Syllabus for Daoism

讀道書

A doctoral student in Daoist studies sits a qualifying examination before beginning original research. The committee asks a simple question that takes years to answer: has this person read the field? The list below is our answer to the question of what "the field" means. It names the primary texts a candidate is expected to know, period by period, and the scholarship through which the field has learned to read them.

This page is one of three doorways to the Daoist shelf, and it does a different job from the other two. The Introduction to Daoism is an argument about what Daoism is and how it came to be. The Reader's Guide to Daoism is a path through what this library holds. The syllabus belongs to neither the essay nor the shelf. It belongs to the field. It lists what the discipline expects, whether or not this library holds it, and says for each text where it can be read.

Two facts shape every list of this kind.

The first is the canon. Almost everything Daoists wrote before the twentieth century that survives at all survives in the Daozang 道藏, the Daoist Canon, printed in 1445 with a supplement in 1607. Kristofer Schipper's Concordance du Tao-tsang (1975) numbered its titles from 1 to 1487, and those numbers are how the field cites them. "CT 1016" means the Zhen'gao, in the 1445 printing, wherever in the world it is quoted. The numbers follow the canon's own order, not chronology: CT 1 is the Lingbao Duren jing, a place of honour, and the Laozi does not appear until CT 664. When a text survives outside the canon (in a tomb, at Dunhuang, in a transmitted classic, or in a later collection), the entry says so.

The second fact is translation. Most of the canon has never been translated into any Western language, and much of what has been translated exists only in part. A qualifying list in Daoist studies is therefore also a map of untranslated ground. Each entry below says plainly what exists in English: complete or partial, by whom, and when. Where the standard translation is French, the entry says that too. A Daoist studies candidate is expected to read French, because so much of the field was built in Paris. Where a text has no published translation in a Western language that we could confirm, the entry gives only the text.

How to read an entry

Each entry gives the title in pinyin and Chinese, a conventional English title, the date as scholarship now gives it (with the dispute when there is one), the canon number, a sentence on why the text is on the list, and where to read it.

In this library links to the text on our shelves.
In English gives the published translations, marked complete or partial.

Each period has a core, which every candidate must know, and further reading, which a specialist in that period must know. The questions at the end of each period are the kind an examiner asks. They are there to show what the reading is for.

Dates are given as the evidence allows. Where a date is disputed, both positions are named. Where scholarship has moved a text, for instance the Yinfu jing from the Warring States to the Tang or the Wenshi zhenjing from the Han to the Song, it is listed where scholarship now puts it, not where tradition put it.

Part One: The Primary Sources

I. Before the Religion: The Warring States and Han Masters

The texts later called the Daoist classics were not written by "Daoists." There was no such school or church when they were composed. They became Daoist scripture when a later religion claimed them, commented on them and canonised them. The emperor Xuanzong gave four of them the title zhenjing 真經, "perfected scripture", in 742. The excavated manuscripts of the last fifty years (Guodian, Mawangdui, the Shanghai Museum slips) have changed how all of them are read, and no current examination ignores them.

Core

Daodejing 道德經 · The Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue (the Laozi) · material of the 4th–2nd centuries BCE, reaching its received form in the Han · CT 664
The founding scripture and the most commented-on Daoist text. Three witnesses frame every serious discussion of how it was composed: the Guodian bamboo slips (a partial text from a tomb of c. 300 BCE), the two Mawangdui silk manuscripts (copied before 168 BCE), and the Peking University Han slips (whose date and authenticity are debated).
In English: D. C. Lau, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (Penguin, 1963), complete, received text; D. C. Lau, Chinese Classics: Tao Te Ching (Chinese University Press, 1982; 2nd ed. 1989), complete and bilingual, with the Mawangdui text; Robert G. Henricks, Lao-tzu: Te-tao ching (Ballantine, 1989), complete, Mawangdui; Robert G. Henricks, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New Documents Found at Guodian (Columbia, 2000); Scott Cook, The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study and Complete Translation (Cornell East Asia Program, 2012).
In this library: James Legge's complete translation in The Texts of Taoism, Part I (1891). The Church's own translation is the Dao De Jing in the Tianmu Translations.
Zhuangzi 莊子 (Nanhua zhenjing 南華真經) · The Book of Master Zhuang · material of the 4th–2nd centuries BCE; the received 33 chapters edited by Guo Xiang (d. 312) · CT 670
The second founding classic, and the main early source on inner cultivation, the perfected person and the relativity of views. The Inner Chapters (1–7) are usually credited to Zhuang Zhou himself. The Outer (8–22) and Miscellaneous (23–33) chapters gather several later voices.
In English: Burton Watson, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi (Columbia, 1968; pinyin reissue 2013), complete; Brook Ziporyn, Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings (Hackett, 2020), complete; Victor H. Mair, Wandering on the Way (Bantam, 1994), complete; A. C. Graham, Chuang-tzŭ: The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings (Allen & Unwin, 1981), partial.
In this library: Legge's complete translation across The Texts of Taoism, Part I and Part II (1891). Fourteen of Legge's chapters are also set as single pages in the Zhuangzi room.
Neiye 內業 · Inward Training · mid-4th century BCE · chapter 49 of the Guanzi 管子, not in the canon
Probably the oldest surviving Chinese manual of meditative self-cultivation, on stilling the heart-mind and concentrating qi and jing. Harold Roth's thesis of an early "inner cultivation" lineage makes it the starting point of most modern accounts of Daoist origins.
In English: Harold D. Roth, Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Columbia, 1999), complete, with the Chinese text; W. Allyn Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 2 (Princeton, 1998), complete, within the whole Guanzi.
In this library: Inner Training, a Good Works Translation from the Chinese.
Huainanzi 淮南子 · The Masters of Huainan · presented to the throne in 139 BCE · CT 1184
The great early-Han synthesis of cosmology, self-cultivation and rulership, compiled at the court of Liu An, king of Huainan. Its chapters "Yuandao" and "Daoying" are early readings of the Laozi.
In English: John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer and Harold D. Roth, The Huainanzi (Columbia, 2010), complete; D. C. Lau and Roger T. Ames, Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source (Ballantine, 1998), chapter 1; John S. Major, Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought (SUNY, 1993), chapters 3–5.
Liezi 列子 (Chongxu zhide zhenjing 沖虛至德真經) · The Book of Master Lie · received eight-chapter text compiled in the 3rd–4th centuries CE from earlier material · CT 668
The third of the classical masters canonised in 742, and the standard case study in dating a text that presents itself as older than it is. All received texts descend from Zhang Zhan's edition of about 370. Its seventh chapter preserves the hedonist voice of Yang Zhu.
In English: A. C. Graham, The Book of Lieh-tzu (John Murray, 1960; Columbia, 1990), complete.
In this library: two early partial translations: Lionel Giles, Taoist Teachings, from the Book of Lieh-Tzŭ (1912; from chapters 1–6 and 8), and Anton Forke, Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure (1912; chapter 7).

