality. While necessary practices, Ge did not
believe they were sufficient.
Zhang Zhan (fl. ca. 370) wrote the most important yangsheng work of the
4th century, entitled Essentials of Nourishing Life (Yangsheng yaoji). Based
on the surviving pieces, it seems Zhang’s work had 10 scrolls devoted to
methods for gymnastics, dietetics, sexual techniques, medicines and drugs,
and taboos and prohibitions of conduct and lifestyle. Zhang’s text survives
only in fragments of works by Tao Hongjing (456–536) and Sun Simiao
(?581–?682). In fact, two-thirds of the major work On Nourishing Inner
Nature and Extending Life (Yangxing yanming lu, CT 838), which is attrib-
uted to Tao but may actually have been authored by Sun, is devoted to quotes
from Zhang Zhan’s lost scrolls.
Gymnastics (daoyin) and breathing (xingqi and biqi) became central to
yangsheng methods during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Sun Simiao devoted
two chapters of his Prescriptions Worth a Thousand (Qianjin fang) to yang-
sheng.
During the Song period, yangsheng practices were greatly influenced by
inner alchemy (neidan) methods and theory. But the approach is widely
discussed in a number of works dating to this period. When the “Three
Teachings” (sanjiao) movement gained momentum, moral and ethical con-
siderations became a robust feature of yangsheng. The most important work
of the Ming period on yangsheng was Hu Wenhuan’s c. 1596 text Collection
on Longevity and Nourishment of Life (Shouyang congshu). Hu’s work was
the last of the major texts devoted to yangsheng practices from a methodo-
logical viewpoint, because during the Qing dynasty increasing attention to
Western medical science took the forefront. Thomas Michael has done a
thorough study of yangsheng and its relation to the Daodejing (2015).

NUMINOUS TREASURE, LINGBAO 靈寶. The Lingbao lineage is rep-

resented by a detailed history of practice and an extensive collection of texts.
In spite of this wealth of material, we are still not certain whether the Ling-
150 • NUMINOUS TREASURE, LINGBAO 靈寶
bao lineage can be identified as having any unique institutional form. It
seems to have been a tradition of sentiments and texts that showed up in
several different more structured movements (e.g., Shangqing and the Way
of the Celestial Masters [Tianshi dao]).
The use of bao in Lingbao refers to a sacred object into which some
numinal being (ling) descends to grant power to either the daoshi conducting
the ritual of inhabitation or the owner of the object. As early as the Zhou
dynasty, such objects were literally “treasures” (also a meaning of bao) re-
ceived from Heaven and verifying the owner’s mandate to rule. The royal
bao included bronzes, swords, jades, and the like. Bao were later associated
with written texts and charts possessing talismanic powers, for example, the
Writ of the Luo River (Luoshu) or the Chart of the Yellow River (Hetu). This
application of the concept of bao partially explains the Lingbao belief that
some texts only had to be recited or read to transmit numinal power and
influence.
We see this in the Lingbao lineage classics, specifically the Prolegomena
to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao wufu xu, CT 388).
Interestingly, a person could also become a lingbao. In fact, the term is
sometimes used for daoshi performing exorcisms (fangxiang) to deliver peo-
ple from their demons. At funerals, the impersonator of the dead (shi) was a
bao, acting as a receptacle for the hun, ling, or shen of the deceased.
LINGBAO TEXTS AND TEACHINGS. At the end of the 4th century and
in the early 5th century, a unified corpus of texts bearing the name Lingbao
appeared in Jingnan, near present-day Nanjing. This was the home region of
both Ge Hong’s family and Yang Xi, as well as the Xu Family. These texts
are mentioned in the list of works by Lu Xiujing (406–477) dated to 437.
The Lingbao texts were eclectic in their materials, showing influences from
several Daoist lineages, as well as Buddhism. Nevertheless, it was the Ling-
bao texts that first set out the division of Daoist writings into the “Three
Caverns” (sandong). The Lingbao texts contain instructions for both com-
munal and individual rites. Seemingly, adherents were taught to habitually
recite the major Lingbao text entitled Classic on Salvation (Durenjing) and
keep the 10 precepts (Bokenkamp 1997). Some liturgies in the texts are still
practiced today.
According to the texts themselves, they were first revealed to Ge Xuan, an
uncle of Ge Hong. The transmission history recorded in the text is as follows:
Ge Xuan to Zheng Yin (c. 215–c. 302) to Ge Hong (283–343).
PRINCIPAL CONCEPTS OF LINGBAO TEACHINGS. Since the mate-
rial gathered in the Lingbao texts has many different Daoist and Buddhist
sources, the teachings of Lingbao are not always harmonized into a uniform
philosophy or doctrine. The cosmology is complex and heavily overlaid with
Buddhist concepts and theories of cosmic cycles (i.e., kalpas). There is an
 NUQING GUILU 女青鬼律 • 151
elaborate and extensive cosmic bureaucracy of numinal beings in these writ-
ings. Some of these are celestial, and others reside in the human body. Within
the body, some are “life-givers,” and others are “death-bringers.”
The Lingbao texts make a full integration of Buddhist rebirth teachings,
including doctrines of hell and karmic debt. These are meshed with earlier
Daoist ideas about celestial bureaucrats that oversee action and response
(ganying) first made rather clear in the Book of the Masters of Huainan
(Huainanzi) but as documentable even in the Zhuangzi. According to Ling-
bao, those who adhere to the teachings of its texts may be reborn into privi-
leged families, and some may avoid death altogether and experience “disap-
pearance in broad daylight.”
In the Lingbao writings, we find a direct and clear Daoist version of the
bodhisattva ideal derived from Buddhism. Texts contain ritual formulas
used for the salvation of all beings. A typical reading of the corpus of texts
yields a 10-stage path of bodhisattva attainment. Along the way, incarnation
as a person of wealth and status was one stage, culminating in an extended
life in the heavens and ultimately in a return to the Dao with no further
rebirths.

NUQING GUILU 女青鬼律. See GHOST STATUTES OF NUQING, NUQ-

ING GUILU 女青鬼律.
 O
ONENESS, THE ONE, YI 一. In the Daodejing, Oneness is tied to the Dao.
“The Dao produces the One. The One produces two. Two produces three.
Three produces the myriad creatures” (Daodejing, 42). In Zhuangzi 12, the
One is the “Great Beginning.” If a person can “hold on to the One” his qi will
possess utmost suppleness and he will possess clarity of vision and become
like a little child (Daodejing, 10). Sages (shengren) embrace the One and are
able to serve as models for the entire world (Daodejing, 22). In the Zhuangzi,
the master, Guangcheng zi, is made to say, “I hold on to the One, abide in its
harmony, and therefore I have kept myself for 1,200 years and my body has
never suffered any decay” (ch. 11, Watson 1968, 120).

ORTHODOX UNITY, ZHENGYI 正一. Zhengyi, or Orthodox Unity

Daoism, along with Quanzhen, represents one of the two main branches of
Daoism to the present day. It is also variously known as Zhengyi dao (Way
of Orthodox Unity), from which its designation comes, and also the Way of
the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) and even the Way of the Five Peaks of
Rice (Wudoumi dao).
Zhengyi is identified with the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) and the Way of
Five Peaks of Rice because in his experience on Hemingshan in 142, Zhang
Daoling received a revelation of teachings and practices from Laozi (Lao-
jun) simply called the “Zhengyi mengwei” (Covenant of Orthodox Unity)
between humans and Heaven. One component of this covenant was the pro-
vision for the material needs of the community partly by means of an annual
tithe of five pecks of rice by each family.
At some point, probably after the fall of the confederation of 24 centers
under the rule of Celestial Masters libationers (jijiu) in Sichuan in 216, the
descendants of Zhang Daoling came to reside on Dragon Tiger Mountain
(Longhushan). Leaders there were in the hereditary lineage of the Zhang
family. They often received imperial appointments and commissions.
The movement centered on Dragon Tiger Mountain was only one of three
major strands of Daoism that developed throughout the Tang dynasty. In
1239, Lizong (r. 1224–1264) of the Southern Song dynasty ordered the 35th

153
154 • ORTHODOX UNITY, ZHENGYI 正一
Celestial Master, Zhang Keda (1218–1263), to unite the three great lineages
of Daoism under his leadership. This was done by bringing together the
talismans and registers of the Three Mountains (sanshan fulu). These were
the lineages of the Shangqing (Maoshan in Jingsu), the Lingbao (Gezaoshan
in Jiangxi), and Dragon Tiger Mountain (Longhushan in Jiangxi).
After the Yuan dynasty overran the Song, Khubilai Hhan (r. 1260–1294)
gave the authority over Daoism to the Celestial Master at Longhushan. Then,
in 1304, Zhang Yucai (?–1316) was appointed head of the Teaching of Or-
thodox Unity to guard the talismans and registers of the three mountains.
The Zhengyi lineage has many characteristics. Principal among these are
the following:

1. Recognizing the Celestial Master as head of the lineage in a hereditary

descent of the Zhang family, going back to Zhang Daoling.
2. Conferring registers of numinal authority on new leaders, with increas-
ing power and graded hierarchy following the progress of a leader in
the organizational structure.
3. Attributing the sources of its teachings and texts to Laozi himself. The
extant canon contains 31 texts under the heading of Orthodox Unity
(Zhengyi).
4. Administering a unified set of practices and rituals of numinal power,
including the zhai and jiao rites, as well as the use of talismans and
registers.

Unlike as in Complete Perfection Daoism (Quanzhen), Zhengyi daoshi are

able to marry, live with their families, eat meat, and join in popular religious
ceremonies and customs.
 P
PACING THE DIPPER. See WALKING THE GUIDELINE.

PENGLAI 蓬萊. As early as the 4th century BCE, belief in the three para-
dise islands Penglai, Fengzhang, and Yingzhou was a strong one. Indeed, Qi
state kings Wei (r. 334–320 BCE) and Xuan (r. 319–301 BCE), as well as
Zhao of Yan (r. 311–279 BCE), Qinshihuang (r. 221–210 BCE), and Han
Wudi (r. 141–87 BCE), apparently believed they could attain immortality by
consuming herbs and mineral substances from these islands. The Liezi names
five such splendid islands, including Daiyu and Yuanqiao, along with the
original three. Gradually, the number grew to 10. The paradises were con-
ceived of as places of residence for immortals (xian) and, in the Highest
Clarity (Shangqing) lineage, for their Perfected Persons (zhenren).

PENGZU 彭祖. According to the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals

(Liexian zhuan), Pengzu was once a high official in the Yin kingdom (current
Henan). His name was Qian Keng. He reached more than 800 years of age by
practicing gymnastics (daoyin) and breathing techniques for circulating
breath (xingqi). Both the Zhuangzi and Xunzi mention his longevity, indi-
cating that his legend was already established in the Warring States period.
The Ten Questions (Shiwen) medical text recovered among the Mawangdui
manuscripts reports that upon questioning, Pengzu told the immortal (xian)
Wangzi Qiao that the key to longevity was perfecting sexual energy (fang-
zhong shu, aka techniques of the bedchamber), the use of gymnastics (daoy-
in), and regulating breathing (xingqi).
Ge Hong’s Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity)
quotes a work called the Classic of Pengzu (Pengzu jing), which reports that
Penzu was an official serving from the Xia dynasty until the Yin. According
to Ge, Pengzu left Yin when he learned that the king wanted to obtain control
of his esoteric knowledge of sexual techniques. The Biographies of Divine
Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) attributes his longevity to the practice of sexual
techniques.

155
156 • PERFECTED PERSON, REAL PERSON, AUTHENTIC PERSON
PERFECTED PERSON, REAL PERSON, AUTHENTIC PERSON,
ZHENREN 真人. A zhenren is one of the highest states achievable by peo-
ple in the Daoist hierarchy of being. Zhen may be translated as “real,” “au-
thentic,” or “perfect.” In Zhuangzi, the Perfected Person (zhenren) cannot be
harmed because life and death, profit and loss, and the like are distinctions he
has set aside (ch. 2, Watson 1968: 45–46). They have no meaning for the
Perfected Person. These people are like still water and do not allow the
turbulence of life to agitate them into violence, pride, or other destructive
action. Their internal “spiritual storehouse” (lingfu) is unaffected by what
happens (ch. 5, Watson 1968). For them, all things are equal; that is to say
that in reality, there are no differences between success and failure, beauty
and ugliness, and so on. Such distinctions are invented by humans; they do
not belong to dao (ch. 5, Watson 1968). The zhenren does not love life and
hate death; he forgets these distinctions entirely and delights in the transfor-
mations of the Dao.

The zhenren of ancient times knew nothing of loving life, nothing of

hating death. He emerged without delight; he went back in without a fuss.
He came briskly, he went briskly, and that was all. He didn’t forget where
he began; he didn’t try to find out where he would end. He received
something and took pleasure in it; he forgot about it and handed it back
again. This is what I call not using the mind to repel the Way, not using
man to help out Heaven. This is what I call zhenren (ch. 6, Watson 1968).

According to the Records of the Historian (Shiji 6), the fangshi Lu Sheng
reportedly told Emperor Qinshihuang (r. 221–210 BCE), “The zhenren enters
water but does not get wet, enters fire but does not get burned, flies among
the clouds, and has a length of life equal to that of Heaven and Earth.”
Based on these descriptions, we can see how the reports of zhenren were
easily converted into the traditions and tales of wondrous powers, longevity,
and even immortality. Actually, the zhenren ranked higher in spiritual
achievement than an immortal (xian), at least in some Daoist texts. For
example, the Inner Biography of the Perfected Person of Purple Yang (Ziy-
ang zhenren neishuan, CT 303) says there are three levels of xian, and those
whose names are written in “Golden Script” (jinshu—the highest) are zhen-
ren. It is not surprising, then, that the Perfected Person of Purple Yang, Zhou
Yishan, was one of the figures reported to have bestowed the Highest Clar-
ity revelations upon Yang Xi (330–386).

PILLOW BOOK OF METHODS FOR PRESERVING AND “NOURISH-

ING LIFE,” SHEYANG ZHENSHONG FANG. This work (YJQQ 33) is
attributed to physician Sun Sumiao (fl. 673), and it is one of the most
important texts devoted to the Daoist practice and methods of “nourishing
life” (yangsheng). Both moral cultivation and meditative clarity are stressed
 PRECEPTS, JIE 戒 • 157
as essential to longevity and eventually immortality. The main body of the
text is concerned with five topics: prudence and attention (zishen), prohibi-
tions (jin), gymnastics (daoyin), circulating breath (xingqi), and “guarding
the One” (shouyi).

PRECEPTS, JIE 戒. The very idea of having moral precepts requires some
explanation in Daoism. Following the Zhuangzi, wu-wei as moving with the
Dao has no precepts. It is not a rule-based morality. Both the Daodejing and
the Zhuangzi are critical of morality, considering it as a human overlay onto
the movement of dao, and both texts teach that emptying oneself of moral
discriminations, such as might be named by virtue terms (e.g., benevolence,
kindness, courage, and the like), is needed to experience clarity and quies-
cence (qingjing), and become One with dao.
As long as there were no Daoist communities and adepts tended to live
solitary lives, this understanding of precepts may have been sustainable.
Even the Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi), while teaching that
moral deeds result in health and auspiciousness (i.e., the idea of “action and
response,” or ganying), did not offer an actual set of precepts. But when the
first communities, for example, the Yellow Turbans and the Way of the
Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), were established, there was a need to have
a moral structure.
One way of harmonizing wu-wei’s no-precept system with the emergence
of a rule-based morality is to hold that the codification of morality results
from having watched the conduct of those who moved with clarity in wu-wei.
This approach may be seen in some passages of the Xiang’er Commentary
to the Laozi (Laozi Xiang’er zhu).
Three large sets of precepts came into use in Daoism: Hundred and
Eighty Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao (Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie, in CT
786, 1032); Great Precepts of Wisdom and Self-Observation of the Cavern of
Perfection of Highest Clarity (Shangqing dongzhen zhihui guanshen dajie
wen, CT 1364); and Classic on Weighing Merit Based on the Precepts of the
Three Primes of the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao sanyuan pinjie gongde
qingzhong jing, CT 456). Of these three, Hundred and Eighty Precepts prob-
ably dates into the 4th century (300s). The Great Precepts of Wisdom and
Self-Observation has 302 precepts and is cited in the Supreme Secret Essen-
tials (Wushang biyao, CT 1138), predating 574. The Classic on Weighing
Merit is also quoted in the same work. In general, the precept collections
obligate compassion, tolerance, putting others before self, being less con-
cerned with food and dress, respecting teachers, and so forth.
158 • PURE CONVERSATION, QINGTAN 清談
Moral precepts figure prominently in the later traditions of the morality
books (shanshu) and the ledgers of merit. They are brought into the under-
standings of the celestial bureaucracy of the god of Taishan and Ge Hong’s
understanding of the place of moral life in relationship to longevity and
immortality in the Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity).

PURE CONVERSATION, QINGTAN 清談. Pure conversation was a style

of discourse practiced during the Wei and Jin dynasties (c. 220–420). It
developed into an intellectual game characterized by various rounds of de-
bate during which the “host” would propose a principle, and the “guest”
would present his objections or thoughts. The most renowned practitioners of
this technique were Wang Bi (226–249) and He Yan (190–249). The favorite
subjects of their conversations included the Daodejing, the Zhuangzi, the
Yijing, and the interpretational methods known as Mysterious Learning
(Xuanxue). During the later years of this practice, participants were often
drawn into political conflicts involving leading such key conversationalists
as Ji Kang (223–262) and Ruan Ji (210–263). Liu Yiqing (403–443) com-
piled sayings attributed to important figures in the movement in his New
Account of Tales of the World (Shizhuo xinyu, trans. Mather 1976).
 Q
QI 氣. Qi is a central concept in Daoist ontology. The etymology of the
character is of significance. The upper part of the radical means “vapor,
steam,” and the lower means “rice.” This calls forward the image (xiang) of
steam rising from rice cooking on the stove. Of course, in the cold, a human’s
breath also appears as vapor or steam. Qi shares with steam this transparent,
ethereal, nonmaterial quality. This phenomenon is a partial explanation for
the association of qi and breath. The best Western analogue is simply “ener-
gy.” Out of the original primordial qi, the universe was born. Everything that
exists in its most basic form is qi. Qi moving by yin and yang gives birth to
Five Phase physics (wuxing), and they, in turn, yield the myriad things. So,
everything that exists is some combination of these phases of qi.
See also JING, QI, SHEN 精, 氣, 神, ESSENCE, ENERGY, VITAL
FORCE, SPIRIT.

QIGONG 氣功. Qigong means “qi work.” It is a system of slow body

movements in coordination with regulated circulation of breath (xingqi). It
is a product of 20th-century understandings of a number of techniques large-
ly associated with Daoism. Official Qigong institutions appeared in the
1950s and 1960s. Several contemporary Daoist masters developed healing
methods associated with therapy institutes, but most of these were destroyed
during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and did not reappear until after
1980. No longer meaning simply “nourishing life” (yangsheng), qigong is
also used by a wide variety of therapeutic techniques and martial arts. Qi-
gong is also sometimes taught in schools and universities, and it has become
the object of international congresses, specialized journals, and books pub-
lished on various practices.
Since the late 1980s, qigong practice has shown up in parks and public
places throughout China and particularly in association with senior citizens.
The Chinese government set up national and regional organizations for train-
ing and certification. During this period, the popular interest turned from
“nourishing life” (yangsheng) to the acquisition of such extraordinary powers

159
160 • QINGCHENGSHAN 青城山 (MT. QINGCHENG, SICHUAN PROVINCE)
as clairvoyance, telepathy, psychokinesis, and distance healing. In the 1990s,
several popular masters were arrested for fraud, and many feats were un-
veiled as tricks (Kohn 2018).
After these events, several new groups emerged, adding more religious
features, for example, chanting, ritual, and meditation, to their qigong prac-
tices. The most prominent among them was Practices of the Wheel of the
Law (Falun gong), a group founded in 1992, by Li Hongzhi. Li proclaimed
himself a bodhisattva and described his calling as ridding the world of de-
mons and preparing for a new world that would dawn. He forbade his follow-
ers to read anything except his books and required them to forego any medi-
cal treatment other than the practices of Falun gong. The group was outlawed
in 1996, as a form of public corruption and social harm.
There are many types of qigong, but virtually all types place an emphasis
on circulating breath (xingqi), gymnastic movements (daoyin), careful
mental concentration, and sometimes “quiet sitting” (jingzuo). Daoist abbeys
(guan) and shrines (miao) have programs of qigong with a direct focus on
health. One contemporary publication providing a more mainline view of
Daoism on qigong practice is Pertinent Words on Daoist Long Life and Filial
Piety (Daojiiao yangsheng quanxiao geyan).

QINGCHENGSHAN 青城山 (MT. QINGCHENG, SICHUAN PROV-

INCE). Qingchengshan is a mountain peak in a large chain of mountains
near the city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. The mountain attracted
hermits and recluses during the time of the Shu kingdom as long ago as the
200s BCE. It has been closely associated with the founding of the Way of
the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) since the mid-2nd century. Although the
tradition is that Laojun appeared to Zhang Daoling on Hemingshan (Crane
Call Mountain), there are strong traditions that Zhang first amassed his fol-
lowers on Qingchengshan, and indeed this area was one of the original 24
administrative centers (zhi) of his movement.
Du Guangting (850–933) lived on the mountain in the late 9th century
and made records pertaining to both the institutions founded there and their
activities. Some of the major sacred temples on the mountain include the
Palace of Highest Clarity (Shangqing gong) and the Cavern of the Celestial
Master (Tianshi dong), where Zhang Daoling had experiences of spiritual
consciousness.
While Qingchengshan’s history is mostly tied to the Zhengyi lineage, the
Quanzhen order came to have a major presence on the mountain during the
Yuan dynasty. In fact, today the sacred sites of the mountain are managed by
Quanzhen Daoists of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage.

QINGJING 清静. See CLARITY AND QUIESCENCE, QINGJING 清静.

 QIU CHUJI 丘處機 (1148–1227) • 161
QINGTAN 清談. See PURE CONVERSATION, QINGTAN 清談.

QIU CHUJI 丘處機 (1148–1227). Qiu Chuji (aka Qiu Changchun) was the
youngest of the Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren), Wang Zhe’s
(1113–1170) group of disciples who formed the core of the first generation
of Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) lineage masters. Qiu came to study
with Wang as a 20-year-old orphan. One account of how they became asso-
ciated reports Qiu persuading an old woman living as a recluse in the moun-
tain to instruct him in the techniques of immortality. The lady eventually
directed him to Wang. After Wang’s death, Qiu remained near the burial site
in the Zhongnan Mountains (Shaanxi) for the three-year period of mourning.
When the period ended, he spent six years in Panxi (Shaanxi) and seven more
years on Longmenshan. In these places, it is reported that he practiced Quan-
zhen austerities, including going without sleep for weeks, roaming half-
naked in the middle of winter, and living with the mountain animals.
Qiu emerged from this period a mature Daoist in the Quanzhen tradition.
Between 1186–1191, he lived at the Ancestral Court temple erected around
Wang’s grave, the site that later became the Abbey of Double Yang (Chon-
gyang guan). He was summoned to the Jin court in 1188, and, in 1191, he
returned to his native province of Shandong. There he gathered his own
disciples and built several new abbeys (guan). In 1195, the Ancestral Court
temple in Shaanxi closed, and the teachers there requested help from Qiu to
restore it. He managed to save the temple, demonstrating his leadership of
the Quanzhen order. In Northern China, during the Mongol invasions and
wars between the Song and Jin, the Quanzhen order, under his direction,
provided relief to the commoners in the villages.
Qiu was summoned by Mongol emperor Chinggis Khan (Taizu, r.
1206–1227) in 1219. He took 18 of his disciples with him to Central Asia
and met with the ruler in 1222. This event is described in detail in the
Records of a Journey to the West by the Perfected Person Changchun
(Changchun zhenren xiyou ji, CT 1429), written by Quanzhen patriarch Li
Zhichang (1193–1256). Accordingly, in Quanzhen lore, Qiu is likened to
Laozi in striving to convert the barbarians, and Li Zhichang is considered to
be the new Yin Xi. Just what influence Qiu had on the emperor is not known
completely, but the Quanzhen order did enjoy various privileges, which they
used for the benefit of the civilian population of China.
In his later years, Qiu settled in Beijing and, in 1224, became patriarch of
the Abbey of Celestial Perpetuity (Tianchang guan), which was later re-
named Palace of Perpetual Spring (Changchun gong) in his honor. When he
died in 1227, he was buried next to this abbey, and a new monastery was
built around it called the White Cloud Abbey (Baiyuan guan). The most
extended biography of his life is the Felicitous Meetings with the Mysterious
School, with Illustrations (Xuanfeng qinghui tu). A few of Qiu’s poems are
162 • QIZHEN REN
included in the Anthology of the Master from Panxi (Panxi ji, CT 1159),
dating to 1208. Although the inner alchemy (neidan) teaching manual
Straightforward Directions on the Great Elixir (Dadan zhizhi, CT 244) is
ascribed to him, although this is almost certainly a later attribution.

QIZHEN REN. See SEVEN PERFECTED PERSONS, QIZHEN REN 七真

人.

QUANZHEN全全真. See COMPLETE PERFECTION LINEAGE, QUAN-

ZHEN 全真.

QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST, XIWANGMU 西王母. In some con-

temporary Daoist communities, veneration of the Queen Mother of the West
as wife of the Jade Emperor continues in popular festivals and celebrations.
Xiwangmu first appeared in the Classic of the Mountains and Seas (Shanhai
jing), dating into the 4th century BCE. In this text, she is reported to be a
fearsome cave-dwelling deity than can bring pestilence to the world if she is
not honored. Chinese lore associates her residence with Kunlun, the Jade
Mountain (Yushan), and other sites.
The Bamboo Annals (Zhushu jinian) describes how King Mu of Zhou (r.
956–918 BCE) traveled to meet her on Kunlun and later entertained her at
court. She is mentioned in Zhuangzi, chapter 6. So, in some texts she is not a
frightening spirit. In one Daoist pantheon, Dongwang gong (King Lord of the
East) became her male counterpart during the Han.
During the Han dynasty, Xiwangmu was credited with bringing good for-
tune to earthly rulers. By 3 CE, a movement had grown up around her,
valorizing her role as a savior figure both for the realm and for individuals. In
her paradise on Kunlun, the myth says she has an orchard of peach trees, the
fruit of which brings immortality. Indeed, in the Ming dynasty fiction novel
Journey to the West (Xiyou ji), his pillaging of this orchard is one of the
reasons for the divine punishment of Sun Wukong (aka the Monkey King).
The romanticized Highest Clarity biography of Han Wudi (r. 141–87
BCE) Inner Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han (Han Wudi neizhuan, CT
292) indicates that Xiwangmu had been assimilated into the Daoist pantheon
of numinal beings. In one account, Han Wudi receives the peaches of immor-
tality from her.

QUIET ROOM, MEDITATION CHAMBER, JINGSHI 静室. While the

term jingshi is not known to have been used for the practices of recluses and
Daoist cave-dwelling masters in the classical period of the formation of the
Daodejing and Zhuangzi texts dating from the 300s BCE, there are frequent
references to mountain dwelling masters in the Zhuangzi that suggest caves
 QUIET ROOM, MEDITATION CHAMBER, JINGSHI 静室 • 163
were used for what Peter Kingsley (1999) has called the “dark places of
wisdom.” Caves provided ideal quiet rooms for entering alternative states of
consciousness through radical stillness, breathing practice, and meditative
focus. In the course of the founding of the Way of the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi dao), Zhang Daoling (34–156) had his experience with Taishang
Laojun in Tiangu cave. As that movement grew and it was less feasible for
adherents to take up residence in the mountain caves, various substitutes
emerged.
Early accounts of the life of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) communities
record that each household was expected to provide itself a jingshi. Reports
of people emerging from these places having been healed of illness, freed
from guilt, and able to move in wu-wei spontaneity provide us with the
philosophical evidence and an explanation for the growth and endurance of
the Celestial Masters movement.
The Abridged Codes for the Daoist Community (Daomen kelue, CT 1127),
ascribed to Lu Xiujing (406–477), includes instructions for the construction
and setup of a jingshi. According to this work, the jingshi should be separat-
ed from other structures. It must be clean and simple, containing only an
incense burner, a lantern, a calligraphy blade, and a stand for reading/writing
petitions or talismans (fu). Other versions of the structure of the jingshi are in
Tao Hongjing’s (456–536) Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT
1016) and Liu Yuandao’s Supplementary Illustrations to the Wondrous Clas-
sic of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation (Wuliang duren shangpin
miaojing pangtong tu, CT 148).
 R
RAO DONGTIAN 饒洞天 (fl. 994). Along with Tan Zixiao (fl. 935–after
963), Rao Dongtian was one of the two original founders of the lineage of the
Correct Methods for the Celestial Heart (Tianxin zhengfa). The account of
his numinal experience given in Correct Methods of the Celestial Heart of
Highest Clarity (Shangqing tianxin zhengfa, CT 566) is instructive. In that
version, one night in 994, Rao saw a multicolored light shining from the
ground up to the heavens from one of the summits of Mt. Huagai (Jiangxi
province). The following morning, when he dug into the ground at the spot
from which the light had come, he found books containing the “secret formu-
las of the Celestial Heart” (Tianxin bishi). Although he did not understand
how to practice the methods contained in the books, a numinal being later
appeared to him and instructed him to become a disciple of Tan Zixiao, who
taught him how to practice.
Tan Zixiao was a daoshi from Quanzhou (Fujian) who was a close collab-
orator with the spirit medium (jitong) Chen Shouyuan. Tan’s biography in
the History of the Southern Tang (Nan Tangshu) contains an account report-
ing that Chen had discovered the mystic talismans (fu) of Zhang Daoling
written on bamboo slips and buried in the ground in a bronze bowl. Not
knowing how to use them, he gave them to Tan, who was given the insight to
penetrate their mysteries and apply them.
Tan not only helped Rao decipher the methods he found in the writings
gathered from Mt. Huagai, but also guided Rao to encounter a numinal being
referred to as the Benevolent and Holy Emperor of Mt. Tai, Equal to Heaven
(Taishan tianqi rensheng di), from whom Rao obtained authority over an
army of spirit beings (yinbing). They assisted him in the practice of the
Correct Method of the Celestial Heart. Thus equipped, Rao became known
as the “first patriarch of the Tianxin tradition” (CT 566, preface).
Through successive transmissions, the methods and teachings of the
Tianxin tradition came down to Deng Yougong, who became the editor of its
texts. The most important of these may be considered Tianxin’s community

165
166 • RECITATION AND CHANTING, SONGJING 誦經
code of organization and behavior, delivered spiritually to Rao and entitled
Ghost Code of the Spinal Numinous Script of the Highest Clarity Tradition
(Shangqing gushi lingwen guilu, CT 461).

