Taishang Laojun Qingjing Xin Jing — Spoken by the Most High Lord Lao

This scripture is preserved in the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Zhengtong Daozang, whose own editorial note describes it as "another circulating version" of the far more famous Taishang Laojun Shuo Chang Qingjing Jing — the Scripture of Constant Clarity and Stillness attributed to the deified Laozi, the Most High Lord Lao, and probably composed sometime in the Tang dynasty (618–907) or shortly before. This version shares much of its core teaching with that better-known scripture — the mind that loves stillness but is dragged by desire, the observing-away of mind, body, and thing until only emptiness remains — but frames it with its own opening on yin and yang and closes with a passage of verse, a gatha (偈), not found in the shorter text. Its exact date and place in the print history of the Canon are not established from the sources at hand.

The scripture has two prose discourses spoken by Lord Lao, a gatha of twelve seven-character couplets, and a short closing statement on the benefits of reciting it. The prose alternates short clauses linked by "once… then…" (既…則…), building a chain of causation from seeing a self to suffering in hell; the translation keeps this chain visible. The gatha's couplets are kept as couplets.

Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, printed in full below the translation. The scripture this text is a variant of — the standard Qingjing Jing — has been translated into English many times over the past century and a half; this particular variant recension, with its distinct opening and its gatha, was not found by us in any published English translation. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of this recension, though its content overlaps substantially with an already well-translated sibling text; see the colophon.

Translation

Lord Lao said: Now the Way is at once clear and at once turbid, at once still and at once moving. Clarity and stillness are its root; turbidity and motion are its branches. So yang is clear and yin is turbid; yang moves and yin is still. The male is clear and the female is turbid; the male moves and the female is still. Descending from the root and flowing out to the branches, the ten thousand things are born from this. The clear is the source of the turbid; the still is the foundation of the moving. When a person can be clear and still, all under heaven holds them dear.

A person's spirit loves clarity, but the mind disturbs it; a person's mind loves stillness, but desire drags it away. If one can constantly dispel one's desires, the mind of itself grows still; if one clarifies one's mind, the spirit of itself grows clear. Then, of themselves, the six desires do not arise, and the three poisons are dissolved and destroyed. Those who cannot do this — it is because the mind is not yet clarified and the desires not yet dispelled.

One who can dispel them: observing the mind within, the mind has no mind of its own; observing the form without, the form has no form of its own; observing things at a distance, things have no thing-nature of their own. When none of these three can be grasped, one sees only emptiness. Observing the emptiness, the emptiness too is empty; the emptiness has no place that is empty. Since there is no "nothing" that remains, the very nothingness is also nothing. Deep and still, ever silent, the silence has no silence of its own. Without silence, silence itself is gone — all is realized as nothing. How, then, could desire arise? Since desire does not arise, the mind of itself is still. Since the mind is of itself still, the spirit is undisturbed. Since the spirit is undisturbed, it is ever clear and still. Being ever clear and still, one comes at last to meet the Way. To meet the true Way is called attaining the Way. Though it is called attaining the Way, in truth nothing at all is attained. Since nothing at all is attained, this is only forced into the name "attainment" — for the transformation of all living beings, opening for them a path of skillful means.

Lord Lao said: The reason the Way can be attained lies in one's own mind. When one's own mind attains the Way, it is not the Way that grants the attaining. What is attained is the Way self-attained; it does not deserve the name "attainment." Hence it is said: in truth, nothing is attained.

Lord Lao said: The reason the Way cannot be attained is that one still sees that there is a mind. Once one sees there is a mind, one sees there is a body. Once one sees the body, one sees the ten thousand things. Once one sees the ten thousand things, greed and attachment arise. Once greed arises, vexation arises. Once vexation arises, deluded imagining arises. Once deluded imagining has arisen, one is touched by feeling and led into confusion, and so returns to the turbid sea, drifting and sinking through birth and death, suffering the torments of hell, forever cut off from the Way. When a person is ever clear and still, they attain the Way of themselves. Thereupon he spoke a gatha, saying:

The Celestial Worthy's wondrous working is ever before the eyes;
the whole body's motion, the mind's every stirring, are all of themselves natural.

Still this moving mind and watch the place where it moves;
the place of motion, seen clearly, has no border, no edge.

That border, that edge, from the very start, is the emptiness of one's own nature;
it is not by watching the mind that its light attains the empty void.

Awaken for yourself: causes and conditions have no nature of their own;
free and unhindered, enter straight into the Palace of Purple Tenuity.

Within the palace and beyond it, the light is bright and clear;
the ten thousand dharmas, in their roundness, are a single level Way.

A clear mind, a clear mirror, bright and without obstruction;
unobstructed, mindless — the mind rests at ease in itself.

Level and equal, the Way is level, with nothing set apart;
heaven and its halls, the earthly prisons — who set them in their places?

The spirit, once still within, neither wanes nor overflows;
if good and evil are themselves empty, from where could they arise?

It is only that the ordinary person gives rise to differing views,
and forces crossings and contentions to rise up on the earth.

Let the crossings and contentions bring a thousand kinds of suffering —
examine each one truly, and there is no ruling master behind it.

