Heshanggong Commentary on the Laozi老子河上公章句

Also known as

Heshanggong's Chapter and Verse Commentary on the Laozi Daodejing, Heshang Gong's commentary

Author / transmission

Heshang Gong

Period

Han · Attributed to Heshanggong during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, though most scholars hold it was composed in the Eastern Han, with some dating it to the Han–Wei transition.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Yujue Category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Yujue category.

Category

Daoist Philosophy

Fascicles

Four fascicles

Synopsis

The Heshanggong Commentary on the Laozi is one of the earliest surviving and most widely circulated commentaries on the Daodejing. Tradition holds that Heshanggong ('Master by the River') was an elderly recluse living by a riverbank during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, who, when questioned by the emperor, presented him with a 'Plain Book' — an episode recorded in Ge Hong's Biographies of Divine Immortals, though in fact a later attribution. The commentary takes 'cultivating the body' and 'governing the state' as equally important guiding threads, translating Laozi's philosophy into practical techniques of nourishing life: centered on essence, qi and spirit, it speaks of 'cherishing qi and nourishing spirit,' 'eliminating emotion and discarding desire,' and 'guarding the spirits of the five viscera,' in a manner consonant with the life-nourishing thought of Huang–Lao Daoism and early religious Daoism. The work assigns each of the eighty-one chapters a title such as 'Embodying the Dao' or 'Nourishing the Body,' making it the earliest instance of chapter-titling. This edition circulated alongside the Wang Bi commentary in the Tang and was at one point designated the standard text for the imperial examinations under Emperor Xuanzong; within Daoism it was long regarded as the orthodox text, and the Laozi manuscripts found at Dunhuang are predominantly of the Heshanggong recension. Its thought forms an important bridge from Daoist philosophy toward Daoist religious belief.

Key Ideas

• Cultivating the body and governing the state follow the same principle; the ruler models the Dao in governance
• Cherishing essence and valuing qi; the five viscera store the spirits
• Discarding desire and guarding stillness is the way to longevity
• The origin of assigning titles to chapters

Structure

Divided into an upper and lower scripture of eighty-one chapters, each headed by a two-character title, with line-by-line commentary.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Sibu Congkan facsimile of a Song edition
• Multiple Dunhuang manuscripts
• Wang Ka's critical edition, Laozi Daodejing Heshanggong zhangju (Zhonghua Book Company, 1993)

Translations

• Alan K. L. Chan, partial English translation in Two Visions of the Way (1991)
• Eduard Erkes, English translation (1958)

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: Heshanggong zhangju
• Wikipedia: Heshanggong

Related scriptures

Related figures