Reprinted Essentials of the Daoist Canon重刊道藏辑要

Also known as

Erxian Nunnery edition of the Essentials of the Daoist Canon, He edition of the Essentials of the Daoist Canon

Author / transmission

He Longxiang (collator), Yan Yonghe and Peng Hanran (directed the reprinting)

Period

Qing · Reprinted in the thirty-second year of the Guangxu era of the Qing (1906) at the instance of Yan Yonghe, abbot of the Erxian Nunnery at Qingyang Palace in Chengdu, with the assistance of Peng Hanran, and collated by He Longxiang; enlarged from the Jiang edition, the whole work contains some 290 Daoist titles (one account says over 300 in all).

Canon division

Qing-dynasty Daoist text collectanea

Collected in

Qing-dynasty printed collectanea (outside the Canon)

Category

Daozang Collections

Fascicles

About 290-odd titles (accounts vary slightly)

Synopsis

The Reprinted Essentials of the Daoist Canon is an enlarged and revised reprint of the Essentials of the Daoist Canon, published in the thirty-second year of the Guangxu era (1906) under the direction of the Erxian Nunnery in Chengdu, collated by He Longxiang, with his own Daozang jiyao zimu chubian (Preliminary Compilation of the Subject Index to the Essentials of the Daoist Canon) and Collected Texts on Female Alchemy appended. Building on the Jiang Yuanting edition, it further incorporates several dozen Qing-dynasty Daoist works, with particular attention to the writings of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen and of western Sichuan Daoism, for a total of more than 290 titles, over a hundred of them not included in the Ming Daoist Canon; it is the most important compendium of Qing-dynasty Daoist literature. The stock of printing blocks held by the scripture-carving works of the Erxian Nunnery was enormous, making it one of the most important centres for the carving of Daoist scriptures in modern China. This edition circulated most widely; Bashu Books reproduced it in facsimile in 1986, and it thus became the standard edition among scholars. In recent years the Daoist Digital Archive of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the international research project on the Daozang jiyao (directed by Monica Esposito and others) have systematically studied its editions, its compilation and its textual sources, restoring to it the attention it deserves in Daoist textual scholarship.

Key Ideas

• An enlarged and revised reprint of the Essentials of the Daoist Canon
• Published by the scripture-carving works of the Erxian Nunnery, Chengdu
• Collated by He Longxiang, with the preliminary subject index appended
• Added Qing-dynasty Daoist works, over a hundred of them not in the Ming Canon
• Reproduced in facsimile by Bashu Books in 1986 as the standard edition

Structure

Arranged in collections named after the Twenty-eight Lunar Mansions, with a subject index and further supplementary works appended.

Editions

• Erxian Nunnery edition, Chengdu, Guangxu 32
• 1986 facsimile edition by Bashu Books
• Digital archive of the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Commentaries

• Findings of the Daozang jiyao research project directed by Monica Esposito

Full Text & Online Resources

• Chinese University of Hong Kong: Reprinted Essentials of the Daoist Canon
• Wikipedia: Essentials of the Daoist Canon

Related scriptures

Related figures