From guarding the One, visualization, breath and daoyin to medicine, external and internal alchemy, joint cultivation of nature and destiny, and later martial associations.
A Warring States jade artifact bears an inscription of about 45 characters describing methods of circulating the breath (xingqi) — an early physical record of the arts of…
After the An Lushan Rebellion, the state's policy of honoring Daoism continued, though control over it weakened. Emperor Xianzong (820), Emperor Muzong, Emperor Wuzong (8…
Bai Yuchan of Hainan studied under Chen Nan, receiving the alchemical methods transmitted through the line of Zhang Boduan–Shi Tai–Xue Daoguang–Chen Nan, and also transmi…
Hearing that cinnabar was produced in Jiaozhi, Ge Hong requested appointment as magistrate of Goulou, and traveled with his wife Bao Gu to Guangzhou, settling at Mount Lu…
Li Xiyue of Leshan, Sichuan, claimed to have met Zhang Sanfeng and Patriarch Lü, and wrote the Sanche mizhi (Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles) and the Daoqiao tan (Ta…
Lu Xixing (1520–c. 1606) claimed to have received a revelation from Patriarch Lü, and wrote the Fanghu waishi (Unofficial History of Fanghu), advocating the dual cultivat…
Sun Simiao lived in reclusion on the Zhongnan and Taibai ranges and wrote the Beiji qianjin yaofang (Essential Emergency Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold) and the Qianjin y…
The Zhong-Lü chuandao ji (Anthology of Zhongli Quan's Transmission of the Dao to Lü Dongbin) and the Lingbao bifa (Complete Methods of the Numinous Treasure), attributed …
Bai Yuchan, originally surnamed Ge, given name Changgeng, whose ancestral home was Minqing, Fujian, was born in Qiongzhou. Renowned as a child prodigy, he later abandoned…
Bao Gu, given name Qianguang, was the daughter of Bao Jing, Governor of Nanhai under the Eastern Jin, and the wife of Ge Hong; she is one of the earliest recorded female …
Chen Guofu, a native of Changshu in Jiangsu, was a chemist (holding a doctorate from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany) and a scholar of Daoist texts, and …
Chen Nan, styled Nanmu, with the sobriquet Cuixu, popularly known as "Chen Niwan" (Chen of the Mud Pellets), was the fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal …
Chen Tuan, style name Tunan, self-styled Fuyaozi, was a renowned Daoist priest and recluse of the Five Dynasties and early Song. In his youth he failed the jinshi examina…
Chen Yingning, a native of Huaining, Anhui, was the most important Daoist reformer and advocate of Xianxue (Immortality Studies) in modern times. As a youth he studied Co…
Chen Zhixu, style name Guanwu, sobriquet Shangyangzi, was a native of Luling, Jiangxi, and one of the great synthesizers of internal alchemy in the Yuan dynasty. At the a…
Cui Xifan was an internal-alchemy master of the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, styled the Perfected Zhiyi; little is known of his life, though one account places hi…
David A. Palmer, a Canadian anthropologist, is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, working on contemporary Chinese Daoism, qigong, …
Dong Dening was a scholar of internal alchemy during the Qianlong era of the Qing; details of his life are unknown. His works, the Zhouyi cantong qi zhengyi (Correct Mean…
Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, had a complex relationship with Daoism, moving from belief to renunciation, yet never entirely severing his ties. In his early years he fav…
Emperor Wuzong of Tang, personal name Li Yan, reigned 840–846. From the moment of his accession he was a devoted believer in Daoism: he summoned eighty-one Daoist priests…
Fabrizio Pregadio, an Italian scholar of Daoism, has worked for many years on Chinese alchemy and internal alchemy, and has taught at the University of Venice, Stanford U…
Fu Jinquan, sobriquet Jiyizi, was a native of Jinxi, Jiangxi, and an internal-alchemy master of the Jiaqing and Daoguang eras of the Qing; his dates of birth and death ar…
Gai Jianmin, director, professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, is a disciple of Qing Xitai. His main resea…
Ge Chaofu, a member of the Ge clan of Jurong, Danyang, in the late Eastern Jin, was a great-nephew of Ge Hong and a descendant of Ge Xuan's line. His activities are recor…
Ge Hong, style name Zhichuan, self-styled Baopuzi (Master Who Embraces Simplicity), was a native of Jurong in Danyang under the Eastern Jin, and a grand-nephew of Ge Xuan…
Ge Xuan, courtesy name Xiaoxian, was a native of Jurong in Danyang under the Wu of the Three Kingdoms, a great-uncle of Ge Hong, and known to the world as "Immortal Elder…
Guo Xiang, styled Zixuan, a native of Henan in the Western Jin, rose to the offices of Attendant Gentleman of the Yellow Gate and Registrar to the Grand Tutor, was the re…
Hao Datong, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen; originally skilled in divination and the study of the Yijing, he took Wang Chongyan…
He Longxiang, a native of Jingyan, Sichuan, was one of the central figures in the Daoist textual-publishing enterprise of late-Qing Chengdu. Around the thirty-second year…
Henri Maspero, a French sinologist and professor at the Collège de France, was a founder of Daoist studies in Europe. The son of the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, he worke…
Heshang Gong ("Master on the River") is traditionally held to have been a recluse in the time of Emperor Wen of Han, who built a thatched hut on a riverbank and taught Em…
Hu Fuchen is a research fellow and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a student of Wang Ming, and his main research a…
Huang Shunshen, personal name Yingyan, a native of Jianning, Fujian, was the actual synthesizer of the Qingwei School and is honored as its tenth-generation patriarch. As…
Huang Yuanji, given name Shang, a native of Fengcheng in Jiangxi, was an internal-alchemy master of the Daoguang and Xianfeng reigns of the Qing; his dates of birth and d…
Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) is a tribal leader and cultural progenitor of Chinese high antiquity in legend, not a verifiable historical individual: accounts of his name …
Isabelle Robinet, a French sinologist and professor at the University of Provence, was a central member of the French school of Daoist studies. A student of Max Kaltenmar…
Zhu Houcong, the eleventh emperor of the Ming, reigned under the era name Jiajing for forty-five years and was the Ming ruler most devoted to Daoism. After his accession …
Jin Yunzhong, a Southern Song Lingbao School Daoist priest, dates of birth and death unknown, active roughly in the early thirteenth century (his own preface to his book …
Kou Qianzhi, styled Fuzhen, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Wei and the reformer of the Northern Celestial Masters. According to the "Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism"…
Li Bai, courtesy name Taibai, styled himself the "Green Lotus Lay Practitioner" (Qinglian Jushi), was a poet of the High Tang whose ties to Daoism ran deep. As a boy in S…
Li Daochun, style name Yuansu, sobriquet Qing'an, was a native of Xuyi, Jiangsu, and a prominent theorist of internal alchemy in the early Yuan; his dates of birth and de…
Li Guangfu, a native of Danjiangkou, Hubei, is a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage and a leading representative of Daoism at the Wudang Mountains. He entered the pri…
Li Hanguang, originally surnamed Hong, changed his surname to Li to avoid the taboo name of the filial and pious Crown Prince Li Hong; he was the thirteenth-generation pa…
Li Shaojun was a renowned fangshi under Emperor Wu of the Western Han. The 'Fengshan Shu' of the Records of the Grand Historian and the 'Treatise on the Suburban Sacrific…
Li Xiyue, sobriquet Hanxu, a native of Leshan in Sichuan, was the founder of the “Western Lineage” of Qing internal alchemy. He studied the Confucian classics in his yout…
Li Yuanguo is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Culture, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, and a senior scholar of Daoist studies in Sichuan. His mai…
Lin Zhao'en, courtesy name Maoxun, styled Longjiang, was a native of Putian, Fujian, and the founder of the Sanyi (Three-in-One) Teaching, also known as the Xia Teaching …
Liu An, a grandson of Emperor Gaozu of Han and son of Liu Chang, King Li of Huainan, inherited the title of King of Huainan in the sixteenth year of Emperor Wen's reign (…
Liu Chuxuan, a native of Donglai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, taking Wang Chongyang as his teacher in 1169. After completing his mourning duties…
Liu Haichan, given name Cao, courtesy name Zongcheng (also given as Zhaoyuan), styled Haichanzi, was an internal alchemist of the Five Dynasties and one of the Five North…
Liu Huayang, a native of Nanchang in Jiangxi, was a Qing-dynasty Buddhist monk and internal-alchemy master, a representative figure of the Wu–Liu School. Born in the firs…
Liu Mingrui, sobriquet Panchanzi, was the twentieth-generation transmitter of the Nanwu Lineage of Quanzhen in the late Qing and early Republic, a native of Beijing. In h…
Liu Yiming, sobriquet Wuyuanzi, was a native of Quwo in Shanxi, an eleventh-generation figure of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage in the Qing and a celebrated theorist of int…
Liu Yuanchang, styled Changyuan, sobriquet Ziyuan, a native of Fujian, was a disciple of Bai Yuchan. During the Jiading era he traveled and studied with Bai Yuchan, who w…
Livia Kohn, a German-American scholar of Daoism, is professor emerita of religious studies at Boston University and spent many years as a researcher at the Institute for …
Lü Dongbin, personal name Yan, courtesy name Dongbin, styled Chunyangzi, is the patriarch venerated by the Zhong–Lü school of Daoist internal alchemy, the most influentia…
Lu Xixing, courtesy name Changgeng, sobriquet Qianxuzi, was a native of Xinghua, Jiangsu, and the founder of the Ming-dynasty Eastern Lineage of internal alchemy. In his …
Ma Yu, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, born into great wealth, took Wang Chongyang as his teacher in 1167 together with his wife Sun Bu'er, and stands foremost among the S…
