Descriptive Notes on the Daoist Canon道藏提要

Author / transmission

Ren Jiyu, Zhong Zhaopeng

Period

Modern · Chief-edited by Ren Jiyu, with Zhong Zhaopeng as deputy chief editor, first published by the China Social Sciences Press in 1991, with a second revised edition in 1995 and a third in 2005; it provides descriptive notes for every text included in the Zhengtong Daozang and the Wanli Supplementary Daoist Canon.

Canon division

Reference Works

Collected in

Modern scholarly work

Category

Reference Works

Fascicles

1 volume (about 1,500 pages)

Synopsis

Descriptive Notes on the Daoist Canon (Daozang tiyao) is the first descriptive catalogue in the Chinese-speaking world to examine every text in the Daozang individually, chief-edited by Ren Jiyu with contributions from numerous specialists, first published by the China Social Sciences Press in 1991 and subsequently revised twice. Following the original numbering of the Zhengtong Daozang and the Wanli Supplementary Daoist Canon, it provides descriptive notes for more than 1,400 Daoist texts, covering the title, number of scrolls, author, dating of composition, a summary of content, the history of its editions, and leads for further research, with appended indexes of titles and authors. Its scholarship contains many original findings and corrects a great many errors in the classification and cataloguing of the original canon, making it the primary reference tool for Chinese-language Daoist researchers consulting the Daozang. It is complemented by the European work The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (edited by Schipper and Verellen, 2004); the two works share a similar format but differ in emphasis, and Chinese and Western researchers commonly use them together. The compilation of this work also marked the institutional reconstruction of Daoist studies on the Chinese mainland from the 1980s onward; Ren Jiyu simultaneously chief-edited History of Chinese Daoism (ed. Ren Jiyu), and the two works together form the basic framework of his approach to Daoist studies.

Key Ideas

• The first Chinese-language descriptive catalogue of the entire Daozang
• Provides descriptive notes for more than 1,400 Daoist texts
• Establishes authorship, dating, editions, and content
• Corrects errors in the original canon's classification and cataloguing
• Used alongside the European The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang

Structure

Descriptive notes arranged in the numbering order of the Daozang, with appended indexes of titles and authors.

Editions

• China Social Sciences Press, first edition, 1991
• Second revised edition, 1995
• Third revised edition, 2005

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Ren Jiyu
• Douban: Daozang tiyao

Related scriptures

Related figures