Further reading

Taiyi sheng shui 太一生水 · The Great One Gives Birth to Water · c. 300 BCE, Guodian tomb 1 · excavated, not in the canon
A unique excavated cosmogony found in the same bundle as the third Guodian Laozi. In English: Scott Cook, The Bamboo Texts of Guodian (Cornell East Asia Program, 2012), complete.
Hengxian 恆先 · Constancy Before · c. 300 BCE, Chu; Shanghai Museum slips, unprovenanced · not in the canon
A short cosmogony in Laozi-like language, and with the Taiyi sheng shui the main new evidence for Warring States cosmogony. In English: Erica F. Brindley, Paul R. Goldin and Esther S. Klein, "A Philosophical Translation of the Heng Xian," Dao 12 (2013), complete.
Huangdi sijing 黃帝四經 · The Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor (the Mawangdui Huang-Lao manuscripts) · copied before 168 BCE · excavated 1973, not in the canon
The chief excavated witness to Huang-Lao political thought. The title is a modern identification and is disputed. In English: Robin D. S. Yates, Five Lost Classics (Ballantine, 1997), complete; Leo S. Chang and Yu Feng, The Four Political Treatises of the Yellow Emperor (Hawai'i, 1998), complete.
Guanzi: Xinshu shang, Xinshu xia, Baixin 管子·心術上、心術下、白心 · Techniques of the Heart-Mind I and II; Purifying the Heart-Mind · Warring States to early Han · not in the canon
With the Neiye, the "techniques of the heart-mind" chapters of the Guanzi. In English: Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 2 (Princeton, 1998), complete.
Chuci: Yuanyou 楚辭·遠遊 · Songs of Chu: "Far-off Journey" · Han, probably the circle of Liu An (2nd century BCE) · not in the canon
The earliest full poem of ecstatic flight to the immortals, and the ancestor of later excursion literature. In English: David Hawkes, The Songs of the South (Oxford, 1959; revised Penguin, 1985), complete; Paul W. Kroll, "An Early Poem of Mystical Excursion," in Religions of China in Practice (Princeton, 1996).
Wenzi 文子 (Tongxuan zhenjing 通玄真經) · The Book of Master Wen · bamboo-slip version from a tomb sealed 55 BCE; received text later and disputed · CT 746
The classic case of a transmitted text rewritten after its excavated ancestor. The received text overlaps heavily with the Huainanzi. In English: Thomas Cleary, Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries (Shambhala, 1991), received text.
Heguanzi 鶡冠子 · The Pheasant Cap Master · late Warring States to Han, possibly composite · CT 1175
Long dismissed as a forgery, now read beside the Mawangdui manuscripts as evidence for Huang-Lao thought. In English: Marnix Wells, The Pheasant Cap Master and the End of History (Three Pines, 2013), complete. In this library: The Master of the Pheasant Cap.
The great commentaries.
- Heshang gong's chapter-and-verse commentary on the Laozi (probably 2nd century CE; CT 682) reads the book as a manual of nourishing life and Huang-Lao rule. In English: Eduard Erkes, Ho-shang-kung's Commentary on Lao-tse (Artibus Asiae, 1950), complete.
- Wang Bi's commentary (Wang Bi lived 226–249; CT 690) fixed the received text and its metaphysical reading. In English: Richard John Lynn, The Classic of the Way and Virtue (Columbia, 1999), complete; Rudolf G. Wagner, A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing (SUNY, 2003), complete, with a critical text.
- Guo Xiang's commentary on the Zhuangzi (d. 312), with Cheng Xuanying's Tang subcommentary (CT 745), shaped the received book and the philosophy of "self-so" (ziran). In English: only partial versions, chiefly in Brook Ziporyn, Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett, 2009).
Yijing 易經 · The Classic of Changes · not a Daoist text, and not in the canon as such
An examination in Daoist studies assumes knowledge of it, because its cosmology underlies the Cantong qi and all inner alchemy. In this library: The I Ching (Legge, 1882).

Questions. What do the Guodian and Mawangdui manuscripts allow us to say about how the Laozi was composed, and what do they not allow? Is there evidence for a "Daoist school" before the Han, or is the category retrospective? How did the Neiye change the account of Daoist origins?

II. The First Communities: Great Peace and the Celestial Masters (2nd–5th centuries)

Daoism as a religion begins with communities: the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao 天師道) of Sichuan from the 140s, organised in parishes under libationers, with registers, petitions, precepts and communal feasts. Their own documents are few, late and contested. The examination tests whether a candidate can reconstruct a church from them without inventing one.

Core

Taiping jing 太平經 · The Scripture of Great Peace · core tied to the Eastern Han Great Peace tradition; the received text preserves 57 of an original 170 juan and shows later editing · CT 1101
The largest surviving scripture of Han Daoist religion, setting out a millenarian vision of an age of Great Peace. The dating of its layers is disputed.
In English: Barbara Hendrischke, The Scripture on Great Peace: The Taiping jing and the Beginnings of Daoism (California, 2006), partial (sections 41–66).
Laozi Xiang'er zhu 老子想爾注 · The Xiang'er Commentary to the Laozi · probably c. 190–220 (some argue later) · a Dunhuang manuscript, not in the canon
The earliest religious reading of the Laozi, and the core document of early Celestial Master teaching on the body, the precepts and the deified Dao.
In English: Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (California, 1997), complete for the surviving portion.
Dadao jia lingjie 大道家令戒 · Commands and Admonitions for the Families of the Great Dao · dated 255 · inside CT 789, the Zhengyi fawen tianshi jiao jieke jing 正一法文天師教戒科經
A pastoral letter to the communities scattered after the fall of the Hanzhong theocracy, and a prime source for early church history and ethics.
In English: Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (1997), complete.
Santian neijie jing 三天內解經 · Scripture of the Inner Explanations of the Three Heavens · mid-5th century · CT 1205
The southern Celestial Masters' own history of the Dao and the Three Heavens.
In English: Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (1997), partial.
Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie 老君說一百八十戒 · The 180 Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao · c. 350 · inside CT 786, the Taishang laojun jinglü 太上老君經律, and at Dunhuang
The earliest full code for libationers, basic to early communal ethics.
In English: Barbara Hendrischke and Benjamin Penny, "The 180 Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao," Taoist Resources 6.2, complete; Livia Kohn, Cosmos and Community (Three Pines, 2004).