Meng Wentong, a native of Yanting in Sichuan, was a renowned modern historian and classicist, and a professor at Sichuan University. In his early years he studied under L…
Michel Strickmann, an American sinologist, studied early in his career in Paris under Max Kaltenmark and Kristofer Schipper, and later became a professor at the Universit…
Min Yide, style name Xiaogen, was a native of Huzhou in Zhejiang, the eleventh-generation patriarch of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing and the effective founder of the “Y…
Mu Changchao was a Quanzhen Daoist priest of the Yuan dynasty; his dates and native place are unknown, and he was active roughly from the late thirteenth to the early fou…
Ning Quanzhen, personal name Benli, courtesy name Daoli, a native of Kaifeng, Henan, was the actual founder of the Southern Song Lingbao Donghua School. As a youth he fle…
Peng Si, styled Jiyi, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian, was an inner-chamber disciple of Bai Yuchan. According to the Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian Xubian, he was widely learne…
Peng Xiao, courtesy name Xiuchuan, styled Zhenyizi, was a Daoist priest of the Later Shu during the Five Dynasties. A native of Yongkang, he served the Shu state as a Cou…
Qiu Chuji, a native of Qixia, Shandong, renounced the household at nineteen and took Wang Chongyang as his teacher the following year, the youngest of the Seven Perfected…
Sakade Yoshinobu was a Japanese scholar of Daoism and Chinese intellectual history, professor emeritus at Kansai University, and president of the Japanese Society of Taoi…
Shi Jianwu, courtesy name Xisheng, styled himself Dongzhai, and after taking up Daoist practice styled himself Qizhenzi, was a Tang-dynasty poet and Daoist priest. He pas…
Shi Tai, styled Dezhi, with the sobriquet Xinglin (Apricot Grove) and also called Cuixuanzi, was the second patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal alchemy. Accordi…
Sima Chengzhen, style name Ziwei, Dharma name Daoyin, sobriquet Baiyunzi, was the twelfth patriarch of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan Shangqing School, a descendant of Sima Kui…
Stephen Eskildsen, an American scholar of Daoism, is a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, studying Daoist practice, asceticism and internal alchemy.…
Sun Ruzhong, a Ming-dynasty internal-alchemy master and author of True Transmission of the Golden Elixir (Jindan Zhenzhuan), has dates of birth and death unknown, and was…
Sun Simiao was a Tang-dynasty physician and Daoist priest from Huayuan in the Jingzhao region, revered by later generations as the “King of Medicine.” His birth year is v…
Tan Qiao, courtesy name Jingsheng, was a Daoist priest and thinker of the Five Dynasties, a native of Quanzhou and son of Tan Zhu, who served as Vice Director of the Dire…
Tao Hongjing, style name Tongming, self-styled the Hermit of Huayang, was a Daoist priest and scholar active between the Southern Qi and Liang dynasties, and the great sy…
Tao Zhongwen, a native of Huanggang, Hubei, originally served as a county clerk and practiced the use of talisman water; he was recommended to the capital by Shao Yuanjie…
Tian Chengyang, a native of Shandong, is a Daoist priest of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen. He left home to become a Daoist on Mount Lao (Laoshan) in the 1980s, later st…
Wang Bi, styled Fusi, a native of Gaoping, Shanyang, in the Wei kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, was the representative figure of Zhengshi-era Xuanxue (Neo-Daoist Le…
Wang Chongyang, founder of Quanzhen Daoism. Born into a wealthy family in Guanzhong, he sat for both the civil and military examinations in his early years but failed to …
Wang Jie, style name Daoyuan, sobriquet Hunranzi, was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, and an internal-alchemy master of the late Yuan and early Ming whose dates of birth a…
Wang Liping, a native of Fushun, Liaoning, claims to be the eighteenth-generation transmitter of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen. According to a biography written by his …
Wang Mu, a native of Hebei, is a modern scholar of internal alchemy and a research fellow at the research office of the Chinese Taoist Association. He studied law in his …
Wang Qizhen, a Southern Song Lingbao Donghua School Daoist priest and disciple of Ning Quanzhen, dates of birth and death unknown, active roughly from the late twelfth to…
Wang Wenqing, styled Yudao (also given as Shudao), sobriquet Chonghezi, was the great master of Shenxiao Thunder Rites in the late Northern and early Southern Song, known…
Wang Xizhi, styled Yishao, was a celebrated calligrapher of the Eastern Jin who rose to the office of General of the Right Army and Interior Minister of Kuaiji, known to …
Wang Xuanlan, original name Hui, style name Xuanlan, was a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest of Mianzhu, an important thinker of Chongxuan learning. He entered the Daoist order …
Wei Boyang was an alchemist of the Eastern Han, a native of Shangyu in Kuaiji, styled Yunyazi. Ge Hong's Biographies of Divine Immortals says he was "the son of a disting…
Weng Baoguang, courtesy name Yuanming, sobriquet Wumingzi (Master Nameless), was a Southern Song Daoist priest whose dates of birth and death are unknown; he was active r…
Wu Shouyang, courtesy name Duanyang, sobriquet Chongxuzi, was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, a celebrated late-Ming master of internal alchemy, eighth-generation Longmen …
Xiao Tianshi, a native of Shaoyang, Hunan, studied military affairs and philosophy in his early years, moved to Taiwan in 1949, and founded the Freedom Press (Ziyou Chuba…
Xiao Yingsou, sobriquet Guanfu, was a Daoist priest of the late Southern Song whose life details are unknown; he was active roughly during the reigns of Emperor Lizong an…
Xue Daoguang, named Shi (also written Daoyuan), styled Taiyuan, with the sobriquet Zixian, was the third patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal alchemy. He was ori…
Yin Changsheng, a fangshi of the Eastern Han, appears in Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan. Tradition holds that he was a scion of the clan of Empress Yin, consort of Emperor He o…
Yin Zhiping, the sixth head of the Quanzhen teaching, renounced the household at fourteen and studied successively under the Perfected Ma Yu, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Hao …
Yu Daoxian, a native of Ninghai in Shandong, was a renowned second-generation Quanzhen priest and a disciple of Wang Chuyi. In the late Jin he preached in the area of Sha…
Yu Yan, style name Yuwu, was a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, and a scholar of the Book of Changes and internal alchemy at the Song–Yuan transition. After the fall of the Son…
Yuan Miaozong was a Daoist priest active at the court of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song, known for compiling the ten-fascicle Secret Essentials of the Assembled Per…
Zhan Shichuang, a native of Xiamen, Fujian, is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, and formerly a pr…
Zhang Boduan, styled Pingshu and later renamed Yongcheng, with the sobriquet Ziyang, was a renowned master of internal alchemy in the Northern Song, honored by the Southe…
Zhang Guangbao is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, and formerly a research fellow at the Institute of History, Ch…
Zhang Guo, a Daoist priest of the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the prototype for "Zhang Guolao," one of the later Eight Immortals. The Biographies of Masters of Tech…
Zhang Jixian, styled Jiawen (also styled Daozheng), sobriquet Xiaoranzi, was the thirtieth Celestial Master of Longhushan and one of the most famous Celestial Masters in …
Zhang Liang, courtesy name Zifang, was a founding strategist of the early Han and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Liu. Originally an aristocrat of the state of Han, after Qin…
Zhang Qingye, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, was a tenth-generation Daoist priest of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing, and the pioneer of Longmen Daoism in Sichuan. In his e…
Zhang Sanfeng was a celebrated Daoist priest of the late Yuan and early Ming, whose deeds are difficult to distinguish from legend. According to the "Biographies of Techn…
Zhang Shouqing, personal name Dongyuan, courtesy name Shouqing, was a native of Yidu in Xiazhou, Hubei, and the central figure of Wudang Daoism under the Yuan. He served …
Zhang Wumeng, style name Lingyin, sobriquet Hongmengzi, was a Daoist priest of the early Northern Song. In his youth he entered Mount Hua, where he studied together with …
Zhang Zhishun, a native of Shenqiu in Henan, was a twenty-first-generation priest of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage, with the Daoist name Mijingzi. He left home to become a…
Zhao Bichen, styled the "Old Man of a Thousand Peaks" (Qianfeng Laoren), was a native of Changping, Beijing, and a Republican-era Neidan master, founder of the Qianfeng (…
Zhao Guizhen was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Jingzong and Emperor Wuzong of Tang. He entered the palace with Daoist arts during Jingzong's Baoli era, and was rec…
Zhao Yizhen, courtesy name Yuanyang, was a native of Anfu, Jiangxi, and an eminent Daoist of the late Yuan and early Ming who inherited the transmission of three traditio…
Zhao Youqin, styled Yuanduzi, was a native of Poyang in Jiangxi (he claimed descent from the Song imperial house) and a celebrated scientist and Daoist priest of the Yuan…
Zheng Yin, style name Siyuan, was a Daoist priest of the Western Jin, a disciple of Ge Xuan and the teacher of Ge Hong. According to the 'Xialan' chapter of the Baopuzi: …
Zhongli Quan, courtesy name Yunfang, styled Zhengyangzi, is the patriarch venerated by the Zhong–Lü Internal Alchemy Tradition of Daoism, and is one of the Eight Immortal…
Zhu Yuanyu, styled Yunyang Daoren, was an internal alchemist of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage in the Kangxi era of the early Qing; his dates are unknown. He studied u…
Zhuangzi, personal name Zhou, was a native of Meng in the state of Song in the mid-Warring States period, who once served as an official in charge of the lacquer garden; …