Examined truly, there is no master, and at root no source;
it is only causes and conditions, meeting together in their midst.

Though they meet there in the midst, it is ever a meeting without meeting;
release the meeting into no action, and let the ten thousand things pass freely through.

If at any time there is a person who knows the meaning of this scripture — whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down — and if they are able to recite it with a focused mind and hold it with a deep mind, then they can dissolve and remove every manner of measureless, age-old hindrance and evil; those who bear grudges against them will all come to reconciliation, and they will not receive the retribution of suffering. Deviant demons and heterodox paths — the Way is able to subdue them. This is declared to all living beings: those who wish to be delivered from hardship and difficulty — let each of you be clear and pure, believe, receive, and practice it with reverence.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Daoist shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below; no English translation was consulted in producing it. The two prose discourses of Lord Lao are kept as prose, following the chained "once… then…" clauses of the original; the twelve seven-character couplets of the gatha are kept as verse couplets; the closing exhortation is kept as prose.

Before the claim above was written, a translation-status check was performed. The scripture that this text names itself a variant of — the Taishang Laojun Shuo Chang Qingjing Jing, DZ 620, generally called simply the Qingjing Jing — is one of the most frequently translated short Daoist scriptures in English, with published renderings by James Legge, Livia Kohn, Catherine Despeux, Louis Komjathy, Bruce Linnell, and others; Komjathy's bibliography and the 2023 update to it were both grepped and confirm this. Neither reference lists a separate English translation of this particular recension — the Qingjing Xin Jing, with its own opening on yin and yang and its gatha absent from the shorter scripture — under this title, its pinyin, or any DZ number we could find for it. Two web searches (for the Chinese title and for the pinyin title together with "translation") turned up only Chinese-language sources (the Wikisource page itself, and the Chinese Text Project's parallel transcription) and English translations of the standard, shorter Qingjing Jing rather than of this recension. On this evidence, we know of no published English translation of this specific recension; because it shares the bulk of its central teaching with an already well-translated sibling text, we present it here as, to our knowledge, the first complete published English translation of this particular textual witness — while being clear that the underlying scripture it echoes has a long and distinguished English translation history that this work does not claim to originate.

A note on terms. Liùyù (六慾), "the six desires," and sāndú (三毒), "the three poisons" — Buddhist terms for greed, anger, and delusion — are kept in their conventional English forms, following the house glossary. Zǐwēi Gōng (紫微宮), "the Palace of Purple Tenuity," is the Shangqing celestial court associated with the pole star; the text uses it here as the destination the awakened mind enters. Tiānzūn (天尊), "Celestial Worthy," is left general, as the gatha does not name which Worthy is meant.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.

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Source Text: 太上老君清靜心經

Classical Chinese text of the Zhengtong Daozang, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

老君曰：夫道，一清一濁，一靜一動。清靜為本，濁動為末。故陽清陰濁，陽動陰靜；男清女濁，男動女靜。降本流末，而生萬物。清者濁之源，靜者動之基。人能清靜，天下貴之。人神好清而心擾之，人心好靜而欲牽之。常能遣其欲而心自靜，澄其心而神自清，自然六欲不生，三毒消滅。而不能者，心未澄、欲未遣故也。能遣之者，內觀於心，心無其心；外觀於形，形無其形；遠觀於物，物無其物。三者莫得，唯見於空。觀空亦空，空無所空。既無其無，無無亦無。湛然常寂，寂無其寂。無寂寂無，俱了無矣，欲安能生？欲既不生，心自靜矣。心既自靜，神即無擾。神既無擾，常清靜矣。既常清靜，及會其道。與真道會，名為得道。雖名得道，實無所得。既無所得，強名為得。為化衆生，開方便道。老君曰：道所以能得者，其在自心。自心得道，道不使得。得是自得之道，不名為得。故言實無所得。

老君曰：道不能得者，為見有心。既見有心，則見有身。既見其身，則見萬物。既見萬物，則生貪著。既生貪者，則生煩惱。既生煩惱，則生妄想。妄想既生，觸情迷惑，便歸濁海，流浪生死，受地獄苦，永與道隔。人常清靜，則自得道。於是而說偈曰：

天尊妙用常眼前，舉體動心皆自然。
息箇動心看動處，動處分明無際邊。
邊際由來本性空，非觀心照得虛空。
自悟因緣無自性，翛然直入紫微宮。
宮中宮外光且明，萬法圓中一道平。
清心清鏡皎無礙，無礙無心心自在。
平等道平無有異，天堂地獄誰安置。
神既內寂不虧盈，善惡若空何處生。
只為凡夫生異見，強於地上起縱橫。
縱橫遮莫千般苦，一一諦觀無宰主。
諦觀無主本無宗，只箇因緣即會中。
中間雖會常無會，放會無為任物通。

若時有人知是經意，行住坐卧，若能志心念誦，深心受持，則能滅除無量一切宿障諸惡，冤家皆得和合，無受苦報。邪魔外道，道能降伏。告諸衆生，欲度厄難，各已清淨，信受奉行。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Zhengtong Daozang edition of this scripture (article 太上老君清靜心經, revision of 18 March 2017), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the text itself is ancient and in the public domain. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.

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