Further reading

Laozi bianhua jing 老子變化經 · Scripture of the Transformations of Laozi · probably late 2nd century; Dunhuang copy dated 612 · not in the canon
Laozi as a cosmic deity who descends again and again as teacher of dynasties. In French: Anna K. Seidel, La divinisation de Lao tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (EFEO, 1969), complete for the fragment.
Laozi ming 老子銘 · Inscription for Laozi · Bian Shao, 165 CE · not in the canon
The dated witness to Laozi's deification in Han religion, studied by Seidel (1969).
Laojun yinsong jiejing 老君音誦誡經 · Scripture of Precepts of Lord Lao, Recited · Kou Qianzhi's New Code, revealed 415 · CT 785
The surviving core of the reform that made the Northern Celestial Masters a state religion of the Northern Wei.
Chisongzi zhangli 赤松子章曆 · Master Red Pine's Almanac of Petitions · edited late Tang from material probably of the 3rd–5th centuries · CT 615
The main collection of the petitions (zhang) addressed to the celestial bureaucracy. In English: Peter Nickerson, "The Great Petition for Sepulchral Plaints," in Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (1997), partial.
Laozi huahu jing 老子化胡經 · The Scripture of Laozi's Conversion of the Barbarians · first compiled c. 300, later expanded, banned in 705 · Dunhuang fragments, not in the canon
The polemic in which Laozi goes west and becomes the Buddha, at the centre of medieval Buddhist–Daoist debate. In French: Anna Seidel (1984), selections of a related Dunhuang scripture.
Xiaodao lun 笑道論 · Essays Laughing at the Dao · Zhen Luan, 570 · in the Buddhist canon, not the Daoist
A Buddhist attack on thirty-six passages of Daoist scripture, mostly Lingbao. The opponent's view is part of the evidence. In English: Livia Kohn, Laughing at the Tao (Princeton, 1995), complete.

Questions. What can be known about the Celestial Master parish from its own documents, as against the histories written about it? How did the community survive the loss of its territory in 215? What did a precept list do in a community that had no monasteries?

III. Transcendence and Alchemy: Ge Hong and Great Clarity (3rd–4th centuries)

Alongside the communities stood the arts of the xian 仙, the transcendents: masters, recipes, elixirs, and the long question of whether immortality could be learned. Ge Hong (283–343) gathered that world at the moment before the great revelations transformed it. Taiqing 太清 ("Great Clarity") alchemy is its laboratory form.

Core

Baopuzi neipian 抱朴子內篇 · The Inner Chapters of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity · Ge Hong, completed c. 317–318, revised c. 330 · CT 1185
The summa of 4th-century transcendence arts, and the chief source for Taiqing alchemy and the occult traditions of Jiangnan.
In English: James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320 (MIT, 1966), complete; Eugene Feifel, Monumenta Serica 6, 9 and 11 (1941–46), chapters 1–4 and 11.
Shenxian zhuan 神仙傳 · Traditions of Divine Transcendents · Ge Hong, c. 317–318; received versions are much later · not in the canon in its early form
The classic collection of the lives of transcendents.
In English: Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth (California, 2002), complete, a critical reconstruction.
Zhouyi cantong qi 周易參同契 · The Seal of the Unity of the Three · traditionally c. 150 and attributed to Wei Boyang; the received text probably took shape later (disputed) · CT 999, with further recensions and commentaries through CT 1008
The foundational text of Chinese alchemy, joining the cosmology of the Changes to elixir doctrine, and the scripture later inner alchemy claims as its source.
In English: Fabrizio Pregadio, The Seal of the Unity of the Three (Golden Elixir, 2011), complete; Richard Bertschinger, The Secret of Everlasting Life (Element, 1994), complete.
Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue 黃帝九鼎神丹經訣 · Instructions on the Scripture of the Divine Elixirs of the Nine Tripods · the scripture (ch. 1) known to Ge Hong; the commentary late 7th century · CT 885
The fullest surviving account of a Taiqing practice, from the rites of transmission to the ingestion of the elixir.
In English: Fabrizio Pregadio, Great Clarity (Stanford, 2006), chapter 1; Fabrizio Pregadio, The Book of the Nine Elixirs (Golden Elixir, 2011; rev. 2014), chapter 1.

Further reading

Liexian zhuan 列仙傳 · Arrayed Traditions of Transcendents · attributed to Liu Xiang (1st century BCE); probably Eastern Han · CT 294
The earliest surviving collection of immortal biographies, about seventy lives with eulogies. In French: Max Kaltenmark, Le Lie-sien tchouan (Peking, 1953), complete. In English: Lionel Giles, A Gallery of Chinese Immortals (John Murray, 1948), selections.
Baopuzi waipian 抱朴子外篇 · The Outer Chapters · Ge Hong · CT 1187
The "Confucian" half of the book, needed to read the Inner Chapters in context. In English: Jay Sailey, The Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Chinese Materials Center, 1978), 21 of the 50 chapters.
Taishang lingbao wufu xu 太上靈寶五符序 · Preface to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure · a composite of Ge Hong–era and later material; its layers are disputed · CT 388
The oldest text in the Lingbao line; its five talismans became the frame of the later corpus. In English: selections in Livia Kohn, The Taoist Experience (SUNY, 1993).
Yangxing yanming lu 養性延命錄 · Records of Nourishing Inner Nature and Extending Life · attributed to Tao Hongjing or Sun Simiao; disputed · CT 838
The main anthology of early nourishing-life (yangsheng) methods. In English: Walter Switkin, Immortality (1975), chapters 2–3.

Questions. What did Ge Hong mean by a transcendent, and how did one become one? Was Taiqing alchemy a laboratory science, a ritual, or both? Why does the Cantong qi, a text of external alchemy, become the founding scripture of inner alchemy?

IV. Revelation I: Shangqing, the Highest Clarity (364–6th century)

Between 364 and 370, in the household of the Xu family near Jiankang, the medium Yang Xi received visits from the Perfected of the Shangqing 上清 heavens. They dictated scriptures, poems, instructions and gossip about the dead. A century later Tao Hongjing (456–536) gathered the scattered autographs and built a critical edition around them. Shangqing joined visualisation, astral travel and the gods of the body to a literary brilliance that shaped Tang poetry.

Core

Zhen'gao 真誥 · Declarations of the Perfected · compiled by Tao Hongjing c. 500 from the manuscripts of 364–370 · CT 1016
The primary source for the Shangqing movement and its world, edited with an annotation that is itself a monument of textual criticism.
In English: Thomas E. Smith, Declarations of the Perfected, Part One (Three Pines, 2013) and Part Two (2020), partial (fascicles 1–8 of 20).
Shangqing dadong zhenjing 上清大洞真經 · The Perfected Scripture of the Great Cavern · core revealed 364–370; the canonical six-juan edition is a later recension · CT 6
The principal Shangqing scripture, in thirty-nine sections. See Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l'histoire du taoïsme (EFEO, 1984).
Huangting jing 黃庭經 · The Scripture of the Yellow Court · the Outer View (waijing) and the Inner View (neijing); the Inner View is the Shangqing recension; their relative dating is debated · CT 331 (Inner), CT 332 (Outer)
The classic heptasyllabic meditation scripture on the gods and organs of the body.
In English: Livia Kohn, The Yellow Court Scripture, vol. 1 (Three Pines, 2023), complete, both versions with their main commentaries; Michael Saso, The Gold Pavilion (Tuttle, 1995), a free rendering of the Outer View.
In this library: Jiang Shenxiu's commentary on both versions, Explication of the Yellow Court Jade Scripture, Inner and Outer (CT 403), a Good Works Translation.
Lingshu ziwen 靈書紫文 · The Upper Scripture of Purple Texts Inscribed by the Spirits · revealed 364–370 · CT 639, with companion parts at CT 255, 442 and 179
The best-translated original Shangqing scripture: astral methods, the langgan elixir, and the coming of the Latter Sage Li Hong.
In English: Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (1997), complete, reassembled from its four canonical parts.