RECITATION AND CHANTING, SONGJING 誦經. Songjing is a Daoist

practice common in the Highest Clarity (Shangqing) lineage, but it dates
back to the Han dynasty. During that period, members of the Way of the
Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) recited and chanted the Daodejing, both in
private and communally. At the heart of the practice is the idea of experienc-
ing transformation, not simply gaining knowledge through the memorization
and chanting of a holy text. The words of the text themselves pour over the
person as they are recited or chanted. Since the actual words of a text are
often believed to have come from a numinal being, the text itself takes on the
character of a talisman (fu), and its recitation or chant casts a spell (zhou 咒).
The Classic of Divine Spells of the Cavernous Abyss (Dongyuan shenzhou
jing, CT 335) teaches that one way to use a holy text is as a talisman, through
chanting it.
The Lingbao work Classic on Salvation (Durenjing, CT 1) emphasizes
the efficacy of its chanting for the universal salvation of all people by stress-
ing that its recitation fills the world and everything in it with numinal power.
In contemporary Daoist rituals, the High Daoshi (gaogong daoshi) chants to
gain clarity in his own heart-mind (xin) and summons numinal powers into
his very being to transform himself during the ritual period. Chanting is
taught in many contemporary schools to select disciples.

RED HEAD AND BLACK HEAD DAOISTS, HONGTOU 紅頭 AND

WUTOU 烏頭. These are terms used to refer to daoshi, usually in southeast-
ern Mainland China and Taiwan. The terms derive simply from the head caps
worn by the daoshi practitioners. The different colored caps indicate distinct
ranks of daoshi. A master wearing a Red Head may perform rites of healing
and rituals for the living, for example, exorcism (related to healing). He
often works alongside or with the help of a spirit medium (jitong), who goes
into trance states and presents himself in role and voice as a deceased spirit.
A Black Head daoshi may perform all of these functions but additionally
does rituals for the dead and larger zhai rites, usually relying on cantors
(dujiang) and several other daoshi of varying ranks.
One explanation of the differences in headwear contends that the red cap is
emblematic of good luck and auspiciousness, the efficacies such daoshi wish
to achieve, whereas the black cap refers to the world of the dead and the dark
shen of the otherworld. Red Head daoshi usually performs rites in the lan-
guage of Taiwanese theater, perhaps dating back to forms of premodern
 RITUAL TOOLS, FAQI 法器 • 167
official Chinese. The Black Head master, on the other hand, uses either
classical Chinese speech or the vernacular. There are also some differences
in ritual tools employed.

REGISTER, FULU 符籙. The term “register” as used in Daoism combines

the functions of a talisman (fu) and a register, listing those numinal beings
under one’s authority (lu). These were first widely used in Daoism by the
communities of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao). Members
of the community from young children to adults were given registers. The
level of register varied with the age and development of the recipient. Mar-
ried couples merged their registers. Some registers were talismans of great
power, listing not only large numbers of numinal beings at one’s disposal,
but also ones of great power. Leaders in those communities were called
libationers (jijiu), and they possessed registers of great power, for example,
those which contain the name of the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu).

RELATIONSHIP OF THE THREE, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE

BOOK OF CHANGES, ZHOUYI CANTONG QI 周易參同契. This work is
the earliest example of a Chinese alchemical text still extant. It is usually
known in English simply as Kinship of the Three (Cantong qi) and attributed
to the legendary immortal (xian) of the Han dynasty, Wei Boyang; however,
the text, as it stands, has been heavily edited and has several centuries of
accretions within it. Nevertheless, the fact that it is quoted and mentioned in
several Tang dynasty works suggests that in its original form, it may date
back to the Han period. Fabrizio Pregadio (2011) associates it with Han
cosmologist Yu Fan (164–233) and his lineage of disciples.
Actually, even though the text has been revered in both external alchemy
(waidan) and inner alchemy (neidan) circles, it does not fully describe any
method in detail. The main focus of the text is on the Dao and its relation to
the cosmos. The work’s title reveals its intentional connection to the Classic
of Changes (Zhouyi or Yijing). The cosmological language of the text may be
read as symbolic, making it a treatise for neidan or as an account of the Five
Phases, inviting waidan readings. Upon either reading, the essential process-
es of space and time on the grand scale are also taking place within the
individual person.

RITUAL TOOLS, FAQI 法器. Instruments in Daoist rituals are used to

control spirits, purify ritual spaces, send messages to numinal beings, and
perform other functions. Included among these objects are mirrors, swords,
wooden tablets, bells, chimes, talisman placards, whips, whisks, horn flutes,
168 • RITUALS
water bowls, and incense burners. The text Codes and Precepts for Worship-
ing the Dao (Fengdao kejie, CT 1125) designates all of these instruments as
“ritual tools.” A few examples may be given.
The Seven-star Sword (qixing jian) is a steel instrument whose blade is
engraved with a pattern of the Big Dipper (beidou) and used to vanquish evil
spirits from a space to make it pure and sacred. The Dragon Horn (longjiao)
is a flute used to summon spiritual beings. The Rope of the Law (fasheng) is
actually a whip. Its cracking noise is meant to frighten away evil spirits,
much in the same way firecrackers are used at important Chinese festivities.
The Command Placard (lingpai) is a long, narrow, wooden plate, flat at the
bottom and rounded at the top, with talismanic words of power carved on it.
On the front is “Command of the Five Thunders” (wulei haoling), and on the
back appears “Calling the Ten Thousand Spirits” (zongzhao wanling). The
daoshi holds the placard in his hands when giving orders to or making
requests of heavenly officers and numinal spirits.

RITUALS. Our earliest records of Daoist rituals are those preserved by

followers of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao). This is not to
say that among various master-disciple lineages prior to the 2nd century
there was no ritual performance by daoshi or masters of techniques (fang-
shi). It means that the transmissions of those performances were apparently
in oral form only, and most likely the rituals had no communal expressions.
Today, daoshi perform a wide range of rituals designed to interact with
cosmic powers and numinal beings in a variety of ways. There are rituals to
ensure good luck and prosperity, ask for forgiveness, benefit the dead, and
offer thanksgiving. Depending on the ritual and the daoshi performing it
(Red Head or Black Head daoists), the rite may take place in a home, a
shrine, an abbey, a created temporary sacred space in public, or an erected
platform.
Historically, important rituals have included such examples as the zhai
Ritual of Mud and Soot, a rite performed in the Way of the Celestial Mas-
ters (Tianshi) communities to formalize the confession of moral transgres-
sions and obtain purification individually and communally. Large rites
known as zhai rituals are the centerpieces of village festivals. They may last
three, five, or even seven days and involve large numbers of daoshi perform-
ing various parts of the ritual. Sometimes members of the community partici-
pate, but many of the rites are meant only to be observed by them. Features
of these zhai rituals may include the following:
Establishing and purifying a sacred space, especially if it is to be erected
in a public area temporarily. Rites include writing or hanging talis-
mans and dances and chants of protection.
 RITUAL SPACE, SACRED AREA, DAOCHANG 道場 • 169
Performing dance and chant by the High Daoshi (gaogong daoshi) to
transform and purify himself so that he may visualize and commune
with the numinal beings who will be present. This is done in front of
the “cave altar.”
Inviting numinal beings into the ritual space. This process includes conse-
crating the images (xiang), usually made of paper in current practice.
The image is activated by dotting the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth with
red ink.
Giving symbolic offerings and praises.
Reading and chanting texts for confession, praise, and petition of bless-
ings.
Depending on the purpose of the zhai ritual, many more features and
movements can be added.
At the conclusion of the zhai, sending the numinal beings back to their
places and the images they occupied, along with burning other compo-
nents of the ritual observances, changing their Five Phase Physics
(wuxing) form into one suitable for the numinal world.
Specific smaller rituals may be performed to prevent evil from entering a
family or village, improve one’s luck, petition for longevity, send aid to the
dead, and perform a funeral.

RITUAL SPACE, SACRED AREA, DAOCHANG 道場. The term dao-

chang is used to refer to the sacred space in which rituals are enacted. It may
also be used for the rituals themselves. The reason for this is that the space is
made sacred by particular ritual performances, so the area becomes full of
numinal presence by and as a result of rites done by the daoshi. So, daochang
is sometimes not distinguished from the ritual created by Lu Xiujing
(406–477) and typically called the “Land of the Way” rite. This performance
continued through Du Guangting (850–933). In the Great Rites of the Numi-
nous Treasure of Highest Clarity (Shangqing lingbao dafa, CT 1221), the
ritual stages are set forth in detail.

1. The gaogong daoshi enters the altar and offers incense to express his
sincerity.
2. He summons the local spirits, announces the purpose of the ritual, and
gives the local spirits messages to take to the celestial spirits.
3. He identifies himself to the assembled spirits and salutes the high-
ranking spirits, respectfully informing them of the purpose of the ritual.
4. For the benefit of the assembled community, he reads the “Green dec-
laration” (qingci), which provides information about the rite and the
intent of the people sponsoring it.
170 • RITUAL SPACE, SACRED AREA, DAOCHANG 道場
5. He offers incense to the Three Pure Ones so that the merits of the
community may be used to bring joy and prosperity to the living and
enable the ancestors to attain salvation.
6. He offers obeisance, confession, and repentance to the spirits of the 10
directions so that the sins of the living and the dead will not be able to
cause any evil influences.
 S
SAGE, SHENGREN 聖人. Daoist texts make use of several terms for nam-
ing the practitioner of Dao who masters its presence in life. These include
calling the person an immortal (xian), a spirit or divine person (shenren), a
Perfected Person (zhenren), or a sage (shengren). Critically identifying dif-
ferent literary strata in such composite texts as the Zhuangzi sometimes
depends, in part, on the different uses of terms for the ideally proficient
practitioner of the Dao, specifically shengren and zhenren.
The term shengren is also used in Confucianism, but in Daoism the em-
phasis is less on the exemplary moral character of such a person and more on
his evanescent, spontaneous, dynamic, luminous powers and affect (de). The
Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi) says such a person is in “One-
ness with Dao” and knows no dualism (ch. 7). Supernormal powers are often
associated with shengren in the Daoist texts. Such a person can predict the
future. He is mysterious and obscure, and yet as brilliant as the sun and moon
(Zhuangzi, 13). He walks among the ordinary people as if invisible. His spirit
goes wandering on ecstatic journeys, leaving his body behind. He dominates
yin and yang and stands at the center between Heaven and Earth. He is the
model for fulfilled humanity in oneness with Dao. This kind of person moves
in wu-wei, which is the same thing as saying he has “obtained the Dao” or is
“guarding the One” (shouyi).

SANDONG 三洞. See THREE CAVERNS, SANDONG 三洞.

SANDONG JINGSHU MULU 三洞經書目錄. See INDEX OF CLASSICS

AND WRITINGS OF THE THREE CAVERNS, SANDONG JINGSHU MULU
三洞經書目錄.

SANDONG QIONGGANG. See EXQUISITE COMPENDIUM OF THE

THREE CAVERNS, SANDONG QIONGGANG 三洞瓊綱.

SANGUAN 三官. See THREE OFFICES, SANGUAN 三官.

171
172 • SANJIAO三教
三教. See THREE TEACHINGS, SANJIAO 三教.
SANJIAO三

SANQING 三清. See THREE PURE ONES OR THREE WORTHIES,

SANJUN 三尊, SANQING 三清.

SECRET INSTRUCTIONS, MIJUE 密訣. Mijue is a term used for the

ritual manuals of a daoshi practitioner. These contain the methods and in-
structions handed down, usually in Zhengyi lineages, from father to son/
grandson. Historically, upon ordination, a daoshi would copy the mijue and
keep it in a safe place for use during ritual service. These instructions are
kept secret and only transmitted to initiates.

SEVEN LABELS FROM THE BOOKBAG OF THE CLOUDS, YUNJI

QIQIAN 雲笈七籤. This work in the Daoist Canon as CT 1032 is one of the
major Daoist anthologies, and it also serves as an excellent source of infor-
mation for otherwise lost works, especially those written during the Tang
dynasty (618–907). It was compiled by Zhang Junfang (fl. 1008–1025).
Zhang was editor of the Daoist Canon being complied during the reigns of
emperors Taizong (976–997) and Zhenzong (997–1022). He grouped the
texts into seven categories. Thus, the expression qiqian (“seven labels”) re-
fers to this division. John Lagerwey (1981) has done a study of the sources of
the collection, which is discussed in Schipper and Verellen (2004).

SEVEN PERFECTED PERSONS, QIZHEN REN 七真人. The Seven

Perfected Persons are the original seven disciples of Wang Zhe
(1113–1170), founder of the Complete Perfection lineage of Daoism.
Sometimes they are referred to as the Seven Patriarchs of Quanzhen. They
are as follows:
Ma Danyang (1123–1183)
Dan Chuduan (1123–1185)
Liu Chuxuan (1147–1203)
Qiu Chuji (1148–1227)
Wang Chuyi (1142–1217)
Hao Datong (1140–1212)
Sun Bu’er (1119–1182)
Among these seven, Ma and Sun were husband and wife, and there are
several stories of their interactions with Wang Zhe. Qiu was the founder of
the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage famously affiliated with the White
Cloud Abbey (Baiyun guan) in Beijing.
 SIMA CHENGZHEN 司馬承禎 (647–735) • 173
SHANGQING 上清. See HIGHEST CLARITY LINEAGE, SHANGQING
上清.

SHANSHU 善書. See MORALITY BOOKS, SHANSHU 善書.

SHENGREN 聖人. See SAGE, SHENGREN 聖人.

SHENXIAN ZHUAN 神仙傳. See BIOGRAPHIES OF DIVINE IMMOR-

TALS, SHENXIAN ZHUAN 神仙傳.

SHENXIAO 神霄. See DIVINE EMPYREAN DAOISM, SHENXIAO 神

霄.

SHEYANG ZHENSHONG FANG. See PILLOW BOOK OF METHODS

FOR PRESERVING AND “NOURISHING LIFE,” SHEYANG ZHEN-
SHONG FANG.

SHIJIE 尸解. See DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CORPSE, SHIJIE 尸解.

SHIYAO ERYA 石藥爾雅. See SYNONYM DICTIONARY OF MINERAL

MATERIA MEDICA, SHIYAO ERYA 石藥爾雅.

SHOUJUE 手訣. See INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRACTICES WITH THE

HAND, SHOUJUE 手訣.

SHOUYI 守一. See GUARDING THE ONE, HOLDING TO ONENESS

WITH DAO, SHOUYI 守一.

SIMA CHENGZHEN 司馬承禎 (647–735). Arguably, Sima Chengzhen

was the most significant Daoist of the Tang dynasty. He was author of many
important works on self-cultivation and transformation through quietude, and
he was the successor to Pan Shizheng (585–682) as the Grand Master (zong-
shi) of the Highest Clarity (Shangqing) lineage. Sima was a poet and paint-
er, and well acquainted with the great writer Li Bai (701–762). There are
many stories of his mastery of calligraphy that associate this skill with the
flow of qi through his body. Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756) asked Sima to
copy the Daodejing in three calligraphic styles and then had them engraved
onto stone tablets. Another tradition says that Empress Wu (r. 684–704)
wrote an imperial edict praising him for his personal and spiritual achieve-
ments.
174 • SIMING 司命
Sima’s life is well documented in more than three dozen biographies. With
respect to his contribution to Daoism, at the age of 21 he became a disciple of
Pan Shizheng on Songshan (Mt. Song, Henan), from whom he received the
Shangqing texts and teachings. Sima’s most influential impact was his in-
volvement in establishing Daoism’s place in the political terrain of the Tang.
He was a counselor and advisor to various rulers, including Ruizong (r.
684–690, 710–712) and especially Xuanzong (r. 712–756). He was made the
abbot at Mt. Wangwu (Henan province), where he edited and commented on
many Shangqing texts. Du Guangting (850–933) reports Sima’s passing in
735, at the age of 89. One text reports that he experienced “disappearance of
the corpse” (shijie) after having announced, “I have already received official
duties in the City of Mystery (Xuandu).”
In terms of his contribution to Daoist teaching, Sima passed along various
techniques to cultivate the body and nourish qi, and these were more in the
inner alchemy (neidan) rather than the external alchemy (waidan) method.
Sima’s most famous and long-lasting impact is embodied in his work Essay
on Sitting in Forgetfulness (Zuowang lun, CT 1036), in which he describes a
seven-stage path for “realizing the Dao.”

SIMING 司命. See DIRECTOR OF DESTINIES, SIMING 司命.

SITTING IN FORGETFULNESS, ZUOWANG 坐忘. Zuowang describes

a deep or intense state of altered consciousness, often resembling death,
sleep, or coma in outward appearance. The Zhuangzi has five passages in
which onlookers observing an adept in this state notice that the person has
made his body “as an old dead tree,” and he appears to be in a far-off state of
mind (making one’s mind like “dead ashes”), not conscious of the present
moment (Littlejohn 2018). The state may be compared to “incubation,” as
described by Peter Kingsley (1999) of pre-Socratic Greek philosophers who
undertook quiet stillness in caves.
In this state, the adept “forgets” or empties herself of language and such
conceptual distinctions as moral concepts (e.g., virtue and vice terms) and
sociocultural markers like success, failure, beauty, ugliness, and so on. By
removing these barriers, the Dao may appear to awareness just as it is. This is
described as “returning to the Origin” or “holding on to Oneness” (shouyi).
While practiced from the 4th century BCE onward, even showing up in the
meditative activities of Zhang Daoling, this discipline was particularly im-
portant in the Shangqing (Highest Clarity), Quanzhen (Complete Perfec-
tion), and Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) lineages. According to the
Chongxuan master, Cheng Xuanying (fl. 631–650), the exercise expresses a
 SPIRIT-MEDIUM, JITONG 乩童 • 175
twofold forgetfulness: forgetting the outer (i.e., the distinctions and discrimi-
nations made in language) and the forgetting the inner (i.e., thinking of
awareness as belonging to some type of object or thing).
In the 8th century, sitting in forgetfulness was the object of Sima Cheng-
zhen’s (647–735) famous work Essay on Sitting in Forgetfulness (Zuowang
lun, CT 1036). This essay was actually a compilation of Sima’s lectures to
aspiring students. Its contents are traceable to Sima’s early teaching period
on Mt. Tongbo (Tongboshan, Zhejiang province). Sima considers the historic
interpretations of the term zuowang and adds his own contribution to the way
of attaining this experience by means of a series of seven steps.

1. Entering seriously into a new state of consciousness with faith (Jing-

xin).
2. Confronting one’s moral action and response (Duanyuan).
3. Restraining the mind’s wanderings (Shouxin).
4. Detaching or emptying from affairs of life (Jianshi).
5. Engaging in true observation (Zhenguan).
6. Intensifying concentration (Taiding).
7. Realizing the Dao (Dedao).

SONGJING 誦經. See RECITATION AND CHANTING, SONGJING 誦

經.

SONGSHAN 嵩山 (MT. SONG, HENAN PROVINCE). As with the other

Five Marchmounts of Daoist belief, Mt. Song is not one single peak but a
chain of mountains and hills. Most Daoists who settled in Songshan lived in
the regions of the mountains belonging to Dengfeng district (Henan prov-
ince), not far from Luoyang. Songshan is one of Daoism’s famous grotto-
heavens (dongtian) and is regarded as the Central Peak of the Five March-
mounts system (wuyue).
Daoists founded the Shrine of the Central Peak (Zhongyue miao) on the
mountain and shared rituals there with popular cults. Many of these resem-
ble what is found elsewhere in the iconography and practice of the Dongyue
miao temple network. The most famous Daoists to reside on Songshan were
Kou Qianzhi (365–448) and Pan Shizheng (585–682). Buddhists also mi-
grated to the mountain, and its most famous site is the Shaolin Monastery
(Shaolin si).

SPIRIT-MEDIUM, JITONG 乩童. The term jitong refers to daoshi ritual

specialists who speak and act for departed people or a numinal being (god or
goddess) and are thus considered to be “spirit possessed.” This is a not
176 • SPIRIT-WRITING, FUJI 扶乩
uncommon occurrence in Taiwanese popular religion even today, although
daoshi usually set themselves apart from this practice, considering it more a
function of Chinese popular religion than Daoism itself.
The authenticity of the medium’s trance is often demonstrated by an act of
self-mortification, for example, penetrating the skin with needles, flagellat-
ing the back with a whip of nails, or walking on burning coals. Onlookers
who witness the medium’s imperviousness to pain and injury conclude that
he is under the protection of a divine spirit. Mediums also exhibit changes in
behavior and altered voice.
The medium oftentimes is reluctant to give over to the call coming from a
noumenal world. The call is frequently expressed in dreams, apparitions, or
inner auditions. One who is willing to abandon himself and speak for another
typically undergoes a period of training under the direction of a ritual spe-
cialist, who may later become his interpreter and manager. This is especially
true if the medium is speaking for a deity or numinal being. Respected
mediums may run a regular schedule of séances or offer appointments to
clients seeking advice from the deity or departed people. Among the issues
brought before spirit mediums, the most popular are those related to health,
career decisions, educational challenges, and marriage and matchmaking.

SPIRIT-WRITING, FUJI 扶乩. Fuji is particularly associated principally

with the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) School of Daoism. It involves
two people holding a stylet above a surface covered with sand. One of them,
possessed by a numinal presence, moves the stylet and draws characters in
the sand. A third person standing by interprets what is written and transcribes
the message onto paper. The practice was popular throughout the Ming and
Qing dynasties. Typically, the numinal beings who come are female; howev-
er, popular local spirits and the Eight Immortals (baxian) are also common.
The Daoist Canon contains several scriptures presented as written through
spirit-writing. The most prominent of these is Record of the Traces of the
Dao Left by Numinous Spirits and Immortals (Daoji lingxian ji, CT 597).
Another famous example is Book of Transformations of the Imperial Lord of
Zitong (Zitong dijun huashu, CT 170).

SPONTANEITY, NATURALNESS, ZIRAN 自然. Ziran is used in

Daoism as both an adjective (natural, spontaneous) and a noun (spontaneity,
naturalness). In either usage, it is related to zide (self-attainment, self-expres-
sion). It captures movement that is free and without hindrance by convention
or expectation. Even Dao may be said to ziran, as it is life-producing creativ-
ity, eventuating in de (virtuous power, charismatic force). With respect to
Dao’s ziran, it is like the water flowing from a spring that never dries up,
which is why it may be compared to the power of the Origin (yuan).
 SUN BU’ER 孫不二 (1119–1183) • 177
Ziran is used in cosmology to describe how the world goes on by itself,
without any deliberation, plan, or contrivance. To use an analogy, we may
say there is music playing, but no score is being followed, nor is there any
musician. Nevertheless, there is delight, order, and no harm. As Daodejing
25 says, “The Dao models itself on ziran.” Likewise, when used of an adept
who moves in wu-wei, he is realizing ziran.
As can be seen in Guo Xiang’s commentary on the Zhuangzi, Daoist
thinkers sometimes betray Buddhist influences when interpreting ziran and
only emphasize it as capturing the idea of “no substance” or “no Being.” This
misses the reality of awareness and the persistence of consciousness that
remains in Daoism. While there is “no thing” that is conscious, there is
consciousness, which may be aware as ziran.
In the Zhuangzi, remarks on ziran stress being “natural” as opposed to
“artificial” or “human-made.” The adept or Perfected Person (zhenren)
moves without intention and apart from control by the distinctions and dis-
criminations of culture or society. Each person, moving in wu-wei, is his own
spring of life.

STEPS OF YU. See WALKING THE GUIDELINE, PACING THE DIP-

PER, STEPS OF YU, BUGANG 步罡.

STOVE GOD, KITCHEN GOD, ZAOSHEN 竈神. The Stove God is a

household god popular throughout China and grafted into the Daoist belief
system. Typically, a paper image (xiang) of Zaoshen, and perhaps his wife
and children, is hung on a wall near the stove in the kitchen. The purpose of
this image is to serve as a reminder that Zaoshen watches over the conduct of
the family members, reporting their good or evil deeds to the Jade Emperor
(Yuhuang) once per year. On the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, the
family offers food, incense, and prayers to Zaoshen.
Beliefs about Zaoshen are first referenced in the Analects (Lunyu) and
mentioned in the Book of Rites (Liji). The earliest surviving Daoist text
devoted to the Stove God is Classic on Pacifying the Stove [God] (Anzao
jing, CT 69), perhaps dating to the Song dynasty (960–1279). Zaoshen is also
often identified with the Director of Destinies (Siming).

SUN BU’ER 孫不二 (1119–1183). Sun Bu’er is the only woman to be

included among the Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen ren), who were the
principal disciples of the founder of the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection)
lineage, Wang Zhe (1113–1170), in Ninghai (Shandong province). Although
her birth name was Sun Fuchun, Wang Zhe gave her the honorific Bu’er
(nondual) to recognize her Oneness with Dao.
178 • SUN SIMIAO 孫思邈 (?581–?682)
The hagiographic traditions of Daoism are full of material on Sun Bu’er.
All agree that she was born in 1119, to a well-established family in Ninghai.
She was given in marriage to Ma Yu (1123–1184), the son of a wealthy
family in the town. They had three sons. When Wang Zhe arrived in Ninghai
from Mt. Zhongnan (Shaanxi province) in 1167, Ma and Sun welcomed him
into their home. Wang made a retreat on their property and isolated himself
for more than three months. In 1168, Ma left with Wang to pursue Wang’s
teachings and techniques in the Golden Lotus Hall (Jinlian tang) on the estate
of Zhou Botong. As a disciple, Wang gave Ma the new name Ma Danyang. A
year later, Sun presented herself at the community, and she was accepted.
Along with her new name, Wang also transmitted to her an important text on
talismans (fu). In late 1170, Wang returned to Henan, where he passed away
and was buried on Mt. Zhongnan. Sun made a pilgrimage to his grave, and,
by 1175, she had settled in Luoyang (Henan province), where she attracted a
large following as a master of Quanzhen practice herself.

SUN SIMIAO 孫思邈 (?581–?682). Sun was born near Chang’an (Xi’an)
and was well educated. He was one of Daoism’s greatest alchemists and
physicians. He figures in both Daoist and Buddhist texts, and was well
versed in Buddhist medical practices. Most of the details of his early life are
still being studied, but by 673, he seems to have been part of Emperor
Gaozong’s (r. 649–683) court for a short time.
Sun made use of spells and rituals taken from the Way of the Celestial
Masters (Tianshi dao) lineage. His writings are directed specifically at the
topic of “nourishing life” (yangsheng) through nourishing inner nature
(yangxing). Sun composed two famous medical texts by the year 659: Pre-
scriptions Worth Thousands (Qianjin fang) and Revised Prescriptions Worth
Thousands (Qianjin yifang). These works provide instructions on diagnos-
tics, proper medical ethics for a healer, and basic principles of treatment.
They describe various disorders and contain prescriptions for their cure. His
work is comprehensive, covering disorders of women and children, as well as
men. He discusses diseases of the feet, “cold damage disorders,” disorders of
organs (the five viscera [wuzang]), dietetics, and other topics.
The “nourishing life” (yangsheng) methods of Sun include gymnastics
(daoyin), circulating breath (xingqi), and sexual techniques (fangzhong
shu). In addition to the works mentioned already, a total of five other major
“nourishing life” texts are attributed to Sun and belong to the Daoist corpus
of texts: Inscription on the Visualization of Spirit and Refinement of Qi
(Cunshen lianqi ming, CT 834); Inscription on Protecting Life (Baosheng
ming, CT 835); Pillow Book of Methods for Preserving and Nourishing Life
(Sheyang zhenzhong fang, YJQQ 33); Essay on Preserving and Nourishing
Life (Sheyang lun, CT 841); and Essay on Happiness and Longevity (Fushou
lun, CT 1426).
 SUPREME SECRET ESSENTIALS, WUSHANG BIYAO 無上秘要 • 179
Sun was also an advocate of alchemical elixir usage (waidan). The main
source of his work in this area is Essential Instructions from the Classic of
the Elixirs of Great Clarity (Taiqing danjing yaojue, YJQQ 71).

SUPPLEMENTARY DAOIST CANON OF THE WANLI REIGN PERI-

OD, WANLI XU DAOZANG 萬曆續道藏. The Supplementary Daoist Can-
on of the Wanli Reign Period is the common name for an addendum to the
Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Reign Period (Zhengtong daozang), made
during the Ming dynasty. It lists approximately 50 titles, cut on 4,440 block
surfaces, raising the total of woodblocks for printing the canon to 78,520.