Zou Yan, a native of Qi during the Warring States period, was a celebrated scholar at the Jixia Academy and the representative figure of the Yin-Yang School. The 'Biograp…
Zuo Ci, courtesy name Yuanfang, was a native of Lujiang at the end of the Eastern Han and a renowned fangshi. The "Biographies of Practitioners of Magical Arts" in the Bo…
An organization composed of Russian practitioners of Daoism and Chinese Daoist priests resident in Russia, active in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in disseminating and tran…
The Swiss branch of the Taoist Tai Chi Society, with teaching centers in Zurich, Geneva, Bern and elsewhere; its main activity is taijiquan for health cultivation, and it…
A local Daoist organization managing temples on Wudang Mountains such as Zixiao Palace, Taihe Palace, and Nanyan Palace, founded around 1984, it runs the Wudang Mountains…
Entering the twenty-first century, Daoism on the Chinese mainland has continued to develop under institutionalized management. The Chinese Taoist Association has been led…
The transmission of Daoism beyond China's borders has a long but uneven history. In East Asia: Tang-dynasty Daoism influenced the Korean peninsula (Goguryeo sent an envoy…
During the wars and upheavals of the Five Dynasties, Daoism continued to be honored under the various regional regimes (Du Guangting under the Former Shu, and under South…
Ming Daoism, under state administration, continued the twofold "Zhengyi–Quanzhen" configuration, with Zhengyi more heavily relied upon by the court for its expertise in l…
The Northern and Southern Dynasties were an era of "reform, consolidation, and official recognition" for Daoism, with distinct developments in north and south. In the nor…
In the pre-Qin period there was not yet an organized religion called "Daoism" (Daojiao), but most of the ideas, beliefs, and technical resources on which later Daoism wou…
The Qin and Han were a crucial stage in the "prehistory" of Daoism. Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han both put great faith in fangshi (masters of methods): they dispatc…
The Qing dynasty made Tibetan Buddhism its state religion, and its attitude toward Daoism grew cool and controlling. The Shunzhi reign and the early Kangxi reign still tr…
The 1911 Revolution abolished the hereditary title of Celestial Master, and Daoism lost the institutional support it had enjoyed under the imperial system; it struggled t…
After the Jingkang Incident, China was divided into a northern and a southern regime, and Daoism developed along two distinct northern and southern paths. Under the rule …
The Sui and Tang were among the golden ages of Daoism. Both Emperor Wen and Emperor Yang of Sui treated Daoist priests with favor, and the reign title "Kaihuang" was itse…
The Wei-Jin period saw Daoism move from a local religious community toward a nationwide religion, and from popular belief toward aristocratization and canon formation. Af…
A multi-episode documentary produced by China Central Television, recounting the Daoist history of the Wudang Mountains, the construction of its temple complex during the…
Chen Guofu's foundational work in the textual scholarship of the Daoist Canon, first published in 1949 and expanded in 1963, examining the origins and development of the …
An influential comprehensive Daoism portal site in mainland China, with sections on Daoist news, temples, scriptures, figures, nourishing life, and ritual; it carries a l…
The Dictionary of Daoist Culture, edited by Zhang Zhizhe, published by Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House in 1994, focusing on various aspects of Daoist culture (lite…
A project of the Centre for the Study of Daoist Culture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in collaboration with the École française d'Extrême-Orient, devoted to edit…
David A. Palmer studies the rise and fall of the qigong movement in China after 1949, touching on the modern transformation of the Daoist internal-alchemy tradition and t…
A bibliography of Western-language Daoist studies maintained on the Golden Elixir website, organized by topic (history, scriptures, Internal Alchemy, External Alchemy, sc…
The Department of Sinology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich is one of the leading centres for the study of Chinese religion in the German-speaking world; its fac…
A history of Chinese alchemy co-authored by Joseph Needham with Lu Gwei-djen, Nathan Sivin, and others, spanning multiple volumes that examine the history and chemical ba…
A Korean academic society for the study of Daoism and Daoist culture, publishing the journal Studies in Daoist Culture; its members research the history of Korean Daoism,…
Drawing on the recorded sayings and poetry of Wang Chongyang and the Seven Perfected, this work analyzes the ascetic practice, internal alchemy, and salvational thought o…
A Chinese–English glossary of Daoist and Internal Alchemy terminology provided on Fabrizio Pregadio's website, covering several hundred entries such as the Cinnabar Field…
A website on Daoism and internal/external alchemy maintained by the Italian scholar Fabrizio Pregadio, offering excerpted English translations of alchemical texts such as…
East Asian studies at the University of Cambridge offers courses in the history of Chinese religion and thought; the Needham Research Institute also holds a large collect…
The Oriental Philosophy programme in the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University; scholars such as Fukui Fumimasa and Mori Yuria have researched Daoist…
The Great Dictionary of Chinese Daoism, edited by Hu Fuchen, published by China Social Sciences Press in 1995, containing about 15,000 entries arranged by category — Daoi…
The Bidong Branch, in full the "Dantai Bidong Zong," is a branch of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen that emerged in Sichuan, and has been the main current of Daoism in th…
The Bo Family Way (Bojia Dao) was a Daoist tradition popular in the Jiangnan region during the Wei–Jin period, named for its patriarch Bo He. Bo He, styled Zhongli, was a…
The Central Lineage of Internal Alchemy (Zhongpai) is an internal-alchemy school founded by the Yuan-dynasty Daoist Li Daochun, centered on the principle of “guarding the…
The Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) school was not an organized religious community but a hermeneutical school and philosophical current within Sui-Tang Daoism devoted to int…
The spread of Daoism in Europe and the Americas may be traced along two threads: the Daoism of Chinese immigrants and an indigenized Western Daoism. From the mid-nineteen…
The Donghua School is a Daoist tradition that split off from the Lingbao school during the Southern Song, with Ning Quanzhen as its effective founder. Its self-narrated g…
The Eastern Lineage of Internal Alchemy (Dongpai) was founded by Lu Xixing (1520–1606?), a native of Xinghua in Jiangsu during the Ming dynasty, and takes its name from i…
Fangxian Dao is the general term for the immortality beliefs and traditions of esoteric arts current from the Warring States through the Qin and Han, taking its name from…
The Golden Elixir tradition, or Danding (Elixir and Tripod) School, is a Daoist tradition whose principal path of cultivation is the compounding of external elixirs (waid…
The Gezao Lineage is the sectarian institution that the Lingbao School developed after the Tang and Song, centered on Mount Gezao in Jiangxi as its center of transmission…
"Huang-Lao" refers to a system of thought and belief attributed to the Yellow Emperor and following the teaching of Laozi. In the Warring States period, scholars of the J…
The Huashan Lineage was founded by Hao Datong, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Hao Datong's given name was Lin, his courtesy name Taigu, and his sobriquet Guangni…
Xianxue (Immortality Studies) is a Daoist reform movement and school of Neidan research proposed by Chen Yingning during the Republican era, which held that the study of …
The Jinshan Lineage is a branch that split off from the Quanzhen Longmen lineage in the Ming, centered on Mount Lao (Laoshan), named for its founding patriarch Sun Xuanqi…
The Lao–Zhuang School is the strand of pre-Qin philosophical thought that takes the "Dao" as its highest category; it was first named "Daoism" (Daojia) in the Han dynasty…
The Li Family Way (Lijia Dao) was a popular Daoist tradition that originated in Shu during the Three Kingdoms and Jin periods and spread widely in the Jiangdong region. A…
The Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School is a Daoist scriptural tradition that arose at the end of the Eastern Jin, based on the Lingbao scriptures. The transmission of the…
The Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage is the most influential of the branches descending from the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, honoring Qiu Chuji as its patriarch, and takes …
Louguan Daoism was a Daoist tradition centered on the Louguan (Tower Belvedere) on Mount Zhongnan, active from the Northern and Southern Dynasties through the Sui and Tan…
The Lü Dongbin cult refers to the worship and ritual tradition centered on Lü Dongbin (given name Yan, courtesy name Dongbin, style Chunyangzi), the most widely dissemina…
The Maoshan Lineage is the sectarian institution that the Shangqing School developed after the Southern Dynasties, centered on Mount Mao (Maoshan) as its ancestral court;…
Mazu worship is the most important cult of a seafarers' protective deity around the China seas; its relationship to Daoism is close but not fully coextensive, and this si…
The Nanwu Lineage is the branch founded by Tan Chuduan, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Tan Chuduan, courtesy name Tongzheng, sobriquet Changzhen Zi, was a native…
Nanyue (Mount Heng) Daoism refers to the regional Daoist tradition formed around Mount Heng (Hengshan) in Hunan. Mount Heng is the Southern Peak among the Five Great Peak…
The Northern Celestial Masters is the school that took shape after the Daoist priest Kou Qianzhi reformed the Way of the Celestial Masters under the Northern Wei. Kou Qia…
The Qianfeng (Thousand Peaks) School is an internal-alchemy lineage founded by Zhao Bichen at the end of the Qing and the beginning of the Republic, named for his sobriqu…