Further reading

Dengzhen yinjue 登真隱訣 · Concealed Instructions for the Ascent to Perfection · Tao Hongjing, early 6th century, partly lost · CT 421
Tao's practical companion to the Zhen'gao, which also preserves early Celestial Master ritual.
Zhoushi mingtong ji 周氏冥通記 · Master Zhou's Records of His Communications with the Unseen · visions of 515–516, edited by Tao Hongjing · CT 302
A young adept's first-person diary of visitations by the Perfected. In English: Stephen R. Bokenkamp, "Answering a Summons," in Religions of China in Practice (Princeton, 1996), selections.
Ziyang zhenren neizhuan 紫陽真人內傳 · Inner Biography of the Perfected of Purple Yang · c. 399 · CT 303
An early Shangqing hagiography, with the list of scriptures its saint received. In French: Manfred Porkert, Biographie d'un taoïste légendaire (Collège de France, 1979), complete.
Han Wudi neizhuan 漢武帝內傳 · Inner Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han · probably 4th–5th century · CT 292
The emperor's meeting with the Queen Mother of the West, at which he receives revealed texts. In French: Kristofer Schipper, L'Empereur Wou des Han dans la légende taoïste (EFEO, 1965), complete.
Shangqing taishang basu zhenjing 上清太上八素真經 · The Perfected Scripture of the Eight Simplicities · Six Dynasties · CT 426
Visualising and invoking the five planets and their gods. In this library: The Perfected Scripture of the Eight Simplicities, a Good Works Translation and, as far as we could find, the only one.

Questions. What did Tao Hongjing's editing add to the revelations, and how does his apparatus change what we can know of Yang Xi? How does Shangqing visualisation differ from Celestial Master petition as a way of approaching the gods? Why did an aristocratic revelation in one family become a canon for the empire?

V. Revelation II: Lingbao and the Making of the Canon (c. 400–6th century)

Around 400, Ge Chaofu and his circle produced the Lingbao 靈寶 ("Numinous Treasure") scriptures. They absorbed Buddhist cosmology, the vocabulary of universal salvation and a liturgy for the dead, and set it all inside a Daoist cosmos of primordial writs. Lu Xiujing (406–477) catalogued the corpus and wrote the rites, and in 471 he presented the first catalogue of the whole Daoist scriptural corpus, divided into the Three Caverns that still order the canon.

Core

Duren jing 度人經 · The Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation · the original scripture c. 400; expanded to 61 juan under Song Huizong · CT 1 (the original is juan 1)
The most influential Lingbao scripture: the creation and ordering of the world through celestial writs and sacred sound.
In English: Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (1997), complete for the original scripture.
In this library: two Good Works Translations from its commentarial tradition: Commentary on the Great Brahma's Hidden Language and Ritual Formulas and Glosses for the Scripture of Limitless Salvation (CT 95).
Chishu yupian 赤書玉篇 · The Perfected Writs in Red, Jade Chapters, of the Five Ancients · c. 400 · CT 22
A founding scripture of the early corpus, centred on the primordial "Red Writings" of the Five Ancients, the celestial writs at the heart of Lingbao cosmology.
Zhihui zuigen shangpin dajie jing 智慧罪根上品大戒經 · Scripture of the Great Precepts on Wisdom and the Roots of Sin · 5th century · CT 457
The principal Lingbao precept scripture, whose Ten Precepts shaped Daoist monastic and lay ethics.
In English: Kohn, Cosmos and Community (Three Pines, 2004), chapter 1.
Lu xiansheng daomen kelüe 陸先生道門科略 · Master Lu's Abridged Codes for the Daoist Community · Lu Xiujing, 5th century · CT 1127
Lu's programme to reform the parish, the registers and the assemblies of the southern Celestial Masters.
In English: Peter Nickerson, "Abridged Codes of Master Lu for the Daoist Community," in Religions of China in Practice (Princeton, 1996), complete.

Further reading

Wushang biyao 無上祕要 · The Supreme Secret Essentials · compiled under Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou, c. 570s · CT 1138
The first great Daoist encyclopedia. In French: John Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao (EFEO, 1981), a study. In English: Stephen R. Bokenkamp, "The Purification Ritual of the Luminous Perfected," in Religions of China in Practice (1996), selections.
Dongyuan shenzhou jing 洞淵神咒經 · The Scripture of Divine Incantations of the Cavern Abyss · first ten juan 5th century, the rest later · CT 335
The great apocalyptic and exorcistic scripture of the 5th century. In French: Christine Mollier, Une apocalypse taoïste du Ve siècle (1990). In English: Nathan Sivin, in Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed. (Columbia, 1999), selections.
Xisheng jing 西昇經 · The Scripture of Western Ascension · late 5th or 6th century, Louguan · CT 666
Laozi's oral teaching to Yin Xi at the pass, the main Six Dynasties statement of Daoist mystical philosophy. In English: Livia Kohn, Taoist Mystical Philosophy: The Scripture of Western Ascension (SUNY, 1991; reissued Three Pines, 2007), complete.
Taishang laojun jiejing 太上老君戒經 · The Precept Scripture of Lord Lao · late 6th century, Louguan · CT 784
The five precepts, joining Kou Qianzhi's code to Buddhist lay ethics. In English: Livia Kohn, "The Five Precepts of the Venerable Lord," Monumenta Serica 42 (1994), complete. In this library: The Precept Scripture of the Most High Lord Lao.
Taiqing wushiba yuanwen 太清五十八願文 · The Fifty-eight Vows of Great Clarity · 5th century · CT 187
A Lingbao litany of vows modelled on Buddhist "pure conduct" vows. In English: Kohn, Cosmos and Community (2004), complete. In this library: The Fifty-eight Vows of Great Clarity.
Lu Xiujing's catalogues. The Lingbao jingmu 靈寶經目 (437) listed the authentic "ancient" Lingbao scriptures and is the basis of every modern reconstruction of the original corpus. The Sandong jingshu mulu 三洞經書目錄 (471) created the Three Caverns. Neither survives in the canon as a work of its own; scholars reconstruct both from later sources.

Questions. What did the Lingbao scriptures take from Buddhism, and what did they refuse? How did a scripture of cosmic writs become a liturgy for the dead? What does the Three Caverns classification reveal about how Daoists understood their own history?

This library's Lingbao room. Beyond the qualifying list, the shelf holds twenty-two Good Works Translations of Lingbao and Celestial-Worthy scriptures of salvation, most of them otherwise unavailable in English. They include the Wondrous Scripture of the Pure Offering (CT 376) and the commented Scripture on Salvation from Suffering (CT 399). The whole room is listed at Lingbao Salvation Scriptures.

VI. The Tang: Contemplation, Court, and Canon (618–907)

The Tang emperors claimed descent from Laozi. Daoism became a court religion with abbeys, ordination ranks, examinations on the Laozi and an imperial canon. Its intellectual life turned to chongxuan 重玄 ("twofold mystery") scholasticism and to systems of observation meditation in conversation with Buddhist practice. Most of the late-imperial contemplative canon is Tang.

