Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon道藏源流考

Also known as

Sequel to Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon

Author / transmission

Chen Guofu

Period

Modern · Written by Chen Guofu (1914–2000), first published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1949, with a revised and expanded edition in 1963; a further Sequel to the Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon was published by Taipei's Ming Wen Book Company in 1983.

Canon division

Reference Works

Collected in

Modern scholarly work

Category

Reference Works

Fascicles

2 volumes (expanded edition)

Synopsis

Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon (Daozang yuanliu kao) is the foundational work of Daoist textual scholarship. Chen Guofu was originally trained as a chemist (a professor at the National Southwestern Associated University and Tsinghua University), and it was through his research into the history of ancient Chinese chemistry that he came to study the Daozang in depth, spending more than a decade on his textual investigations; the work was published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1949 and revised and expanded in 1963. It is divided into two parts: the upper part examines the compilation, scroll counts, sectional organization, and survival or loss of the Daoist Canon through successive dynasties, tracing its history from Lu Xiujing's Catalogue of the Scriptures of the Three Caverns to the Ming-dynasty Zhengtong Daozang; the lower part appends studies of a number of special topics, such as the origins of the various scriptures included in the Daozang, the formation of the Three Caverns, Four Supplements, and Twelve Categories, the literature of external alchemy and the 'yellow and white' arts, and Daoist music, along with an extensive bibliography, and includes a great deal of meticulous textual and chronological research. This work was the first to treat the Daozang with rigorous methods of textual scholarship, establishing a paradigm for research in both China and the West; scholars such as Schipper, Robinet, and Ōfuchi Ninji have all relied heavily on its findings, and its section on the history of external alchemy pioneered the cross-disciplinary study of the history of Chinese science and Daoism (paralleling the work of Joseph Needham and Nathan Sivin). It remains an unavoidable starting point for any study of the Daozang today.

Key Ideas

• The foundational work of Daoist textual scholarship
• Examines the compilation, scroll counts, and survival of the Daoist Canon through the dynasties
• Investigates the formation of the Three Caverns, Four Supplements, and Twelve Categories
• A pioneering treatment of the literature of external alchemy
• Established the paradigm for Daozang research in both China and the West

Structure

Two parts: the upper part a study of the Daoist Canon through the dynasties, the lower part appended special-topic studies and a bibliography.

Editions

• Zhonghua Book Company, first edition, 1949
• Zhonghua Book Company, revised edition, 1963 (reprinted 1989, 2014)
• Sequel to the Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon, Taipei: Ming Wen Book Company, 1983

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Chen Guofu
• Douban: Daozang yuanliu kao

Related scriptures

Related figures