The conceptual framework of Daoist religion: Dao and virtue, yin-yang and the Five Phases, immortality, cosmic cycles, inherited burden and moral retribution.
The Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure is the second of the Three Pure Ones. Earlier titles include the Great Lord of the Dao of Jade Dawn and the Supreme Lord of the …
The Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning stands first among the Three Pure Ones. Lingbao scriptures present him as the supreme deity who opens cosmic eras, proclaims …
The Celestial Worthy of the Dao and Its Virtue, also known as the Supreme Venerable Sovereign, is the deified form of Laozi and one of the Three Pure Ones. From the Easte…
The Imperial Sovereign of Earth is one of the Four Sovereigns, presiding over mountains and rivers, yin-yang generation and the transformation of all beings, in a Heaven-…
The Jade Emperor governs the gods within the Daoist celestial administration. The traditional Four Sovereigns scheme places him below the Three Pure Ones and first among …
The 'Five Thousand Words' is divided into the Dao Jing and the De Jing, teaching that the Dao follows what is spontaneously so (ziran), that one should govern through non…
John Chalmers published the first English translation of the Daodejing in 1868; further translations followed one after another — James Legge (1891), Richard Wilhelm (Ger…
In April, the International Forum on the Daodejing opened in Xi'an and closed in Hong Kong, under the theme "A Harmonious World, United through the Dao"; it was the first…
Ma Yu, Sun Bu'er, Tan Chuduan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Liu Chuxuan successively converted to become his disciples, together known as the Seven Perfected of…
Mount Sanqing in Jiangxi, one of the sacred mountains of Daoism, was inscribed on the World Natural Heritage List; the same year, Three Pines Press in the United States f…
In the first year of the Tianbao era, an edict conferred honorific titles: Zhuangzi as Perfected Nanhua, Wenzi as Perfected Tongxuan, Liezi as Perfected Chongxu, and Geng…
In the twenty-first year of the Kaiyuan era, an edict ordered every household, gentry and commoner alike, to keep a copy of the Laozi, and the annual metropolitan examina…
Zou Yan of Qi propounded the theory of the cyclical succession of the Five Powers and the doctrine of yin-yang and the Five Phases; combined with the fangshi traditions o…
Anqi Sheng, a fangshi (master of methods) of the Qin dynasty, was a native of Fuxiang in Langya, traditionally said to have been a disciple of the Elder of the Riverbank.…
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 Jing, style name Taixuan, was a fangshi of the Eastern Jin who rose to the office of Governor of Nanhai. The 'Biographies of the Arts' in the Book of Jin states that …
Bo He, courtesy name Zhongli, was a fangshi active between the end of the Han and the Wei–Jin period. The Biographies of Divine Immortals records that he studied under Do…
Chen Jingyuan, style name Taichu, sobriquet Bixuzi, was a renowned Daoist scholar of the Northern Song. In his youth he became a Daoist at the Tianqing Guan in Gao'an cou…
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…
Cheng Xuanying, style name Zishi, was an early Tang Daoist priest and a leading representative of Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) learning. His dates of birth and death are n…
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…
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…
Du Guangting, courtesy name Binsheng, styled Dongyingzi, was a celebrated Daoist priest and scholar of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, a native of Jinyun. He sat for th…
Emperor Gaozong of Tang, personal name Li Zhi, was the ninth son of Emperor Taizong of Tang and reigned 649–683. Since the Tang imperial house claimed descent from Laozi,…
Emperor Hongwu (Zhu Yuanzhang), founder of the Ming dynasty, established the basic institutions for the administration of Daoism, his guiding principle being "to make use…
The sacrifices to Laozi conducted during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han (Liu Zhi, r. 146–168) are a key marker of Laozi's transformation from a philosopher into a vener…
Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Ji, reigned from 1100 to 1126, and was one of the most devoutly Daoist emperors in Chinese history. After his accession he trusted and emplo…
Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, is the most famous immortality-seeking ruler in Chinese history; the "Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices" of the Shiji (Records of the G…
Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong, is known in the history of Daoism for the episode of destroying Buddhism and Daoism in the Jiande era while establishing the Tong…
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, personal name Li Longji, reigned 712–756 and was the Tang emperor most devoted to Daoism; under his rule Daoism reached its high point of the dy…