Core

Qingjing jing 清靜經 (Taishang laojun shuo chang qingjing miaojing) · The Scripture of Constant Clarity and Stillness · Tang, probably 9th century · CT 620
A short scripture that fuses the language of the Laozi with the structure of Buddhist insight meditation. It is the most recited Daoist contemplative text.
In English: James Legge, The Texts of Taoism (1891), complete; Eva Wong, Cultivating Stillness (Shambhala, 1992), complete; Kohn, The Taoist Experience (1993), complete.
In this library: Classic of Purity and Stillness and The Mind Scripture of Clarity and Stillness, both Good Works Translations.
Zuowang lun 坐忘論 · The Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion · Sima Chengzhen (647–735), early 8th century · CT 1036
The seven-stage manual of Tang observation meditation, and the classic statement of "sitting in oblivion".
In English: Livia Kohn, Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhen's Zuowang lun (Steyler Verlag, Monumenta Serica Monograph, 1987), complete.
In this library: Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion.
Huangdi yinfu jing 黃帝陰符經 · The Yellow Emperor's Scripture of the Hidden Accordance · late 6th to 8th century, by tradition far older · CT 31, with commentaries at CT 108–127
A terse cosmological and strategic scripture that became, with the Laozi and the Qingjing jing, a core text of inner alchemy and Quanzhen recitation.
In English: Legge (1891), complete; Thomas Cleary, Vitality, Energy, Spirit (Shambhala, 1991), complete; Fabrizio Pregadio, The Book of the Hidden Agreement (Golden Elixir, 2019), complete, with Yu Yan's commentary.
In this library: Classic of the Hidden Accordance, and five of its commentaries, in the Commentaries on the Classics room.
Neiguan jing 內觀經 · The Scripture of Inner Observation · 8th century · CT 641
The Daoist adaptation of insight meditation.
In English: Livia Kohn, "Taoist Insight Meditation: The Tang Practice of Neiguan," in Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Michigan, 1989).
Daojiao yishu 道教義樞 · The Pivotal Meaning of the Daoist Teaching · Meng Anpai, late 7th or early 8th century · CT 1129
The doctrinal summa of Tang Daoist scholasticism, in thirty-seven topics.

Further reading

Tianyinzi 天隱子 · The Master of Heavenly Seclusion · 8th century, with a preface by Sima Chengzhen · CT 1026
A short manual of progressive gateways to the Dao. In English: Livia Kohn, "The Teaching of T'ien-yin-tzu," Journal of Chinese Religions 15 (1987), complete. In this library: The Master of Heavenly Seclusion.
Dingguan jing 定觀經 · The Scripture on Concentration and Observation · early 8th century · CT 400 (with commentary)
The movement from an agitated mind to concentration. In English: Kohn, Seven Steps to the Tao (1987), complete. In this library: The Commentary on the Scripture of Concentration and Contemplation.
Fuqi jingyi lun 服氣精義論 · The Essential Meaning of Ingesting Qi · Sima Chengzhen · CT 830
A nine-part manual of breath and healing. In this library: The Treatise on the Essential Meaning of Ingesting Qi.
Du Guangting 杜光庭 (850–933). The great liturgist and hagiographer at the end of the Tang.
- Yongcheng jixian lu 墉城集仙錄 (913; CT 783), lives of female transcendents, thirty-seven of which survive. In English: Suzanne E. Cahill, Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood (Three Pines, 2006), twenty-seven of the lives.
- Daojiao lingyan ji 道教靈驗記 (c. 905; CT 590), miracle tales in defence of the faith. See Franciscus Verellen, Imperiled Destinies (Harvard Asia Center, 2019).
Sandong zhunang 三洞珠囊 · The Pearl Bag of the Three Caverns · Wang Xuanhe, 680s; ten of thirty juan survive · CT 1139
An early Tang topical anthology, valuable for the older scriptures it quotes.
Kangcangzi 亢倉子 (Dongling zhenjing 洞靈真經) · Master Kangcang · compiled by Wang Shiyuan after 742 · CT 669
It completes the four masters canonised in 742, and shows how a court made a classic it lacked.

Questions. What did Tang Daoist meditation take from Buddhist śamatha and vipaśyanā, and what did it keep of its own? Why do so many "ancient" texts turn out to be Tang? What did imperial patronage do to Daoist institutions?

VII. Song and Yuan: Inner Alchemy, Thunder, and Retribution (960–1368)

Three things transform Daoism after the Tang. Inner alchemy (neidan 內丹) turns the furnace inward, so that the elixir is refined from the practitioner's own essence, breath and spirit. New exorcistic and ritual movements, above all the thunder rites (leifa 雷法), give local priests powerful methods against demons and disease. Morality books bring a cosmic accounting of merit and sin into every household. The Song also compiled the encyclopedias through which most of the earlier tradition reached later readers.

Core

Wuzhen pian 悟真篇 · Awakening to Reality · Zhang Boduan (d. 1082), c. 1075 · in CT 263, with commentaries at CT 141–146
The foundational poetic classic of the Southern Lineage of inner alchemy.
In English: Thomas Cleary, Understanding Reality (Hawai'i, 1987), complete, with Liu Yiming's commentary; Fabrizio Pregadio, Awakening to Reality (Golden Elixir, 2009), the first sixteen regulated verses.
The Zhong-Lü corpus.
- Zhong-Lü chuandao ji 鍾呂傳道集 (in CT 263): the dialogue in which Zhongli Quan transmits the Dao to Lü Dongbin. Its date is disputed between the late Tang and the 12th century.
- Lingbao bifa 靈寶畢法 (CT 1191): its systematic manual.
Together they are the theoretical charter of inner alchemy.
In English: Livia Kohn, The Zhong-Lü System of Internal Alchemy (Three Pines, 2020); Eva Wong, The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality (Shambhala, 2000). In French: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, Procédés secrets du joyau magique (1984), the Lingbao bifa.
Yunji qiqian 雲笈七籤 · Seven Lots from the Bookbag of the Clouds · Zhang Junfang, c. 1028–29 · CT 1032
A 122-juan anthology drawn from the Song canon, often called the "little Daozang", through which much of the earlier tradition survives. No complete Western translation exists; sections appear in the anthologies listed in Part Two.
Taishang ganying pian 太上感應篇 · The Treatise on Response and Retribution · 12th century · CT 1167
The most widely printed Chinese morality book, and the head of the three "sacred scriptures" of late-imperial moral teaching.
In English: Legge (1891), complete; D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus (Open Court, 1906), complete.
In this library: Treatise on Response and Retribution, a Good Works Translation.
Daofa huiyuan 道法會元 · The Corpus of Daoist Ritual · an early Ming anthology of Song–Yuan materials, 268 juan · CT 1220
The main source for the thunder rites. See Florian C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Harrassowitz, 2007).