The Qingjing Lineage was founded by Sun Bu'er, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, and takes its name from her sobriquet 'Wanderer of Clarity and Stillness' (Qingjing…
The Qingwei School is a Thunder Rites Daoist tradition that arose at the end of the Southern Song and into the Yuan, fusing the talismanic methods of the Shangqing, Lingb…
The Qionglong Mountain Lineage is a Daoist school founded in the early Qing by Shi Daoyuan in Suzhou, named after its ancestral court, Shangzhen Temple on Mount Qionglong…
Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism was founded by Wang Chongyang (1112–1170) of the Jin dynasty and, together with Zhengyi Daoism, forms one of the two main currents o…
Daoism was never transmitted to Japan as an organized religious order, but from ancient times its ideas, deities, and techniques were transmitted in great volume via the …
The spread of Daoism on the Korean peninsula began in the Three Kingdoms period. The Samguk sagi records that in the seventh year of the Wude reign of the Tang (624) Empe…
Vietnam has been under Daoist influence since the Han dynasty, when it belonged to Jiaozhi Commandery, and it is one of the regions within the Sinitic cultural sphere whe…
The Sanfeng Lineage is a Daoist tradition honoring Zhang Sanfeng as its founding patriarch, transmitted mainly at Mount Wudang. Zhang Sanfeng, given name Quanyi, also cal…
The Sanhuang (Three Sovereigns) Tradition is a Wei–Jin Daoist scriptural school centered on the Sanhuang wen (Scripture of the Three Sovereigns — comprising the Sanhuang …
The Sanyi Teaching is a religion founded by Lin Zhao'en of Putian, Fujian, in the Ming dynasty, teaching the unity of the Three Teachings; it does not itself belong to Da…
The Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School is a new Daoist school that emerged among the great clans of Jiangnan in the mid-Eastern Jin, taking its name from the Shangqing Sc…
The Shenxiao (Divine Empyrean) School is a talismanic Daoist order distinguished by its thunder rites, which arose at the end of the Northern Song. "Shenxiao" refers to t…
The Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir (Nanzong) is a Daoist school of the Song–Yuan period that takes Zhang Boduan as its founding patriarch and internal-alchemical c…
The Suishan Lineage is the branch founded by Liu Chuxuan, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Liu Chuxuan, courtesy name Tongmiao, sobriquet Changsheng Zi, was a nati…
Taiyi Daoism was a new Daoist tradition that arose in the Hebei–Henan region in the early Jin dynasty, together with Quanzhen Daoism and Zhen Dadao known as the 'Three Gr…
The Tianxin Zhengfa (Correct Method of the Celestial Heart) is a talismanic Daoist tradition that arose in Jiangxi at the beginning of the Northern Song, the earliest of …
The Western Lineage of Internal Alchemy (Xipai) was founded by Li Xiyue (1806–1856), a native of Leshan in Sichuan during the Qing dynasty, and takes its name from its lo…
The Wu-Liu School is a lineage of Internal Alchemy represented by the master-disciple pair Wu Shouyang and Liu Huayang at the end of the Ming and beginning of the Qing, t…
Wudang Daoism refers to the Daoist tradition centered on Mount Wudang in Hubei and on the cult of Zhenwu (the Dark Emperor of Heaven); historically it was not a single sc…
The Langmei (Elm-Plum) Lineage is one of the resident schools of the Wudang Mountains, taking its name from Wudang's native "langmei" fruit and from Li Suxi, a Daoist pri…
The Wudang Qingwei Lineage is a local branch that formed after the Qingwei Thunder Rites spread north to the Wudang Mountains. Its founder, Zhang Shouqing (1253–1336?), p…
The Xuanwu Lineage is a branch within the resident Daoist orders of the Wudang Mountains that possesses a complete generational-name genealogy; it takes its name from its…
The Xizhu Xinzong (Western India Mind Lineage) of Longmen is a branch of the Longmen lineage that emerged in the early Qing, named for its founding patriarch, the 'Jizu D…
The Yinxian (Hidden Immortals) Lineage is a name later applied to the internal-alchemy and Yijing-study transmission descending from Chen Tuan in the Five Dynasties and N…
The Yushan Lineage was founded by Wang Chuyi, one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, and takes its name from his long cultivation of the Dao at Mount Kunyu (Yushan) in S…
The Yuxian Lineage was founded by Ma Yu, foremost of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Ma Yu was originally named Congyi, courtesy name Yifu; after entering the Dao he cha…
Zhen Dadao (True Great Way), originally named Dadao Jiao (Teaching of the Great Way), is a new Daoist order founded by Liu Deren (1122–1180) of Cangzhou, Hebei, in the ea…
The Zhong-Lü internal-alchemy tradition took shape in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, attributed to the transmission of Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, and is the common s…
The seventh of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, five hundred li in circumference and titled the "Heaven of Vermilion Brightness and Luminous Perfection," governed by Master …
The Art Institute of Chicago was established in 1879, and holds about 35,000 works of Asian art spanning nearly five thousand years, encompassing China, Korea, Japan, Ind…
There are two main Daoist organizations in Switzerland: ATAOS (the Swiss Daoist Association), founded in 2007 by Fabrice Jordan (Daoist name Mingguang), and the QuanZhen-…
Baishi Mountain (White Rock Mountain) lies southeast of Guiping; its two peaks face each other like a screen of white jade, and Daoist texts list it as the twenty-first o…
Baopu Daoist Temple stands on Geling (Ge Ridge) on the northern shore of West Lake; tradition holds that Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin built a thatched hut here to refine el…
The fortieth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Chuzhou, the place where Wang Qiao attained the Dao." It is identified today with Mount Bochi in Huai'an, tradi…
70th of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Luoyang county, Eastern Capital, under the administration of the Perfected Wei,' identified with present-day Mount Mang north o…
Caodaism (Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ) was formally established as a religion on 7 October 1926, growing out of a spirit-writing (扶乩) circle in Saigon in 1925; its founders inc…
The Chinatown of Buenos Aires lies in the Belgrano district, extending some five blocks by two, and took shape mainly in the 1980s when immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong …
Chongxu Ancient Temple originated as the Duxu Hermitage built by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin, the foremost of the four hermitages of Mount Luofu; Ge Hong compounded elixir…
The Deutsche Daoistische Vereinigung was founded in 2015 by Liu Chengyong, who established its associated temple the following year (2016); it is the leading Daoist organ…
The Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism was founded in Toronto in 1970 by Moy Lin-shin, together with its sister organization the International Taoist Tai Chi Society, formi…
Fung Ying Seen Koon is located in Fanling, New Territories, founded in 1929 by Daoist masters He Jinyu, Chen Luankai, and others who had come south from the Sanyuan Gong …
Shangqing Palace is the principal palace of Zhengyi Daoism on Mount Longhu. Tradition holds that Zhang Daoling built a hermitage here to refine elixirs; the Zhenxian Temp…
Jianji Temple was the hermitage of the Southern Dynasties Daoist reformer Lu Xiujing on Mount Lu. In the fifth year of Daming of the Liu Song (461), Lu Xiujing built a te…
Jiuxian Temple stands on Yushan within the city of Fuzhou; tradition holds that the nine He brothers of the Han dynasty practiced alchemy here and became immortals, givin…
Kong Ngie Tong Sang (廣義堂) is one of the principal Chinese community association halls in Suriname, located in the capital Paramaribo, with a Bak Mei (White Eyebrow) marti…
L'Association taoïste de Belgique was founded in 2011, belongs to the Europe Taoist Federation network, and operates as an association without a fixed temple. Its activit…
The twenty-second of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Jade Watchtower and Precious Tablet,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Qian. Identi…
The twenty-fifth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Mysterious and True Great Origin,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Chen. Identified…
Louguantai is traditionally held to be the place where Yin Xi, keeper of Hangu Pass in the Zhou dynasty, built a thatched tower to observe the stars and watch for auspici…
The Maoshan Daoist Culture Museum, located within the Maoshan Scenic Area in Jiangsu, is a dedicated exhibition institution devoted to the Shangqing school and the Daoism…
Mount Emei is today counted among the Four Great Buddhist Mountains of China, but from the Han–Wei period through the Tang it was chiefly a center of Daoism. The Baopuzi …
Mount Gezao is the ancestral court of the Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School. Tradition holds that Ge Xuan (the Immortal Elder Ge) of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms per…
Mount Hua is the Western Peak, renowned for its precipitous terrain, with five peaks standing in a ring; it has been a site of sacrifice to the marchmount and of reclusiv…
Mount Kongtong is a famous mountain in eastern Gansu; tradition holds that the Yellow Emperor ascended it in the west to ask about the Dao from Guang Chengzi (as recorded…
Mount Luofu is known as the 'foremost mountain of Lingnan,' the seventh of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens of Daoism, the 'Zhuming Yaozhen Grotto-Heaven,' and is also counte…
Mount Qingcheng is one of the birthplaces of Daoism. Tradition holds that Zhang Daoling built a thatched hermitage here in his later years, taught the Dao, and ascended t…
Mount Sanqing takes its name from its three towering peaks — Yujing, Yuxu and Yuhua — which stand like the Three Pure Ones seated in a row. Tradition holds that Ge Hong o…
Mount Tiantai is a famous mountain of both Buddhism and Daoism: Guoqing Temple, the ancestral court of the Buddhist Tiantai school, and the Daoist Tongbai Palace stand wi…