SUPREME SECRET ESSENTIALS, WUSHANG BIYAO 無上秘要. The

Supreme Secret Essentials (CT 1138) is the oldest surviving compendium of
Daoist literature. It was compiled under imperial authority between 577–588,
by Emperor Wu (r. 560–578) of the Northern Zhou. The irony of this action
is that in 574, Wu had proscribed both Daoism and Buddhism, and de-
stroyed many abbeys (guan) and monasteries of both traditions. But Wu
came to believe that Daoism could be used to promote his goal of uniting
China into a single country. So, he established the Abbey of the Pervasive
Way (Tongdao guan). Wu gathered Daoist teachers and created an assembly
perhaps not unlike the classical Jixia Academy. It was this group of thinkers
that compiled the Wushang biyao.
The work survives in the Daoist Canon, although it is missing 33 chapters
of the original edition, at least when we compare CT 1138 with the table of
contents of the work discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts (P.
2861). Nevertheless, there are citations from about 120 texts, 77 of which are
contained in the Daoist Canon. Most of the texts are traceable to the Shang-
qing and Lingbao lineages, with only a few extracts from Zhengyi writings.
The editorial procedure seems to have been to extract passages from various
Daoist works and piece them together without any interest in harmonizing
their teachings. There is no commentary or analysis on the passages.
In spite of these deficiencies, the Supreme Secret Essentials does make
important contributions to our study of Daoism. It makes it possible to deter-
mine which texts composed in the Six Dynasties period have survived in the
Daoist Canon. Some of its texts contain quite early rituals and rites. By
reference to the table of contents from Dunhuang we can conclude that the
editors of the collection did at least systematize the beliefs, rituals, and prac-
tices current in the period.
180 • SYNONYM DICTIONARY OF MINERAL MATERIA MEDICA
SYNONYM DICTIONARY OF MINERAL MATERIA MEDICA,
SHIYAO ERYA 石藥爾雅. The Synonym Dictionary of Mineral Materia
Medica (CT 901) was compiled by Mei Biao in 806, and it is the only known
extant lexicon for external alchemy (waidan). The work only has two chap-
ters. The first lists 526 synonyms under 164 headings. The second contains
three lists, one of names and synonyms for elixirs, another of alchemical
methods, and the last a bibliography of waidan works. We are not certain of
the sources used by Mei Biao in compiling the collection.
 T
TAIJI QUAN 太極拳, GREAT ULTIMATE BOXING. The dominant
form of martial arts in Daoism is taiji q uan, traditionally said to have begun
in the Ming dynasty when the Daoist immortal (xian) Zhang Sanfeng looked
out the window of his hermitage on Wudangshan and saw a crane fighting
with a snake. This seemed to him to resemble yin and yang, twisting and
turning as the cosmic process, first one and then another gaining ascendancy.
He began to create forms based on observations of animals. These became
the Wudang styles of taiji quan.
Although the origin legends of taiji quan can be traced to Zhang Sanfeng,
the actual techniques may be documented to the Chen family in Henan prov-
ince, specifically to General Chen Wangting (1600–1680), a warrior who
fought in the Manchu wars. He developed five techniques that were then
spread by his students. They, in turn, invented new styles. Each new iteration
of the training styles of taiji quan took on the title of the school’s master.
Thus, taiji quan includes such styles as Yang, Li, Hao, and Sun.
The patterns of a given form may vary in number from 36 to 172 move-
ments, and students should learn them by heart in proper sequence. The
ultimate goal is that the movements become effortless and spontaneous, com-
pletely devoid of deliberation or intention. In this way, they are in physical
form felt in the same way as wu-wei movement. Some patterns of move-
ments are imitations of animals and thus associate the adept with naturalness.
Rather than using one’s mind, physical strength, or boxing tactics, the practi-
tioner’s movements engage body and breath, circulating and channeling in-
ner qi. Taiji quan is thus both a martial practice and a spiritual one.

TAIJI TU 太極圖. See DIAGRAM OF THE GREAT ULTIMATE, TAIJI

TU 太極圖.

TAIPING 太平. See GREAT PEACE, TAIPING 太平.

TAIPING JING 太平經. See CLASSIC OF GREAT PEACE, TAIPING JING

太平經.

181
182 • TAIQING 太清
TAIQING 太清. See GREAT CLARITY, TAIQING 太清.

TAIQING JING 太清經. See CLASSIC OF GREAT CLARITY, TAIQING

JING 太清經.

TAISHAN 泰山 (MT. TAI, SHANDONG PROVINCE). The most impor-

tant of the Five Marchmounts of Daoism is Taishan. While most of the
other five sacred mountains actually represent mountain ranges or chains of
hills, Mt. Tai is an impressive single peak. Religious rituals were performed
at this site even before the time of Confucius. For generations, it was the site
of the imperial feng and shan rituals performed by the emperor.
Mt. Tai is connected with the realm of the dead. Daoist teaching associated
Dongyue dadi, the god of Mt. Tai, with the judgment of people and identified
him as the lord of a celestial bureaucracy that had the power to determine the
length of one’s life, the fortunes one has in life, and the punishment or
rewards one will experience after departing this world. Throughout its histo-
ry and even into the present, Taishan has been an important site of pilgrim-
age. The pilgrimage trail begins in Tai’an, usually at the Shrine of Mt. Tai
(Dai miao).

TAISHANG GANYING PIAN 太上感應篇. See TRACT OF THE MOST

HIGH ON ACTION AND RESPONSE, TAISHANG GANYING PIAN 太上感
應篇.

TAIYI 太一. Taiyi may be translated as the Great/Supreme One or Great

Oneness. It refers to the cosmic One from which all things have come and is
sometimes used to personify this One as a god named Taiyi, who is a star
deity. Gao You (fl. 205–212 BCE) says that Taiyi is the primordial spirit that
embraces all things in his commentary to the Book of the Masters of Huai-
nan (Huainanzi). The most ancient use of Taiyi as the cosmic One known is
in the Guodian manuscript The Great One Generated Water (Taiyi sheng
shui).
Taiyi is also called Celestial Emperor (Tiandi), the supreme overseer of
human affairs and destinies. Interestingly, this same term is used for the
mastery of one’s own authentic or true self. When used in this way, the
paradigmatic example is the daoshi, who experiences “Oneness with Dao”
(shouyi) when he enters into the clarity and stillness of his heart-mind (xin)
through moving in wu-wei.

TALISMAN. See FU 符, TALISMAN, CHARM.

 TAO HONGJING 陶弘景 (456–536) • 183
TAN ZIXIAO (fl, 935–after 963) 譚紫霄.. Tan was a daoshi from Quan-
zhou in Fujian province. He is regarded as the master teacher of Rao Dong-
tian, and thus he is often said to be the founder or principal interpreter of the
Correct Method of the Celestial Heart (Tianxin zhengfa). He was an advis-
or to Wang Chang (r. 935–939), ruler of the kingdom of Min. He was
awarded the honorific Elder of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi xiansheng). Just
what his relationship was to Rao is unknown, but Tan was a collaborator with
the spirit medium (jitong) Chen Shouyan. Although there is no substantial
evidence to confirm it, it is possible that Rao’s introduction to Tan came
through Chen Shouyan, when Rao reported to Tan his discovery of the secret
formulas of the Celestial Heart methods. This reconstruction has the merit of
explaining why one tradition reports that Rao took the books he discovered
buried on Huagai mountain to Tan, while another says Chen brought the
books to Tan.
After the fall of the kingdom of Min, Tan moved to Mount Lu (Lushan) in
Jangxi province, where he acquired a following and transmitted the methods
of the Celestial Heart.

TAO HONGJING 陶弘景 (456–536). Like Yang Xi (330–386) and the Xu

family, as well as Ge Hong (283–343) and the Ge family, Tao Hongjing was
also from Jiangsu. He was born in Moling, not far from the modern city of
Nanjing, in close proximity to Jurong, the home of the Xus and Ges. Tao
clearly demonstrated in his life that a Daoist could be at the same time an
alchemist, an eminent scholar, and an expert in medicine and healing. He was
one of the most important intellectuals of the Six Dynasties period and the
master interpreter and advocate for the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) lineage.
From childhood, he was well trained in the practices of “nourishing life”
(yangsheng), as well as literature and calligraphy. In his 20s, he was ap-
pointed as tutor to the imperial princes.
Tao was familiar, of course, with the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, but also he
knew Ge Hong’s Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) and his
tradition of seeking immortality. In fact, emperor Wu (r. 482–493) of the
Southern Qi supported Tao’s interest in external alchemy (waidan).
In 483, Tao became interested in the Shangqing revelations that had been
granted to Yang Xi between 364–370, and he decided to collect the original
texts because they were dictated to Yang by numinal beings. Tao felt there
were also already a number of forgeries in circulation that were deceiving the
people. He spent several years gathering manuscripts and using calligraphic
style to try to identify their authenticity.
In 492, he moved to Maoshan, partly with the intention of editing the
Shangqing manuscripts he had collected. He founded the Abbey of Flourish-
ing Yang (Huayang guan) on that mountain. In 498–499, he completed his
work on the manuscripts and wrote annotations of his own for the key points
184 • TEXTS OUTSIDE THE DAOIST CANON, ZANGWAI DAOSHU 藏外道書
in them. The result was two major works in the Shangqing tradition: Declar-
ations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016) and Hidden Instructions for the
Ascent to Perfection (Dengzhen yinjue, CT 421).
After compiling his Declarations of the Perfected, Tao reworked various
medical texts he had available to him and compiled Collected Commentaries
to the Canonical Pharmacopoeia (Bencao jing jizhu). He tried to compound
the “reverted elixir in nine cycles” (jiuzhuan huandan) but twice failed, once
in 506 and again in 507. From 508–512, he was in Southeastern China
seeking ingredients for elixirs and healing.

TEXTS OUTSIDE THE DAOIST CANON, ZANGWAI DAOSHU 藏外道

書. Texts Outside the Daoist Canon is a 36-volume collection of 991 texts
not appearing in the Daoist Canon compiled under the editorship of Hu
Daojing and published from 1990–1994 (Chengdu: Bashu shushe). Locating
a text in this work is made convenient by using volume 36, which has a
finding list by Chinese character.

THREE CAVERNS, SANDONG 三洞. The term sanding refers to the

three major divisions of the Daoist Canon as these were established by Lu
Xiujing (406-477) in 471. These are the Cavern of Perfection (Dongzhen),
Cavern of Mystery (Dongxuan), and Cavern of Spirit (Dongshen). Basically
each of these is associated respectively with the Highest Clarity (Shang-
qing), Numinous Treasure (Lingbao) and Sanhuang lineages. In establish-
ing this structure for the canon, Lu was probably inspired by the Mahayana
Buddhist division of scriptures into “Three Vehicles,” of greater, middle, and
lesser merit. Lu placed the Lingbao texts as most effective among the writing
of the other two lineages. The structure allows for the grouping of Shangqing
and Lingbao texts in the first two caverns.
In the Three Caverns structure of the canon, the third cavern (i.e., the
Cavern of Spirit, Dongshen) is associated with Sanhuang teachings and the
Sanhuang wen was its principal work. Although this text is not extant in its
original form, many works report the existence of a writing by this title.
Based on what survives about the content of this text it appears to have
contained talismans (fu), nourishing life recipes (yangsheng), and ritual
methods. It was believed to contain instructions for quelling ghosts and de-
mons, as well as providing the means to prevent misfortune. Ge Hong pro-
vides the fullest description of its contents and use in his Book of the Master
Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi). The text entitled Explanation of the
Scripture of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang jingshuo, YJQQ 1) provides the
traditional account of the disclosure of the text. According to this tradition,
 THREE PURE ONES OR THREE WORTHIES, SANJUN 三尊 • 185
the work was revealed to Bao Jing by the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang).
Bao was sitting in stillness and quietude in a cavern when the text appeared
spontaneously on the walls of the cave and he recorded its contents.

THREE OFFICES, SANGUAN 三官. The three celestial offices of Heav-

en, Earth, and Water show up in the earliest Way of the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi dao) materials, but these realms are also referred to in writings
dating back to the Qin and early Han dynasties. What we learn is that those
who had moral failings or were actually criminals sought absolution from the
Three Offices. Members of the Celestial Masters communities would enter
their quiet rooms (jingshi), write out their confessions, and send them into
the numinal world by placing the petition to the Heavenly Office high on a
mountain, burying the petition to the Earth Office in the ground, and casting
the petition to the Water Office into a body of water.
The Celestial Masters text Master Red Pine’s Almanac of Petitions (Chi-
songzi zi zhangli, CT 615) tells us that in the future, the Three Offices will
choose the “seed people” (zhongmin) who will survive the apocalypse of
human greed and violence. These people will repopulate the world in a
kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping). Other texts associate the Three Offices
with the creation and administration of Fengdu, the Daoist hells of interroga-
tion and punishment.
The common thread here is that the Three Offices were understood as
monitoring the good and evil moral deeds of people and correlating these
with an individual’s longevity, fortune, and fate in both the ordinary and
numinal realms. As the Daoist understanding of such activities developed,
the popular system of the Ten Kings of Hell displaced the Three Offices in
the spiritual imagination and practice of Daoism.

THREE PURE ONES OR THREE WORTHIES, SANJUN 三尊, SAN-

QING 三清. The term Sanqing is used for the three heavens of numinal
reality, called Jade Clarity (Yuqing), Highest Clarity (Shangqing), and
Great Clarity (Taiqing). These heavens are states of existence associated
with the three highest deities in the Daoist pantheon of numinal beings. The
Celestial Worthy of the First Origins (Yuanshi tianzun) is identified with
Jade Clarity; the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure (Lingbao tianzun),
also known as the Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang daojun), is iden-
tified with Highest Clarity; and the Celestial Worthy of the Way and Its
Virtue (Daode tianzun), who is Laojun (i.e., Laozi deified, Taishang Laojun),
is identified with Great Clarity.
186 • THREE PURE ONES OR THREE WORTHIES, SANJUN 三尊
One early stele dating to 508 depicts three numinal beings referred to as
the Three Worthies (sanjun). The earliest textual description of the Three
Pure Ones can be found in the Tang dynasty text Codes and Precepts for
Worshiping the Dao (Fengdao kejie, CT 1125), which dates to 620–630.

THREE SOVEREIGNS, SANHUANG 三皇. The Three Sovereigns of

Chinese tradition are usually considered to be the mythical emperors of an-
tiquity. However, the list of the three varies in different sources. As Daoists
appropriated the belief in the Three Sovereigns they became identified with
the Sovereigns of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

THREE TEACHINGS, SANJIAO 三教. Sanjiao refers to the “Three

Teachings” of China—Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism—especially
when they are understood to make a coherent and synthetic system of philo-
sophical and spiritual understanding. In many eras of Daoist history, the
tradition found itself in conflict with either Buddhism or Confucianism. So,
the three-teaching emphasis actually began by touching what appeared to be
the most common tie between the traditions, the inner alchemy (neidan)
practices, which certainly seemed to connect with Buddhist meditation and to
a lesser degree with Confucian self-cultivation.
Early examples of Sanjiao initiatives may also be seen in the morality
books (shanshu) and ledgers. In fact, the 10th-century work Tract of the
Most High on Action and Response (Taishang ganying pian, CT 1167)
incorporates moral precepts from all three traditions. Moreover, when Wang
Zhe (1113–1170) founded the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen) lineage, he
established several teaching centers in Shandong province, and the name of
each was preceded by the expression “three teachings.” Quanzhen masters
throughout Chinese history embraced the combination of the three teachings
of China. Indeed, well into the Qing dynastic period, emperors supported the
harmonization of the three teachings, and the Yongzheng emperor
(1678–1735) not only supported religious institutions that incorporated the
Three Teachings objectives of syncretism, but also considered himself a
practitioner of all three teachings.

TIANSHI 天師. See CELESTIAL MASTER, TIANSHI 天師.

TIANSHI DAO 天師道. See WAY OF THE CELESTIAL MASTERS,

TIANSHI DAO 天師道.

TIANXIN ZHENGFA 天心正法. See CORRECT METHOD OF THE CE-

LESTIAL HEART, TIANXIN ZHENGFA 天心正法.
 TRACT OF THE MOST HIGH ON ACTION AND RESPONSE • 187
TRACT OF THE MOST HIGH ON ACTION AND RESPONSE, TAI-
SHANG GANYING PIAN 太上感應篇. The Tract of the Most High on
Action and Response is the classic example of a morality book (shanshu). It
is a short text of only 1,284 Chinese characters, but it has been reprinted with
such frequency as to rival almost any other published work in human history.
Although assigned by tradition to Laozi’s authorship, it actually contains
moral precepts drawn from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The work
probably originated in the 10th century, and it continues to be distributed
today. The oldest extant copies of the text, one dating to 1296, are in the
Beijing National Library.
This morality text is based on the principle of “action and response” (ga-
nying), which is a concept present in the Book of the Masters of Huainan
(Huainanzi). This is the idea that desirable results follow from good deeds
and bad fortune and punishment from evil. The opening line of the text
observes, “Retribution for good and evil is like the shadow cast by the body.”
The text describes spiritual overseers of human deeds, including Lords of the
Big Dipper (Beidou xingjun), the Director of Destinies (Siming), and the
Stove God (Zaoshen). These directors may reduce one’s life span by units of
100 days (suan) or 12 years (ji). While the morality book is based on a highly
quantitative view of morality, the actual precepts make it clear that intention-
ality and not merely action is also of moral import.
The Tract has been printed continuously since the 10th century, and it was
used in the Chinese village lecture system, a program of public education that
included traveling theatrical groups and performers as early as the Song and
Yuan dynasties. The text has been translated into many Western languages
and was even included in James Legge’s (1815–1897) early translation of the
most essential Daoist texts (1891). Legge included three texts: Daodejing,
Zhuangzi, and the Tract.

TRIPOD AND FURNACE, DINGLU 鼎爐. This term is used to generally

refer to the apparatus employed in preparing substances in external alchemy
(waidan). It may be a tripod in shape but is sometimes also called a crucible
(fu), divine chamber (shenshi), or closed vessel. A ding is often simply called
a furnace or stove, and it may take many shapes. Texts associate the ding
with the ingredients in the same way in which the womb is associated with
the embryo. Cosmological symbols may be inscribed on the ding, and it may
even be called hundun, an image (xiang) referring back to the primordial
chaos from which the cosmos originated. In this usage, the efficacy of the
elixir is in its identification with the qi of Origin (yuanqi).

TUDI GONG 土地公. See EARTH GOD, TUDI GONG 土地公.

 V
VISUALIZATION, ACTUALIZATION, CUN 存. In the practice of
Daoist stillness and meditation this term is used for “causing something to
exist.” It refers to the fact that as an act of extreme concentration and focus, a
practitioner may visualize certain writings or actualize numinal spirits in
consciousness, or even direct qi energy to be localized and intensified in the
body’s five viscera (wuzang). The term rarely occurs in isolation but typical-
ly in a compound. For example, “visualization of spirit” (cunshen) or “visu-
alization and meditation” are both frequent uses.
“Visualization of spirit” occurs in two titles found in the Daoist Canon:
Inscription on the Visualization of Spirit and Refinement (Cunshen lianqi
ming, CT 834) and Essay on the Visualization of Spirit and Stabilizing of
Energy (Cunshen guqi lun, CT 577). In both texts the practice of concentrat-
ed actualization (cun) results in an increase of energy, providing benefits to
the practitioner’s shen (spirit). The ultimate goal of this practice is longevity
and transformation.
“Visualization and meditation” is the principal subject of the work entitled
Illustrated Commentary and Instructions on Great Visualization and Medita-
tion, by the Most High Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun da cunsi tuzhu jue, CT
875). This text advocates visualizing numinal spirits with such concentration
that they appear in consciousness as if one were looking at their pictures. The
text provides numerous examples of such experiences drawn from Daoist
ordination, daily activities, and other situations. The end result of this exer-
cise is a higher awareness of the Dao, leading to internal clarity and quies-
cence (qingjing).

189
 W
WAIDAN 外丹. See EXTERNAL ALCHEMY, WAIDAN 外丹.

WALKING THE GUIDELINE, PACING THE DIPPER, STEPS OF

YU, BUGANG 步罡. Bugang refers to the practice of Daoist ritual walks or
dances that follow a cosmic pattern, for example, that of the Big Dipper
(beidou) or the Eight Trigrams (bagua). Although there are certainly ante-
cedents to this practice, the earliest preserved written descriptions of “walk-
ing the guideline” can be found in the revealed texts of the Shangqing (High-
est Clarity) lineage. In these texts, it is associated with walking the patterns
of the constellations, especially the stars of the Northern Dipper. Thus, the
practice became known as bugang tadou, “walking the guideline and step-
ping on the stars of the dipper.”
It seems clear that bugang descends from the ancient practice known as
the “dance of Yu” or “steps of Yu” (Yubu). This style of pacing makes use of
dragging one foot after the other, a practice associated with the legend of Yu,
according to which, in his efforts to reestablish order in the world after the
great flood, he became lame on one side of this body. Both the earliest and
most detailed account of the “steps of Yu” can be found in Ge Hong’s
(283–343) Baopuzi (Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). In that
text, it is a dance performed as a daoshi approaches what is called the “irreg-
ular gate” (qimen), which represents a “crack in the universe,” allowing the
master to enter into another dimension while remaining invisible to any
harmful powers. Upon return from this experience, the master would be
possessed of divine powers and deep insight.
In liturgical practice, the daoshi typically recites an incantation at each
point along the path upon reaching a star of the beidou or a trigram of the
bagua. Movement of the feet in the ritual is associated with the daoshi
visualizing a journey to another dimension of reality. Instructional texts for
the ritual of bugang are guarded in the secret instructions (mijue) of the
High Master (gaogong daoshi).

191
192 • WANG BI 王弼 (226–249)
WANG BI 王弼 (226–249). Wang Bi was the author of important commen-
taries and text codifications for the Daodejing, the Yijing (Classic of
Changes), and the Confucian Analects (Lunyu). He established the standard
received editions of the Daodejing and the Yijing. His commentarial work
fixed him within the interpretive methods of Mysterious Learning (Xuanx-
ue) and “Pure Conversation” (qingtan).
Wang was an educated literati thinker, and he showed no real interest in
longevity techniques or external alchemy (waidan). He viewed the world as
pervaded by a single ordering Principle (li 理) and based his foundations of
society and morality on it, associating the understanding of the universal
order with Confucian li 禮. For Wang, dao is not a thing or a substance. It is
unique and incapable of description in language. Dao is the source of all
things. It is in this sense that Wang calls it non-Being (wu). Nevertheless, dao
is mediated by Being (you) and may manifest itself when beings move in
harmony with it.

WANG CHUYI 王處一 (1142–1217). Wang Chuyi is one of the Seven

Perfected Persons (qizhen ren) who were the first generation of founding
disciples of Quanzhen Daoism. The Daoist Canon preserves a hagiographic
work on his life as Account of the Miraculous Manifestations of the Perfected
Person Who Embodies Mystery (Tixuan zhenren xianyi lu, CT 594). Wang
had experiences of altered consciousness even as a child, and he and his
mother were forced to live a reclusive life. At the age of 26, he began his
training in inner alchemy (neidan) with Wang Zhe (1113–1170).
Wang Chuyi was not a member of the four disciples in Wang’s inner
circle. In fact, he studied with other teachers as well and was twice sum-
moned to court as an advisor. But his political influence at court helped
solidify the recognition of Quanzhen as a distinctive lineage and gave it
institutional independence. Beginning in 1197, Wang directed a Quanzhen
monastic community in Shandong. Several important second-generation
Quanzhen masters learned ritual skills from him. As is true of the other
Seven Perfected Persons, except Sun Bu’er, Wang Chuyi left behind a so-
phisticated anthology of his poems entitled Anthology of Cloudy Radiance
(Yunguang ji, CT 1152).

WANG ZHE 王喆 (AKA WANG CHONGYANG 王重陽) (1113–1170).

Wang Zhe was founder of the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) lineage of
Daoism. He was born into a wealthy family near Xianyang, west of
Chang’an (Xi’an, Shaanxi province). He grew up in the turbulent period of
war between the Jin and Song. During this time, Wang moved to an area
north of the Zhongnan mountains (Zhongnanshan), where he lived a disor-
derly and disreputable life. But then, in 1159, he met two immortals (xian):
 WAY OF THE CELESTIAL MASTERS, TIANSHI DAO 天師道 • 193
Lu Dongbin and Zhongli Quan. This first meeting upset his world, and one
year later, when he met them again, he devoted himself to self-cultivation.
He broke off relations with his wife and children, and went his way as a
spiritual pilgrim.
For three years, from 1160–1163, he lived in a self-made grave, which he
called “tomb of the living dead” (huosi ren mu). He moved into a hermitage
with two other recluses, but, in 1167, he left this life behind, burned the
hermitage, and moved to Shandong province. There he met Ma Yu and Sun
Bu’er, and others who made up the original group of the Seven Perfected
Persons (qizhen ren). In Shandong, Wang established five lay associations,
each beginning with the name “Three Teachings.” Each association had its
own meeting hall where people could come for meditation, quietude, and
stillness. Wang visited these halls regularly and composed poems and texts
representing his developing practices and methods of pedagogy.
These narratives of his life show the marks of hagiography, portraying him
as an immoral person who comes to a spiritual rebirth under the witness and
guidance of immortals. In addition to various hagiographic documents of his
life, a pictorial representation of his journey is expressed in the murals of the
Yongle Gong temple, dedicated to Lu Dongbin.
Among the disciples Wang had in Shandong, Quanzhen tradition focuses
on seven who became known as the Seven Perfected Persons (qizhen): Ma
Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong,
and Sun Bu’er. Wang had such trust in these seven that he planned to take
them with him back to Shaanxi and the Zhongnan mountain area, but he died
in Kaifeng before reaching his goal.
Wang wrote a large body of poetic material, but there is no authoritative,
comprehensive collection of it. Some small collections were made, including
one done by Ma Yu entitled Anthology on the Completion of Authenticity, by
[Wang] Chongyang (Chongyang Quanzhen ji, CT 1153).

WANLI XU DAOZANG 萬曆續道藏. See SUPPLEMENTARY DAOIST

CANON OF THE WANLI REIGN PERIOD, WANLI XU DAOZANG 萬曆續
道藏.

WAY OF THE CELESTIAL MASTERS, TIANSHI DAO 天師道. The

Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) had its origins in a dramatic
revelation to Zhang Daoling (34–156) in 142 BCE, on Hemingshan (Mt.
Heming). In this experience, Laojun appeared to Zhang to deliver to him the
“One True Orthodox Covenant” between Heaven and humanity (Zhengyi
mengwei). This covenant became the foundation for Zhang’s recruitment of
194 • WAY OF THE CELESTIAL MASTERS, TIANSHI DAO 天師道
disciples and building of substantial communities in the area now known as
Sichuan province. In fact, 24 such centers (zhi) were established, following
the Zhang’s plan.
The earliest evidence of the movement in material culture is a stele dated
to 173, which records the initiation of a group of community leaders known
as libationers (jijiu). This stele speaks of the method of the Way of the
Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) and confirms that there were initiation ritu-
als and esoteric texts transmitted to each new generation of leaders.
Zhang’s ability to attract a following may be explained on the basis of
several factors.

1. Zhang Daoling was a healer, and the practice he followed for healing
was related to the control of spirits that might enter the body and cause
harm because one’s qi had been weakened by immoral action. His
emphasis on the control of threats from such spirits (gui) explains why
the movement was sometimes also called the “way of demons” or
“way of ghosts” (guidao).
2. Even in the earliest iterations of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) cen-
ters, there was already a well-documented practice of communal shar-
ing of material goods, food, and civil infrastructure development. In
fact, the movement was sometimes also known as the “Way of Five
Pecks of Rice” (Wudoumi dao) because it enforced an obligation of
each household to contribute five pecks of rice each year toward the
maintenance of the community. Although we cannot be certain just
how and to whom this grain was distributed, we have ample documen-
tation of “charity lodges” (yishe) being used in the communities.
3. The movement was consistent, whether explicitly or implicitly, with
the pursuit of a kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping), which was already
winning enthusiasm, even within the ordinary populace, in the uphea-
val known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion (Huangjin zhi luan) and
exemplified in the text Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT
1101a).
4. The Celestial Masters offered a plan for longevity and transformation.
They had each family construct a quiet room (jingshi) where people
could enter and experience quietude and stillness, gaining clarity of
mind and will through an experience with Dao that strengthened their
qi. These rooms likely were substitutes for the ordinary adherents,
replacing a life in the mountain caves that was impractical for com-
moners.
5. From its inception, the Celestial Masters movement could be character-
ized as a theocracy. The actual centers were administrated by people
known as libationers (jijiu), but these were directors who carried out
the revelations given to the Celestial Master. These individuals rose to
 WAY OF THE CELESTIAL MASTERS, TIANSHI DAO 天師道 • 195
their positions as a result of intense spiritual training and their posses-
sion of powerful registers (fu lu) listing the numinal beings supporting
them at their bidding.
6. Today, in Taiwan, there is still a Celestial Master who claims direct
descent from Zhang Daoling.

Although the narrative of the origination of the movement has Zhang Daol-
ing receiving the “One True Orthodox Covenant” between Heaven and hu-
manity (Zhengyi mengwei), we do not know exactly what the content of this
revelation was or even if it was more a confirmation of teachings and prac-
tices already being implemented by Zhang rather than some absolutely new
disclosure by a numinal being. If we look to a single text expressing the
central ideas and methods of the Celestial Master movement, the one most
frequently offered is the Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi (Laozi Xiang’er
zhu).
Aside from the collection of the annual communal tax of five pecks of rice,
one of the most distinguishing features of the movement was its rejection of
blood sacrifice, which was central to the state cult and popular religious
practice. The Celestial Masters taught that noumenal beings do not rely on
sacrifices and could not be swayed by them.
The zhai Ritual of Mud and Soot was one of the most spectacular of the
community’s rites. Participants smeared themselves with soot and mud, and
cried out, lamenting their moral transgressions. Another rite known to have
been practiced by the Celestial Masters was the “merging qi” (heqi) perfor-
mance of ritual intercourse in a communal setting.
According to tradition, Zhang Daoling transferred leadership of the move-
ment to his son, Zhang Heng (?–179), who became known as the “continu-
ing master” (xishi). Zhang Heng, in turn, passed the mantle to his son, Zhang
Lu (?–215 or 216). Zhang Lu is generally considered to be the person under
whose leadership the movement developed a formidable structure, powerful
enough to demand the political attention of ruler Cao Cao (c. 155–220), the
warlord who dominated North Central China and quelled the Yellow Turban
Rebellion.
Zhang Lu established a substantial base of power in Hanzhong and north-
ern Sichuan during the 180s. While the 24 centers of the Celestial Masters
never declared themselves independent from the central government, they
were basically self-governing. Libationers of various ranks filled positions
administering local governmental functions previously occupied by political
appointees. This situation was not tolerable, and Cao Cao led more than one
campaign into the region to gain control. Finally, in 215, Zhang Lu’s confed-
eration fell, and great numbers of families were relocated in an attempt to
196 • WEI HUACUN 魏華存 (AKA NANYUE WEI FUREN) (?251–?334)
break up the Celestial Masters movement, but it actually resulted in its
spread. Some of Zhang Lu’s family, however, intermarried with Cao Cao’s
family, and Zhang Lu was apparently treated well until his death in 215/216.
Cao Cao’s dispersion first sent Celestial Masters followers to North and
Northwest China. As a result of this relocation, it was much more difficult
for the adherents of the movement to retain the unity of purpose and practice
in their new communities compared to their relative isolation and unified
intent while living in Sichuan. In fact, a text entitled Commands and Admoni-
tions for the Families of the Dao appeared in 255, and seems to have been
considered as a transmission from Zhang Lu through a spirit medium (ji-
tong) containing exhortations to the dispersed communities to reform them-
selves along the patterns that characterized the movement during the Han-
zhong period.
But when Northern China fell in 317, many of those families had to move
again, this time to the south. The movement continued to be served by a long
list of leaders, including Kou Qianzhi (365–448), known for his reforms in
North China and even the reestablishment of a Celestial Masters theocracy in
his “New Code.” The lineage of Zhang Daoling, honored by the community
at Dragon Tiger Mountain (Longhushan), continues to trace its decent to the
beginnings of the movement on Hemingshan in Sichuan, even though the
current Celestial Master resides in Taiwan.

