Liezi列子

Also known as

Chongxu Zhenjing (Perfect Scripture of Vacuity), Chongxu zhide zhenjing (Perfect Scripture of Simplicity and Vacuity of Utmost Virtue)

Author / transmission

Liezi

Period

Pre-Qin (received text Wei-Jin) · Attributed to Lie Yukou of Zheng in the Warring States period; the eight chapters recorded in the Bibliographic Treatise of the History of the Han were lost early on, and the received eight-chapter text with Zhang Zhan's commentary is generally held by scholars to have been compiled by Wei–Jin figures drawing on assorted older sources, though some hold that it preserves pre-Qin material.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Original Texts (Benwen) category

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongshen Section, Benwen Category (as the Chongxu Zhide Scripture)

Category

Daoist Philosophy

Fascicles

Eight scrolls, eight chapters

Synopsis

The Liezi is attributed to Lie Yukou of the state of Zheng, and is one of the "Three Mysteries" (San Xuan) of Daoist classics alongside the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. The received text, in eight chapters (Tian Rui, Huangdi, King Mu of Zhou, Zhongni, Questions of Tang, Endeavor and Destiny, Yang Zhu, and Explaining Conjunctions), comes with a commentary by Zhang Zhan of the Eastern Jin, and abounds in well-known parables such as the Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains, the Man of Qi Who Worried the Sky Would Fall, Ji Chang Learning Archery, and the Two Children Debating the Sun. Philosophically it accounts for cosmogony through the stages of "Great Change, Great Inception, Great Beginning, and Great Simplicity," expounds "valuing emptiness" and "embodying the Dao and uniting with the True," and also contains, somewhat inconsistently, the self-indulgent hedonism of the Yang Zhu chapter and the fatalism of the Endeavor and Destiny chapter. In the first year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang enfeoffed Liezi as the Perfected of Chongxu, and the book was accordingly titled the Chongxu Scripture; Emperor Zhenzong of Song added the two characters "Zhide" to its title. Its authenticity has been the subject of continual dispute since the Song dynasty, but as a source for Wei–Jin Daoist thought and as a literary classic its value remains undiminished.

Key Ideas

• Valuing emptiness: the perfected person's mind is like a mirror
• The cosmogony of Great Change, Great Inception, Great Beginning and Great Simplicity
• Endeavor and destiny: accepting fate and following transformation
• Yang Zhu's valuing of the self, preserving one's nature and keeping one's authenticity intact
• Reflections on dreaming and waking, the real and the illusory

Structure

Eight chapters: Tian Rui, Huangdi, King Mu of Zhou, Zhongni, Questions of Tang, Endeavor and Destiny, Yang Zhu, and Explaining Conjunctions.

Editions

• Zhang Zhan's annotated edition (Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era; Sibu Congkan)
• Yang Bojun, Collected Explanations of the Liezi (Zhonghua Book Company, 1979)

Commentaries

• Zhang Zhan, Commentary on the Liezi
• Lu Zhongxuan, Explanation of the Liezi
• Yin Jingshun and Chen Jingyuan, Textual Explanations of the Liezi
• Emperor Huizong of Song, Explanation of the Meaning of the Chongxu Zhide Scripture
• Yang Bojun, Collected Explanations of the Liezi

Translations

• Lionel Giles (1912)
• A. C. Graham, The Book of Lieh-tzu (1960)

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: Liezi
• Wikisource: Liezi
• Wikipedia: Liezi

Related scriptures

Related figures