Mount Tianzhu, anciently called Mount Wan or Mount Qian, was ascended and worshipped by Emperor Wu of Han during his southern tour in the fifth year of Yuanfeng (106 BCE)…
Mount Wangwu is the foremost of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens of Daoism, the 'Heaven of Lesser Existence and Clear Emptiness.' Tradition holds that the Yellow Emperor once…
Quan Thanh Temple (the Zhenwu Shrine) is the Daoist temple guarding the northern quarter among the "Four Sacred Guardians of Thang Long" in Hanoi; tradition holds that it…
San Qing Gong was completed in March 2003; its principal deities are the Three Pure Ones, enshrined in the Daluotian Sanqing Hall, alongside a Hall of the Three Patriarch…
Shangqing Palace in Luoyang is located on Cuiyun Peak of Mount Mang; tradition holds that Laozi once refined the elixir there. In the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, a …
The Slovenian Daoist Temple of Supreme Harmony was founded in Koper in 2018 by Jure Čeh (Daoist name Yuan Weiqi), and is one of the few Daoist organizations in Europe wit…
The Taoist College (Singapore) was approved for establishment by the Registrar of Societies in January 2008, and is Singapore's first formal institution of Daoist educati…
The Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego is one of the earliest religious corporations in the United States registered under the name 'Daoist,' established in 1975; its current …
The Templo de la Pureza y el Silencio (Qingjing Gong) was founded in 2005 by the Chinese Daoist priest Tian Chengyang, one of the earlier physical Daoist temples establis…
The British Daoist Association (BDA) was founded in 1996 by Shi Jing, a legally registered unincorporated membership association in the United Kingdom that has been recog…
The Thong Chai Medical Institution was founded in 1867 by seven Chinese merchants and is the earliest Chinese charitable institution of traditional medicine in Singapore;…
Tongbai Palace is the ancestral court of the Southern Lineage of Daoist internal alchemy. According to tradition, Ge Xuan built a temple here during the Chiwu era of the …
Wudang Mountains, anciently called Mount Taihe, is the sacred site of Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior, Xuandi), and is listed as the ninth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands,…
The Wudang Museum, located in the Wudang Mountains Scenic Area in Hubei, is devoted to Wudang Daoism and the cult of Zhenwu. Since the Tang and Song, the Wudang Mountains…
Yuntai Mountain in Xiuwu, Henan, is known for its Taihang landscape of streams and cliffs and as the retreat of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove," and it was also a s…
Yuquan Temple stands at the mouth of the valley on the northern foot of Mount Hua, the starting point for ascending the mountain, and the principal temple of the Huashan …
Yuzhen Palace was an imperially commissioned temple built by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming in the tenth year of the Yongle reign (1412) in memory of Zhang Sanfeng; it ta…
Zhengyi Temple stands beneath Liandan Cliff (Alchemy Cliff) at Mount Longhu; tradition holds that Zhang Daoling built a hut here and practiced alchemy, and that Zhang She…
Abstention from Grains (Bigu): abstaining from the five grains, replacing them with ingested qi or medicines (pine and cypress, poria, etc.), on the belief that grain-qi …
A collective term for Daoist lineages whose primary practice is alchemy — external or internal — as opposed to the talismanic schools. It traces its origins to Fangxian D…
Written by Zhang Boduan of the Northern Song in verse form, it expounds the principle of the dual cultivation of nature and life in internal alchemy. Together with the Zh…
Written by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin, the Inner Chapters (20 scrolls) discuss immortality, the golden elixir, ingestion of herbs and minerals, talismans and registers, a…
'In carrying the soul and embracing the One, can you avoid separation?' Here 'the One' refers to the manifestation of the Dao, the primordial undifferentiated qi. Embraci…
Bedchamber Arts (Fangzhong): sexual life-nourishing techniques for harmonizing yin and yang and conserving essence through restraint of desire, already classified as a br…
Body Gods (Shenshen): Daoism holds that the human body is a microcosm, with divinities residing in each part of the body (such as the gods of Niwan, the dantian, and the …
Zhoutian (Celestial Circuit): an internal-alchemy term for the circulation of internal qi through one revolution of the Ren and Du meridians (the Lesser Celestial Circuit…
The highest grade of immortal: 'the superior adept lifts his body and ascends into the void,' able to ascend to heaven in broad daylight and dwell in the celestial realm.…
Dantian (Cinnabar Field): the site of internal alchemical refinement within the body, generally divided into the Upper Dantian (the Niwan between the eyebrows), the Middl…
The Michuan zhengyang zhenren lingbao bifa, attributed to a transmission from Zhongli Quan to Lü Dongbin. It is divided into the Lesser Vehicle method of peace and longev…
Daoyin (Guiding and Stretching): bodily stretching and flexing exercises coordinated with the breath, to guide the flow of qi and blood and prolong life free of illness. …
A selective compendium of the Daoist Canon compiled by Jiang Yuanting during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing and reprinted with additions by Erxian Nunnery in Chengdu durin…
Attributed to Qiu Chuji, it lays out the methods of internal alchemy directly through nine diagrams and nine formulas, including harmonizing yin and yang, gathering and d…
Dragon and Tiger: an alchemical code term. The Dragon belongs to Wood and Fire, symbolizing spirit (Nature) and mercury; the Tiger belongs to Metal and Water, symbolizing…
A core tenet of internal alchemy (neidan). 'Nature' (xing) refers to the mind and spiritual consciousness, while 'life' (ming) refers to the physical body and vital essen…
The eight three-line symbols — Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen and Dui — symbolizing heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain and lake. Daoism uses the pre-…
Embryonic Breathing (Taixi): the advanced stage of ingesting qi, in which breathing becomes as subtle as that of an infant in the womb, circulating not through the nose a…
Essence, Qi and Spirit (Jing, Qi, Shen): the 'Three Treasures' of internal alchemy. Essence is the material basis of life, qi is the circulation of energy, and spirit is …
Fangshi (Masters of Methods) were specialists in the arts of immortality, medicine, and divination active from the Warring States through the Qin and Han, many hailing fr…
Fasting of the Mind (Xinzhai): from the 'In the World of Men' chapter of the Zhuangzi — 'Do not listen with the ears but listen with the mind; do not listen with the mind…
Fire Phasing (Huohou): originally referring to the control of flame intensity and timing in external-alchemy smelting, in internal alchemy it refers to using intention an…
The transmission patriarchs retroactively recognized by Quanzhen Daoism: Wang Xuanfu (Donghua Dijun), Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, Liu Haichan, and Wang Chongyang, represent…
The five basic material properties — metal, wood, water, fire and earth — and their relationships of mutual generation and mutual overcoming, used to explain the transfor…
Five Qi Return to the Origin: an internal-alchemy term for the qi of the five viscera (heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys) each returning to its place and converging at…
The five patriarchs of the Southern Lineage of internal alchemy: Zhang Boduan, Shi Tai, Xue Daoguang, Chen Nan, and Bai Yuchan, who taught 'first cultivate Life, then cul…
The Taishang lingbao wufu xu, one of the earliest scriptures of the Lingbao corpus. It was said to have been obtained by Yu the Great at Dongting, and it records the tali…
Attributed to Zhang Boduan, it comprises four hundred characters in twenty pentasyllabic rhymed stanzas, condensing the essentials of the alchemical medicines, fire phasi…
The Four Symbols: the Azure Dragon of the east, White Tiger of the west, Vermilion Bird of the south, and Xuanwu (Black Tortoise) of the north — the four-directional grou…
Golden Elixir (Jindan): in external alchemy, an elixir smelted for ingestion to attain longevity, its 'gold' taking the meaning of imperishability; in internal alchemy, t…
The foremost scripture of the Shangqing School, in thirty-nine chapters; through chanting and visualizing thirty-nine body gods the practitioner achieves the 'whirling an…
Guarding the One (Shouyi): an early core Daoist practice developed from 'embracing the One' in the Daodejing, emphasized alike in the Scripture of Great Peace and the Bao…
According to legend, Fuxi received a chart carried on the back of a dragon-horse from the Yellow River, and Yu the Great received a document carried on the back of a divi…
The High Priest (gaogong) is the officiating Daoist who presides over the entire jiao and communicates with the gods on behalf of the assembled faithful. He must be thoro…
Compiled by the retainers of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, in the Western Han, in twenty-one chapters. Predominantly Daoist in orientation but incorporating other schools of…
Ingesting Herbs and Minerals (Fushi): techniques of ingesting botanical and mineral medicines in pursuit of longevity and immortality, related to external alchemy. The in…
Ingesting Qi (Fuqi): the art of expelling and drawing in breath (tuna) and circulating qi, absorbing the essential qi of heaven, earth, sun and moon while abstaining from…
Kan and Li (Water and Fire Trigrams): among the Eight Trigrams, Kan (Water, with a yang line at its center) and Li (Fire, with a yin line at its center). Internal alchemy…
Keeping Vigil on Gengshen Nights (Shou Gengshen): remaining awake through the night on every gengshen day so that the Three Corpses cannot ascend to Heaven while their ho…
Sun Simiao, the Tang-dynasty Daoist physician, is honored by later generations as the King of Medicine. Author of the Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold (Qianjin ya…