WEI HUACUN 魏華存 (AKA NANYUE WEI FUREN) (?251–?334).

Wei Huacun (aka Lady Wei) is the principal numinal being who transmitted
the sacred texts that form the core of the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) corpus
to Yang Xi (330–386) between 364–370. Wei was Yang’s “mysterious mas-
ter” (xuanzhi), and she imparted ecstatic verses to him, which he wrote down.
She was later designated as the first Shangqing Grand Master.
Several Daoist texts contain partial accounts of her life, the most important
of which is Extensive Records of the Taiping Xingguo Reign Period (Taiping
guangji). Zhang Yuchu’s Anthology of Alpine Springs (in Xianquan ji, CT
1311) contains three hagiographies of Wei. According to these sources, Wei
was born in Rencheng, Shandong province, as the daughter of a minister in
the Ji court, who was also a practitioner of the Way of the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi dao). As Wei Shu’s (206–290) daughter, she studied Daoism and
wanted to seek a life of reclusion; however, she was forced to marry a man
named Liu Wen and reside in Nanyang (southern Henan province). Together
they had two sons. Afterward, she moved to Xiuwu (northern Henan prov-
ince), and there she became a Celestial Masters (Tianshi) libationer (jijiu).
In 288, Wei received visitations from four immortals (xian). One of them,
Wang Bao, the Perfected of Clear Emptiness (Qingxu zhenren), transmitted
to her 31 texts, one of which was the Authentic Classic of the Great Cavern
(Dadong zhenjing), which became the central text of the Shangqing lineage.
 WOMEN IN DAOISM • 197
Tao Hongjing’s work Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016)
contains instructions for rituals also reported to have been given to Wei
Huacun by Zhang Daoling himself.
When the Eastern Jin seized power, Wei, along with her sons, moved to
Southeastern China in 317. She died there at the age of 83. Hengshan be-
came an important site for veneration of Wei Huacun (as “Nanyue Wei
furen”). According to tradition, Huang Lingwei (c. 640–721) discovered the
lost shrine of Wei Huacun and presented her relics to Empress Wu. The
hagiographies report that Wei became, by order of the Queen Mother of the
West (Xiwangmu), the numinal spouse of Mao Ying (Maojun), who had
been given divine power and holy texts by the goddess.

WENCHANG 文昌. See GOD OF LITERATURE, LEARNING, WEN-

CHANG 文昌.

WENZI 文子, BOOK OF MASTER WEN. The bibliography in the History

of the Former Han (Hanshu) lists a book by this title and says its author was
a “student of Laozi who lived at the same time as Confucius.” But the text
adds, “The work appears to be a forgery.” In 1973, a bundle of bamboo strips
of the Wenzi was excavated from the tomb in Dingxian, Hebei province, of
Liu Xiu, who died in 55 BCE. The strips are fundamentally consistent with
the received text, which exists only in the version annotated by Xu Lingfu (c.
760–841) and in the Daoist Canon as Authentic Classic of Pervading Mys-
tery (Tongxuan zhenjing, CT 746).
The Wenzi purports to record Laozi’s last words, stating that a ruler should
not govern by reward and punishment but practice wu-wei. The text includes
quotations from the Zhuangzi and the Book of the Masters of Huainan
(Huainanzi), as well as the Yijing (Classic of Changes), Mengzi, Springs and
Autumns of Mr. Lu (Lushi chunqiu), and Book of Filiality (Xiaojing). The
work is surely a forgery, with about 80 percent of the text taken from the
Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi).

WHITE CLOUD ABBEY. See BAIYUN GUAN 白雲觀, WHITE CLOUD

ABBEY.

WOMEN IN DAOISM. Daoism rejected the traditional patriarchy over

women in China from the very beginning. In its classical texts, Daodejing
and Zhuangzi, no distinctions were made along gender lines in who could be
a Perfected Person (zhenren). The hagiographies of immortals (xian) in-
clude both men and women. The Records of the Immortals Gathered in the
Walled City (Yongcheng jixian lu), collected by Du Guangting in 913, is
exclusively concerned with female immortals. One section of the massive
198 • WOMEN IN DAOISM
work, Comprehensive Mirror of Perfected Immortals and Those Who Em-
bodied the Dao through the Ages (CT296, Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian), is
devoted exclusively to female immortals, including goddesses and historical
figures alike.
He Xiangu (Immortal Maiden He) is one of the Eight Immortals (bax-
ian), and her cult was established between the Tang and Song dynasties
(Despeux and Kohn 2003). Cao Wenyi (fl. 1119–1125) is honored as the first
woman to practice inner alchemy (neidan), and she was called to court by
Song Huizong (r. 1100–1125). In the Qing dynasty, Cao appeared in spirit-
writing (fuji) sessions, and copies of some of her revelations are kept in the
White Cloud Abbey (Baiyun guan) in Beijing. Li Mo (i.e., Mazu,
?960–?988) became a numinal being and is regarded as the guardian spirit
for seafarers.
In terms of the gods, Daoist tradition recognizes and values many who are
female. Surely the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) is the most
famous, followed in significance by the Goddess of the Morning Clouds
(Bixia yuanjun), who is the daughter of the Great Emperor of the Eastern
Peak (Dongyue dadi) and merciful savior of dead souls (Naquin 1992).
In the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), women were libation-
ers (jijiu). They not only commanded various spiritual powers, but also held
political offices leading numbers of families. Women were also important in
the rise of prominent Daoist lineages. In the Highest Clarity (Shangqing)
tradition, Wei Huacun (?251–?334) transmitted the sacred texts of the line-
age to Yang Xi (330–386) between 364–370 (Despeux and Kohn, 2003). In
the 12th century, when the Complete Perfection lineage (Quanzhen) began,
Sun Bu’er (1119–1183) was the only woman among its original Seven Per-
fected Persons (qizhen ren).
Statistics from the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang (r. 712–756)
indicate that there were 1,687 Daoist temples in the 8th century: 1,137 for
men and 550 for women. Thus, women constituted an important part of the
Daoist clergy, as it was recognized officially (Despeux and Kohn 2003).
Women were often leaders at Daoist abbeys (guan) and shrines (miao). In
fact, a Daoist woman who could perform rituals and teach disciples was
referred to as a daogu. One such person and her activities figured prominent-
ly as a character in the Ming dynasty theatrical play Return of the Soul
(Mudan ting, aka Peony Pavilion) by Tang Xianzu (1598).
As Quanzhen grew in influence, many women turned to the convents and
celibate life, but their reasons were various. Some entered the convents tem-
porarily before entering society. Others were widows seeking a better life.
Others wanted to escape an unwanted or abusive marriage. Many princesses
and even concubines, for instance, Yang Guifei, and empresses, like Wu
Zetian, spent some time in convents. The most famous example of imperial
 WU 無 AND YOU 有, EMPTINESS AND BEING • 199
princesses entering the life of a Daoist nun is described by Zhang Wanfu in a
scroll concerned with the ordination of Xining and Changlong, the eighth and
ninth daughters of Emperor Ruizong of the Tang (r. 684–90) in the year 711.
In terms of practices, a set of Daoist texts grouped around the practice of
nüdan (女丹, women’s [inner] alchemy) consists of about 30 documents
dating from 1743–1892. The text Precious Raft of Women’s Double Cultiva-
tion according to Master Li Niwan (Niwan Li zushi nuzong shuangxiu baofa)
provides nine rules for female transformation, beginning with calming but
also featuring visualization (cun) and breast massage. The ninth rule stresses
that women can undertake the path while still actively pursuing household
tasks and that does not require a monastic life. Additionally, women often
play roles as spirit mediums (jitong), and some contemporary spirit-writing
(fuji) sessions feature the presence of numinal beings who are women.

WU 無 AND YOU 有, EMPTINESS AND BEING. Wu is a term that is

used interchangeably with xu (void) and kong (emptiness). Wu, as used in a
cosmological or ontological sense in the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, is a way
of expressing that the ultimate source of existence is inexpressible in lan-
guage and is not itself a thing. In fact, since everything that appears to have a
core being or thingness is actually in constant process and change, no objects
actually have a substantive being, not even a spiritual or nonphysical one. All
things are empty (wu) in this sense. In the Zhuangzi, the beginning of all
things is a nascent chaos (hundun). Other Daoist texts use the expressions
Great Emptiness (taixu), Cavernous Void (kongdong), and Great Non-Being
(taiwu) for this state. The polarities of yin and yang pull qi into being from
this wu and into you. You is presence, being, existing.
On the level of personal practice, emptying consciousness of thoughts,
discriminations in language and judgment, feelings, concerns, and the like is
a form of returning to this original emptiness. The Zhuangzi also describes
this experience as one of “forgetting.” It is to be without an active heart-
mind (xin), to dwell in a state of stillness and quiescence in which clarity
dawns and one is enabled to move in wu-wei. This is why a Daoist Perfected
Persons (zhenren) or sages (shengren) will say that they “do not know” or
that they have grown more and more “ignorant” day by day. The Zhuangzi
calls this “fasting the heart-mind” (xinzhai). In this state, one is open and
receptive to Dao.
The experience is inexpressible; neither can it be taught in any discursive
way. The Zhuangzi crosses over into symbolic language when speaking of
this state. The Great Man is like the shadow that follows a form, the echo that
follows a sound. Only when questioned does he answer, and then he pours
out all his thoughts, making himself the companion of the world. He dwells
in the echoless, moves in the directionless, takes by the hand you who are
rushing and bustling back and forth, and proceeds to wander in the begin-
200 • WUDANGSHAN 武當山 (MT. WUDANG, HUBEI PROVINCE)
ningless. He passes in and out of the boundless and is ageless as the sun. His
face and form blend with the Great Unity, the Great Unity which is no self
(Zhuangzi, ch. 11). In the inner alchemy (neidan) tradition, emptiness is the
last step of the alchemical practice culminating in “guarding the One”
(shouyi). Having experienced it, the positive expression of emptiness is spon-
taneous self-actualization/self-authentication (ziran).

WUDANGSHAN 武當山 (MT. WUDANG, HUBEI PROVINCE). Mt.

Wudang is one of the most sacred sites in Daoism. While it is true that
Wudangshan was a place of residence for masters of techniques (fangshi)
and Daoist adepts reaching back into a misty past that has not been fully
documented, it came to its greatest prominence in the late 13th century when
it was heralded as the location of the manifestation of the martial exorcist
god Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior, aka Xuanwu, the Dark/Mysterious
Warrior). The mountain was associated with not only apparitions of Zhenwu,
but also his own cultivation, as the site where he was said to practice the
exercises that led to his becoming an immortal (xian) being.
Pilgrimages to Wudang became popular and are well attested. Participants
reported visions of Zhenwu and also being overwhelmed by a sense of his
presence on the mountain. The lore about the mountain turned up in many
Daoist works, the most significant of which is Anthology of All the Perfected
Persons from the Blissful Land of Wudang (Wudang fudi zongzhen ji, CT
962), dating to 1293.
Large numbers of monasteries, abbeys (guan), and hermitages were
erected on the mountain. The Ming ruling family took Zhenwu as the protec-
tor of the dynasty. From 1411–1424, the mountain temples and abbeys were
made splendid by imperial patronage. Imperial officials and military generals
alike took up residence on and around the mountain. The mountain received
much less support during the Qing dynasty and fared only marginally well
during the period down to and including the Cultural Revolution
(1966–1976). The Daoist communities on the mountain also became asso-
ciated with a particular kind of marital arts called, simply, the Wudang style.
This style became associated with Zhang Sanfeng during the Qing dynasty.

WUDOUMI DAO 五斗米道, WAY OF THE FIVE PECKS OF RICE.

The name Way of the Five Pecks of Rice was an alternative way of referring
to the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao or Zhengyi) lineage in
Daoism, but it was used as a pejorative title. One inscription, perhaps by a
disaffected former member of the group, also refers to the movement as “rice
bandits” (mizei). There is no evidence of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi)
adherents using this title for themselves or their movement.
 WU-WEI 無爲 • 201
Followers of the movement contributed five pecks of rice (c. nine liters)
each year to the community storehouse. Just how this grain was used, we do
not know with certainty; however, it seems to have been a common pool of
grain from which the libationer (jijiu) leaders provided food for the needy in
each of the 24 administrative centers (zhi). The date for the contribution was
set by community rules. Some Celestial Masters texts regard making the
contribution as tied to the annual report made to numinal beings about the
virtuous acts of members and their families.

WUNENG ZI 無能子. See BOOK OF THE MASTER OF NO ABILITIES,

WUNENG ZI 無能子.

WUSHANG BIYAO 無上秘要. See SUPREME SECRET ESSENTIALS,

WUSHANG BIYAO 無上秘要.

WU-WEI 無爲. The Chinese character wu is a negation, while wei means

“act” or “do.” Accordingly, this expression has often been taken as two
words meaning “no action.” This way of understanding the term has marred
the translation of the expression into Western languages; however, Chinese
interpreters throughout history also misunderstood it to mean “doing noth-
ing” or “taking no action.” In fact, a criticism of Daoists coming from Confu-
cian circles accused them of advocating a kind of inaction that made no effort
to change the world or improve the situation of themselves, others, or the
nation.
However, when occurring as a compound within Daoist philosophical
grammar, the expression has a different use. It should be understood as a
linguistic operator within the conduct language game of Daoism. According-
ly, it functions as a verb for a certain way of doing or acting, not for no action
at all.
The term first appears in the Daodejing, where it is often connected to the
phrase wu buwei to make the full statement “wu-wei wu buwei,” meaning
“wu-wei and nothing will be left undone.” Wu-wei is not a form of movement
one may simply decide to do, nor can one be trained in it. It is not a martial
art. It is not a form of meditation. One cannot wu-wei by ingesting elixirs or
medicines. This form of movement arises only in the adept who has engaged
in forgetfulness and emptiness (wu, kong) in a state of quietude in which
clarity of will emerges without any intention or deliberation. When one
moves in wu-wei, there is a felt naturalness, spontaneously, and freedom.
One’s movement does not interfere but actually conforms to the patterns and
rhythms of Dao. In fact, moving in wu-wei is equivalent to “guarding the
One” or “Holding to Oneness with Dao” (shouyi).
202 • WUXING 五行
In the Zhuangzi, moving in wu-wei is a kind of free and easy wandering,
because one is not weighed down with the conventional social distinctions
made in language—not even those associated with Confucian elite ethics:
benevolence (ren) and appropriate conduct (yi). In Yellow Emperor-Laozi
Daoism (Huang-lao), especially as it shows up in the Book of the Masters of
Huainan (Huainanzi), wu-wei in human conduct is aligned with the way
Heaven moves nature by seasons and the planets and stars in their courses.
One of the earliest strata of the Zhuangzi (chs. 1–7) rejects government
and social organization and admonishes the adept to wu-wei. The Yellow
Emperor (Huangdi) strands of Zhuangzi and the Book of the Masters of
Huainan (Huainanzi) insist that the ideal ruler who will bring Great Peace
(Taiping) is one who acts only in wu-wei.

WUXING 五行. See FIVE PHASE PHYSICS, WUXING 五行.

WUYUE 五嶽. See FIVE MARCHMOUNTS SYSTEM.

WUYUE ZHENXING TU. See CHARTS OF THE TRUE FORMS OF THE

FIVE PEAKS, WUYUE ZHENXING TU 五岳真形圖.

WUZANG. See FIVE VISCERA, FIVE ORGANS, WUZANG 五臟.

 X
XIAN 仙. See IMMORTAL, TRANSCENDENT, XIAN 仙.

XIANG 象. See IMAGE, XIANG 象.

XIANG’ER COMMENTARY PRECEPTS, XIANG’ER JIE 想爾戒. The

Xiang’er jie is a set of 27 moral precepts derived from Xiang’er Commen-
tary to the Laozi (Laozi Xiang’er zhu). As extracted from the commentary
they have been translated by Stephen Bokenkamp (1997). Since these rules
occur in the commentary, the date of their origination parallels that of the text
and the community that produced it.
The Xiang’er precepts may be identified in three locations in the Daoist
Canon: Classic Regulations of the Most High Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun
jinglu, CT 786), Classic Injunctions of the Worthy of the Dao and Its Virtue
(Taishang jingjie, CT 787), and Selections from the Essential Liturgies and
Observances (Yaoxiu keyi jielu chao, CT 463). As given by Bokenkamp, the
27 precepts are as follows:

1. Do not delight in deviance. Delight is the same as anger.

2. Do not waste your jing and qi.
3. Do not injure the ascendant qi.
4. Do not consume beasts that contain blood, delighting in their flavor.
5. Do not envy the achievements and fame of others.
6. Do not practice false arts (methods) or point to any object and call it
Dao.
7. Do not neglect the law [the doctrine and ritual practices of the commu-
nity].
8. Do not act recklessly.
9. Do not kill or speak of killing.
10. Do not study deviant texts.
11. Do not covet glory or seek it strenuously.
12. Do not seek fame.
13. Do not be deceived by your ears, eyes, or mouth.

203
204 • XIANG’ER COMMENTARY TO THE LAOZI
14. Place yourself in a humble position.
15. Do not slight [the Dao] or become agitated.
16. Consider carefully all undertakings, and do not be flustered.
17. Do not pamper your body with good clothes and fine foods.
18. Do not allow [your emotions and vital forces] to overflow.
19. Do not, through poverty, seek strenuously after wealth.
20. Do not commit any of the various evil acts.
21. Do not overly observe the interdictions and taboos.
22. Do not pray or sacrifice to demons and spirits.
23. Do not be obstinate.
24. Do not consider yourself inerrant.
25. Do not contend with others over right and wrong. When you meet the
contentious, flee them.
26. Do not proclaim [yourself to be a] sage or contribute to the fame of the
mighty.
27. Do not delight in arms.

XIANG’ER COMMENTARY TO THE LAOZI, LAOZI XIANG’ER ZHU

老子想爾注. From 1900–1910, the Dunhuang manuscripts were discov-
ered in caves located on the ancient northwestern Silk Road. One of these
was a partial version of the Daodejing (aka Laozi), representing chapters 3
through 37 of the received text, and having amplifications and comments
interspersed with the text. This work is now cataloged in the British Museum
as Stein manuscript S. 6825 and named the Xiang’er Commentary (i.e., Laozi
Xiang’er zhu). The first modern study and critical edition of the text was
published by Rao Zongyi in 1956. A reliable English translation of the text is
Steven Bokenkamp (1997). This commentary is important not only for the
text of the Laozi used by the writer, but also because it represents one of the
few surviving major documents from the early period of the Celestial Mas-
ters (Tianshi).
It is possible that the text found at Dunhuang is a version of the one
attributed to the founder of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao)
movement, Zhang Daoling, by both Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–757)
and Daoist ritual master Du Guangting (850–933). Moreover, use of the
term xiang’er in the Celestial Master work known as the Commands and
Precepts for the Great Family of the Dao (Dadao jialing jie), which dates
prior to 255, seems to be a reference to the title of the text. If the title is
mentioned, then the original Xiang’er must predate 255.
Ninji Ofuchi’s inquiry into the history of the text finds that it has most
often been attributed to Zhang Lu, the grandson of Zhang Daoling. Rao
Zongyi takes the position that it was written by Zhang Lu but based on the
teachings of Zhang Daoling (Rao 1956).
 XIANG’ER COMMENTARY TO THE LAOZI • 205
While we may associate the Xiang’er with the Celestial Masters tradition,
we can also notice its connections with the methods of Mysterious Learning
(Xuanxue, aka Neo-Daoism)—that is, the goal of the author is to unlock the
mysterious teachings of the Daodejing. The pursuit of the esoteric knowl-
edge of the Yijing (Classic of Changes), Laozi, and Zhuangzi is one way of
grouping a set of texts into what we call Neo-Daoism or Xuanxue. In the case
of the Xiang’er, this term refers specifically to the method of didactic homily
used by the author in approaching the Laozi text, offering instruction to the
libationers (jijiu) or leaders of the Celestial Masters centers (zhi).
The author’s objective is to set out the mysterious knowledge of the Dao-
dejing necessary for the leaders of the community to perform their tasks. This
goal also explains why the Xiang’er is not, in any strict sense, interested in
trying to perform as we might think a commentary should. It does not seek to
recover the original intent of the authors/compilers of the Daodejing, the
historical context for its sayings, or even the way in which a text comple-
ments Daoist themes and emphases already known in the 2nd century. Its
Xuanxue approach is what gives the reader the sense that the commentary
often totally misses what appears to be the obvious meaning of the Daodej-
ing text and even accounts for the actual alteration of the clear meaning of
the text in some places (see line 321).
Contrary to the Zhuangzi and the surface meaning of the Daodejing, the
commentary does not object to the use of such Confucian moral virtues as
benevolence (ren) and appropriateness (yi). For the author, they derive from
the Dao, and the text only laments that these virtues are not actualized in his
present age by people who are following the Dao.
If the Xiang’er does represent some of the earliest teachings of the Celes-
tial Masters, it is noteworthy that there is no hint at longevity through elixir
in this work, although the text is definitely concerned with health, cure of
illness, and longevity. It is more dependent on notions related to the Book of
the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi) and the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi)
traditions than anything like external alchemy (waidan).
This work likely reflects our best source for the teachings that made up
something like the covenant “revealed” to Zhang Daoling on Hemingshan
and called the “One Correct Covenant and Way” (Zhengyi mengwei). So, this
commentary is quite revealing. It shows that although the Celestial Masters
may have been pursuing a way leading to Great Peace (Taiping) and even
longevity, it almost certainly had nothing to do with elixir practice. Longev-
ity and Great Peace are not pursued in the Xiang’er by elixir-making, nor
even by dietetic practices, but by morality. Living by a set of precepts that
the commentator associates with following the Dao is the key that unlocks
longevity, and this is as much an ontological/cosmological statement as it is a
moral one. Illness is cured by confession and ritualized in talismans (fu) but
always connected to restoring one’s morality. Sickness is prevented by fol-
206 • XIANG’ER COMMENTARY TO THE LAOZI
lowing the moral rules of the Dao and thereby retaining its qi inside the body.
Demon spirits are enemies that enter one’s body because of immoral action.
They could wreak havoc on one’s organs. So, the text says, “Keeping the
precepts of the Dao, we amass good deeds, which accrue merit and assemble
our essences to form spirits. Once the spirits are formed, we enjoy the lon-
gevity of the immortals (xian 仙). In this way we find our bodies reassured”
(lines 162–63). The sage (shengren), patterning himself on the Dao, thinks
only of accumulating good deeds to achieve physical longevity (line 351).
How does following the precepts of the Dao make possible long life and
even biospiritual transformation into what the text calls immortals (xian)?
The author of Xiang’er offers an explanation for the connection between
morality, health, and longevity. Relying on the Five Phase Physics (wuxing),
he teaches that immoral action throws these phases out of balance inside our
bodies (lines 21–25). When an imbalance of the Five Phases occurs, the qi is
pushed out and the body is closed off, preventing its return, ultimately result-
ing in death. A way of healing is offered by the Xiang’er Commentary, found
in turning from evil and practicing the Dao’s precepts. When one does so, the
qi will return to the body. “When people practice the Dao and honor the
precepts, the subtle qi return to them” (line 186).
Since following the moral way of Dao is so important to one’s longevity,
how are the Dao’s precepts known? Bokenkamp identifies 27 precepts occur-
ring in the Xiang’er. He extracts them from throughout the commentary and
provides a list, along with nine precepts derived from the Laozi (Bokenkamp
1997: 49–50).
According to the Xiang’er, in the practice of a meditative stillness in the
quiet room (jingshi), the subject enters another state of consciousness. He
becomes clear and luminous in his understanding and will. “Knowing how to
treasure the root in clarity and stillness is the constant method (the eternal
way) of restoring life” (line 220). This is not clarity in language, mental
concept, or even feeling, but the clarity of how to move, which is called wu-
wei, following the Dao.

XIANGLU 香爐. See INCENSE BURNER, XIANGLU 香爐.

XIAODAO LUN 笑道論. See ESSAYS TO LAUGH AT THE DAO, XIAO-

DAO LUN 笑道論.

XIN 心. See HEART, MIND, HEART-MIND, XIN 心.

XING 性 AND MING 命. See INNER NATURE AND DESTINY, XING 性

AND MING 命.
 XUANXUE 玄學 • 207
XINGQI 行氣. See CIRCULATING BREATH, XINGQI 行氣.

XINZHAI 心齋. See FASTING OF THE HEART-MIND, XINZHAI 心齋.

XIWANGMU 西王母. See QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST, XIWANG-

MU 西王母.

XUANWU. See ZHENWU 真武, PERFECTED WARRIOR (AKA XUAN-

WU 玄武, DARK WARRIOR OR MYSTERIOUS WARRIOR).

XUANXUE 玄學. See MYSTERIOUS LEARNING, XUANXUE 玄學.

 Y
YANG XI 楊羲 (330–386). For a person of such great importance in
Daoism, little is known for certain about the life of spirit medium (jitong)
Yang Xi. He lived in Jurong (near Nanjing, Jiangsu province) and was a
calligrapher. What is crucial is that between 364–370, he received a series of
nightly visions in which Perfected Persons (zhenren) from the Shangqing
Heaven appeared to him and revealed a number of holy instructions. Among
these Perfected Persons was Wei Huacun, and she became Yang’s “mysteri-
ous master” (xuanshi).
While in an ecstatic state in the presence of these Perfected Persons, Yang
wrote down the content of their revelations, along with the name and descrip-
tion of each Perfected being. The resulting texts became the foundation of the
Shangqing lineage of Daoism, and they were also the principal source for
Tao Hongjing’s Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao, CT 1016). This
text preserves a retelling of Yang Xi’s visions and a transcript of the incanta-
tions he used to call the numinal spirits.
Yang was instructed to transmit these revealed texts into the keeping of the
Xu family. The Xus were an aristocratic family of some wealth and political
standing in Jurong. They were also related to the Ge family (the forbearers of
Ge Hong) and the Tao family (ancestors of Tao Hongjing). The head of the
Xu family was Xu Mai (300–348), who renounced his official career and
became a disciple of Bao Jing (?–c. 330), the father-in-law of Ge Hong and
an alchemist in his own right. Xu Mai practiced pharmacology, alchemy, and
meditation. In 346, just a few years before Yang Xi began receiving his
revelations, Xu changed his name to Xu Xuan and moved to the mountains,
where he “disappeared in broad daylight” (i.e., became an immortal [xian]).
Xu Mi (303–376), who was Xu Mai’s younger brother, continued to work
as an official and supported Yang’s activities and protected him. In later life,
he retired to Maoshan, Jiangsu province. Xu Mi’s third son, Xu Hui (341–c.
370), left his wife and family, and moved to Maoshan to become Yang’s
disciple.

YANGSHENG 養生. See NOURISHING LIFE, YANGSHENG 養生.

209
210 • YELLOW EMPEROR, HUANGDI 黄帝
YELLOW EMPEROR, HUANGDI 黄帝. According to tradition, the Yel-
low Emperor was the third of ancient China’s mythological emperors. As the
legend goes, he was born in 2704 BCE, and became emperor in 2697 BCE.
The Yellow Emperor is also an important numinal being in Daoism. He is a
cultural hero to whom various accomplishments and discoveries important to
the development of human civilization are ascribed. He is credited with the
invention of the calendar; the first planting of crops; techniques for con-
structing homes and buildings; the art of weaving clothes; the design of
musical instruments; the invention of the bow and arrow, wheels and carts,
writing, and boats; and the development of medicine. His wife was reputed to
have taught women how to breed silkworms and weave silk.
There are several Chinese mythical traditions about the Yellow Emperor in
history, and they were generally combined into a coherent reinterpretation
during the Han dynasty. The three principal myths include a tradition that the
Yellow Emperor was a heavenly god, a second that reported he was an ideal
ruler of the distant past whose exemplary leadership was attributable to his
practice of wu-wei in following the Dao, and a third that said he was the
patron and source of the ancient practices of methods known by the masters
of techniques (fangshi).
The Qin dynasty priests and rulers venerated the Yellow Emperor as the
god (di) of the center direction. Han emperors preserved the belief system
honoring the five heavenly Gods (north, south, east, west, and center), but
gradually the Yellow Emperor was replaced by the Great One (Taiyi).
We may wonder why the character huang (yellow) is used in reference
with this deity. The reason is that huang is employed for not only a color, but
also “august,” “venerable,” and “superior.” Accordingly, the heavenly gods
of the other directions were subject to the Yellow Emperor. This position of
ascendance accompanied the belief that the Yellow Emperor was the father
of all the Chinese peoples, at least all the noble families.
Both the Records of the Historian (Shiji, ch.1) and the Zhuangzi (ch. 11)
associate the Yellow Emperor with the position of ruling the perfect kingdom
of the distant past, from which later rulers have deviated. In this role, the
Yellow Emperor once left his court, went into the mountains, practiced still-
ness, and was able to move in wu-wei. Then he returned to rule the ideal
kingdom.
There are numerous texts in which the Yellow Emperor is presented as
seeking advice from immortals (xian) and daoshi masters. One of these is
the first four chapters of the Ten Questions (Shiwen) text from the Mawang-
dui manuscripts, in which masters of longevity and nourishing life tech-
niques (yangsheng) respond to the Yellow Emperor’s inquiries. Another in-
cludes passages from the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi
neijing). In the Han dynasty, the Yellow Emperor and the Divine Husband-
man (Shennong) were associated, and in the bibliography of the History of
 YELLOW EMPEROR-LAOZI DAOISM, HUANG-LAO 黄老 • 211
the Former Han (Hanshu), the Yellow Emperor is connected to numerous
works on medicine and the techniques of longevity and medicines of immor-
tality or transcendence (xianyao). The Yellow Emperor’s association in vari-
ous tales with potters and blacksmiths became the basis for attributing al-
chemical mastery to him.