Further reading

Xiuzhen shishu 修真十書 · Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection · a Song–Yuan anthology of inner-alchemy texts · CT 263
The collection that carries the Wuzhen pian, the Zhong-Lü dialogue and Bai Yuchan's writings.
Jindan sibaizi 金丹四百字 · Four Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir · Song; the attribution to Zhang Boduan is doubtful · CT 1081
A terse alchemical classic. In English: Thomas Cleary, The Inner Teachings of Taoism (Shambhala, 1986). In this library: Four Hundred Characters on the Golden Elixir.
Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾 (1194–1229?). The patriarch of the Southern Lineage and a thunder-rite master: Haiqiong Bai zhenren yulu 海瓊白真人語錄 (CT 1307). In English: selections in Fabrizio Pregadio, Taoist Internal Alchemy: An Anthology of Neidan Texts (Golden Elixir, 2019).
Southern Song ritual summae. The two Shangqing lingbao dafa 上清靈寶大法 of Wang Qizhen and Jin Yunzhong (CT 1221, 1223), and the Lingbao lingjiao jidu jinshu 靈寶領教濟度金書 (CT 466), a ritual compendium of 321 juan.
Taiwei xianjun gongguo ge 太微仙君功過格 · The Ledger of Merit and Demerit of the Immortal Lord of Great Tenuity · preface dated 1171 · CT 186
The earliest surviving merit ledger, ancestor of the late-imperial genre.
Zitong dijun huashu 梓潼帝君化書 · The Book of Transformations of the Divine Lord of Zitong · revealed by spirit-writing from 1181 · CT 170
A god's autobiography across seventy-odd incarnations, the founding text of the Wenchang cult. In English: Terry F. Kleeman, A God's Own Tale (SUNY, 1994), complete.
Inner alchemy held on this shelf. The library holds a run of Song–Yuan alchemical texts in Good Works Translation:
- Direct Pointers to the Great Elixir (CT 244);
- A Guide to the Center Within the Compass (CT 243, Yuan);
- The Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Elixir (CT 1087);
- Song of the Mysterious Pearl (CT 573).

Questions. Is inner alchemy continuous with Taiqing alchemy, or a new practice in old vocabulary? What social needs did the thunder rites answer? How did morality books change the relation between the Daoist priesthood and lay households?

VIII. Complete Perfection: Quanzhen (from 1167)

Wang Zhe (Chongyang, 1113–1170) dug himself a grave, lived in it, called it "the tomb of the living dead", and emerged to found a monastic order of ascetic inner cultivation. Under his disciple Qiu Chuji (Changchun, 1148–1227), who rode to Chinggis Khan in Central Asia, Quanzhen became the dominant monastic Daoism of the north. Its Longmen branch remains the main lineage of monastic Daoism in China today.

Core

Chongyang lijiao shiwu lun 重陽立教十五論 · Chongyang's Fifteen Discourses for Establishing the Teaching · late 12th century; Wang Zhe's authorship is doubted · CT 1233
The foundational short guide to Quanzhen life.
In English: Kohn, The Taoist Experience (1993); Louis Komjathy, The Way of Complete Perfection (SUNY, 2013), chapter 3; Fabrizio Pregadio, Fifteen Essays (Golden Elixir, 2019).
Chongyang quanzhen ji 重陽全真集 · The Complete Perfection Collection of Chongyang · preface 1188 · CT 1153
The thirteen-juan poetry of the founder.
Related, in this library: Poems of the Living Dead, Wang Chongyang's thirty poems written from inside his tomb.
Changchun zhenren xiyou ji 長春真人西遊記 · The Record of the Perfected Changchun's Journey to the West · Li Zhichang, 1228 · CT 1429
The record of Qiu Chuji's journey to Chinggis Khan, a primary source for Daoism and for the Mongol empire alike.
In English: Arthur Waley, The Travels of an Alchemist (Routledge, 1931); E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches, vol. 1 (Trübner, 1888).
In this library: Travels of an Alchemist, a Good Works Translation.
Xuanfeng qinghui lu 玄風慶會錄 · The Fortunate Meeting of the Mysterious Wind · the record of Qiu Chuji's teaching before the Khan · CT 176
In this library: The Fortunate Meeting of the Mysterious Wind, a Good Works Translation.

Further reading

Jinlian zhengzong ji 金蓮正宗記 · The Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus · Qin Zhi'an, 1241 · CT 173
The order's hagiography of its patriarchs.
Qizhen nianpu 七真年譜 · The Chronology of the Seven Perfected · Li Daoqian, 1271 · CT 175
Panxi ji 磻溪集 · The Panxi Collection · Qiu Chuji's poems · CT 1159
Its third juan opens with the "Song of the Clear Sky" (Qingtian ge 青天歌). In this library: Song of the Clear Sky.
The Quanzhen masters' own voices, in this library:

Questions. What made Quanzhen monastic when earlier Daoism had mostly not been? How did the Mongol conquest make a small ascetic movement into a national institution? How should the poetry be read as evidence of practice?

IX. Ming and Qing: The Printed Canon, Spirit-Writing, and Late Alchemy (1368–1911)

The Ming printed the canon, and almost every number on this page comes from it. After it, the life of Daoist writing moved outside the canon into spirit-writing altars, where Lü Dongbin and other immortals descended through the planchette to dictate scripture. It moved into new collections, into lineage manuals of inner alchemy, and into a monastic restoration at the White Cloud Abbey in Beijing.

Core

Zhengtong Daozang 正統道藏 and Wanli Xu Daozang 萬曆續道藏 · The Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Reign and its Wanli Supplement · begun 1406 under the Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu, printed 1445; supplement 1607 · CT 1–1431 and 1432–1487
The only surviving imperial Daoist canon and the textual base of all Daoist studies. The Commercial Press photolithographic reprint of 1923–26 made modern Daoist studies possible.
Daozang jiyao 道藏輯要 · Essentials of the Daoist Canon · compiled c. 1800 by Jiang Yupu; expanded edition at the Erxian'an, Chengdu, 1906
The fundamental Qing collection, carrying many late texts that are not in the Ming canon, the Golden Flower and much of the Lüzu corpus among them. Its traditional attribution to an earlier compiler is now regarded as a fiction (Esposito).
Lüzu quanshu 呂祖全書 · The Complete Writings of Patriarch Lü · first compiled 1744 by Liu Tishu; expanded 1775 and later
The anthology that made Lü Dongbin's spirit-written revelations into a canon of their own, and the model for Qing altar publishing.
Taiyi jinhua zongzhi 太乙金華宗旨 · The Secret of the Golden Flower · spirit-written from 1668, compiled 1692; earliest surviving edition in the Lüzu quanshu of 1775
The best-known late-imperial manual of inner alchemy, and the founding case of its Western, Jungian reception.
In English: Thomas Cleary, The Secret of the Golden Flower (HarperCollins, 1991); Richard Wilhelm, trans. Cary F. Baynes (1931; revised 1962), from a 1921 edition and through Wilhelm's German.
In this library: The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Good Works Translation of the thirteen chapters of the Daozang jiyao edition.
Liu Yiming 劉一明 (1734–1821) · Twelve Books on the Dao (Daoshu shi'er zhong 道書十二種)
The most-translated Qing master of inner alchemy, who read the Changes, the Wuzhen pian and even Journey to the West as alchemical allegory.
In English: Thomas Cleary, Awakening to the Tao (Shambhala, 1988); The Taoist I Ching (1986); Fabrizio Pregadio, Cultivating the Tao (Golden Elixir, 2013), the Xiuzhen houbian, complete.
In this library: Getting Through the Barriers (Tongguan wen), a Good Works Translation.