A mythical pillar of heaven and immortal mountain, the abode of the Queen Mother of the West, recorded in both the Shanhaijing (山海经, Classic of Mountains and Seas) and th…
Lead and Mercury: the principal materials of external alchemy, borrowed in internal alchemy as code terms: lead ('true lead') refers to the pre-celestial true qi and the …
The phrase derives from the Daodejing: 'Deepening the roots and firming the base is the way of long life and lasting vision.' Daoism takes this as one of the ultimate goa…
A short Tang-dynasty treatise on cultivation, traditionally annotated by Sima Chengzhen, divided into eight chapters — immortality, simplicity, the gradual gate, fasting …
Written by Cui Xifan of the Five Dynasties in eighty-two lines of trisyllabic verse, it summarizes the gathering of the medicine and fire phasing of internal alchemy in c…
Xuanguan (Mysterious Pass), also 'the single aperture of the mysterious pass': the point at which the pre-celestial true qi is activated in internal-alchemy practice. Alc…
Neidan (Internal Alchemy): a system of cultivation that takes the human body as the cauldron and furnace and essence, qi and spirit as the medicines, forming a 'golden el…
Nine Orifices (Jiuqiao): the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, and the anterior and posterior orifices of the body. Daoist life-nourishing holds that the nine orif…
Niwan (Muddy Pellet, Upper Cinnabar Field): the Upper Dantian, located in the cranial palace of the head. The Scripture of the Yellow Court identifies Niwan as the reside…
Nourishing Life (Yangsheng): the general Daoist term for techniques of preserving body and mind and prolonging life free of illness, including ingesting qi, daoyin, abste…
Lü Dongbin, styled Chunyangzi, a late-Tang Daoist priest, one of the Eight Immortals, and patriarch of the Zhong–Lü Internal Alchemy Tradition; Quanzhen venerates him as …
A fundamental distinction in internal alchemy and in the study of the Book of Changes: 'pre-celestial' (xiantian) refers to the original state prior to birth, of pure yan…
A Ming-dynasty work on internal alchemy attributed to a senior disciple of the Perfected Yin, divided into four collections named after the Yuan, Heng, Li, and Zhen hexag…
A collective term, coined after the 1950s, for traditional mind-body practices such as Daoyin, Ingesting Qi (Fuqi), and Internal Alchemy (Neidan). During the "qigong feve…
A Thunder Rite talismanic lineage formed in the late Song and early Yuan, tracing its founder to the Tang-dynasty Zushu; brought to culmination by Huang Shunshen in the Y…
A Daoist lineage founded by Wang Chongyang in the Jin dynasty, advocating the unity of the Three Teachings and the joint cultivation of Nature and Life (xingming shuangxi…
Quiet Sitting (Jingzuo): the basic practice of sitting cross-legged or upright, regulating the breath and concentrating the spirit, forming the common foundation of visua…
Compiled by the disciples of Huang Yuanji of the Qing from his lectures at the Leyu Tang in Sichuan, in five scrolls. In plain language it expounds the dual cultivation o…
Refinement and Salvation (Liandu): a rite of salvation for the dead that arose after the Song, in which the officiating priest combines their own internal-alchemical atta…
Refining Self and Laying the Foundation (Lianji Zhuji): the entry-level stage of internal alchemy — 'refining the self' means gathering in the mind and stilling thought w…
The Ren and Du Meridians: the Ren Meridian runs along the front midline of the body and the Du Meridian along the back midline, together forming the pathway of the 'Lesse…
River Chariot: an internal-alchemy code term for the process of transporting essence and qi as they rise along the Du Meridian and descend along the Ren Meridian — 'movin…
Sacred Embryo (Shengtai): an internal-alchemy term for the 'embryo' formed by the union of spirit and qi during the stages of refining essence into qi and refining qi int…
An early Eastern Han Daoist scripture, said to derive from the Taiping qingling shu in 170 scrolls presented by Yu Ji and Gong Chong; fifty-seven scrolls survive today, a…
Divided into the Inner Effulgences and Outer Effulgences scriptures, this Wei-Jin Shangqing visualization text describes in heptasyllabic verse the names of the gods resi…
Written by Liu Huayang of the Qing, it fuses Chan Buddhist methods with internal alchemy, describing through illustrations and text the stages of exhausting the outflows,…
Formed in the Eastern Jin when Yang Xi, Xu Mi, and others received the revealed Shangqing scriptures from Wei Huacun and other transcendent beings; Tao Hongjing of Maosha…
Sitting in Oblivion (Zuowang): from the 'Great and Venerable Teacher' chapter of the Zhuangzi — 'Cast off the limbs and body, dismiss hearing and sight, leave form and kn…
An internal-alchemy lineage tracing its founder to Zhang Boduan, which flourished in Jiangnan during the Southern Song; it taught cultivating Life before Nature and did n…
Spirits of the Five Viscera (Wuzang Shen): the Scripture of the Yellow Court holds that the heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys each have a presiding spirit, each wit…
Written by Chen Guofu, first published in 1949 and revised and expanded in 1963, it investigates the compilation of the Daoist Canon through the ages, the appearance of D…
The Book of Changes states in its 'Xici' (系辞, Appended Statements) commentary, 'In change there is the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji), which gives rise to the Two Modes.' It re…
An internal martial art guided by the theory of Taiji and Yin-Yang, traditionally attributed to Zhang Sanfeng of Wudang, though it actually took shape in places such as C…
The classification system of the Daoist Canon: the Three Caverns are the Cavern of Perfection (i.e. Shangqing), the Cavern of Mystery (i.e. Lingbao), and the Cavern of Sp…
Three Corpses (Sanshi): three malevolent spirits (also called the Three Peng) that dwell in the upper, middle and lower dantian of the human body, desiring their host's e…
Three Flowers Gather at the Crown: an internal-alchemy term describing the refining and unifying of the Three Treasures — essence, qi and spirit — which then converge upw…
Three Hun and Seven Po Souls: the Daoist view of the soul — the hun, belonging to yang and governing the spirit, number three (Taiguang, Shuangling, Youjing); the po, bel…
Thunder Rites (leifa) are a system of Daoist ritual that arose in the Song dynasty, in which a priest, grounded in internal-alchemical attainment, summons and commands th…
Written by Sima Chengzhen of the Tang, it is divided into seven chapters — reverent faith, severing entanglements, gathering the mind, simplifying affairs, true contempla…
Visualization (Cunsi): a meditative technique of closing the eyes to inwardly observe, imagining the various body-gods, the sun, moon and stars, or the descent of immorta…
Waidan (External Alchemy): techniques of smelting a 'golden elixir' from minerals such as lead, mercury and cinnabar in a cauldron and furnace, to be ingested in pursuit …
Immortality techniques transmitted by the fangshi of Yan and Qi during the Warring States, Qin, and Han periods, centered on the Three Divine Mountains of the sea, the el…
'Returning again to the Limitless (Wuji)' — refers to the original, formless and boundless state of the Dao that precedes the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji). Song-dynasty Daois…
Yang Spirit (Yangshen): in internal alchemy, the pure yang spirit nurtured from the sacred embryo, capable of leaving the physical body and existing independently. 'The y…
Yellow Court (Huangting): the central palace within the body, identified variously as the spleen (the Middle Dantian), or as within the head, or as the lower dantian — th…
Yellow Sprout: an alchemical code term. In external alchemy it refers to the essence produced from lead ('lead flower'); in internal alchemy it refers to the pre-celestia…
The fundamental dual category of Chinese philosophy, representing two opposing yet complementary potencies within the cosmos. Daoism uses the waxing and waning of yin and…
Compiled by Shi Jianwu of the Five Dynasties, it systematically expounds the theory of internal alchemy in the form of a dialogue between Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, com…
Han Zhongli, styled Zhengyangzi, said to have attained the Dao as a Han-dynasty general, one of the Eight Immortals, patriarch of the Zhong–Lü Golden Elixir Tradition, an…
Written by Wei Boyang of the Eastern Han, it correlates the hexagrams and lines of the Zhouyi (Book of Changes), Huang-Lao thought, and the furnace methods of alchemy. Wr…
Zhuang Zhou of the Warring States period, a leading figure of Daoist philosophy and author of the Zhuangzi, who advocated free and easy wandering, the equalization of thi…
Composed by Zhuang Zhou and his later followers, the received text comprises thirty-three chapters (seven Inner Chapters, fifteen Outer Chapters, and eleven Miscellaneous…
《清微丹诀》一卷，分合道、入室、临坛、发用四门，附清微坐功，是清微派把内丹学与雷法打通的纲领文本。其核心命题：「玄关一窍，乃先天一炁，此万法之宗、金丹之枢纽」——并明言此先天一炁在神霄谓之「真王」、在雷法谓之「雷祖」：内丹所炼与雷法所召，本是同一物。又云「法中之要，非专于符，非泥于咒，先以我之正气，合将之灵……故德者道之符，诚者法之本」「…
The Guwen longhu jing (Ancient Text of the Dragon and Tiger Scripture) is presented as the source text on which Wei Boyang's Zhouyi cantong qi was based, but is in fact a…
The Zhonghe ji (Anthology of Central Harmony) is a collection of treatises, poems and prose by Li Daochun (styled Qing'an, also Yingchanzi), an internal-alchemy master of…
The Cuixu pian (Anthology of Cuixu) is a collection of alchemical poetry and prose by Chen Nan (styled Cuixu, also Niwan), fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage, conta…
The Zhonglü chuandao ji (Anthology of Zhongli Quan's Transmission of the Dao to Lü Dongbin) systematically expounds the theory of internal alchemy in the form of question…
The Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality) is a collection of internal-alchemy poems by Zhang Boduan of the Northern Song, ranked together with the Zhouyi cantong qi as the t…
The Baopuzi Inner Chapters is Ge Hong's systematic theoretical work summarizing the immortality arts transmitted from the Han and Wei onward, and the representative scrip…