YELLOW EMPEROR-LAOZI DAOISM, HUANG-LAO 黄老. The term

Huang-Lao was first used in the Han dynasty in the 2nd century BCE to refer
to a lineage of Daoist thinkers and practitioners; however, some sources
claim that the lineage of Huang-Lao master teachers goes back to the War-
ring States and the thinkers gathered at the Jixia Academy. There are evi-
dences of Huang-Lao teachings in the writings of Xunzi (c. 335–238 BCE)
and Hanfeizi (c. 280–233 BCE).
The received text of the Zhuangzi has a large number of text logia reflect-
ing an interest in Yellow Emperor Daoist themes and their teachings, partial-
ly accounting for the perceived internal contradictions in the Zhuangzi about
such matters as whether the adept should involve himself with government
and what role wu-wei plays in state administration.
Among its other emphases, the Zhuangzi constructs a Daoist ideal by
means of Yellow Emperor sentiments and teachings. The characteristic mode
of conduct that identifies the sage (shengren) in the Huang-Lao materials of
the Zhuangzi is wu-wei. Instead of using the term Perfected Person (zhen-
ren) for the realized Daoist, the Yellow Emperor passages prefer sage. The
sage does not make distinctions, value riches, or worry about early death.
The sage’s ability to move through life by wu-wei is directly traceable to the
fact that he takes his stand in the original source, and his understanding
extends to the spiritual (Watson 1968). In the face of the ebb and flow of
life’s experiences, the sage is “like a quail at rest” and totally unmoved in
emotion or thought.
The Huang-Lao text blocks of the Zhuangzi likewise teach that one should
set aside “knowledge” as defined and constructed by human reason and
argument. One passage stressing an alternative approach taken from these
materials is the following:

The Yellow Emperor went wandering north of the Red Water, ascended
the slopes of Kunlun, and gazed south. When he got home, he discovered
he had lost his Dark Pearl. He sent Knowledge to look for it, but Knowl-
edge couldn’t find it. He sent the keen-eyed Li Chu to look for it, but Li
Chu couldn’t find it. He sent Wrangling Debate to look for it, but Wran-
gling Debate couldn’t find it. At last he tried employing Shapeless, and
Shapeless found it. The Yellow Emperor said, “How odd! In the end it was
Shapeless who was able to find it!” (Watson 1968: 129)
212 • YELLOW EMPEROR-LAOZI DAOISM, HUANG-LAO 黄老
Additionally, whereas in chapters 1–7 of Zhuangzi, the friendship and
disputation between Zhuangzi and the brilliant debater Huizi form the back-
ground for a rejection of the use of argument and debate, in the Huang-Lao
materials this teaching is brought home through a series of text blocks that
are critical of Confucius and usually portray Laozi as his teacher and master.

Laozi and Confucius Text Blocks in the Yellow Emperor Strata of

the Zhuangzi, Chapters 12–14

1. Dialogue with Confucius (called by his personal name, Kong Qiu), in

which Laozi attacks rhetoricians (like Confucius) and those who try to
make plans and strategies for trying to do something. Their fate will be
disastrous, like that of a nimble monkey and rat-catching dog. They
must forget all this.
2. Dialogue with Confucius about the 12 classics he wants to put in the
royal library. But when Laozi finds that the central thrusts of those
works are the distinctions of benevolence and righteousness, the flags
that only bring confusion to men, he refuses to accept them.
3. Dialogue with Confucius, who complains that he has not found the dao
in benevolence and righteousness. Laozi tells him that this is not sur-
prising, that he should instead rest in wu-wei.
4. Dialogue with Confucius in which Laozi again condemns running
around trying to practice benevolence and righteousness, and recom-
mends instead being natural, like the white of the goose and the black
of the crow.
5. Dialogue with Confucius as Kong Qiu concerning the fact that no ruler
listens to him as he takes his six classics to them. Laozi says it is a
good thing they do not listen, and he criticizes the six classics as worn-
out paths, with the dialogue concluding by Confucius realizing he must
act naturally. (Littlejohn 2010)

In making his point about rulership, the Yellow Emperor, in the Zhuangzi,
says that in his early period of rule, he used benevolence (ren) and appropri-
ateness (yi) to meddle with the minds of men. What followed was a history of
consternation and confusion, all the way down to the Confucians and Mo-
hists, who are mentioned by name (Watson 1968). But after the Yellow
Emperor visited Master Guangcheng on top of Kongtong Mountain (i.e., the
Mountain of Emptiness and Identity), he learned the essence of the Perfect
Dao, and so when he returned to rule, he followed wu-wei, his people experi-
enced Great Peace (Taiping), and he became an immortal (xian) (Watson
 YELLOW TURBANS, YELLOW TURBAN REBELLION • 213
1968). The Yellow Emperor creates disaster when he rules as a Confucian
would, meddling with peoples’s minds, but when he rules in wu-wei, he is
glorified.
Additionally, parts of the Spring and Autumns of Mr. Lu (Luhi chunqiu)
and sections of Dong Zhongshu’s (c. 195–115 BCE) Profusion of Dew on the
Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu fanlu) show indications of influence
from Yellow Emperor Daoism. One of the most prominent philosophers
attracted to Huang-Lao thought was Sima Tan (?–110 BCE), the father of
Sima Qian (145?–86? BCE), author of the Records of the Historian (Shiji).
Huang-Lao teachings are generally regarded as the principal ideas behind
the text Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi, 139 BCE). Moreover,
as either mediated through Book of the Masters of Huainan or by means of
informal transmission, Huang-Lao Daoism also seems to have influenced
both the Yellow Turban (Huangjin zhi luan) Great Peace movement and the
Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao).
The precise characteristics of Huang-Lao thought are still matters of dis-
pute. Robin D. S. Yates and other scholars argue that the four texts in the
front of Laozi B discovered in the Mawangdui manuscripts may be the
long-lost Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi sijing), the core text
of Yellow Emperor-Laozi thought. The principal teachings gleaned from this
text include a thoroughgoing naturalism (not materialism) that is nevertheless
animated by qi energy throughout. Natural processes are moved according to
a Way (Dao) that operates normatively just left to itself. Humans may align
with Dao through stillness and clarity, gaining the penetrating insight (shen-
ming) revealed in one’s wu-wei conduct. Rulership derives its fulfillment, as
all other roles do, from movement with Dao. The result of such leadership
and community participation is a Great Peace (Taiping).

YELLOW TURBANS, YELLOW TURBAN REBELLION, HUANGJIN

ZHI LUAN 黃巾之亂. The Yellow Turban movement was a rebellion
against the Han dynasty organized in Northeast China beginning in 184, with
the goal of establishing the Way of Great Peace (Taiping dao). The Classic
of Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a) represents a record of the ideas that
inspired the movement, led by Zhang Jue (d. 184), who came from Julu,
Hebei province.
Yellow Turban ideology was saturated with the cosmology of Five Phase
Physics (wuxing) and organized itself accordingly. Zhang Jue took the title
“General of Heaven” (tiangong jingjun), and his two brothers, who were also
leaders in the movement, were known as “General of Earth” (digong jiang-
jun) and “General of Humanity” (rengong jiangjun), echoing the tripartite
structure of the worldview of the Three Offices (Sanguan) in Daoism. More-
over, the movement depended on the cyclical understanding of the changes
of the Five Phases, according to which even phases of human government
214 • YELLOW TURBANS, YELLOW TURBAN REBELLION
were reflected as colors. The cycle of dynasties and that of colors moved
together. The change occurring in the rise of Zhang Jue’s movement was the
change from red to yellow. Thus, the name “Yellow Turbans” referred to the
coming rise of the yellow dispensation under Heaven’s rule. Zhang believed
the Han rule was under Fire (red) and the subsequent rule would have to be
Soil, and the color of soil was yellow. Accordingly, the followers of the
movement wore yellow headscarves or turbans (huangjin). The year in which
the rebellion began was chosen according to the Five Phase (wuxing) cos-
mology as well. The year 184 was a jiazi year, meaning that it marked the
beginning of a new 60-year cycle of history.
The Yellow Turban movement shared some practices also found in the
Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), including confession of moral
transgressions as a method of healing, drinking talismanic water (fushui), and
reciting spells to bind ghosts. The movement was quite evangelistic, with a
sustained effort to bring in new initiates and converts.
The revolution was quelled within about one year, and the rebels were
killed, scattered, or ended up joining the forces of various warlords of the
period, notably Cao Cao (c. 155–220). Some of the members of this move-
ment may have migrated into Sichuan and become part of the Celestial
Masters centers there.

YI. See ONENESS, THE ONE, YI 一.

YIJING 易經. See CLASSIC OF CHANGES, YIJING 易經.

YIN AND YANG 陰陽. According to the Daoist worldview, reality is gener-
ated from the One by the interaction of yin and yang. In Daodejing 40, yin
and yang play a central role.

Dao produces the One.

The One produces two.
Two produces three.
Three produces the myriad creatures.
The myriad creatures shoulder yin and embrace yang, and by blending
these qi they attain harmony. (Ivanhoe 2002)

Yin and yang are not kinds of things in addition to qi. Yin and yang are not
things, not even spiritual things. To take them in this way is to make what
philosophers call a “category mistake.” Another way of saying this is that
language about yin and yang is nonreferential. When reading about tradition-
al Chinese medicine that makes extensive use of the concepts yin and yang,
we must be careful to remember this fact: To say that one is sick because she
has too much yang does not refer to some overabundance of a quantity of
 YOULONG ZHUAN 猶蘢專 • 215
some substance called yang, even if it resembles grammatically a statement
like, “There is too much water in your bucket.” One way of noticing that
these terms are not names of some substance is in seeing how they are used
in political discourse. A minister is yin in relation to his ruler but yang in
relation to his subjects. Even though yin and yang are nonreferential, they
still have an important use in the ontology of early China. As concepts in
Chinese ontology, they explain how qi takes the variant forms that constitute
reality.
The term yin as first used in the Spring and Autumn Annals originally
denoted the shady side of a hill, while yang was the sunny. Thus, the two
terms came to be used for complementary forces: female–male, pas-
sive–active, night–day, moon–sun, and the like. In about the 3rd century
BCE, yin and yang were annexed into the explanatory language of Five
Phase Physics (wuxing). For example, water and metal correspond to winter
and autumn, all being yin. Fire and wood correspond to summer and spring,
all being yang. Only earth is neutral and positioned as the center. The more
complicated Five Phase physics (wuxing) became, the more extended uses of
yin and yang also came about. For example, these concepts became part of
the language covering directions as well (i.e., East and South are yang; West
and North are yin). Yin and yang are also operators in the language of tradi-
tional Chinese medicine. Illnesses of various sorts are attributable to excesses
and deficiencies of either yin or yang.
Yin and Yang also became part of the grammar of the Yijing (Classic of
Changes) and the Eight Trigrams (bagua) and 64 hexagrams. In that text,
the point being made is that yin and yang affect every change in the universe,
notably human history.
The proper functioning of yin and yang was a concern of those following
the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao), and their most controversial
ritual, merging qi (heqi), had this goal as its ultimate end. At the same time,
the intention to pursue longevity whether by external alchemy (waidan) or
inner alchemy (neidan) sometimes involved inverting the process of yin and
yang. Some neidan techniques were designed to cultivate a pure yang qi by
eliminating yin from the inner five viscera (wuzang) and organs.

YIQIE DAOJING YINYI. See COMPLETE DAOIST CLASSICS, WITH

PHONETIC AND SEMANTIC GLOSSES, YIQIE DAOJING YINYI 一切道
經音義.

YOULONG ZHUAN 猶蘢專. See LIKE UNTO A DRAGON, YOULONG

ZHUAN 猶蘢專.
216 • YUANSHI TIANZUN 元始天尊
YUANSHI TIANZUN 元始天尊. See CELESTIAL WORTHY OF THE
FIRST ORIGINS, YUANSHI TIANZUN 元始天尊.

YUANYOU 逺遊. See FAR-OFF JOURNEYS, ECSTATIC EXCURSIONS,

YUANYOU 逺遊.

YUHUANG 玉皇. See JADE EMPEROR, YUHUANG 玉皇.

YUNJI QIQIAN 雲笈七籤. See SEVEN LABELS FROM THE BOOKBAG

OF THE CLOUDS, YUNJI QIQIAN 雲笈七籤.
 Z
ZANGWAI DAOSHU 藏外道書. See TEXTS OUTSIDE THE DAOIST
CANON, ZANGWAI DAOSHU 藏外道書.

ZAOSHEN 竈神. See STOVE GOD, KITCHEN GOD, ZAOSHEN 竈神.

ZHAI 齋, CEREMONY, FAST, PURIFICATION. Rituals play an impor-

tant role in the practice of Daoism. There are rituals for exorcism, purgation
of wrongdoing, saving ancestors and delivering them from punishment, the
construction and compounding of elixirs, birthdays, weddings, funerals, and
so on. An important rite in the past was that of ordination of a disciple
(shoudu), which featured the transmission of texts and bestowal of the privi-
leges to conduct the rituals in them and impart their teachings to those who
sought them.
The term used specifically for communal rituals but also employed even
for smaller familial ones, for example, funerals, is zhai, which is the same
term used for “fast.” No conclusive explanation for how fast became asso-
ciated with ritual has been offered, but it may be simply that preparation for
conducting the ritual in some liturgical texts does, in fact, require that the
daoshi engage in a period of fasting from food. In fact, in the imperial rituals
of the state from ancient times, the emperor prepared himself to make offer-
ings by entering seclusion, bathing, and fasting.
Another interpretation is that “fasting of the heart-mind” (xinzhai) is a
sort of state in which distractions of thought and mind-wandering are
quieted. Entering this state is particularly important for the daoshi perform-
ing a ritual, and it is aided by chanting and recitation (songjing) of texts in
the opening acts of the liturgy, usually performed before what is called the
“cave altar.” This ritual practice “purifies” the officiant and thus also ex-
plains that zhai is sometimes translated as “purification.”
From the 3rd to the 5th centuries, when daoshi began to compile and
transmit liturgies along robust lineage lines of disciples, zhai came to stand
for the entire ritual and not merely the preparatory or preliminary procedures.
Although there are early records of Daoist figures attached to the Chinese

217
218 • ZHANG DAOLING 張道陵, ZHANG LING 張陵 (34–156)
court performing rituals, there is documentation of just what kinds of rites
they did. Some may have involved divination, others may have been associa-
tion with the activation or compounding of elixirs, but we cannot be certain.
The earliest records of Daoist liturgies are those recorded of the rites
performed by members of the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao)
communities. These included the “merging qi” (heqi) and the “mud and
soot” ritual (tutan zhai), in which individuals smeared themselves with mud
and soot to enact their sense of moral failure before experiencing cleansing.
The earliest description of the “mud and soot” zhai ritual is in the Text on the
Five Commemorations (Wugan wen, CT 1278), by Lu Xiujing (406–477).
Lu compiled nine different versions of zhai rituals. Since ordination and
investiture of adepts as ritual masters, as well as the transformation of texts to
mature disciples, was crucial to the coherence of Daoist communities, for-
malized instructions for such rites were also needed. The Codes and Precepts
for Worshiping the Dao (Fengdao kejie, CT 1125) was an early collection of
these procedures.
Du Guangting (850–933) tells us that there were more than two dozen
types of zhai rites known to him. Lu Yuansu (fl. 1188–1201) describes 10
types in his Regulations for the Daoist Community (Daomen dingzhi, CT
1224). The Register of Retreats and Precepts (Zhaijie lu, CT 464) describes
different types of Daoist rituals and divides “fasting” into three types: “accu-
mulating virtue and dispelling immoral action” (shegong zhai), harmonizing
the heart-mind (xin) and extending longevity (jieshi zhai), and releasing the
heart-mind from defilements and suppressing discriminations and thoughts
(xinzhai).
Modern-day Daoist ritual practice is dominated by the performance of
offering (jiao) rituals made to numinal beings seeking their favor and power.
Zhai rituals are performed prior to the jiao offerings. Only after the zhai rites
are done can the jiao ritual begin.
There are two major ritual traditions evident in contemporary Daoism: the
Zhengyi–Lingbao heritage and the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school.
The Quanzhen liturgies have dominated in Northern China and the Zhen-
yi–Lingbao ones in the south. In the Zhengyi stream of practice, ritual tradi-
tions are usually passed from father to son (or grandson) within hereditary
family descent or sometimes in community networks of practicing daoshi.
Accordingly, there is more variance by region and lineage in the performance
of these rituals than what may be found in the more codified rites of Quan-
zhen.

ZHANG DAOLING 張道陵, ZHANG LING 張陵 (34–156). Zhang Ling,

or Zhang Daoling, was the architect of the Way of the Celestial Masters
(Tianshi dao) as it was revealed and confirmed to him on Hemingshan. This
movement is also known as the Way of Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi dao) and
 ZHANG DAOLING 張道陵, ZHANG LING 張陵 (34–156) • 219
even the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi dao). Ge Hong’s
(283–343) record of Zhang Daoling’s career is the most detailed and exten-
sive, but it is not in all respects completely trustworthy. However, we may
highlight several of its points.
Ge tells us that Zhang was a student in the Imperial Academy, where he
became well versed in the Confucian classics; however, after his education,
he concluded that none of that study was of any benefit to his desire for a
long life. Ge tells us that Zhang studied the way of longevity, obtaining some
elixir texts, but he was not able to afford the ingredients. Nevertheless, hav-
ing heard that many of the people of Sichuan were pure and generous, as well
as easy to teach and lead, and that the countryside was full of noted moun-
tains, he moved there.
According to Ge, while on Hemingshan, Zhang Daoling concentrated his
thoughts and refined his will, and a celestial personage suddenly descended,
along with a train of 1,000 carriages with feathered canopies, dragons, and
tigers in the harnesses—so many they could not be counted—along with
10,000 cavalrymen. One in the party announced himself as the archivist (i.e.,
Laozi) and bestowed on Zhang the newly promulgated “One Correct Cove-
nant and Way” (Zhengyi mengwei). Ge says that once Zhang had received
this, he began to cure illnesses and the common people flocked to him,
hailing and serving him as their master. His disciples numbered several myri-
ad households.
Ge goes on to tell how Zhang established the office of libationer (jijiu) to
lead various households, organizing them according to 24 regional adminis-
trative centers (zhi). He arranged for rice, fabric, tools, utensils, paper,
brushes, lumber, firewood, and other supplies to be distributed as needed. He
directed some people to repair roads and bridges. Moreover, since he wanted
to rule the people by means of honesty and shame, he avoided using punish-
ments. When Ge had set up the administrative centers, anytime people in any
sector became ill, Zhang had them compose an account of the infractions
they had committed; then, having signed this document, they were to cast it
into a body of water, establishing a covenant with the spirits that they would
not violate the regulations again, pledging their own deaths as surety. Zhang
believed that illness was connected to one’s moral life and retaining qi by
living morally.
Ge Hong likely exaggerated Zhang Daoling’s interest in elixirs of immo-
rality. In Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan), Ge often edits
his sources to make various aspirants to longevity into practitioners of elixir
alchemy, perhaps because, according to his autobiographical work, Baopuzi
(Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity), he is convinced that what-
ever one might do for health, actual longevity is not possible without alchem-
ical elixir (Campany 2002).
220 • ZHANG GUOLAO 張果老
However, Ge may have been correct about Zhang’s early study of Confu-
cianism and his desire to lead a group of people being one reason he chose to
relocate to the Sichuan mountains. Hemingshan was far away from the turbu-
lence of the declining Han, and also it offered places of spiritual retreat and
reflection. These conditions might have appealed to a Confucian-trained
thinker who wanted to establish a community of Great Peace (Taiping)
separate from the troubled Han. Thus, Zhang developed a new plan for those
communities, and it was confirmed to him by his spiritual experience on
Hemingshan. He called this new plan simply the “one true and correct way”
(Zhengyi).
In Chinese history, Zhang Daoling is portrayed in images (xiang) as a
powerful figure with a black face and sword, always seated on a tiger. This
may be because of his reputation as an exorcist, one who knew how to get rid
of ghosts and demons, and also how to protect against their return.
Zhang’s son, Zhang Heng (?–179), and his grandson, Zhang Lu (?–215
or 216), became heirs to the title Celestial Master (Tianshi) and continued to
expand the movement in its early decades. After the breakup of the 24 cen-
ters, some Celestial Masters families moved to the north of China and others
to the region around the ancestral home of Zhang Daoling near Longhushan.
Zhang family members in the region around Dragon Tiger Mountain claim
descent from Zhang Daoling, and this has been the principal site of the
hereditary Celestial Master in Zhengyi Daoism throughout history to the 20th
century.

ZHANG GUOLAO 張果老. One of the Eight Immortals (baxian), by

tradition Zhang Guolao was a recluse who lived during the 7th and 8th
centuries. He is portrayed with a bamboo tube with two rods. He was reputed
to have died to avoid working in the court of Empress Wu during the Tang
dynasty but then to have reappeared in the mountains soon thereafter. Leg-
ends say that Zhang could cover great distances by riding a white mule, and
he is sometimes depicted on this mule riding backward.

ZHANG HENG 张衡 (?–179). Zhang Heng was the son of Zhang Daoling.
He is traditionally regarded as the second leader of the Way of the Celestial
Masters (Tianshi dao). He passed leadership of the movement on to his son,
Zhang Lu (?–215 or 216). Little is known about him with any assurance.
One tradition says that Zhang Heng’s wife (Zhang Lu’s mother) was famous
for her extraordinary powers of controlling ghost spirits and youthful appear-
ance (never aging?). She may have served as a spirit medium (jitong) for
Liu Yan (d. 194), governor of Yizhou (i.e., current Sichuan province). Some
commentators hold that the person called Zhang Xiu, mentioned as a local
leader in Sichuan in about the same period, may actually have been Zhang
 ZHANG LU 張魯 (?–215 OR 216) • 221
Heng, but this has not been substantiated. According to traditions about him,
Zhang Heng rose to heaven “in broad daylight” during the reign of Han
emperor Ling (r. 168–188).

ZHANG JUE 張角 (d. 184). Zhang Jue was the oldest of the three Zhang
brothers who founded the Great Peace (Taiping) movement in the 2nd cen-
tury, which became known as the Yellow Turbans. The movement was
influenced by Yellow Emperor-Laozi Daoism, and its philosophical primer
was the Classic of Great Peace (Taiping jing, CT 1101a). In the beginning,
the Yellow Turbans had some support in the imperial court, and some were
even accused of “studying the teachings of the Yellow Turbans” (Kohn and
Roth 2002: 138).

ZHANG LU 張魯 (?–215 or 216). Zhang Lu was the grandson of Zhang

Daoling, the son of Zhang Heng, and the third leader of the Way of the
Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao). Early Celestial Masters (Tianshi) docu-
ments refer to him as the “continuing master” (xishi). Zhang Lu’s mother was
reputed to have powers to know the methods of illness causing ghosts and
how to control them (guidao), and she was possessed of a youthful appear-
ance, meaning that she did not age. Her close ties as healer and perhaps as a
spirit medium (jitong) for Liu Yan (d. 194), governor of Yizhou (current
Sichuan province) may have aided in Zhang Lu’s rise to power.
Standard histories report that Zhang Lu became a commander in Liu Yan’s
forces and that he defeated the governor of Hanzhong and established a
theocratic state in Hanzhong, which he ruled for about 30 years (?185–215).
The kingdom was divided into administrative districts, each being directed
by a libationer (jijiu). These centers practiced individual and communal rites
of confession of moral wrongs, established charitable distributions, and ob-
served spiritual development through home quiet rooms (jingshi). When Liu
Zhang, Liu Yan’s son and successor, came to power, Zhang Lu rebelled. Liu
Zhang killed Zhang Lu’s mother and younger brother.
Zhang Lu reached an agreement with the Han state, by first fighting and
then allying with Cao Cao (c. 155–220). Zhang accepted various titles from
him. In fact, he was enfeoffed as Marquis of Lang (Sichuan). He married
some of his daughters to Cao Cao’s sons. But he died soon after the alliance
was formed, and the Hanzhong community was dispersed by Cao Cao to
Northwest China and Ye (Henan province).
Steven Bokenkamp (1997) holds that Zhang Lu is the most likely author of
the Celestial Masters works, Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi (Laozi
Xiang’er zhu), and perhaps also the Commands and Admonitions for the
Families of the Great Dao.
222 • ZHANG SANFENG 張三丰
ZHANG SANFENG 張三丰. Zhang Sanfeng is said by tradition to have
lived in the late Yuan dynasty or the early Ming; however, we lack firm
historical confirmation of his existence. Biographies report fantastic details
of him. The History of the Ming (Mingshi) says he was seven feet tall with
enormous ears and eyes, and that his appearance suggested the longevity of a
turtle and the immortality of a crane. Many wondrous powers are attributed
to him. Reportedly, he first studied Buddhism and then became a devotee of
Daoist inner alchemy (neidan), finally becoming an immortal (xian).
The lore of Mt. Wudang (Wudangshan) relates that he lived in a hut on
the mountain with his disciples. He worked to rebuild the holy monasteries
and temples on the mountain. One tradition says he was the founder of taiji
quan (great ultimate boxing). From Wudang, he went to the Abbey of the
Golden Terrace (Jintai guan) in Baoji, Shaanxi province, where he an-
nounced his departure and passed away. Still other tales say that he came
back to life and traveled to Sichuan and then back to Wudang.
It is clear that many Daoists and even imperial officials believed Zhang
Sanfeng really existed, probably because he had a rather large cult following.
Official envoys were even sent out to find him. There were searches author-
ized by the Hongwu emperor in 1391, followed by the Yongle emperor from
1407–1419. Even though these expeditions met no success, Zhang’s reputa-
tion continued to grow, and he even became identified with the God of
Wealth by the end of the 17th century. A collection of works about him,
including some ascribed to him, is in volumes 17 and 18 of the main collec-
tion of Daoist texts outside of the canon entitled Daozang Jiyao (Essentials
of the Daoist Canon).

ZHAO GUIZHEN 趙歸真 (?–846). Zhao Guizhen is probably the most

notorious of the Daoist masters principally because he was largely respon-
sible for executing the only empire-wide persecution of Buddhism in Chinese
history. He was summoned to the Tang court because of his knowledge of
external alchemy (waidan). Forces inside the court persuaded the emperor
to exile him after an imperial fatality occurred as a result of his alchemical
practices. He returned in 840, under Emperor Wuzong, a supporter of
Daoism. Zhao encouraged Wuzong to punish the Buddhists and restrict their
growth and landholdings. Unfortunately, Zhao’s particular experiments with
alchemical elixirs led to Wuzong’s madness and eventually the emperor’s
death in 846. Some sources report that Zhao’s punishment was swift and
terminal. He was beaten to death in the public marketplace. Other sources
insist he was only exiled again.

ZHENGAO 真誥. See DECLARATIONS OF THE PERFECTED, ZHEN-

GAO 真誥.
 ZHENWU 真武, PERFECTED WARRIOR • 223
ZHENGTONG DAOZANG 正統道藏. See DAOIST CANON, DAOZANG
道藏.

ZHENGYI 正一. See ORTHODOX UNITY, ZHENGYI 正一.

ZHENGYI FAWEN JING 正一法文經. See CLASSIC CODE OF ORTHO-

DOX UNITY, ZHENGYI FAWEN JING 正一法文經.

ZHENREN 真人. See PERFECTED PERSON, REAL PERSON, AU-

THENTIC PERSON, ZHENREN 真人.

ZHENWU 真武, PERFECTED WARRIOR (AKA XUANWU 玄武,

DARK WARRIOR OR MYSTERIOUS WARRIOR). Zhenwu (the Per-
fected Warrior), also known as Xuanwu (Dark Warrior) or Xuantian shangdi
(Highest Emperor of the Mysterious Heaven), is a numinal being known for
his powers of healing and exorcism. In the 200s BCE, he was associated with
the symbol of a tortoise entwined by a snake, indicating his role in healing
and exorcism of baneful shen.
Song emperor Zhenzong built a temple to Xuanwu in the Song capital of
Bianliang (current Kaifeng, Henan province), and, in 1018 CE, he gave
Xuanwu the title “Perfected Warrior” (Zhenwu) and charged him with using
his powers over the spirits to protect the Song state. Zhenwu was primarily
associated with his place of manifestation in the Wudang mountain range of
Hubei province, a site listed in Du Guangting’s “Seventy-two Blessed
Places” (Lagerwey 1992)
Song Huizong’s (1082–1135) practice of Daoism was expressed through
his talents and abilities. He was a famous painter of Daoist subjects, especial-
ly auspicious events that the Dao wrought. Many of Huizong’s own paintings
with Daoist subjects are quite famous. In an account taken from the hagiogra-
phy of Daoist master of techniques (fangshi) Lin Lingsu, Huizong asked
Lin to summon Zhenwu into his presence. After performing various rituals
and fasting, and at the hour of noon, the sun was obscured and Zhenwu
appeared to Huizong accompanied by thunder and lightning. The emperor
sketched Zhenwu’s likeness, but when he called for the court painter to help
him finish the work, Zhenwu disappeared.
The third Ming emperor, Zhu Di (r. 1403–25 CE), best known as the
Yongle Emperor, was the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. Under his rule,
Daoism grew significantly. He patronized Zhenwu and made the Ming dy-
nasty the period of Zhenwu’s greatest popularity and influence. The emperor
required his sons to make offerings to Zhenwu at the northern gate of the
capital in Nanjing whenever they visited. As early as the late Song dynasty,
several works appeared and announced that Zhenwu was actually the 82nd
224 • ZHENWU 真武, PERFECTED WARRIOR
transformation of Laozi. With this in the background, Zhu Di built many
temples to Zhenwu on Wudangshan, and the complex built from 1412–1413
was called the “Purple Forbidden City” (Zijincheng). The Illustrated Album
on the Auspicious Miracles Performed by the Supreme Emperor of the Dark
Heaven (Xuantian shangdi ruiying tulu) reproduces the decrees ordering the
rebuilding of sanctuaries on Wudang and records a number of apparitions
and manifestations of Zhenwu on the mountain during those years.
By the mid-1400s, Zhenwu was the most important numinal power in
Daoism, and his veneration extended to every level of Chinese society. Hav-
ing Zhenwu on one’s register (fulu) ensured an unparalleled power (Little
2000).

ZHI 治, CENTER, PARISH. The followers of the Way of the Celestial

Masters (Tianshi dao) during the time of Zhang Daoling and his son
(Zhang Heng) and grandson (Zhang Lu) established 24 centers (zhi) of
administration in Sichuan as a network of communities living by the rules
and precepts of their teachings. The creation of these centers took place
between 142 and 216. After 216, the centers were disestablished, and waves
of Celestial Masters (Tianshi) families were disbursed from the southern
areas of China to the northwest. The 24 centers were divided into three
groups of eight. They were as follows:
Group one: Yangping (led by the Celestial Master himself), Lutang,
Heming (Hemingshan), Liyuan, Gegui, Gengchu, Qinzhong, and
Zhenduo. These were the “Great Centers,” and their leaders were the
principal figures in the Celestial Masters movement.
Group two: Changli, Lishang, Yongquan, Chougeng, Beiping, Benzhu,
Mengqin, and Pinggai.
Group Three: Yuntai, Jinkou, Houcheng, Gongmu, Pinggang, Zhubu,
Yuju, and Beimang. This was the lowest tier of the centers’ bureaucra-
cy.
The lost Code of the Great Perfected (Taizhen ke), quoted in the Excerpts
from the Essential Liturgies and Observances (Yaoxiu keyi jielu chao, CT
463), says that in 196, Zhang Lu added four additional centers. The Excerpts
also gives the fullest description of the political and social structure of a
Celestial Masters center.