Further reading

Xingming guizhi 性命圭旨 · Principles of Inner Nature and Vital Force · late 16th century; first printed 1615
The great illustrated late-Ming synthesis of inner alchemy, with more than fifty diagrams.
The Wu–Liu school.
- Wu Shouyang's Tianxian zhengli zhilun 天仙正理直論.
- Liu Huayang's Huiming jing 慧命經 (18th century). In English: Eva Wong, Cultivating the Energy of Life (Shambhala, 1998), complete, with commentaries.
Wang Changyue 王常月 (d. 1680) and the Longmen restoration. The Chuzhen jielü 初真戒律 (1656) and the sermons gathered as the Biyuan tanjing 碧苑壇經, also known as the Longmen xinfa 龍門心法. They record Quanzhen ordination standardised at the White Cloud Abbey.
Daozang xubian 道藏續編 · Sequel to the Daoist Canon · Min Yide, 1834
The Longmen (Jin'gai) collection of inner-alchemy works not found in the canon.
The three "sacred scriptures" of moral teaching. With the Ganying pian, there are two more:
- The Wenchang dijun yinzhi wen 文昌帝君陰騭文, of disputed date, Yuan or Ming. In English: Suzuki and Carus, Yin Chih Wen (Open Court, 1906). In this library: Yin Chih Wen, The Tract of the Quiet Way.
- Guandi's Jueshi zhenjing 關聖帝君覺世真經. In this library: The True Scripture on Awakening the World.
Zhenwu and the Ming court. The Wanli supplement carries the devotions of the Dark Emperor of Wudang, among them the Xuantian shangdi baizi shenghao 玄天上帝百字聖號 (CT 1482). See Shin-yi Chao, Daoist Ritual, State Religion, and Popular Practices (Routledge, 2011). In this library: The Hundred-Character Sacred Title of the Dark Heaven Supreme Emperor.
Lüzu zhi 呂祖志 · The Monograph on Patriarch Lü · Ming · CT 1484
The bridge between the Song–Yuan cult of Lü Dongbin and the Qing Quanshu. Related, in this library: the Lü Dongbin and the Immortals' Teachings room.
Xiyou ji 西遊記 · Journey to the West · earliest surviving edition 1592
Read by Qing Daoists as an allegory of inner alchemy. In English: Anthony C. Yu, The Journey to the West (Chicago, 1977–83; revised 2012), complete.

Questions. Why did the most influential Daoist texts of the Qing come from spirit-writing altars rather than from the canon? What did the Longmen restoration change in Quanzhen? How was the Secret of the Golden Flower transformed between a Jiangnan altar in 1668 and Jung's commentary in 1929?

X. The Modern Century

The twentieth century attacked Daoism as superstition, confiscated its temples, reorganised it as a national association, and then partly restored it. Through all of this, priests kept the liturgy alive in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Fujian and the diaspora. Modern Daoist studies grew up in the same century, partly through scholars, most famously Kristofer Schipper, who were ordained as priests.

Core topics and readings

Chen Yingning 陳攖寧 (1880–1969) and xianxue 仙學, "the learning of immortality". He recast inner alchemy as a modern and national science. Read Xun Liu, Daoist Modern (Harvard Asia Center, 2009).
The Chinese Taoist Association (Zhongguo Daojiao xiehui 中國道教協會), founded 1957, and the living Zhengyi priesthood of Taiwan. Read Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body (California, 1993), and Kenneth Dean, Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults of Southeast China (Princeton, 1993).
Clerical Daoism in the late empire and the Republic. Read Vincent Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, 1800–1949 (Harvard Asia Center, 2007), and Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer, The Religious Question in Modern China (Chicago, 2011).
Monastic life today. Read Adeline Herrou, A World of Their Own: Daoist Monks and Their Community in Contemporary China (Three Pines, 2013).
Women's inner alchemy (nüdan 女丹). The late-imperial tradition of alchemy written for women's bodies. Read Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn, Women in Daoism (Three Pines, 2003). In English: Thomas Cleary, Immortal Sisters (Shambhala, 1989), selections.
Zhonghua Daozang 中華道藏 · The Daoist Canon of China · Zhang Jiyu, chief editor, Huaxia chubanshe, 48 volumes · 2003–04
The first new edition of the canon since 1445, punctuated and rearranged. Most scholarship still cites the Schipper numbers.
The daily liturgy. The morning and evening altar recitations, still chanted in Quanzhen and Zhengyi temples. In this library: The Evening Liturgy of Correct Unity, and the Great Exemplar of Clear Tenuity.

Further reading

David A. Palmer, Qigong Fever (Columbia, 2007). David A. Palmer and Elijah Siegler, Dream Trippers (Chicago, 2017). Kenneth Dean, Lord of the Three in One (Princeton, 1998). Michael R. Saso, Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal (Washington State, 1972). Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth, eds., Daoist Identity (Hawai'i, 2002). The redemptive societies of the early twentieth century, Yiguandao among them, drew deeply on Daoist inner alchemy and scripture. They belong to a list on modern Chinese religion; see the Reader's Guide to Yiguandao.

Questions. Is Daoism a religion, and who has had the power to decide? What did the ethnography of living ritual overturn in an account built from texts? What happens to inner alchemy when it becomes qigong?

Part Two: The Scholarship

Reference works

Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang, 3 vols. (Chicago, 2004). The standard description of every text in the canon. Cite it first.
Fabrizio Pregadio, ed., The Encyclopedia of Taoism, 2 vols. (Routledge, 2008).
Livia Kohn, ed., Daoism Handbook (Brill, 2000). Survey chapters by period and school, among them Monica Esposito on the Qing and Lowell Skar on the thunder rites.
Judith Magee Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley, 1987).
Kristofer M. Schipper, Concordance du Tao-tsang: Titres des ouvrages (EFEO, 1975). The source of the numbers on this page.
Ren Jiyu and Zhong Zhaopeng, eds., Daozang tiyao 道藏提要 (Beijing, 1991; third revised ed. 2005).
Qing Xitai, ed., Zhongguo daojiao shi 中國道教史, 4 vols. (Chengdu, 1988–95).
Ōfuchi Ninji, Tonkō dōkyō 敦煌道經, 2 vols. (Tokyo, 1978–79). The Dunhuang Daoist manuscripts.
Louis Komjathy, Title Index to Daoist Collections (Three Pines, 2002).
John Lagerwey and Marc Kalinowski, eds., Early Chinese Religion, Part One: Shang through Han (Brill, 2009); John Lagerwey and Lü Pengzhi, eds., Part Two: The Period of Division (Brill, 2010); John Lagerwey and Pierre Marsone, eds., Modern Chinese Religion I (Brill, 2015); Vincent Goossaert, Jan Kiely and John Lagerwey, eds., Modern Chinese Religion II (Brill, 2015).