The Biographies of Divine Immortals is a collection of immortal biographies written by Ge Hong following his Baopuzi: Inner Chapters; he relates that because his disciple…
Biographies of Encounters with Divine Immortals is devoted specifically to accounts of chance encounters between ordinary mortals and immortals leading to attainment of t…
The Biographies of Exemplary Immortals is the earliest surviving book of immortal biographies, in two chapters, recording the deeds of seventy (some say seventy-one) immo…
The Catalogue of the Scriptures of the Seven Sections of the Jade Weft is an important comprehensive catalogue of Daoist scriptures following Lu Xiujing's Catalogue of th…
The Central Scripture of Laozi, also called the Pearl Palace and Jade Calendar, is one of the earliest surviving Daoist scriptures to describe the spirits within the huma…
Chapter 27, "Nourishing Nature" (Yangxing), of the Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies (Beiji qianjin yaofang) is the summa of Tang-dynasty nourishin…
The Collected Texts on Female Alchemy is an anthology assembled by He Longxiang in the late Qing bringing together texts on female internal-alchemical cultivation, includ…
Bai Yuchan, fifth of the Five Southern Patriarchs and the effective founder of the Southern Lineage as an organized school, left his poetry, prose, and alchemical writing…
Commentary on the Song of the Reverted Elixir of the Perfected Yin consists of an alchemical song attributed to the Han-dynasty immortal Yin Changsheng, together with a c…
The Compass Pointing to the Center (Guizhong zhinan) is a set of essential formulas for internal alchemy by the Yuan-dynasty alchemist Chen Chongsu, in two scrolls. The u…
The Lingbao bifa (Complete Methods of the Numinous Treasure) is attributed to Zhongli Quan, said to have composed it from a Lingbao jing he obtained from a stone wall on …
The Complete Works of Patriarch Lü (Lüzu quanshu) is a Qing-dynasty compendium gathering scriptures, poetry, and spirit-writing revelations attributed to Lü Dongbin; Liu …
The Complete Works of Zhang Sanfeng is a collected edition of Zhang Sanfeng's writings compiled by Li Xiyue in the Qing dynasty, in eight chapters, containing the Treatis…
The Concealed Instructions for Ascending to Perfection (Dengzhen yinjue) is Tao Hongjing's compilation of Shangqing scriptural instructions, in which he classified, arran…
The five-scroll Laolao Hengyan (老老恒言, Constant Words on Caring for the Aged) was written by Cao Tingdong, a native of Jiashan in the Qing dynasty, and is the most systema…
The Corpus of Daoist Ritual is the largest compendium of talismanic and ritual methods in the Daoist Canon, in 268 juan, gathering the Thunder Rites and ritual methods of…
Daoism Handbook, edited by Livia Kohn and published by Brill in 2000 as part of its Handbook of Oriental Studies series, is the first systematic collection of research su…
The Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era (Zhengtong Daozang) is the only complete premodern Daoist canon still in existence, and is the fundamental body of literature for th…
Daoist Texts outside the Canon is the most important modern facsimile compendium of Daoist texts, edited by Hu Daojing, Chen Yaoting, Duan Wengui, Lin Wanqing, and others…
The Treatise on the Origins and Symptoms of Diseases is the first systematic Chinese treatise on the causes and mechanisms of disease, compiled by imperial order by Chao …
The Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao) is the fundamental text of the Shangqing School, compiled by Tao Hongjing from the handwritten records of "declarations descen…
The Dharma Words of the Primordial Sovereign Sun Bu'er is attributed to Sun Bu'er, patriarch of the Quanzhen Qingjing (Clarity and Stillness) Lineage, and contains fourte…
The Daojiao Wenhua Cidian (Dictionary of Daoist Culture) was edited by Zhang Zhizhe and published by Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House in 1994; it is a Daoist dictio…
Direct Discourse on the True Principles of Celestial Immortality (Tianxian zhengli zhilun) is the principal work in which Wu Shouyang (sobriquet Chongxuzi), of the Longme…
Direct Pointers to Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen zhizhi) is the Longmen-Lineage alchemist Liu Yiming's (sobriquet Wuyuanzi) commentary on Zhang Boduan's Awakening to Reali…
The Dadan zhizhi (Direct Pointers to the Great Elixir), attributed to Qiu Chuji, patriarch of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage, is an important text on the practical cultivat…
The Eight Discourses on Nurturing Life (Zunsheng bajian) is the summa of literati health-preservation learning in the Ming dynasty, compiled by the Hangzhou man of letter…
Elucidating the Truth of the Book of Changes (Zhouyi chanzhen) is Liu Yiming's work interpreting the Zhouyi (Book of Changes) through the lens of alchemical teaching; it …
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (Li Longji) revered Daoism and honored Laozi as the Mysterious Primordial Emperor. He personally composed a commentary on the Daodejing, promulga…
Chen Yingning, an advocate of “Immortality Studies” (Xianxue) during the Republican era and later president of the Chinese Taoist Association, used modern language to org…
Essentials for Cultivating Longevity (Xiuling yaozhi), in one scroll, by Leng Qian of the Ming, is one of the most concise and practical handbooks of health preservation …
The Essentials of the Daoist Canon (Daozang jiyao) is the most important compendium of Daoist texts from the Qing dynasty. Two accounts exist of its compilation: one hold…
The Chongyang lijiao shiwu lun (Fifteen Discourses of Wang Chongyang on Establishing the Teaching) is a summary of practice set out by the founder of Quanzhen Daoism, Wan…
The Jindan sibai zi (Four Hundred Words on the Golden Elixir) is traditionally held to be alchemical instructions that Zhang Boduan transmitted to his disciple Ma Chuhou,…
The Gazetteer of Mount Longhu records the history of Mount Longhu in Guixi, Jiangxi — the ancestral seat of Zhengyi Daoism and the residence of successive generations of …
Mount Luofu, in Boluo, Guangdong, is the seventh of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the Heaven of Vermilion Brilliance and Manifest Perfection. Ge Hong built a hermitage th…
The Golden Book of Salvation according to the Lingbao Tradition is the largest compendium of ritual in the Daoist Canon, attributed to the transmission of Ning Quanzhen o…
The Great Clarity Methods for Abstaining from Grain (Taiqing jing duangu fa), in one scroll, is devoted entirely to methods of grain avoidance (bigu — abstaining from gra…
The Great Clarity Scripture of Daoyin and Nourishing Life is an important text in the Daoist Canon devoted specifically to recording daoyin exercises, gathering together …
The Zhonghua Daojiao Dacidian (Great Dictionary of Chinese Daoism) was edited by Hu Fuchen of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and published by China Social Science…
The Jindan dayao (Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir) is the monumental work in which the Yuan internal alchemist Chen Zhixu (styled Shangyangzi) systematically summed…
Jin Yunzhong's recension of the Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao is the culminating work of Southern Song Lingbao ritual, in forty-five juan. Jin Yunzhong was a Southern …
Wang Qizhen's recension of the Great Rites of Shangqing Lingbao, in sixty-six scrolls, is a systematic compilation of the Lingbao methods of the Donghua tradition transmi…
The Guanyinzi is attributed to Yin Xi, the Warden of Hangu Pass, the legendary figure said to have asked Laozi to write the Daodejing. The received text, in nine chapters…
The Heart Methods of the Dragon Gate Lineage is a record of the dharma-talks given by Wang Changyue, seventh-generation precept master of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage, in…
The Heshanggong Commentary on the Laozi is one of the earliest surviving and most widely circulated commentaries on the Daodejing. Tradition holds that Heshanggong ('Mast…
Qing Xitai's four-volume Zhongguo Daojiao Shi (History of Chinese Daoism), collectively compiled by the Institute for Religious Studies of Sichuan University, was publish…
The four-volume Zhongguo Daojiao Sixiang Shi (History of Chinese Daoist Thought), edited by Qing Xitai with Zhan Shichuang as deputy editor, was published by People's Pub…
The Huainanzi is a summa of early Western Han Huang-Lao Daoist thought, compiled by scholars and masters of methods gathered by Liu An, Prince of Huainan; it takes Daoism…
Instructions on the Heart-Elixir Scripture of the Upper Cavern (Shangdong xindan jingjue), in three scrolls, is a Tang-dynasty text combining external alchemy, ingestion,…
The Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (Instructions on the Yellow Emperor's Nine-Tripod Divine Elixir) is among the most important surviving classics of external alchemy. S…
The Xinyin jing (Mind Seal Scripture) consists of two hundred characters in tetrasyllabic verse, and is Daoism's most concise summary outline of internal alchemy; the Qua…
The Jade Mirror of Lingbao is a compendium of Lingbao retreat and offering ritual essentials compiled in the Yuan dynasty, in 43 juan, its title "Jade Mirror" likening th…
Lectures on the Daodejing is Huang Yuanji's chapter-by-chapter exposition of the Daodejing according to the principles of internal-alchemical cultivation, forming a compl…
The Liturgies of the Yellow Register Retreat is the master compilation of Yellow Register Retreat ritual, edited by Du Guangting on the basis of the earlier liturgies of …
Lord Lao's Instructions on Nourishing Life, in one fascicle, is brief but focused in content: it opens with the general principles of nourishing life, stating that 'the b…
Lü Dongbin's Hundred-Character Stele (Baizi bei) is a twenty-line pentasyllabic alchemical formula attributed to Lü Dongbin: 'Nurture qi, forgetting words, and hold fast;…
The Master of Heavenly Seclusion (Tianyinzi) is a short Tang-dynasty Daoist treatise on cultivation, in eight chapters: Immortals, Ease and Simplicity, the Gradual Gate, …
The Ruyao jing (Mirror for Compounding the Medicine), also known as the Cui Gong ruyao jing, is a set of internal-alchemy verse instructions composed by Cui Xifan of the …