ZHI 芝, PLANT/FUGI/EXCRESCENCE, LINGZHI 靈芝 NUMINOUS

ZHI. Zhi uses a variety of plants, fungi, or excrescences. When used in
healing or external alchemy (waidan), these plants may be called lingzhi
(numinous zhi). They are believed to grow in blessed places (fudi) or on
mountains like Penglai. Ingesting them brings healing, longevity, and even
immortality.
 ZHONG-LU LINEAGE 鍾呂 • 225
Ge Hong gives the classical exposition on zhi in chapter 11 of his Baopuzi
(Book of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity). He distinguishes five types.
Ge says that certain types may go unnoticed on a mountain walk, unless the
spirits of the mountain wish to disclose them, although some of them radiate
light and may be seen even at night. So, one who goes seeking them must
perform rituals of purification and even the “walking the guideline” (bu-
gang) or the “paces of Yu (Yubu)” before proceeding.
The Shangqing text Essential Classic of the Bright Mirror (Mingjian yaoj-
ing, CT 1206) states that the best zhi are those growing over deposits of
cinnabar and gold. The Daoist Canon text Catalog of Mushrooms of Im-
mortality (Taishang lingbao zhicao pin, CT 1406) contains illustrations and
descriptive texts of 127 types of mushrooms or herbs necessary for long life.

ZHONGGUO DAOJIAO XIEHUI 中国道教协会. See CHINESE

DAOIST ASSOCIATION (CDA), ZHONGGUO DAOJIAO XIEHUI 中国
道教协会.

ZHONGLI QUAN 鍾離權. Zhongli Quan, also known as Han Zhongli, is

one of the Eight Immortals (baxian) in Daoist tradition. Quanzhen (Com-
plete Perfection) Daoists consider him their second Patriarch. Records of the
Correct Lineage of the Golden Lotus (Jinlian zhengzong ji, CT 173) says he
was a historical figure from Xianyang, Shaanxi province, who lived during
the Han dynasty. Having been a general for Emperor Wudi (r. 265–290) in
the Western Jin, he met with success, but upon losing a battle he retired to the
mountains and, following the directions of a mysterious old man, came to the
abode of Wang Xuanfu (?–345 or 365), who was one of the Five Patriarchs
of the Quanzhen lineage. From Wang Xuanfu he received talismans (fu),
methods for compounding elixirs, spiritual texts, and other techniques of
power.
In the preface to the Complete Methods of the Numinous Treasure (Ling-
bao bifa, CT 1191), Zhongli Quan reports that he discovered a copy of the
Classic of Numinous Treasure (Lingbao jing), providing the central teach-
ings of the Lingbao lineage in a cave in the Zhongnan mountains (Shaanxi
province). Zhongli Quan became a teacher of the immortal (xian) Lu Dong-
bin on Mt. Lu (Lushan, Jiangxi province). The Daoist Canon includes a
work in the form of a dialogue between Zhongli Qian and Lu Dongbin
entitled Anthology of Zhongli Quan’s Transmission of the Dao to Lu Dong-
bin (Zhong-Lu chuandao ji, CT 1017).

ZHONG-LU LINEAGE 鍾呂. This term refers to a Daoist lineage claiming

that its texts are traceable to the immortals (xian) Zhongli Quan and Lu
Dongbin. The writings associated with this lineage are within the inner
226 • ZHOUYI CANTONG QI 周易參同契
alchemy (neidan) methodological tradition. In the mid-11th century, texts
began to appear claiming authorship by Zhongli Quan or Lu Dongbin. These
were often refined poetic texts. They are preserved in the Complete Methods
of the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao bifa, CT 1191), ascribed to Zhongli
Quan, and the Anthology of Zhongli Quan’s Transmission of the Dao to Lu
Dongbin (Zhong-Lu chuandao, CT 1017).

ZHOUYI CANTONG QI 周易參同契. See RELATIONSHIP OF THE

THREE, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE BOOK OF CHANGES, ZHOUYI
CANTONG QI 周易參同契.

ZHUANGZI (ZHUANG ZHOU 莊周) AND THE ZHUANGZI 莊子.

ZHUANG ZHOU THE MAN. Most of what we know about Master Zhuang,
or Zhuangzi, is taken from Sima Qian’s Records of the Historian. According
to his account, Master Zhuang’s given name was Zhou. He lived during the
reigns of King Hui of Liang (370–319 BCE) and King Xuan of Qi (319–309
BCE). He once served as an official in the “lacquer garden” in Mengcheng,
believed to be in the State of Song (now Henan Province). Zhuang Zhou was
a contemporary of great Confucian thinker Mencius, and according to Sima
Qian, he was one of the masters who taught at the Jixia Academy. Sima
Qian also tells us that Zhuang Zhou wrote a work of more than 100,000
characters, mostly filled with fables. This seems fairly accurate because the
text of the Zhuangzi is, indeed, filled with interesting stories and characters,
even featuring talking animals, trees, and skulls. The text is a rich treasure
house of style and Chinese philosophical and religious thought.
ZHUANGZI THE TEXT. The present text of the Zhuangzi was edited by a
scholar official named Guo Xiang (d. 312), and it contains 33 chapters. Most
of these, like the Daodejing, contain many component text blocks put togeth-
er by an editor as one might place beads on a string; however, unlike the case
of the Daodejing, we know that there was a much larger and older Zhuangzi.
This “lost Zhuangzi” consisted of 52 chapters and is mentioned on a list in
imperial bibliographies dating from about 110 (Watson 1968).
The current text is traditionally divided into three major sections: Inner
Chapters (neipian) (chs. 1–7), Outer Chapters (waipian) (chs. 8–22), and
Mixed Chapters (zapian) (chs. 23–33). We are not sure whether it was Guo
Xiang or some earlier editor who divided the Zhuangzi into these sections.
Actually, these neat divisions of the text are not very helpful in identifying
where a specific text block within the chapter originated in the flow of Daoist
history. The text reflects a variety of literary styles, uses of poetry, short
prose essays, and references to movements and figures of much later histori-
cal context than that of Zhuang Zhou. It also contains a number of text blocks
written about Zhuang Zhou in the third person, and there are clear internal
 ZHUANGZI (ZHUANG ZHOU 莊周) AND THE ZHUANGZI 莊子 • 227
differences in teaching between many text blocks, reflecting that there must
have been more than one source lineage for the materials brought together in
the complete work.
Contemporary scholars, for example, Angus Graham (1986), Liu Xiaogan
(1994), Harold Roth (1991), and Ronnie Littlejohn (2010), have suggested
revised models for understanding the structure of the text of the Zhuangzi,
but each of these has its detractors. In the following, I follow that of Little-
john, and the pagination is from Watson (1968).
THE INNER CHAPTERS. Chapters 1–7 contain a number of text blocks
that may be attributed to Zhuang Zhou and represent the oldest material in
the book. These materials are probably connected with Master Zhuang’s
teachings during his time at the Jixia Academy (c. 330–301 BCE). But even
these chapters in their present form contain passages easily seen as not trace-
able to Zhuangzi himself because Zhuangzi is described in the third person
(e.g., ch. 1, 34–35; ch. 5, 75–76).
DAODE CHAPTERS. Chapters 8–10 should be taken as a unit, consisting
of materials formerly designated by the earlier categories of Outer and Mis-
cellaneous chapters. Chapters 8–10 represent a clear break in the text and
form a coherent essay often using the first person and employing illustrations
of its points internal to the essay. The essay is not interrupted by any discon-
nected text blocks. As such, it is likely that the essay was written by a single
individual, and this person made use of themes also found in the Daodejing
given the numerous overlapping interests between the essay and the Daodej-
ing.
One of the most important literary evidences of the distinctiveness of this
material is that the writer often uses the compound daode (the Dao and its
power). Although the daode sections make no mention of the Daoist conduct
concept wu-wei, the stress is instead on returning to naturalness and embrac-
ing one’s “inborn nature” (xingming). The use of this concept is important
because it is never used in chapters 1–7 (Liu 9). The writer of the daode
essay says, “My definition of expertness has nothing to do with benevolence
and righteousness; it means being expert in regard to your de, that is all. My
definition of expertness has nothing to do with benevolence or righteousness;
it means following the true form of your inborn nature, that is all” (ch. 8,
Watson 1968: 103).
There is an argument throughout the daode materials that human society
has been on a steady decline from a distant past of Great Peace (Taiping)
called the “age of Perfect Virtue” (zhende), when persons followed dao and
possessed its de. But as humans began making such distinctions as private
property, benevolence, righteousness, and the like, only confusion, unlawful-
ness, and disorder resulted. These distinctions, far from ordering human life
and society, actually represent a falling away from oneness with dao and are
the grounds for war and suffering.
228 • ZHUANGZI (ZHUANG ZHOU 莊周) AND THE ZHUANGZI 莊子
The daode materials are critical of human moral ideals as embodied in
Confucianism, because devotion to them cuts away one’s inborn nature and
confuses the world. If we must use cords and knots, and glue and lacquer to
make something firm, this means violating its natural virtue. So, the crouch-
ings and bendings of rites and music, the smiles and beaming looks of benev-
olence and righteousness, which are intended to comfort the hearts of the
world, in fact destroy their naturalness (ch. 8, Watson 1968).
In chapter 9, the author makes the point that the domestication of horses
destroys their nature, and “as far as inborn nature is concerned, the clay and
the wood surely have no wish to be subjected to compass, curve, and plumb
line” (ch. 9, Watson 1968: 104–5). The author from which this material
originated likens Confucian self-cultivation, with its stress on social rules,
etiquette, and morality, to having a piece of useless flesh between our toes
(ch. 8, Watson 1968).
YELLOW EMPEROR-LAOZI (HUANG-LAO) MATERIAL (Chs. 11;
12a, 126–28; b, 128–29; 13a, 142–148; 14a, 154–55; c, 156–58; e, 161–62; f,
163–64; g, 163–65; h, 165–66; Ch. 15; Ch. 16; 18a; 19a, 22a). Angus Gra-
ham (1986) characterizes the creators of this section of the Zhuangzi as
Syncretists, and this material has been traditionally associated with the Outer
Chapters division. The materials in these sections of the Zhuangzi give us the
first signs of ideas associated with what may be called Yellow Emperor-
Laozi Daoism (Huang-Lao). Sentiments and teachings in this part of the
Zhuangzi also show up in the Book of the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi,
139 BCE).
One of the indicators of the distinctive source of this material is the promi-
nent role given to the Yellow Emperor in these sections. Indeed, within the
Zhuangzi, the text blocks in which the Yellow Emperor is a main character
are in these chapters. Aside from the presence of the Yellow Emperor, an-
other marker of the distinctiveness of these materials is the prominence given
to wu-wei. One example of the conceptual differences between this section of
the work and the Inner Chapters is that the Yellow Emperor texts do not
reject rulership, whereas the Inner Chapters and the Zhuangzi Disciples (chs.
17–28, 32) materials do. The Yellow Emperor passages embrace the role of
ruler and teach that the true ruler should govern by wu-wei, following the
model of the Yellow Emperor.
ZHUANGZI DISCIPLES, CHAPTERS 17–28 AND 32. Text blocks from
this section traditionally have been classified as coming from both the Outer
and Miscellaneous chapters. They are associated with the earliest disciple
transmitters of Zhuang Zhou’s teachings. The following is some of the evi-
dence why this is true:
 ZUOWANG 坐忘 • 229
1. With the exception of chapters 19 and 23, each of the chapters in this
section contains passages that directly record Zhuang Zhou’s activities
and teachings in the third person, just as we might expect from his
disciples. In fact, in the Zhuangzi there are 25 records of Zhuang
Zhou’s activities outside of chapters 1–7. This stratum contains 23 of
these.
2. Liu Xiaogan (1994) has done an intensive conceptual and linguistic
word study of these chapters, and he has traced 90 passages in which
the word and grammar choices in these chapters are identical with or
correspond closely to chapters 1–7 of the book that are closely asso-
ciated with Zhuang Zhou himself.
3. Since the 90 instances of connection with chapters 1–7 are spread
throughout chapters 17–27, it is reasonable to conclude that these ma-
terials were probably gathered by a lineage of masters who directly
traced themselves to Zhuang Zhou as their master.
4. Like chapters 1–7, but in distinction from the daode materials and the
Yellow Emperor materials, these blocks use the term zhenren to speak
of the Daoist ideal.

ZIRAN 自然. See SPONTANEITY, NATURALNESS, ZIRAN 自然.

ZUO CI 左慈 (LEGENDARY 2ND–3RD CENTURIES). Zuo Ci was a

master of techniques (fangshi) who received revelations in Shandong and
came to the Jiangnan region. One tradition says Bao Jing (?–c. 330) received
the Charts of the True Forms of the Five Peaks (Wuyue zhenxing tu) from
him. Ge Hong reports receiving three of the most important external alche-
my (waidan) texts from his own teacher, Zheng Yin, who got them from Ge
Xuan, who got them from Zuo Ci: Classic of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing),
Classic of the Nine Elixirs (Jiudan jing), and Classic of the Golden Liquor
(Jinye jing).

ZUOWANG 坐忘. See SITTING IN FORGETFULNESS, ZUOWANG 坐忘.

 Appendix A

Pinyin to Chinese Characters: Term List

ba gong 八公 Eight Gentlemen

ba xian 八仙 Eight Immortals
bagua 八卦 Eight Trigrams
Baduan jin 八段錦 Eight Brocades (type of qigong
bairi shengtian 白日昇天 disappear in broad daylight
Baiyun guan 白雲觀 White Cloud Abbey
Baosheng dadi 保生大帝 Great Emperor Who Protects Life
baoyi 抱一 embracing the One
Beidi 北帝 Northern Emperor
Beidou 北斗 Big Dipper (aka Northern Dipper)
Beidou xingjun 北斗星君 Lords of the Big Dipper
Beiyue miao 北岳庙 Shrine of the Northern Peak
benming 本命 Birth Star of Destiny
bianhua 變化 transformation of consciousness
bianshen 變身 transformation of the body
bigu 辟穀 abstention from cereals
biqi 閇氣 breath retention
Bixia Yuanjun 碧霞元君 Original Princess of the Jasper Mist
bugang 步罡 walking the guideline
bugang tadou 步罡踏斗 walking the guideline and stepping on the
stars of the Dipper
busi 不死 no death, not dying, immortal
Caishen 財神 Gods of Wealth
Chan 禪 meditative state school (Buddhism)
Chang Jiang 長江 aka Yangzi River
Chang’an 長安 Xi’an 西安 (city in Shaanxi)

231
232 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
Changchun gong 長春宮 Palace of the Perpetual Spring
changsheng 长生 long life
chantui 蝉蜕 cicada remains
chaoyin 朝隱 recluse at court
chengfu 承負 inherited burden
Chenghuang shen 城隍神 City God
Chongxu guan 崇虛觀 Abbey for the Veneration of Emptiness
Chongxuan 重玄 Twofold Mystery
Chongxuan guan 重玄觀 Abbey of the Veneration of Mystery
Chongyang guan 重陽觀 Abbey of Double Yang
chuanshou 傳授 ordination, to pass on sacred knowledge
Chunyang 純陽 Pure Yang (e.g., Lu Dongbin/Lu Chunyang)
ci 慈 kindness
cun 存 visualization, actualization
cunshen 存神 visualization of spirit
Da Dao 大道 Great Dao
Dai miao 岱庙 Shrine of Mount Tai
dan 丹 alchemy
danshui 丹水 stream/water of immortality
dantian 丹田 cinnabar fields, elixir fields
Dao 道 the Way
daochang 道場 ritual space, sacred area
daode 道德 the Way and Its Virtue
Daode tianzun 道德天尊 Celestial Worthy of the Way and Its Virtue
daogu 道姑 female daoshi
Daohua 道 化 Dao’s transformations
Daojia 道家 Daoist school/movement, sometimes
“philosophical Daoism”
Daojiao 道教 Daoist teaching, sometimes “religious
Daoism”
daoshi 道士 Daoist master, Daoist priest, Master of the
Dao
daoyin 導引 gymnastics, guiding and pulling
 APPENDIX A • 233
Daoyin tu 導引圖 gymnastic chart, instructional images
Daozang 道藏 Daoist Canon
daozhang 道长 ordained Daoist master/ritual practitioner
de 德 virtue, power
dehua 德化 virtue transformation
di 帝 god (also, emperor)
dife i地肺 earth lungs
dimai 地脈 earth channels (arteries/veins)
dixian 地仙 earthly immortals
diyu 地獄 earth prisons (a.k.a., the hells)
dizi 弟子 disciple
Digong Jiangjun 地公將軍 General of Earth
dinglu 鼎爐 tripod and furnace
dong 洞 grotto, cave
dongshen 洞神 cave/cavern spirit
Dongtian 洞天 grotto-heavens
Dongtian fudi 洞天福地 Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Places
Dongwang gong 東王公 King Lord of the East
Dongxuan 洞玄 Cavern of Mystery
Dongzhen 洞真 Cavern of Perfection
Dongyue Dadi 東嶽大帝 Great God of the Eastern Peak (i.e., Taishan)
Dongyue miao 東岳庙 Shrine of the God of the Eastern Peak (i.e.,
Taishan)
dujiang 都講 Chief Cantor (for a ritual)
Emei Shan 峨眉山 Mt. Emei, Sichuan Province
fanchai 燔柴 roasted offering/sacrifice
fangshi 方士 masters of techniques
fangzhong shu 房中術 techniques of the bedchamber
faqi 法器 ritual tools
fasheng 法繩 rope (whip) of the law
fashi 法師 ritual master
feng and shan 封禪 ancient sacrifices at Mt. Tai
234 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
Fengdu 酆都 the realm of hells/purgatories
fengjian 風鑑 mirror of auras
fengshui 風水 wind and water (Chinese geomancy)
fenxing 分形 multiply or divide the body
fu 符 talisman, charm
fu 釜 crucible, caldron
Fudi 福地 Blessed Places
fuji 扶乩 spirit-writing
fulu 符籙 register
fuqi 服氣 breathing control (ingestion of breath)
fushui 符水 talismanic water
gan 肝 liver
ganying 感應 action and response
gaogong daoshi 高功道士 High Daoist Master
gong 宮 palace
gongde 功德 merit
gongge 功格 ledgers of merit and demerit
guan 观 abbey
gui 鬼 ghost, demon
guibing 鬼兵 ghost/demon soldiers
guicheng 鬼城 ghost city
guidao 鬼道 ways of the ghosts (sometimes used of
Celestial Masters)
guishen 鬼神 ghost, demon
guizu 鬼卒 ghost/demon soldiers
Guodian 郭店 city in Hubei
guoqiao 過橋 Crossing the Bridge
Hangu guan 函谷關 Hangu Pass
he yinyang 合陰陽 joining yin and yang
Heisha 黑煞 Black Killer
Hemingshan 鹤鳴山 Mt. Heming, Crane Call Mt., Sichuan
province
Hengshan 衡山 Mt. Heng, Hunan province
 APPENDIX A • 235
Hengshan 恆山 Mt. Heng, Shanxi province
heqi 合氣 merging qi
hong 銾 mercury
hongtou 紅頭 Red Head Daoists
houtian 後天 post-celestial arrangement/“after Heaven”
Huagaishan 華蓋山 Huagai mountain
huangbai 黃白 the “yellow and white,” or alchemy
huangjin 黃巾 Yellow Turbans
Huangjin zhi luan 黃巾之亂 Yellow Turban Rebellion
huanghu 恍惚 transcendent experience, altered
consciousness
Huang-Lao 黄老 Yellow Emperor-Laozi Daoism
Huang quan 黃 泉 Yellow Springs
huangting 黄庭 Yellow Court
huangxing 黃星 the yellow star
huanyuan 還元 return to the Origin
Huashan 華山 Mt. Hua, Shaanxi province
huashen 化身 transformation of the body
Huayang guan 華陽館 Abbey of Flourishing Yang
huiyuan 回元 return to the Origin
hun 魂 soul
huncheng 混成 undefined and yet complete
hundun 混沌 chaos, primal formlessness
huo 火 fire
huohou 火候 fire phasing
Huoju daoshi 火居 道士 householder daoshi
huosi ren mu 活死人墓 tomb of the living dead man
Jianggong 絳宮 Crimson Palace (heart)
jiangshen 降神 calling down the deities
jianhua 儉化 frugality transformation
jiao 醮 offering, to perform a sacrifice
jie 戒 precepts
236 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
jiejie 解結 untying the embryonic knots
jijiu 祭酒 libationer
jin 禁 prohibitions
jin 金 metal
jindan 金丹 golden elixir
jindan dao 金丹道 way of the golden elixir
jinshi 進士 highest degree in imperial exam system
jinshu 金書 golden script
Jintai guan 金台观 Abbey of the Golden Terrace
jing 精 essence
jing 經 classic text, scripture
jingmai 經脈 body meridans/channels
jingqi 精氣 refined qi
jingshi 静室 quiet room, meditation chamber
jingzuo 靜坐 quiet sitting
Jinlian tang 金蓮堂 Golden Lotus Hall
jitong 乩童 spirit medium
jiuchong 九蟲 nine worms or vermin
Jiugong 九宮 Nine Palaces
jiuzhuan huandan 九轉還丹 Nine Cycle Reverted Elixir (method)
Jixia (yuan) 稷下院 Jixia Academy
junzi 君子 exemplary person (esp. in Confucianism)
kong 空 emptiness
kongde 孔德 profound de (virtue)
kongdong 空洞 cavernous void/emptiness
Kundao yuan 坤道院 Kudao Academy
Kunlun 崑崙 Kunlun mountain
leifa 雷法 Thunder Rites
leiting 雷霆 thunderclap
li 理 Principle(s), structuring order of Dao
li 禮 rite, ritual, as in Confucianism
liandu 鍊度 salvation through refinement/refining the hun
 APPENDIX A • 237
lianjing huaqi 鍊精化氣 refining (jing) essence into qi
lianqi huashen 鍊氣化神 refining qi into spirit
lianshen huaxu 鍊神還虛 refining spirit into emptiness
ling 靈 numinous
Lingbao靈寶 Numinous Treasure
Lingbao tianzun 靈寶天尊 Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure
lingfu 靈府 spiritual storehouse
lingpai 令牌 command placard
Lingshu 靈樞 Numinous Pivot
lingzhi 靈芝 numinous zhi (plants)
longhu 龍虎 dragon and tiger
Longhushan 龍虎山 Dragon and Tiger Mountain, Jiangsu
province
longjiao 龍角 dragon horn (ritual flute)
Longmen 龍門 Dragon Gate (Lineage)
Longmenshan 龍門山 Dragon Gate Mountains, Sichuan province
longmai 龍脈 dragon veins (of the earth)
Louguan tai 樓觀台 Platform of the Tiered Abbey
Lunyu 論語 Analects of Confucius
lu靈 registers
Luofushan 羅浮山 Mt. Luofu, Guangdong province
Lushan 廬山 Mt. Lu, Jiangxi province
luzhu 爐主 master of the burner
Ma Tou 馬头 horse head
Maoshan 茅山 Mt. Mao, Jiangsu province
Mawangdui 馬王堆 site in Changsha
Menshen 門神 Door Gods
miao 廟 shrine
Miaoxing yunu, 妙行玉女 Jade Woman of Wondrous Deeds
mijue 密訣 secret instructions
ming 命 destiny
mizei 米賊 rice bandits
238 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
mu 木 wood
Nanhai Guanyin 南海觀音 Guanyin of the South Sea
Nanyue 南嶽 aka Hengshan 衡山, Mt. Heng, Hunan
province
Nanzong 南宗 Southern Lineage of Daoism
neidan 内丹 inner alchemy
neiguan 內觀 inner observation
Neijing tu 內經圖 Diagram of the Inner Landscape
neipian 內篇 inner chapters (of a text)
Neishen 内神 Body Gods, Inner Gods
Niu Tou 牛頭 Ox Head
nudan 女丹 women’s inner alchemy
Penglai 蓬萊 mountain on the isle of immortals
pi 脾 spleen
po 魄 soul
pudu 普度 universal salvation
qi 氣 energy, vital force
Qianfo dong 千佛洞 Thousand Buddhas Cave
Qigong 氣功 qi work
qing 清 clarity
Qingchengshan 青城山 Mt. Qingcheng, Sichuan province
qingci 青詞 Green Declaration
qingjing 清静 clarity and quiescence
qingjing xiang 清静香 incense of clarity and quiescence
qingtan 清談 pure conversation
Qingxu Zhenren 清虚真人 the Perfected Person of Clear Emptiness
Qingyang guan 青羊宫 Abbey of the Black Ram
qiqian 七籤 Seven Labels
qixing jian 七星劍 seven star sword (ritual object)
Qizhen ren 七真人 Seven Perfected Persons
Quanzhen 全真 Complete Perfection lineage
ren 仁 benevolence, humaneness
 APPENDIX A • 239
Rengong Jiangjun 人公將軍 General of Humanity
renhua 仁化 benevolence transformation
sancheng 三成 Three Accomplishments
sandong 三洞 Three Caverns
Sanguan 三官 Three Offices
Sanjiao三教 Three Teachings
Sanjun 三尊 Three Pure Ones or Three Worthies
Sanqing 三清 Three Pure Ones or Three Worthies
sanshan fulu 三山符籙 Talismans and Registers of the Three
Mountains
sanshi 三尸 three corpses
San Tianzun 三天尊 Three Heavenly Worthies
Shangqing 上清 Highest Clarity lineage
Shangqing gong 上清宮 Palace of Highest Clarity
shanshu 善書 morality books
Shaolin si 少林寺 Shaolin monastery
shen 神 spirit
shen 腎 kidney
shengping 升平 advancing to peace
shengren 聖人 sage
shengtai 聖胎 internal embryo of the sage
shenming 神明 penetrating insight
shenren 神人 divine person/spirit person
shenshi 神室 divine chamber
shentong 神童 child spirit medium
shenxian 神仙 spirit immortal
Shenxiao 神霄 Divine Empyrean Daoism
sheshu 赦書 Writ of Pardon
shi 蓍 milfoil or yarrow stalks (for divination)
shi 尸 impersonator of the dead/representative of
the dead
shi 士 master teacher/master of practice
shi’er duan jin 十二段錦 Twelve Brocades (type of qigong)
240 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
shihua 食化 food transformation
shijie 尸解 disappearance of the corpse
shou xuanyi 守玄一 guarding the Mysterious One
shoudu 授度 ordination
shoujue 手訣 instructions for practices with the hand
shouyi 守一 guarding the One, holding to Oneness with
Dao
shuhua 術化 techniques for transformation
shui 水 water
Shuojing tai 說經觀 Platform for Explaining the Classics
si 寺 monastery, temple
songjing 誦經 recitation
Songshan 嵩山 Mt. Song, Henan province
Taiji 太極 Great Ultimate
Taiji quan 太極拳 Great Ultimate Boxing
Taiji tu 太極圖 Diagram of the Great Ultimate
Taiji zuo xiangong 太极左 Immortal Duke of the Left of the Great
仙公 Ultimate
Taiping 太平 Great Peace
Taiping Zhenjun 太平真君 Perfected Lord of Great Peace
Taiqing 太清 Great Clarity
taiqing dan 太清丹 elixir of Great Clarity
Taiqing gong 太清宮 Palace of Great Clarity
Taiqing guan 太清觀 Abbey of Great Clarity
Taishan 泰山 Mt. Tai, Shandong province
Taishan tianqi rensheng di Benevolent and Holy Emperor of the Eastern
東嶽泰山天齊仁聖帝 Peak Mount Tai, Equal to Heaven
Taishan yunu 泰山玉女 Jade Woman of Mt. Tai
Taishang daojun 太上道君 Most High Lord of the Dao
taiwu 太無 Great Non-Being
taixu 太虛 Great Emptiness
taixuan 太玄 Great Mystery
Taiyi 太一 the Great One
 APPENDIX A • 241
Taizhong dafu 太中大夫 Grand Master of the Palace (Temple)
Tian 天 Heaven
Tianchang guan 天长觀 Abbey of Celestial Perpetuity
Tiandi 天帝 Heavenly Emperor
Tianfei 天妃 Heavenly Consort
Tian Gong 天公 Lord of Heaven
Tiangong Jingjun 天公將軍 General of Heaven
Tianshi 天師 Celestial Master
Tianshi Dao 天師道 Way of the Celestial Masters
Tianshi dong 天師洞 Cavern of the Celestial Master
Tiantai shan 天台山 Mt. Tiantai, Zhejiang province
Tianwang 天網 Heaven’s Net
Tianxian 天仙 heavenly immortal
Tianxin 天心 Heaven’s Heart, aka Celestial Heart
Tianxin bishi 天心秘式 Secret formulas of the Celestial Heart
Tianxin zhengfa 天心正法 Correct Method of the Celestial Heart
tianzun 天尊 celestial worthy
Tongdao guan 通道觀 Abbey of the Pervasive Way
tu 土 earth
Tudi Gong 土地公 Earth God
Tutan zhai 塗炭齋 mud and soot ritual
tuzhai shu 圖宅術 planning residences
waidan 外丹 external alchemy
waipian 外篇 outer chapters (of a text)
weishu 僞書 spurious text
wu 無 emptiness, non-Being
Wudangshan 武當山 Mt. Wudang, Hubei province
Wudoumi Dao 五斗米道 Way of the Five Pecks of Rice
wulei haoling 五雷號令 five thunder command
wulei shen 五雷神 five thunder deities
wuqi 五氣 five qis
242 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
wuqin xi 五禽戲 five animal patterns/playing (as in martial
arts patterns)
wutou 烏頭 Black Head Daoists
wu-wei 無爲 effortless, nonintentional, spontaneous
conduct
wu-wei xiang 無爲香 incense of wu-wei
wuxin 無心 no heart (i.e., without engaging the heart-
mind)
wuxing 五行 Five Phase physics
Wuyue 五嶽 Five Marchmounts system
wuzang 五臟 five viscera, five organs
xian 仙 immortal, transcendent
xiang 象 image
xianglu 香爐 incense burner
xianren 仙人 immortal or transcendent person
xiantian 先天 prior to Heaven
xianyao 仙藥 medicine of immortality
xiao 孝 filiality
xiaoshu 小術 minor arts/methods
xin 信 sincerity
xin 心 heart, mind, heart-mind
xing 性 inner nature
xingjie xiaohua 形解銷化 shed mortal form and melt away
xingming 性命 inborn nature
xingqi 行氣 circulating breath
xinzhai 心齋 fasting of the heart-mind, suppressing
discriminations and thoughts
xishi 襲師 continuing master (e.g., Zhang Heng)
Xiwangmu 西王母 Queen Mother of the West
Xiyue miao 西岳庙 Shrine of the Western Peak
xu 虛 emptiness
xuande 玄德 mysterious virtue
xuandu 玄都 City of Mystery
 APPENDIX A • 243
Xuandu guan 玄都觀 Abbey of the Mysterious Metropolis
Xuanguan 玄關 Mysterious Pass
Xuankong si 懸空寺 Buddhist Suspended Monastery
xuanmen 玄門 dark/mysterious gate
Xuanpin 玄牝 Mysterious Female
Xuantian Shangdi 玄天上帝 Highest Emperor of the Mysterious Heaven
xuantong 玄同 profound (mysterious) unity
Xuanwu 玄武 Dark Warrior or Mysterious Warrior (aka
Zhenwu)
xuxin 虛心 empty heart-mind
Xuanxue 玄學 Mysterious Learning
xuanzhi 玄師 Yang Xi’s mysterious master
xuan zhi you xuan 玄之又 mystery and mystery again (Twofold
玄 Mystery)
yangsheng 養生 nourishing life
yangsheng fang 養生方 recipes/methods for nourishing life
yi 義 appropriateness
yi一 Oneness, the One
yin and yang 陰陽 yin and yang
yishe 義舍 charity lodges
you 有 Being
youlong zhuan 猶蘢專 “like unto a dragon”
yuan 元 the Origin, original
yuanqi 元氣 original qi
Yuanshi tianzun 元始天尊 Celestial Worthy of the First Origins
Yuanyou 逺遊 far-off journeys, ecstatic excursions
Yubu 禹步 steps of Yu
yunmu fen 雲母粉 powder of mica
Yuqian guan 玉泉觀 Abbey of the Jade Spring
yuqing 玉清 jade clarity
Yushan 玉山 Jade mountain
Zaoshen 竈神 Stove God, Kitchen God
zapian 雜篇 mixed or miscellaneous chapters (of a text)
244 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TERM LIST
zhai 齋 ceremony, ritual, fast, purification
zhaohun 招魂 summoning the soul
zhaohun fan 招魂幡 summoning the soul banner
zhen 真 complete, perfect, authentic
zhende 真德 perfect virtue
zhenxing 真性 real form/nature of something
Zhengyi 正一 Orthodox Unity lineage
zhengyi mengwei 正一盟威 One True Covenant of Power
Zhengyi xiansheng 正一先 Elder of Orthodox Unity
生
Zhenjun 真君 Perfected Lord
zhenren 真人 Perfected Person, real person, authentic
person
Zhenwu 真武 Perfected Warrior (aka Xuanwu 玄武)
zhexian 謫仙 banished immortal
zhi 治 center, parish (of the Celestial Masters)
zhi 芝 plant/excrescence
Zhongguo daojiao 中国道教 Chinese Daoism
Zhongguo daojiao xiehui 中 Chinese Daoist Association
国道教协会
Zhong-Lu 鍾呂 Zhong-Lu lineage
zhongmiao zhi men 眾妙之 gate of all wonders
門
zhongmin 種民 seed people
Zhongnanshan 中南山 Zhongnan mountain, Shaanxi province
Zhongyue miao 中岳庙 Shrine of the Central Peak
zhou 咒 spell, curse
zhuji 築基 laying the foundations for meditative process
in inner alchemy
Zijincheng 紫禁城 Purple Forbidden City
ziran 自然 spontaneity, naturalness
zishen 自慎 prudence and attention
Zongsheng guan 宗聖觀 Abbey of the Ancestral Saint (i.e., Laozi)
 APPENDIX A • 245
zongshi 宗師 Grand Master/Model Master
zuowang坐忘 sitting in forgetfulness
 Appendix B