Surveys and orientation

Isabelle Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, trans. Phyllis Brooks (Stanford, 1997).
Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body, trans. Karen C. Duval (California, 1993).
Louis Komjathy, The Daoist Tradition: An Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2013).
Russell Kirkland, Taoism: The Enduring Tradition (Routledge, 2004).
Livia Kohn, Daoism and Chinese Culture (Three Pines, 2001).
Henri Maspero, Taoism and Chinese Religion, trans. Frank A. Kierman Jr. (Massachusetts, 1981).
Holmes Welch, The Parting of the Way: Lao Tzu and the Taoist Movement (Beacon, 1957); Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism (Yale, 1979).
Nathan Sivin, "On the Word 'Taoist' as a Source of Perplexity," History of Religions 17 (1978): 303–31. Every candidate should be able to answer it.
Anna Seidel, "Chronicle of Taoist Studies in the West 1950–1990," Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 5 (1989–90): 223–347. The history of the field, and how it came to be built in French.

Anthologies of sources in translation

Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures (California, 1997).
Livia Kohn, ed., The Taoist Experience: An Anthology (SUNY, 1993).
Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed., Religions of China in Practice (Princeton, 1996). Cited throughout Part One for its translations.
James Legge, The Texts of Tâoism, 2 vols. (Clarendon, 1891). In this library: Part I and Part II.
Frederic Henry Balfour, Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political, and Speculative (Trübner and Kelly & Walsh, 1884). In this library: Taoist Texts.

Studies by period and theme

Early Daoism and the transcendents. N. J. Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism (California, 1983). Harold D. Roth, Original Tao (Columbia, 1999). Robert Ford Campany, Making Transcendents (Hawai'i, 2009). Stephen Eskildsen, Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion (SUNY, 1998). Anna K. Seidel, La divinisation de Lao tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (EFEO, 1969). Livia Kohn, God of the Dao: Lord Lao in History and Myth (Michigan, 1998).

Celestial Masters and Great Peace. Terry F. Kleeman, Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities (Harvard Asia Center, 2016). Terry F. Kleeman, Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom (Hawai'i, 1998). Gil Raz, The Emergence of Daoism: Creation of Tradition (Routledge, 2012). Barbara Hendrischke, The Scripture on Great Peace (California, 2006).

Shangqing. Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity, trans. Julian F. Pas and Norman J. Girardot (SUNY, 1993). Isabelle Robinet, La révélation du Shangqing dans l'histoire du taoïsme, 2 vols. (EFEO, 1984). Michel Strickmann, Le taoïsme du Mao chan: chronique d'une révélation (Collège de France, 1981). Edward H. Schafer, Mao Shan in T'ang Times (Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, 1980).

Lingbao and medieval ritual. Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China (California, 2007). Christine Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face (Hawai'i, 2008). Dominic Steavu, The Writ of the Three Sovereigns (Hawai'i, 2019). Franciscus Verellen, Imperiled Destinies: The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China (Harvard Asia Center, 2019).

Alchemy and inner alchemy. Fabrizio Pregadio, Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Stanford, 2006). Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, parts 2–5 (Cambridge, 1974–83). Nathan Sivin, Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies (Harvard, 1968). Isabelle Robinet, Introduction à l'alchimie intérieure taoïste (Cerf, 1995), and The World Upside Down (Golden Elixir, 2011). Livia Kohn, ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Michigan, 1989).

The Tang. T. H. Barrett, Taoism under the T'ang (Wellsweep, 1996). Charles D. Benn, The Cavern-Mystery Transmission (Hawai'i, 1991). Livia Kohn, Monastic Life in Medieval Daoism (Hawai'i, 2003). Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void (California, 1977). Livia Kohn, Laughing at the Tao (Princeton, 1995). James Robson, Power of Place (Harvard Asia Center, 2009).

Song–Yuan ritual and Quanzhen. John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (Macmillan, 1987). Florian C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Harrassowitz, 2007). Edward L. Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China (Hawai'i, 2001). Robert Hymes, Way and Byway (California, 2002). Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory, eds., Religion and Society in T'ang and Sung China (Hawai'i, 1993). Stephen Eskildsen, The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters (SUNY, 2004). Louis Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection (Brill, 2007). Paul R. Katz, Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lü Dongbin at the Palace of Eternal Joy (Hawai'i, 1999). Jinping Wang, In the Wake of the Mongols (Harvard Asia Center, 2018).

Ming and Qing. Monica Esposito, Creative Daoism (UniversityMedia, 2013), and Facets of Qing Daoism (UniversityMedia, 2014). Richard G. Wang, The Ming Prince and Daoism (Oxford, 2012). Mark R. E. Meulenbeld, Demonic Warfare (Hawai'i, 2015). Shin-yi Chao, Daoist Ritual, State Religion, and Popular Practices (Routledge, 2011). Paul R. Katz, Demon Hordes and Burning Boats (SUNY, 1995).

Women. Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn, Women in Daoism (Three Pines, 2003). Suzanne E. Cahill, Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China (Stanford, 1993), and Divine Traces of the Daoist Sisterhood (Three Pines, 2006). Jinhua Jia, Gender, Power, and Talent: The Journey of Daoist Priestesses in Tang China (Columbia, 2018).

Reception and the West. J. J. Clarke, The Tao of the West (Routledge, 2000). Norman J. Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China (California, 2002), on Legge, whose translations stand on our shelves. Palmer and Siegler, Dream Trippers (Chicago, 2017).

Journals

Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie (École française d'Extrême-Orient, since 1985). Journal of Daoist Studies (Three Pines, since 2008). Taoist Resources (1988–97, later absorbed into the Journal of Chinese Religions).

Part Three: Beyond the List

A qualifying list measures a field by what it has already learned to read. The Daoist canon is larger than that. Of its 1,487 titles, the list above names fewer than a hundred. Hundreds of the rest are short scriptures of salvation, repentance, protection and contemplation. Daoists chanted them for centuries, and scholarship has hardly touched them because no one had translated them.

This library has been translating them. The Daoist shelf holds well over a hundred Good Works Translations from the Chinese of the canon, each with its source text. Many of them have no other published translation in English. They are gathered in these rooms:

A candidate who has mastered the list above can read them with judgment. A reader who has not yet begun can start with them and climb back toward the list. The Reader's Guide lays out routes through them, and the Daoist Glossary keeps the vocabulary steady.

A Note on This List

The list follows the shape of doctoral reading lists in Daoist studies. Every canon number on this page was checked against Fabrizio Pregadio's Index of Zhengtong Daozang (Golden Elixir Press, 2008), which gives Schipper's numbers beside those of the Harvard-Yenching index and the Daozang tiyao. Every translation named was checked against its publisher, a library catalogue, or the bibliographies of Louis Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the field's reference works. Where a fact could not be confirmed, the page leaves it out. A date, a translation or a scope that could not be checked is not given here, and an absence on this page is never a claim that no translation exists. Corrections are welcome and will be made.

Compiled for the Good Works Library, October 2026.

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