The Sandong zhunang (Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns) is a Daoist encyclopedic compilation assembled in the early Tang; organized by topic, it excerpts from the script…
Pengzu's Treatise on Preserving Health and Nourishing Nature is attributed to the legendarily long-lived Pengzu, and is a brief general treatise on nourishing life. It pr…
The Perfect Scripture of the Great Cavern of Highest Clarity (Shangqing dadong zhenjing) is the foremost scripture of the Shangqing corpus; its "thirty-nine chapters" cor…
The Perfected Sun's Treatise on Preserving Health (Sun zhenren sheyang lun), in one scroll, lists what to do and avoid for health preservation month by month through the …
Pillowbook Methods for Preserving Health is attributed to Sun Simiao, divided into sections on Self-Discipline, Prohibitions, Daoyin, Ingesting Qi, Guarding the One, and …
The Daoshu (Pivot of the Dao) is a Daoist encyclopedic compilation of cultivation methods compiled by Zeng Zao of the Southern Song, in forty-two juan and 108 chapters, b…
The Preface to the Five Talismans of Lingbao is the fountainhead text of the Lingbao scriptural lineage, and it is from this work that the name "Lingbao" (Numinous Treasu…
Principles of the Balanced Cultivation of Nature and Life (Xingming guizhi) is the most widely circulated illustrated work of Ming-dynasty Internal Alchemy, attributed to…
The Record of the Essence of the Daoist Canon is a selection of Daoist texts compiled by the renowned modern bibliophile and physician Ding Fubao, published in 1922 by th…
The Xuanzhu lu (Record of the Mysterious Pearl) is the recorded sayings of Wang Xuanlan, a Daoist priest of Mianzhu in the early Tang, compiled and prefaced by his discip…
The Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus (Jinlian zhengzong ji) is the earliest formal historiographical biography of the Quanzhen tradition, providing biog…
The Record of the Ten Continents within the Seas is presented as Dongfang Shuo's reply to a question of Emperor Wu of the Han, and describes in turn the ten sea-borne imm…
The Recorded Sayings from the Hall of Joyful Cultivation collects the sayings on the Dao given by Huang Yuanji (personal name Shang), a Daoist of Fengcheng, Jiangxi, in t…
Recorded Sayings on the Union of Immortals and Buddhas (Xianfo hezong yulu) is a record of Wu Shouyang's oral teaching of alchemical method to his disciples, answering sp…
Records of Extraordinary Persons of the Jiang-Huai Region, in two fascicles, was written by Wu Shu, a prominent official-scholar of the early Northern Song who took part …
Records of Nourishing Nature and Extending Life is the most systematic surviving compendium of life-nourishing arts from the Six Dynasties, divided into six sections: Adm…
The Xishan qunxian huizhen ji (Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Western Hills) is one of the three books of Zhong–Lü elixir methods, attributed to the "Perfected…
The Huandan fuming pian (Restoring the Elixir and Returning to Life) is a collection of internal-alchemy poems by Xue Daoguang, third patriarch of the Southern Lineage, w…
The Qingwei Zhaifa (Retreat Rites of the Qingwei Tradition) is a Yuan-dynasty ritual manual of the Qingwei school in two fascicles, recording the procedures and essential…
The Huanyuan pian (Returning to the Source) is a collection of internal-alchemy poems by Shi Tai (styled Xinglin), second patriarch of the Southern Lineage, comprising ei…
The Dingguan jing (Scripture of Concentration and Observation) takes the two characters ding (concentration) and guan (observation) as its guiding thread, teaching that t…
The Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace) is the earliest and longest of the surviving early Daoist scriptures, and the intellectual source of the Way of Great Peace (T…
The Neiguan jing (Scripture of Inner Observation) is attributed to the Most High Lord Lao and is a representative short scripture of Tang-dynasty Daoist cultivation of mi…
The Xisheng jing (Scripture of Laozi's Western Ascension) is presented as the words spoken by Laozi to the pass-keeper Yin Xi when he journeyed west and departed through …
The Scripture of Precepts Chanted by Lord Lao preserves a surviving portion of the Yunzhong Yinsong Xinke zhi Jie (New Chanted Regulations and Precepts from within the Cl…
The Taiqing jinye shendan jing (Scripture of the Divine Elixir of Liquefied Gold of Great Clarity) belongs to the "Taiqing" lineage of external-alchemy scriptures, and to…
The Scripture of the Yellow Court and Hidden Stem Methods for the Body, in one fascicle, combines the body-god visualization tradition of the Scripture of the Yellow Cour…
The Scripture of the Yellow Court: Inner Effulgences (Huangting neijing jing) is the most important scripture of visualization practice in the Shangqing School, composed …
The Scripture of the Yellow Court: Outer Effulgences (Huangting waijing jing) is one of the two Huangting Jing texts, composed in seven-syllable rhymed verse and about ha…
The Scripture of Wisdom and Life (Huiming jing) is a work of Liu Huayang's later years, which takes the Buddhist term 'wisdom-life' (huiming) to denote the pre-celestial …
The Qinghua miwen (Secret Text of the Azure Florescence), attributed to Zhang Boduan, explains in detail the mind-nature and the practical work of internal-alchemical cul…
The Yunji Qiqian (Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds) is a Daoist compendium compiled by Zhang Junfang of the Northern Song on the basis of his collation of the D…
The Shangqing Scriptural Corpus is a body of "descended revelation" scriptures formed in the mid-Eastern Jin between the Xu clan of Jurong and the medium Yang Xi, later h…
The Song of the Great Dao from the Numinous Source (Lingyuan dadao ge) is a long heptasyllabic poem of 128 lines by the Northern Song Daoist priestess Cao Wenyi, and is o…
Studies on the Origins and Development of the Daoist Canon is the foundational work of Daoist textual scholarship. Chen Guofu was by training a chemist (a professor at th…
The Supplementary Daoist Canon of the Wanli Era (Wanli xu Daozang) was compiled and printed by imperial edict in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign of Emperor Shenz…
The Wushang Biyao (Supreme Secret Essentials) is the earliest surviving Daoist encyclopedic compilation, commissioned by Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, who after suppressin…
Talks on the Aperture of the Dao and the Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles are the representative works of Li Xiyue (sobriquet Hanxu), founder of the Western Lineage o…
Isabelle Robinet's Histoire du taoïsme (translated into English as Taoism: Growth of a Religion) is one of the most influential general histories of Daoism in the West. T…
The Xiuzhen shishu (Ten Books on the Cultivation of Perfection) is a compendium of internal-alchemy literature assembled in the Yuan dynasty, in sixty juan, gathering tog…
The Encyclopedia of Taoism is the most comprehensive Daoist encyclopedia in the English-speaking world, chief-edited by the Italian-born scholar Fabrizio Pregadio with co…
The Rootless Tree consists of twenty-four alchemical lyrics attributed to Zhang Sanfeng, using the “rootless tree” as a metaphor for the human body and the alchemical Way…
The Secret of the Golden Flower (Taiyi jinhua zongzhi) is said to have been revealed through Lü Dongbin, and is an internal-alchemy scripture that emerged from spirit-wri…
The Taoist Body (French original title Le corps taoïste) is a classic work of Western Daoist studies. Kristofer Schipper conducted long-term fieldwork in southern Taiwan …
The Wu-Liu School of Immortality (Wuliu xianzong) is a compendium combining the alchemical writings of Wu Shouyang of the late Ming and Liu Huayang of the Qing; the stand…
The Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion (Zuowang lun) is the celebrated work of the Tang Shangqing patriarch Sima Chengzhen on the stages of cultivating the Dao, centered on …
The Treatise on the Essential Meaning of Ingesting Qi (Fuqi jingyi lun) is Sima Chengzhen's specialized work on health preservation through the ingestion of qi, in nine c…
The True Transmission of the Golden Elixir (Jindan zhenzhuan) records the alchemical formulas transmitted by Sun Ruzhong of the Ming dynasty, who states in his own prefac…
True Words Singing the Dao (Changdao zhenyan) is a work on internal alchemy produced at Qing-dynasty spirit-writing altars, said to have been transmitted through the brus…
Twelve Daoist Books is the collected works of Liu Yiming, eleventh-generation patriarch of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing dynasty. Though named "twelve," the standard ed…
The Fanghu waishi (Unofficial History of Fanghu) is the collected writings of Lu Xixing (styled Qianxu), founder of the Eastern Lineage of internal alchemy in the Ming, c…
Verified Discourse on the Golden Immortal (Jinxian zhenglun) is the representative work of the Qing-dynasty Buddhist monk and Internal Alchemy master Liu Huayang, and tog…
Wang Bi's Commentary on the Laozi is a foundational work of Wei–Jin Xuanxue (Learning of the Mysterious) and became the standard commentary on the Daodejing for later gen…
Weng Baoguang's Commentary on the Wuzhen pian is one of the earliest and most influential commentaries on Awakening to Reality; in the Yuan dynasty Dai Qizong wrote a sub…
The Yinfu jing (Scripture of the Hidden Talisman) runs to only a little over 300 characters, and together with the Daodejing and the Qingjing jing is one of the most impo…
The Zhouyi Cantong Qi (Token for the Agreement of the Three According to the Book of Changes) was later honored as the king of alchemical scriptures for all ages, and is …
The Zhuangzi, together with the Daodejing, is one of the two great classics of Daoist philosophy. Its author, Zhuang Zhou, was a native of Meng in the state of Song and o…
清微雷法是宋元「道法合一」运动的完成形态：它把内丹学彻底注入符箓道法，主张「以道为体、以法为用」，符咒诀罡只是末技，先天一炁与正心诚意才是根本。本文依据《正统道藏》原典——《道法会元》前五十五卷清微部分、《清微元降大法》《清微神烈秘法》《清微斋法》《清微丹诀》——逐项整理清微雷法的具体行持：法论纲领、内炼基础、变神存思、书符运炁、掐诀步罡…
「武当＝武学圣地」的公众形象，是三重叠加的产物：黄宗羲《王征南墓志铭》（1669）一句「内家拳起于宋之张三峰」、民国中央国术馆把太极形意八卦划归「武当门」的分类建构、以及金庸与还珠楼主的小说想象。真实的武当道教以真武信仰、斋醮科仪、内丹修炼为主体，武术是附属，且大量内容为民国以来整合追认；但当代武当山又以这一形象为依托，重建了确实存在且已…