Pinyin to Chinese Characters: Texts

Anzao jing, as CT 69太上洞真安灶經

Baopuzi 抱朴子
Baosheng ming, CT 835 保生銘
Bencao jing jizhu 本草經集注
Bianzheng lun 辨证論
Cantong qi參同契
Changchun zhenren xiyou ji, CT 1429 長春真人西遊記
Chen Tuan gaowo 陳摶高臥
Chenghuang ganying xiaozai jifu miaojing, CT 1447 as 太上老君說城隍感
應消災集福妙經
Chifeng sui赤鳳髓
Chisong zi zhangli 赤松子章曆, CT 615
Chongyang Quanzhen ji, CT 1153 重陽全真集
Chuci 楚辭
Chujia yinyuan jing, as CT 339太上洞玄靈寶出家因緣經
Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露
Cunshen guqi lun, CT 577 存神固氣論
Cunshen lianqi ming, CT 834 存神煉氣銘
Dadan zhizhi, CT 244 大丹直指
Dadao jialing jie 道 家令戒, in CT 789
Dadong lian zhenbao jing xinfu lingsha miaojue, CT 890 大洞鍊真寶經修
伏靈砂妙訣
Dadong zhenjing 大洞真經
Daishi, CT 1472岱史
Daodejing 道德經
Daofa huiyuan, CT 1220 道法會元

247
248 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TEXTS
Daoji lingxian ji, CT 597 道蹟靈仙記
Daojiao lingyan ji, 道教靈驗記
Daojiao yishu, CT 1120
Daomen dingzhi, CT 1224 道門定制
Daomen kelue, CT 1127 道門科略
Daoxue zhuan 道學傳
Daoyin yangsheng jing, as CT 818太清導引養生經
Daozang 道藏
Daozang jing mulu, CT 1431大明道藏經目錄
Daozang jiyao 道藏輯要
Daozang yuanliu kao, 道藏源流考
Daozang zunjing lidai gangmu, appended to CT 1430道藏闕經目錄
Daren fu 大人賦
Dengzhen yinjue, CT 421 登真隱訣
Diyu shiwang jing地獄十王經
Dongtian fudi yuedu mingshan ji, CT 599洞天福地嶽瀆名山記
Dongyuan shenzhou jing, CT 335 as 太上洞淵神咒經
Dongzhen huangshu, CT 1343 洞真黃書
Durenjing 度人經
Ershisi xiao de gushi, 二十四孝的故事
Fengdao kejie, CT 1125 as 洞玄靈寶三洞奉道科戒營始
Fenli shihua ji, CT 1155 分梨十化集
Fushou baozang 福壽寶藏
Fushou lun, in CT 1426 as 唐太古妙 應孫真人福壽論
Fuzu tongji 佛祖統記
Gaoshi zhuan 高士傳
Guang hongming ji T. 2103廣弘明集
Guanzi 管子
Han tianshi shijia 漢天師世家
Han Wudi neizhuan, CT 292 漢武帝內傳
Hanshu 漢書
Hetu 河圖
Huahu jing 化胡經
Huainan honglie jie, CT 1184 淮南鴻烈解
Huainanzi 淮南子
 APPENDIX B • 249
Huangdi bashiyi nanjing zuantu jujie, CT 1024 黃帝八十一難經纂圖句解
Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue, CT 885 黃帝九鼎神丹經訣
Huangdi neijing 黄帝内經
Huangdi sijing 黄帝四經
Huangting jing 黄庭經
Huangting neijing wuzang liufu buxie tu, CT 432黃庭內景五臟六腑補瀉
圖
Huashu, CT 1044 化書
Jindan dayao, represented by CT 1067 上陽子金丹大要
Jinlian zhengzong ji, CT 173 金蓮正宗記
Jinque xuanyuan Taihang Laojun bashiyi hua tushuo 金闕玄元太上老君八
十一圖說
Jinye jing 金液經
Jiudan jing 九丹經
Jiuhuan jiudan miaojue, CT 891 as 大洞鍊真寶經九還金丹妙訣
Jiu Tangshu 舊唐書
Jiuzhuan liuzhu shenxian jiudan jing, CT 952 九轉流珠神仙九丹經
Kaiyuan daozang 開元道藏
Laojun bashiyi hua tu 老君八十一图
Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie, in CT 786, 1032 老君說一百八十戒
Laojun yinsong jiejing, CT 785 老君音誦誡經
Laozi bianhua jing 老子變化經
Laozi Xiang'er zhu 老子想爾注
Lienu zhuan 列女傳
Lieshi zhuan 列士傳
Liexian zhuan, CT 294 列仙傳
Liezi 列子
Liezi zhu 列子注
Liji 禮經
Lin Lingsu zhuan林靈素傳
Lingbao bifa, CT 1191 as 秘傳正陽真人靈寶畢法
Lingbao jing 靈寶經
Lingbao sanyuan pinjie gongde qingzhong jing, CT 456 as 太上洞玄靈寶
三元品戒功德輕重經
Lingbao wu liangdu ren pin miao jing zhu, CT 91 as 太上洞玄靈寶無量度
人上品妙經註
250 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TEXTS
Lingbao wufu xu, CT 388 in 上清金真玉皇上元九天真靈三百六十五部
元錄
Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian 歷世真仙體道通鋻
Lunyu 論語
Luoshu 洛書 (also written 雒書)
Lushi chunqiu 呂氏春秋
Lutu zhenjing籙圖真經
Ma Danyang sandu Ren fengzi 馬丹陽三度 任風子
Maoshan zhi, CT 304茅 山志
Mengzi孟子
Mingjian yaojing, CT 1206 as 上清明鑑要經
Mingshi明史
Mudan ting 牡丹亭
Nan Tangshu 南唐書
Nanyue jiu zhenren zhuan, CT 452南嶽九真人 傳
Nanyue xiaolu, CT 453南嶽小錄
Nanyue zongsheng ji, CT 606南嶽總勝集
Neiguan jing, as CT 641太上老君內觀經
Neijing tu 内景圖
Neiye 內業
Niwan Li zushi nuzong shuangxiu baofa 泥丸李祖師女 宗雙修寶筏
Nuqing guilu, CT 790 女青鬼律
Panxi ji, CT 1159磻溪集
Pengzu jing 彭祖經
Qianjin fang, CT 1163 as 孫真人備急千金要方
Qingjing jing, CT 620 in 太上老君說常清靜妙經
Quegu shiqi 卻穀食氣
Sandong jingshu mulu 三洞經書目錄
Sandong qionggang 三洞瓊綱
Sandong zhongjie wen, CT 178三洞眾戒文
Sanguo zhi 三國志
Sanhuang wen 三皇文
Sanwu Zhengyi mengwei lu, CT 1208 as 太上三五正一盟威籙
Shanhaijing山海經
Shangqing dadong zhenjing, CT 6 上清大洞真經
 APPENDIX B • 251
Shangqing dongzhen zhihui guanshen dajie wen, CT 1364 上清洞真智慧
觀身大戒文
Shangqing gushi lingwen guilu, CT 461 上清骨髓靈文鬼律
Shangqing lingbao dafa, CT 1221 上清靈寶大法
Shangqing tianxin zhengfa, CT 566 上清天心正法
Shanhaijing, CT 1031 山海經
Shenxian kexue lun 神仙可學論, contained in CT 1051
Shenxian zhuan 神仙傳
Shenzhou qizhuan qibian wutian jing, CT 1331 as 洞真上清神州七轉七變
舞天經
Sheyang lun, in CT 841 as 孫真人攝養論
Sheyang zhenshong fang 攝養枕中方
Shiji 史记
Shijing詩經
Shiyao erya 石藥爾雅
Shiyi 十翼, The Ten Wings
Shizhou ji, CT 598 十洲記
Shouyang congshu壽養叢書
Shuogua 說卦, Discussion of the Trigrams
Songshan Taiwu xiansheng qijing, CT 824 庭嵩山太無先生氣經
Songshi 宋史
Soushan ji, CT 1476搜神記
Taigu ji, CT 1161太古集
Taiji Ge xiangong zhuan, CT 450太極葛仙公傳
Taiping guangji 太平廣記
Taiping jing, CT 1101 太平經
Taiping jing chao, CT 1101 as 太平經 (鈔)
Taiping jing shengjun bizhi, CT 1102太平經聖君秘旨
Taiqing danjing yaojue, YJQQ 71 太清丹經要訣
Taiqing jing, see CT 846 and 883 太清經
Taishang ganying pian, CT 1167 太上感應篇
Taishang jingjie, CT 787 太上經戒
Taishang Laojun da cunsi tuzhu jue, CT 875 太上老君大存思圖注訣
Taishang Laojun jinglu, CT 786 太上老君經律
252 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TEXTS
Taishang Laojun kaitian jing, CT 1437 太上老君開天經
Taishang Laojun shuo Tianfei jiuku lingyan jing, CT 649 太上老君說天妃
救苦靈驗經
Taishang lingbao zhicao pin, CT 1406 太上靈寶芝草品
Taishang xuanling beidou benming yansheng zhenjing, CT 622 太上玄靈
北斗本命延生真經
Taiwei xianjun gongguo de, CT 186 太微仙君功過格
Taiyi jinhua zongzhi太一金華宗旨
Taiyi sheng shui太一生水
Taizhen ke 太真科
Tang Ye zhenren zhuan, CT 779唐葉真人傳
Tiandi gongfu tu, YJQQ 27天地宮府圖
Tianxin zhengfa天心正法
Tixuan zhenren xianyi lu, CT 594 體玄眞人顯異録
Tongxuan zhenjing, CT 746通玄真經
Wanli xu daozang 萬曆續道藏
Weishu魏書
Wenchang dadong xinjing, as CT 5太上無極總真文昌大洞仙經
Wendi quanshu文帝全書
Wenzi 文子
Wudang fudi zongzhen ji, CT 962 武當福地總真集
Wugan wen, CT 1278 as 洞玄靈寶五感文
Wuji tu無極圖
Wuliang duren shangpin miaojing pangtong tu, CT 148 無量度人上品妙經
旁通圖
Wuneng zi, CT 1028 無能子
Wushang biyao, CT 1138 無上秘要
Wushang miaodao wenshi zhenjing, CT 667 無上妙道文始真經
Wuyue zhenxing tu五岳真形圖
Wuyue zhenxing xulun, CT 1281 五嶽真形序論
Wuzhen pian xiaoxu 悟真篇 小序
Xianquan ji, CT 1311峴泉 集
Xiantian tu先天圖
Xiaodao lun 笑道論
Xiaojing孝經
 APPENDIX B • 253
Xici 繫辭
Xin Tangshu新唐書
Xiuzhen tu 修真圖
Xiyue Huashan zhi, CT 307西嶽華山誌
Xiyou ji 西遊記
Xu xianzhuan續仙傳
Xuandu baozang玄都寶藏
Xuanfeng qinghui tu 風慶會圖
Xuanmiao neipian 玄妙內篇
Xuantian shangdi ruiying tulu 玄天 上帝瑞應圖
Yangsheng yaoji 養生要集
Yannian yisuan fu, as CT 1271洞玄靈寶真人修行延年益筭法
Yanxing yanming lu, CT 838養性 延命錄
Yaoxiu keyi jielu chao, CT 463 要修科儀戒律鈔
Yijing 易經
Yinzhong baxian ge飲中八仙歌
Yiqie daojing yinyi一切道經音義
Yongcheng jixian lu, CT 783 墉城集仙錄
Yuhuang benxing jijing, CT 10 as 高上玉皇本行集經
Yuhuang youzhi xifu bochan, CT 193 玉皇宥罪錫福寶懺
Yunguang ji, CT 1152 雲光集
Yunji qiqian, CT 1032 雲笈七籤
Zangwai daoshu 藏外道書
Zhaijie lu, CT 464 齋戒籙
Zhengao, CT 1016 真誥
Zhengde Wanshou daozang 政和萬壽道藏
Zhengtong daozang 正統道藏
Zhengyi fawen jing 正一法文經
Zhenling weiye tu, CT 167 真靈位業圖
Zhong-Lu chuandao ji, in CT 1017 鐘呂傳道集
Zhou houbei ji fang, as CT 1306葛仙翁肘後備急方
Zhouyi 周易
Zhouyi cantong qi, in CT 999-1008 周易參同契
254 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: TEXTS
Zhuangzi 莊子
Zhu bingyuan hou lun諸病源候論
Zhujian Laozi 竹簡老子
Zhushu jinian竹書紀年
Zitong dijun huashu, CT 170 梓潼帝君化書
Ziyang zhenren neishuan, CT 303 紫陽真人內傳
Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, CT 142 紫妖鈉人 悟真篇三註
Zuowang lun, CT 1036坐忘論
Zuozhuan 左傳
 Appendix C

Pinyin to Chinese Characters: Names

Anqi Sheng 安期生

Bao Jing (?–c. 330) 鮑靚
Cao Guojiu 曹國舅
Cao Wenyi 曹文逸 (fl. 1119–1125)
Chen Jingyuan 陳景元 (c. 1024–1094)
Chen Shaowei 陳少微 (fl. ?712/?741)
Chen Shouyuan 陳守元
Chen Tuan 陳摶 (c. 920–989)
Chen Xianwei 陳顯微 (fl. 1223–1254)
Chen Yingning 陈撄宁 (1890–1969)
Chen Zhixu 陳致虛 (1289–after 1335)
Cheng Xuanying 成玄英 (fl. 631–650)
Chengzu 成祖 (1360–1424), aka Zhu Di 朱棣
Chisong zi 赤松子
Confucius 孔子 (Kongzi, 551–479 BCE)
Dongfang Shuo 東方朔 (? 160–? 93 BCE)
Du Guangting 杜光庭 (850–933)
Fu Yi 傅奕 (534-639)
Ge Chaofu 葛巢甫 (fl. 402)
Ge Hong 葛洪 (283–343)
Ge Xuan 葛玄 (164–244)
Guan Yu 關羽, Guandi 關帝 (?–220)
Guangcheng zi 廣成子
Guo Pu 郭璞 (276–324)
Guo Xiang 郭象 (?232–312)
Han Wudi 漢武帝 (r. 141–87 BCE)
Han Xiangzi 韓湘子
Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824)
Hao Datong 郝大通 (1140–1213)
He Xiangu 何瓊
He Yan 何晏 (190–249)
Hebo 河伯
Heshang Gong 河上公
Hong Mai 洪邁 (1123–1202)
Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 (1814–1864)
255
256 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: NAMES
Hua Tuo 華佗 (142–219)
Huang Lingwei 黄靈微 (c. 640–721)
Huangdi 黄帝
Huizong 徽宗 (1082–1135), Zhao Ji趙佶, emperor of Song
Ji Kang 嵇康 (221–262)
Kou Qianzhi 寇謙之 (365–448)
Lan Caihe 藍采和
Laojun 老君, Taishang Laojun 太上老君
Laozi 老子, Lao Dan 李聃
Li Shaojun 李少君 (fl. c. 133 BCE)
Li Tieguai 李鐵拐
Liezi 列子
Lin Lingsu 林靈素 (1076–1120)
Liu An 劉安 (?179–122 BCE)
Liu Haichan 劉海蟾
Liu Xiang 劉向 (77–8 or 6 BCE)
Liu Yuandao 劉元道 (fl. 1100–1125)
Liu Zhigu 劉知古 (?663–?756)
Lu Dongbin 呂洞賓(?796–?1016)
Lu Xiujing 陸修靜 (406–477)
Lu Zhigang 鲁至剛 (fl. 1593)
Ma Shu 馬樞 (522–581)
Ma Yu 馬鈺 (1123–1184) (aka Ma Danyang)
Mazu 媽祖 (?960–?988)
Meng Tian 蒙恬 (d. 210 BCE)
Mengzi 孟子 (372–289 BCE)
Pan Shizheng 潘師正 (585–682)
Peng Dingqui 彭定求 (1645–1719)
Peng Xiao 彭曉 (?–955)
Pengzu 彭祖
Qiu Chuji 丘處機 (1148–1227)
Rao Dongtian 饒洞天 (fl. 994)
Ruan Ji 阮籍 (210–263)
Shi Chongxuan 史崇玄 (?–713)
Shi Zhijing 史志經
Sima Chengzhen 司馬承禎 (647–735)
Sima Qian 司馬遷 (145?–86? BCE)
Siming 司命
Sun Bu’er 孫不二 (1119–1183)
Sun Simiao 孫思邈 (?581–?682)
Suwen 素問
Tan Qiao 譚峭 (c. 860–c. 940)
Tan Zixiao 譚紫霄 (fl, 935–after 963)
 APPENDIX C • 257
Tao Hongjing 陶弘景 (456–536)
Tao Zhi 陶埴 (?–825)
Tiantong Rujing 天童如淨 (1162–1228)
Wang Bi 王弼 (226–249)
Wang Chang 王昶 (aka Wang Jipeng 王繼鵬, r. 935–939)
Wang Changyue 王常月 (d. 1680)
Wang Chong 王充 (27–100)
Wang Chuyi 王處一 (1142–1217)
Wang Fu 王浮 (n.d.)
Wang Zhe 王喆 (1113–1170) (aka Wang Chongyang 王重陽)
Wangzi Qiao 王子喬
Wei Huacun 魏華存 (?251–?334)
Wenchang 文昌
Wenchang 文昌
Wu Yun 吴筠 (?–778)
Xu Hui 許翽 (341–?370)
Xu Lingfu 徐灵府 (c. 760–841)
Xu Mai 許邁 (300–348)
Xu Mi 許 謐 (303–376)
Yan Dong 嚴東 (fl. c. 585)
Yang Xi 楊羲 (330–386)
Yellow Emperor, Huangdi 黄帝
Yin Changsheng 陰長生
Yu Fan 虞翻 (164–233)
Yuhuang 玉皇
Zhang Daoling 張道陵, Zhang Ling 張陵 (trad. 34–156)
Zhang Guolao 張果老
Zhang Heng 张衡 (?–179)
Zhang Jue 張角 (d. 184)
Zhang Keda 張可大 (1218–1263)
Zhang Liusun 張留孫 (1248–1322)
Zhang Lu 張魯 (?–215 or 216)
Zhang Sanfeng 張三丰
Zhang Wanfu 張萬福
Zhang Yucai 張与材 (?–1316)
Zhang Yuchu 張宇初 (1361–1410)
Zhang Zhan 張湛 (fl, ca. 370)
Zhang Zhengchang 張正常 (1335–1378)
Zhao Daoyi (fl. 1294–1307)
Zhao Guizhen 趙歸真 (?–846)
Zhao Yi 趙翼 (1727–1814)
Zhao Yizhen 趙宜真 (?–1382)
Zhen Luan 甄鸾 (fl. 535–581)
258 • PINYIN TO CHINESE CHARACTERS: NAMES
Zheng Yin 鄭 隐 (c. 215–c. 302)
Zhenwu 真武 (aka Xuanwu 玄武)
Zhongli Quan 鍾離權
Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017–1073)
Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1202)
Zhuang Zhou 莊周 (c. 369–286 BCE)
Zou Yan 鄒衍 (?350–?270 BCE)
Zuo Ci 左慈
 Bibliography

CONTENTS

I. Introduction 259
II. The Daoist Tradition 261
A. Bibliographies and Guides 261
B. Overviews and General Works 262
C. Daoist Canon and Texts 263
D. Daoist Movements: Their Histories and Writings 266
E. Daoism in Historical Periods 268
F. Daoism Outside China 269
G. Daoism and Buddhism 269
H. Daoist Art and Iconography 270
I. Daoism and Ecology 270
J. Daoism and Women 270
III. Daoism in Practice 271
A. General Daoist Practices 271
B. The Body and Its Gods 273
C. External Alchemy 273
D. Immortals and Transcendents 274
E. Meditation, Inner Alchemy 274
F. Daoist Monastics 275
G. Morality and Precepts 275
H. Nourishing Life 276
I. Numinal Beings, Deities 276
J. Rituals 276
K. Sacred Sites 277
L. Talismans, Registers, and Charts 278

I. INTRODUCTION

Several bibliographies on Daoism have been created for English-language

and other Western-language users. Anna Seidel’s “Chronicle of Taoist Stud-
ies in the West, 1950–1990” (1989–1990) is an excellent resource even if it is
more than 20 years old. Still, many of the most important early essays in the
tradition are covered. Franciscus Verellen’s “[Chinese Religions—The State

259
260 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
of the Field:] Taoism,” published in the Journal of Asian Studies in 1995, is
also quite thorough up to that date. The bibliography to Julian Pas’s Histori-
cal Dictionary of Taoism (1998) is well organized and quite extensive.
More recently, the bibliographies accompanying the Daoism Handbook (2
vols.), edited by Livia Kohn in 2004, and The Encyclopedia of Taoism (2
vols.), edited by Fabrizio Pregadio in 2008, are excellent but perhaps in need
of some organizing principles to make them available to the nonspecialist
user. Two bibliographies even more recent than these are highly recom-
mended: Pregadio, Daoism: A Short Bibliography (2016), and Louis Komja-
thy’s Bibliography for Daoist Studies, which, at the time of this publication,
is forthcoming in the Routledge Companion to Scholarship in Religious
Studies series.
In the bibliography for this dictionary, almost all the sources are books and
articles in Western languages, most specifically English. The compilation
process, as with the entries in the dictionary itself, was a selective one. There
is no claim to be comprehensive. Two criteria were employed most vigorous-
ly for the bibliography as a whole. First, the bibliography should include
those sources that have been most important in advancing an understanding
of Daoism. Second, it should include works that might be of interest to the
nonspecialist. Almost without exception, works concerned with general Chi-
nese cultural or religious history were removed, as were works of popular
culture and superficial representations of Daoism that show little understand-
ing of the tradition, its history, and characteristic worldview.
I especially wish to express my appreciation to Louis Komjathy for his
Bibliography for Daoist Studies and Fabrizio Pregadio for his Daoism: A
Short Bibliography. I also want to mention a few abbreviations used in
repeated citations in the bibliography.
DH Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004).
ET The Encyclopedia of Taoism, 2 vols., ed. Fabrizio Pregadio
(London: Routledge, 2008).
SUNY State University of New York Press
T. Taisho Buddhist Canon
TC The Taoist Canon: A Historical Guide, ed. Kristofer Schipper
and Franciscus Verellen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2004).
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 261
II. THE DAOIST TRADITION

A. Bibliographies and Guides

Au, Donna, and Sharon Rowe. “Bibliography of Taoist Studies.” In Buddhist

and Taoist Studies, ed. Michael Saso and David W. Chappell, pp. 123–48.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1977.
Cohen, Alvin P. “Western Language Publications on Chinese Religions,
1981–1987.” In The Turning of the Tide: Religion in China Today, ed.
Julian F. Pas, pp. 313–45. Hong Kong: Royal Asiatic Society, 1989.
Dragan, Raymond A. “Ways to the Way: A Review of Bibliographies on
Taoism.” Taoist Resources 1, no. 2 (1989): 21–27.
Kardos, Michael A. “Western Language Publications on Religions in China,
1990–1994.” Journal of Chinese Religions 26 (1998): 67–134.
Komjathy, Louis. Bibliography for Daoist Studies, forthcoming in the Rout-
ledge Companion to Scholarship in Religious Studies Series, https://www.
researchgate.net/publication/237357510_Bibliography_for_Daoist_
Studies_From_the_forthcoming_The_Routledge_Companion_to_
Scholarship_in_Religious_Studies.
Leung Man Kam. “The Study of Religious Taoism in the People’s Republic
of China (1949–1990): A Bibliographical Survey.” Journal of Chinese
Religions 19 (1991): 113–26.
Pas, Julian F. Historical Dictionary of Taoism. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow,
1998.
———. A Select Bibliography of Taoism. Saskatoon: China Pavilion, 1997.
Pregadio, Fabrizio. “Chinese Alchemy: An Annotated Bibliography of
Works in Western Languages.” Monumenta Serica 44 (1996): 439–76.
———. Daoism: A Short Bibliography, Internet Archive, 2016. Accessed
July 5, 2019, https://archive.org/stream/DaoismAShortBibliography/
Daoism_A_Short_Bibliography_djvu.txt.
Strickmann, Michel. “Bibliographic Notes on Chinese Religious Studies.”
Newsletter of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 3 (1977):
11–17.
———. Bibliographic Notes on Chinese Religious Studies II.” Newsletter of
the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions 4 (1977): 10–19.
Thompson, Laurence G. Chinese Religion: Publications in Western Lan-
guages 1981 through 1990, ed. Gary Seaman. Los Angeles, CA: Ethno-
graphic Press, 1993.
———. Chinese Religion: Publications in Western Languages, Volume 3:
1991–1995. Association for Asian Studies Monographs, no. 58, ed. Gary
Seaman. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies, 1998.
262 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
———. Chinese Religion in Western Languages: A Comprehensive and
Classified Bibliography of Publications in English, French, and German
through 1980. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985.
Verellen, Franciscus. “[Chinese Religions—The State of the Field:]
Taoism.” Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995): 322–46.

B. Overviews and General Works

Baldrian, Farzeen. “Taoism: An Overview.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, ed.

Mircea Eliade, pp. 288–306. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
Barrett, T. H. “Daoism: A Historical Narrative.” In DH, xviii–xxvii.
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “Daoism: An Overview.” In Encyclopedia of Relig-
ion, 2nd ed., ed. Lindsay Jones, pp. 2,176–192. New York: Macmillan,
2005.
———. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1997.
Chen Kaiguo, and Shunchao Zheng. Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making
of a Taoist Wizard. New York: Tuttle, 1998.
deBary, Theodore. East Asian Civilizations: A Dialogue in Five Stages.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Kaltenmark, Max. Lao Tzu and Taoism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 1969.
Kirkland, Russell. “Explaining Daoism: Realities, Cultural Constructs, and
Emerging Perspectives.” In DH, xi–xviii.
———. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Kohn, Livia, ed. DH. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004.
———. Introducing Daoism. London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
———. “Research on Daoism.” In DH, xxvii–xxxiii.
———. The Taoist Experience: An Anthology. Albany: SUNY, 1993.
———, and Harold Roth, eds. Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002.
Komjathy, Louis. Daoism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Bloomsbury,
2014.
Legge, James. The Religions of China: Confucianism and Taoism Described
and Compared with Christianity. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880.
———. The Texts of Taoism. In The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 39, ed.
Max Muller. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891.
Littlejohn, Ronnie. Daoism: An Introduction. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010.
Maspero, Henri. Taoism and Chinese Religion, trans. Frank A. Kierman Jr.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981.
McMullen, D. L. Concordances and Indexes to Chinese Texts. San Francis-
co, CA: Chinese Materials Center, 1975.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 263
Miller, James. Daoism: A Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oneworld, 2003.
Moeller, Hans-Georg. Daoism Explained: From the Dream of the Butterfly to
the Fishnet Allegory. Chicago: Open Court, 2004.
Pas, Julian, with Man Kam Leung. Historical Dictionary of Taoism. Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow, 1998.
Pregadio, Fabrizio, ed. ET, 2 vols. London: Routledge, 2008.
Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 1997.
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Random House, 1978.
Sakade, Yoshinobu. “Zhongguo daojiao xiehui.” In ET, 2 vols. London:
Routledge, 2008.
Schipper, Kristofer. “The Story of the Way.” In Taoism and the Arts of
China, ed. Stephen Little, pp. 13–31. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago,
2000.
———. The Taoist Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
———, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical
Guide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Seidel, Anna. “Chronicle of Taoist Studies in the West, 1950–1990.” Cahiers
d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989–90): 223–347.
———. “Taoism: The Unofficial High Religion of China.” Taoist Resources
7, no. 2 (1997): 39–72.
Ware, James. “The Wei shu and the Sui shu on Taoism.” Journal of the
American Oriental Society 54 (1934): 290–294.

C. Daoist Canon and Texts

Allan, Sarah, and Crispin Williams, eds. The Guodian Laozi: Proceedings of
the International Conference, Dartmouth College, May 1998. Berkeley:
University of California, 2000.
Bokenkamp, Stephen, trans. “Commands and Admonitions for the Families
of the Great Dao.” In Early Daoist Scriptures, ed. Stephen Bokenkamp,
pp. 149–63. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
———. “Taoist Literature. Part I: Through the T’ang Dynasty.” In The Indi-
ana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. William H. Nien-
hauser Jr., pp. 138–52. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
Boltz, Judith M. A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centu-
ries. China Research Monograph, no. 32. Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1987.
Campany, Robert Ford. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: Ge Hong’s
Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2002.
264 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carus, Paul, and D. T. Suzuki, trans. Treatise on Response and Retribution.
Chicago: Open Court, 1973.
Chan, Alan. “The Daode jing and Its Tradition.” In DH, 1–29.
———. Two Visions of the Way: A Translation and Study of the Heshang-
gong and Wang Bi Commentaries on the Laozi . Albany: SUNY, 1991.
Cook, Scott. The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study and Complete Transla-
tion. New York: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2013.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mark, and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds. Lun-Heng: Philosophi-
cal Essays of Wang Chung. Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1907.
Forke, Alfred, trans. Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi. Alba-
ny: SUNY, 1999.
Gao, Ming. Boshu Laozi jiaozhu.《帛書老子教主》[Annotated Edition of
the Silk Manuscripts of the Laozi]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1996.
Graham, Angus C. “How Much of Chuang-tzu Did Chuang-tzu Write?” In
Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature. Singapore,
Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1986.
———., trans. The Book of Lieh-tzu. New York: Columbia University Press,
1990.
Hardy, Julia. “Influential Western Interpretations of the Tao-te-ching.” In
Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, ed. Livia Kohn and Michael La Fargue, pp.
165–88. Albany: SUNY, 1998.
Hendricks, Robert G., trans. Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching: A New Translation
Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts. New York: Ballan-
tine, 1989.
———, trans. Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New
Documents Found at Guodian. New York: Columbia University Press,
2000.
Ivanhoe, Philip J. “The Concept of de (‘Virtue’) in the Laozi.” In Religious
and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi, ed. Mark Csikszentmihalyi and P.
J. Ivanhoe, pp. 239–55. Albany: SUNY, 1999.
———, trans. The Daodejing of Laozi. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2002.
Knaul, Livia. “Lost Chuang-tzu Passages.” Journal of Chinese Religions 10
(1982): 53–79.
Kohn, Livia. Zhuangzi: Text and Context. St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines
Press, 2014.
———, and Michael La Fargue, eds. Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Albany:
SUNY, 1998.
Komjathy, Louis. Title Index to Daoist Collections. Cambridge, MA: Three
Pines Press, 2002.
La Fargue, Michael. The Tao of the Tao Te Ching: A Translation and Com-
mentary. Albany: SUNY, 1992.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 265
Lagerwey, John. “Le Yun-ji qi-qian: Structure et sources.” In Projet Tao-
tsang: Index du Yunji qiqian, 2 vols. Paris Ecole Francaise d’Exxtreme-
Orient, 1981.
Lau, D. C., trans. Tao Te Ching. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,
1982.
———, and Roger Ames, trans. Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source. New
York: Ballantine, 1998.
Lin, Paul J., trans. A Translation of Lao-tzu’s Tao-te-ching and Wang Pi’s
Commentary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1977.
Littlejohn, Ronnie. “Kongzi in the Zhuangzi.” In Experimental Essays on
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———. “The Liezi’s Use of the Zhuangzi.” In Riding the Wind: New Essays
on the Daoist Classic the Liezi, ed. Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dipp-
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———. “Referring and Reporting: The Use of Selfing Language in the Zhu-
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———, and Jeffrey Dippmann, eds. Riding the Wind with Liezi: New
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Liu Xiaogan. Classifying the Zhuangzi Chapters. Ann Arbor: University of
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———, trans. Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way.
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———, trans. Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of
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Michael, Thomas. In the Shadows of the Dao: Laozi, the Sage, and the
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Rao Zongyi. Laozi Xiang’er zhu jiaojian. 《老子想爾注教箋》 [Annotated
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———. Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of
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———. The Textual History of the Huai Nanzi . Ann Arbor, MI: Association
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———. “Who Compiled the Chuang-tzu?” In Chinese Texts and Philosophi-
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Wong, Eva, trans. Lao-Tzu’s Treatise on the Response of the Tao: A Contem-
porary Translation of the Most Popular Taoist Book in China. Walnut
Creek, CA: Alta Mira, 2003.

D. Daoist Movements: Their Histories and Writings

Amato, Paul. Rebirth of a Lineage: The Hereditary Household of the Han

Celestial Master and Celestial Masters Daoism at Dragon and Tiger
Mountain. Ph.D. Dissertation, Arizona State University, 2016.
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures.” In Tantric
and Taoist Studies in Honour of Rolf A. Stein, ed. Michel Strickmann, pp.
291–371. Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1983.
———. “The Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salva-
tion.” In Early Daoist Scriptures, ed. Stephen Bokenkamp, pp. 405–38.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
———. “The Xiang’er Commentary to the Laozi.” In Early Daoist Scrip-
tures, ed. Stephen Bokenkamp, pp. 78–148. Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1997.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 267
Campany, Robert F., trans. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Trans-
lation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 2002.
Eskildsen, Stephen E. The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen
Taoist Masters. Albany: SUNY, 2004.
Hendrischke, Barbara. “Early Daoist Movements.” In DH, 134–64.
———. “The Place of the Scripture on Great Peace in the Formation of
Taoism.” In Religion and Chinese Society, ed. John Jagerwey, pp. 249–78.
Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2004.
———. The Scripture on Great Peace: The Taiping Jing and the Beginnings
of Daoism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
Kleeman, Terry. Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Com-
munities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016.
———. Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial
Kingdom. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998.
Komjathy, Louis. The Way of Complete Perfection: A Quanzhen Daoist An-
thology. Albany: SUNY, 2013.
Major, John S., Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold Roth,
trans. The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government
in Early Han China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
Miller, James. The Way of Highest Clarity: Nature, Vision, and Revelation in
Medieval China. Dunedin, FL: Three Pines Press, 2008.
Nickerson, Peter. “The Southern Celestial Masters.” In DH, 256–82.
Pregadio, Fabrizio. “Early Daoist Meditation and the Origins of Inner Alche-
my.” In Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts’un-yan, ed. Benja-
min Penny, pp. 121–58. London: Routledge, 2005.
Robinet, Isabelle. “Shangqing: Highest Clarity.” In DH, 196–224.
———. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. Alba-
ny: SUNY, 1993.
Schipper, Kristofer. “Daoist Ecology: The Inner Transformation: A Study of
the Early Daoist Ecclesia.” Daoism and Ecology, ed. Norman Giradot,
James Miller, and Liu Xiaogan, pp. 79–93. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 2001.
Strickmann, Michel. “The Mao-shan Revelations: Taoism and the Aristocra-
cy.” T’oung Pao 63 (1977): 1–64.
———. “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching.” In Facets of Taoism: Essays
in Chinese Religion, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, pp. 123–92. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.
Verellen, Franciscus. “The Twenty-Four Dioceses in the Legend of Zhang
Daoling,” Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, 2005. Accessed July 6,
2019, http://ecai.org/24dioceses/.
Yamada Toshiaki. “The Lingbao School.” In DH, 225–55.
268 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Daoism in Historical Periods

Barrett, T. H. Taoism under the T’ang: Religion and Empire during the
Golden Age of Chinese History. London: Wellsweep Press, 1996.
Berling, Judith A. “Taoism in Ming Culture.” In Cambridge History of Chi-
na, Vol. 8: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 2, ed. Denis Twitchett and
Frederick W. Mote, pp. 953–86. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1998.
Davis, Edward. Society and the Supernatural in Song China. Honolulu: Uni-
versity of Hawaii Press, 2001.
De Bruyn, Pierre-Henri. “Daoism in the Ming (1368–1644).” In DH,
594–622.
Engelhardt, Ute. “Qi for Life: Longevity in the Tang.” In Taoist Meditation
and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese
Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.
Esposito, Monica. “Daoism in the Qing (1644–1911).” In DH, 623–58.
Hymes, Robert P. Way and Byway: Taoism, Local Religion, and Models of
Divinity in Sung and Modern China. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2002.
Kohn, Livia. Daoism and Chinese Culture. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines
Press, 2001.
———. Daoist China: Governance, Economics, Culture. St. Petersburg, FL:
Three Pines Press, 2018.
———. “Taoist Insight Meditation: The Tang Practice of Neiguan.” In
Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn, pp.
193–224. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan,
1989.
———, and Russell Kirkland. “Daoism in the Tang (618–907).” In DH,
339–83.
Lai, Chi-Tim. “Daoism in China Today, 1980–2002.” China Quarterly 174
(2003): 413–27.
Marsone, Pierre. “Accounts of the Foundation of the Quanzhen Movement:
A Hagiographic Treatment of History.” Journal of Chinese Religions 29
(2001): 95–110.
Raz, Gil. “The Way of the Yellow and the Red: Re-examining the Sexual
Initiation Rite of Celestial Master Daoism.” Nan Nü 10 (2008): 86–120.
Schafer, Edward. Pacing the Void: Tang Approaches to the Stars. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1977.
Schipper, Kristofer. “Taoist Ritual and Local Cults of the T’ang Dynasty.” In
Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of Rolf A. Stein, ed. Michel Strick-
mann, pp. 812–34. Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises,
1985.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 269
Skar, Lowell. “Ritual Movements, Deity Cults, and the Transformation of
Daoism in Song and Yuan Times.” In DH, 413–63.
Smith, Richard. “Ritual in Ch’ing Culture.” In Orthodoxy in Late Imperial
China, ed. Liu Kwang-Ching, pp. 281–310. Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1990.
Yao Tao-chung. “Quanzhen: Complete Perfection.” In DH, 567–93.

F. Daoism Outside China

Clarke, J. J. The Tao of the West: Western Transformations of Taoist

Thought. London: Routledge, 2000.
Jung, Jae-seo. “Daoism in Korea.” In DH, 792–820.
Komjathy, Louis. “Qigong in America.” In Daoist Body Cultivation, ed.
Livia Kohn, pp. 203–35. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2006.
———. “Tracing the Contours of Daoism in North America.” Nova Religio
(2004): 5–27.
Masuo, Shin’ichirō. “Daoism in Japan.” In DH, 821–42.
Palmer, David, and Elijah Siegler. Dream Trippers, Global Daoism, and the
Predicament of Modern Spirituality. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2017.
Richey, Jeffrey, ed. Daoism in Japan: Chinese Traditions and Their Influ-
ence on Japanese Religious Culture. London: Routledge, 2015.
Siegler, Elijah. “‘Back to the Pristine’: Identity Formation and Legitimation
in Contemporary American Daoism.” Nova Religio 14, no. 1 (2010):
45–66.
———. The Dao of America: The History and Practice of American
Daoism. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003.

G. Daoism and Buddhism

Bumbacher, Stephan Peter. “Early Buddhism in China: Daoist Reactions.” In

The Spread of Buddhism, ed. Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher,
pp. 203–46. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2012.
Kohn, Livia. Laughing at the Tao: Debates among Buddhists and Taoists in
Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Mollier, Christine. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual,
and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 2008.
Zürcher, Erik. “Buddhist Influence on Early Taoism: A Survey of Scriptural
Evidence.” T’oung Pao 66 (1980): 84–147.
270 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. Daoist Art and Iconography

Cedzich, Ursula-Angelika. “Daoist Iconography.” In Encyclopedia of Relig-

ion, 2nd ed., pp. 4,331–36. New York: Macmillan, 2005.
Ebrey, Patricia. “Taoism and Art at the Court of Song Huizong.” In Taoism
and the Arts of China, ed. Stephen Little, pp. 95–112. Chicago: Art Insti-
tute of Chicago, 2000.
Huang, Shih-shan Susan. Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in
Traditional China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.
Little, Stephen. “Daoist Art.” In DH, 709–46.
——— . Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago,
2000.
Schipper, Kristofer. “The True Form: Reflections on the Liturgical Basis of
Taoist Art.” Sanjiao wenxian 4 (2005): 91–113.

I. Daoism and Ecology

Girardot, Norman J., James Miller, and Liu Xiaogan, eds. Daoism and Ecol-
ogy: Ways within a Cosmic Landscape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 2001.
Goldin, Paul R. “Why Daoism Is Not Environmentalism.” Journal of Chi-
nese Philosophy 32 (2005): 75–87.
Miller, James. China’s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustain-
able Future. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017.
———. “Ecology and Daoism.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., ed.
Lindsay Jones, pp. 2,635–38. New York: Macmillan, 2005.

J. Daoism and Women

Cahill, Suzanne E. Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood: “Records of the

Assembled Transcendents of the Fortified Walled City,” by Du Guangting
(850–933). Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2006.
Despeux, Catherine. “Women in Daoism.” In DH, 384–412.
———, and Livia Kohn. Women in Daoism. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines
Press, 2003.
Luk, Yuping. The Empress and the Heavenly Masters: A Study of the Ordi-
nation Scroll of Empress Zhang. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press,
2016.
Valussi, Elena. “Blood, Tigers, Dragons: The Physiology of Transcendence
for Women.” Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 4 (2009): 46–85.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 271
———. “Female Alchemy: An Introduction.” In Internal Alchemy: Self,
Society, and the Quest for Immortality, ed. Livia Kohn and Robin R.
Wang, pp. 142–62. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2009.
Wang, Robin. “To Become a Female Daoist Master: Kundao in Training.” In
Alchemy: Self, Society, and the Quest for Immortality, ed. Livin Kohn and
Robin Wang, pp. 163–78. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2009.

III. DAOISM IN PRACTICE

A. General Daoist Practices

Ames, Roger T. “Putting the Te Back into Taoism.” In Nature in Asian

Traditions of Thought, ed. Baird Callicott and Roger T. Ames, pp. 113–44.
Albany: SUNY, 1989.
Brokaw, Cynthia. The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and
Moral Order in Late Imperial China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1991.
Carr, Karen, and Philip J. Ivanhoe. The Sense of Antirationalism: The Relig-
ious Thought of Zhuangzi and Kierkegaard. New York: Seven Bridges
Press, 2000.
Cedzich, Angelika. “Ghosts and Demons—Law and Order: Grave Quelling
Texts and Early Taoist Liturgy.” Taoist Resources 4 (1993): 23–51.
Cline, Erin M. “Two Interpretations of De in the Daodejing.” Journal of
Chinese Philosophy 31 (2004): 219–33.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mark. “Han Cosmology and Mantic Practices.” In DH,
53–73.
Dean, Kenneth. Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults of Southeast China. Prince-
ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Despeux, Catherine. “Talismans and Diagrams.” In DH, 498–540.
DeWoskin, Kenneth. Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China:
Biographies of the Fang-shih. New York: Columbia University Press,
1981.
Eberhard, Wolfram. Guilt and Sin in Traditional China. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1967.
Engelhardt, Ute. “Longevity Techniques and Chinese Medicine.” In DH,
74–108.
Hahn, Thomas H. “Daoist Sacred Sites.” In DH, 683–708.
Harper, Donald. Early Chinese Medical Manuscripts: The Mawandui Medi-
cal Manuscripts. London: Wellcome Asian Medical Monographs, 1999.
———. “ Resurrection in Warring States Popular Religion.” Taoist Re-
sources 5 (1994): 13–28.
272 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kingsley, Peter. In the Dark Places of Wisdom. Inverness, CA: Golden Sufi
Centre, 1999.
Kirkland, Russell. “‘Responsible Non-Action’ in a Natural World: Perspec-
tives from the Neiye, Zhuangzi, and Daodejing.” In Daoism and Ecology,
ed. Norman Giradot, James Miller, and Liu Xiaogan, pp. 283–305. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Kjellberg, Paul, and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds. Essays on Skepticism, Relativism,
and Ethics in the Zhuangzi. Albany: SUNY, 1996.
Kohn, Livia. “The 180 Precepts of Lord Lao.” In Cosmos and Community:
The Ethical Dimension of Daoism, ed. Livia Kohn, pp. 136–44. Cam-
bridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2004.
———. “The Essential Precepts of Master Redpine.” In Cosmos and Com-
munity: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism, ed. Livia Kohn, pp. 154–67.
Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2004.
———. “Rules from the Demon Statues of Nuqing.” In Supplement to Cos-
mos and Community: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism, ed. Livia Kohn,
pp. 6–9. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2004.
Lagerwey, John. “The Pilgrimage to Wu-tang Shan.” In Pilgrims and Sacred
Sites in China, ed. Susan Naquin and Chun-fang Yu, pp. 293–332. Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1992.
Legeza, Laszlo. Tao Magic: The Secret Language of Diagrams and Calligra-
phy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.
Legge, James. The Religions of China: Confucianism and Taoism Described
and Compared with Christianity. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880.
Nivison, David. ‘“Virtue’ in Bone and Bronze.” In The Ways of Confucian-
ism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy, ed. David Nivison and Bryan
Van Norden, pp. 17–30. Chicago: Open Court, 1996.
Porter, Bill. The Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. San
Francisco, CA: Mercury House, 1991.
Pregadio, Fabrizio. “Elixirs and Alchemy.” In DH, 165–95.
Smith, Richard. Fortune-tellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional
Chinese Society. Boulder, CO: Westwood, 1991.
Strickmann, Michel. “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching.” In Facets of
Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel,
pp. 123–92. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.
Verellen, Franciscus. “The Beyond Within: Grotto-Heavens (Dongtian) in
Taoist Ritual and Cosmology.” Cahiers d’Extreme-Asie 8 (1995): 265–90.
Von Glahn, Richard. The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in
Chinese Religious Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Yoshinobu Sakade. “Divination as Daoist Practice.” In DH, 541–66.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 273
B. The Body and Its Gods

Bidlack, Bede. “Taiji Quan: Forms, Visions, and Effects.” In Daoist Body
Cultivation, ed. Livia Kohn, pp. 179–202. Magdalena, NM: Three Pines
Press, 2006.
Despeux, Catherine. “Visual Representations of the Body in Chinese Medi-
cal and Daoist Texts from the Song to the Qing Period (10th to 19th
Century).” Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 1 (2005): 10–52.
Neswald, Sara Elaine. “Internal Landscapes.” In Internal Alchemy: Self, So-
ciety, and the Quest for Immortality, ed. Livia Kohn and Robin R. Wang,
pp. 27–53. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2009.

C. External Alchemy

Campany, Robert F. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation

and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002.
Ho, Peng Yoke. Explorations in Daoism: Medicine and Alchemy in Litera-
ture. London: Routledge, 2007.
Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. V: Chemistry and
Chemical Technology. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press,
1980.
Ngo, Van Xuyet. Divination, magie et politique dans la Chine ancienne
Essai suivi de la traduction des “Biographies des Magiciens” tirees de l’
“Histoire des Han posterieurs.” Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1976.
Pregadio, Fabrizio. “Elixirs and Alchemy.” In DH, 165–95.
———. Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China. Stan-
ford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.
Sivin, Nathan. Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies. Cambridge, MA: Har-
vard University Press, 1968.
———. “The Theoretical Background of Elixir Alchemy.” In Science and
Civilisation in China, ed. Joseph Needham, pp. 210–305. Cambridge, MA:
Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Strickmann, Michel. “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching.” In Facets of
Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel,
pp. 123–92. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.
Ware, James. Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The
Nei P’ien of Ko Hung (Pao-p’u tzu). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966.
274 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Immortals and Transcendents

Campany, Robert F. Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in

Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009.
———. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of
Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2002.
Cedzich, Ursula-Angelika. “Corpse Deliverance, Substitute Bodies, Name
Change, and Feigned Death: Aspects of Metamorphosis and Immortality
in Early Medieval China.” Journal of Chinese Religions 29 (2001): 1–68.
Engelhardt, Ute. “Longevity Techniques and Chinese Medicine.” In DH,
74–108.
Katz, Paul R. Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lu Dongbin at the Palace
of Eternal Joy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
Kohn, Livia. A Sourcebook in Chinese Longevity. St. Petersburg, FL: Three
Pines Press, 2012.
Penny, Benjamin. “Immortality and Transcendence.” In DH, 109–33.
Robinet, Isabelle. “Metamorphosis and Deliverance from the Corpse in
Taoism.” History of Religions 19 (1979): 37–70.
———. “The Taoist Immortal: Jesters of Light and Shadow, Heaven and
Earth.” Journal of Chinese Religions 13/14 (1986): 87–105.

E. Meditation, Inner Alchemy

Kohn, Livia. “Guarding the One: Concentrative Meditation in Taoism.” In

Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn, pp. 125–58.
Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.
———. Sitting in Oblivion: The Heart of Daoist Meditation. Dunedin, FL:
Three Pines Press, 2010.
Liu, Xun. Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and the Community of
Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Asia Center, 2009.
Pregadio, Fabrizio. “Early Daoist Meditation and the Origins of Inner Alche-
my.” In Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts’un-yan, ed. Benja-
min Penny, pp. 121–58. London: Routledge, 2005.
———, and Lowell Skar. “Inner Alchemy (Neidan).” In DH, 464–97.
Puett, Michael. “Becoming Laozi: Cultivating and Visualizing Spirits in Ear-
ly Medieval China.” Asia Major, Third Series 23 (2010): 223–52.
Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Pur-
ity. Albany: SUNY, 1993.
Roth, Harold D. “Evidence for Stages of Meditation in Early Taoism.” Bulle-
tin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60 (1997): 295–314.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 275
———. “The Inner Cultivation Tradition of Early Daoism.” In Religions of
China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, pp. 123–38. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1996.
———. Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-Yeh) and the Foundations of
Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

F. Daoist Monastics

Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “The Early Lingbao Scriptures and the Origins of

Daoist Monasticism.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 20 (2011): 95–124.
Herrou, Adeline. “A Day in the Life of a Daoist Monk.” Journal of Daoist
Studies 3 (2010): 117–48.
———. A World of Their Own: Monastics and Their Community in Contem-
porary China. St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2013.
Kim, Sung-hae. “Daoist Monasticism in Contemporary China.” In Chinese
Religions in Contemporary Societies, ed. James Miller, pp. 101–22. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Kohn, Livia. “Daoist Monastic Discipline: Hygiene, Meals, and Etiquette.”
T’oung Pao 87 (2001): 153–93.
———. The Daoist Monastic Manual: A Translation of the Fengdao kejie.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.

G. Morality and Precepts

Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “Imagining Community: Family Values and Moral-

ity in the Lingbao Scriptures.” In Philosophy and Religion in Early Medie-
val China, ed. Alan K. L. Chan and Yuet-Keung Lo, pp. 203–26. Albany:
SUNY, 2010.
Hendrischke, Barbara. “The Concept of Inherited Evil in the Taiping Jing.”
East Asian History 2 (1991): 1–30.
Kohn, Livia. Cosmos and Community: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism.
Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2004.
Lagerwey, John. “Evil and Its Treatment in Early Taoism.” In Probing the
Depths of Evil and Good: Multireligious Views and Case Studies, ed.
Jerald D. Gort, Henry Jansen, and Hendrik M. Vroom, pp. 73–86. Amster-
dam: Editions Rodopi, 2007.
Lai, Chi-Tim. “Illness, Healing, and Morality in Early Heavenly Master
Daoism.” In Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China, ed. Alan
K. L. Chan and Yuet-Keung Lo, pp. 185–90. Albany: SUNY, 2010.
276 • BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. Nourishing Life

Campany, Robert F. “The Meanings of Cuisines of Transcendence in Late

Classical and Early Medieval China.” T’oung Pao 91 (2005): 1–57.
Despeux, Catherine. “Gymnastics: The Ancient Tradition.” In Taoist Medita-
tion and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn, pp. 225–61. Ann Arbor:
Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.
Engelhardt, Ute. “Longevity Techniques and Chinese Medicine.” In DH,
74–108.
Favraud, Georges. “Immortals’ Medicine: Daoist Healers and Social
Change.” Journal of Daoist Studies 9 (2016): 101–20.
Harper, Donald J. Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medi-
cal Manuscripts. London: Kegan Paul International, 1998.
Kohn, Livia. Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2008.
———. Daoist Dietetics: Food for Immortality. Dunedin, FL: Three Pines
Press, 2010.
Miura Kunio. “The Revival of Qi: Qigong in Contemporary China.” In
Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn, pp. 329–58.
Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.
Palmer, David A. Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China. New
York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

I. Numinal Beings, Deities

Bokenkamp, Stephen R. “Daoist Pantheons.” In Early Chinese Religion, Part

Two: The Period of Division (220–589 AD), ed. John Lagerwey and Lü
Pengzhi, pp. 1,169–203. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010.
Cahill, Suzanne E. Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of
the West in Medieval China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
1993.
Kleeman, Terry. A God’s Own Tale: The Book of Transformations of Wen-
chang, the Divine Lord of Zitong. Albany: SUNY, 1994.
Kohn, Livia. “The Taoist Adoption of the City God.” Ming Qing Yanjiu 5
(1997): 68–106.
Seidel, Anna. “The Image of the Perfect Ruler in Early Taoist Messianism:
Lao-tzu and Li Hung.” History of Religions 9 (1969): 216–247.

J. Rituals

Andersen, Poul. “Concepts of Meaning in Chinese Ritual.” Cahiers

d’Extreme-Asie 12 (2001): 155–83.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 277
———. “The Practice of Bugang.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989–1990):
15–53.
———. “The Transformation of the Body in Taoist Ritual.” In Religious
Reflections on the Human Body, ed. Jane Marie Law, pp. 186–208. Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Benn, Charles D. “Daoist Ordination and Zhai Rituals in Medieval China.”
In DH, 309–39.
Cedzich, Ursula-Angelika. “Ghosts and Demons, Law and Order: Grave
Quelling Texts and Early Taoist Liturgy.” Taoist Resources 4, no. 2
(1993): 23–35.
Dean, Kenneth. “Daoist Ritual Today.” In DH, 659–82.
Hsieh, Shu-Wei. “Possession and Ritual: Daoist and Popular Healing in Tai-
wan.” Journal of Daoist Studies 9 (2016): 73–100.
Jones, Stephen. Daoist Priests of the Li Family: Ritual Life in Rural China.
St. Petersburg, FL: Three Pines Press, 2017.
Lagerwey, John. Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History. New York:
Macmillan, 1987.
Naquin, Susan. “The Peking Pilgrimage to Miao-feng.” In Pilgrims and Sa-
cred Sites in China, ed. Susan Naquin and Chun-fang Yu, pp. 333–77.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Nickerson, Peter S. “Shamans, Demons, Diviners, and Taoists: Conflict and
Assimilation in Medieval Chinese Ritual Practice (c. A.D. 100–1000).”
Taoist Resources 5, no. 1 (1994): 41–66.
Reiter, Florian C., ed. Foundations of Daoist Ritual: A Berlin Symposium.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009.
Schipper, Kristofer. “Vernacular and Classical Ritual in Taoism.” Journal of
Asian Studies 45 (1985): 21–57.

K. Sacred Sites

DeBernardi, Jean. “Wudang Mountain and the Modernization of Daoism.”

Journal of Daoist Studies 3 (2010): 202–10.
Hahn, Thomas. “Daoist Sacred Sites.” In DH, 683–708.
Johnson, Ian. “Two Sides of a Mountain: The Modern Transformation of
Maoshan.” Journal of Daoist Studies 5 (2012): 8–116.
Kohn, Livia. “A Home for the Immortals: The Layout and Development of
Medieval Daoist Monasteries.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum
Hungaricae 53 (2000): 79–106.
Raz, Gil. “Daoist Sacred Geography.” In Early Chinese Religion, Part Two:
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L. Talismans, Registers, and Charts

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 About the Author

Ronnie Littlejohn (Ph.D., Baylor University, United States) is Virginia M.

Chaney Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and director of Asian studies
at Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States. He is author of
nine books, three of which are introductory texts for Chinese philosophy:
Daoism (2009), Confucianism (2010), and Chinese Philosophy (2015). To-
gether with Jeffrey Dippmann he edited the volume Riding the Wind with
Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic, and with Marthe Chandler he
published Polishing the Chinese Mirror: Essays in Honor of Henry Rose-
mont, Jr.
Littlejohn has published more than three dozen journal and encyclopedia
articles. Recent scholarly anthologies to which he has contributed include
Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to Written Documents
and Their Reception, Routledge Handbook of Asian Political Thought;
Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Methodologies; Encountering
China: Early Modern European Responses to China; and Experimental Es-
says on Zhuangzi (new edition). His publications in Chinese include works
for the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press of China and the
Shangqiu Journal of Daoism.
He was the 2016 recipient of the International Talent Cooperation Pro-
gramme Award of the Henan Province Ministry of Education. Littlejohn was
also one of three international scholars invited to speak at the dedication of
the Laozi and Daoist Culture Center, sponsored by the People’s Government
of Luyi County, Zhoukou City. He was article and image referee for “Chi-
na’s Sacred Sites,” in the National Geographic Special Issue: Sacred Jour-
neys. His video presentation, entitled “Opening Heaven’s Gate: The Daoist
Manual of Inner Alchemy,” still airs on New York PBS.
Littlejohn is on the Editor Board of the Journal of Daoist Studies and the
Board of Directors of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy. He
is also research fellow at the East–West Center and a concurrent professor in
the School of Foreign Languages at Zhengzhou University, Henan, China.

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