Fan Changsheng, also named Yanjiu or Jiuzhong, style name Yuan, was the leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters in the Cheng-Han state during the Western Jin, a native…
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…
Gan Zhongke, a master of esoteric arts from Qi in the time of Emperor Cheng of Han, is recorded in the "Biography of Li Xun" in the Book of Han as having composed the twe…
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…
Gong Chong, a native of Langye in the time of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han, was a disciple of the master of esoteric arts Yu Ji. The "Biography of Xiang Kai" in the Bo…
Gu Huan, styled Jingyi (also styled Xuanping), was a Daoist scholar and recluse of the Southern Dynasties. Poor but devoted to study, he lived in reclusion on Mount Tiant…
Guan Yin, that is, Yin Xi, keeper of the pass, was the warden of the Hangu Pass of Zhou in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Records of the Grand Historian records t…
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 Zhengong, a Daoist priest at the Yulong Wanshou Palace on Mount Xi in the early Southern Song and a forerunner of Jingming Daoism, personal name and dates of birth and…
Heguanzi, a recluse of the state of Chu in the late Warring States period, took his name from the pheasant-feather cap he wore; his personal name is unknown. The Bibliogr…
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…
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…
James Legge was a Scottish missionary and sinologist, a member of the London Missionary Society, who in his early career headed the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca and m…
Ji Zhizhen, a native of Lintong in Shaanxi, was a Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen priest who came from a Confucian family and was broadly learned in the classics and histories; he …
Jia Shanxiang, style name Hongju, sobriquet Pengqiuzi, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Song, a native of Pengzhou. Under Emperors Shenzong and Zhezong he successively…
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 …
Kublai Khan, Emperor Shizu of Yuan, adopted a dual-track policy toward Daoism of suppressing Quanzhen while supporting Zhengyi, profoundly reshaping the Daoist landscape …
Laozi, surnamed Li, given name Er, styled Dan, was a thinker of the late Spring and Autumn period, traditionally said to have served as archivist of the Zhou royal librar…
Lee Fong-mao is a Taiwanese scholar of Daoism, chair professor at the Graduate Institute of Religious Studies, National Chengchi University, and research fellow (emeritus…
Lei Siqi, style name Qixian, was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi, and a scholar at the Song–Yuan transition. After the fall of the Song he abandoned Confucian scholarship t…
Li A, a fangshi of Shu in the late Han, appears in Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan. Tradition holds that he habitually begged for food in the markets of Chengdu, giving away all…
Li Babai is an immortal of Sichuanese legend, so named because people called him eight hundred years old; one account gives his name as Li Tuo. The Biographies of Divine …
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 Kuan, a figure of the Three Kingdoms period, is recorded in both the Shenxian Zhuan and Ge Hong's Baopuzi Inner Chapters, chapter 'Daoyi.' According to Ge Hong's accou…
Li Rong, an early Tang Daoist priest with the sobriquet Renzhenzi, a native of Mianzhou, is ranked together with Cheng Xuanying as one of the two great masters of Chongxu…
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 Xicheng was the fifth-generation head of Zhen Dadao in the early Yuan. At the end of the Jin, Zhen Dadao split, and one branch was led by Li Xicheng, who received the …
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 Zhichang, the seventh head of the Quanzhen teaching, renounced the household in his early years and studied under Qiu Chuji; in 1220 he accompanied his teacher on the …
Liang Chen, a Western Jin Daoist priest, was a pivotal figure in the transmission lineage of the Louguan School. According to Louguan-authored texts such as the Original …
Liezi, personal name Yukou, was a native of the state of Zheng in the early Warring States period, who lived in seclusion in Zheng territory for forty years without seeki…
Lin Lingsu, originally named Ling'e, was a Daoist priest under Emperor Huizong of Song, a native of Wenzhou, and the actual founder of the Shenxiao School. In his youth h…
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 Deren, a native of Le Ling in Cangzhou, was the founder of Zhen Dadao (originally named Dadao jiao, "the Teaching of the Great Way") in the Jin dynasty. According to …
Liu Yuanran, a native of Ganxian, Jiangxi, was a disciple of Zhao Yizhen and one of the most important Daoist priests of the early Ming. In the twenty-sixth year of the H…
Liu Zhongyu is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at East China Normal University, and a leading scholar of Daoist studies in Shanghai. H…
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 …
Lou Jinyuan, a native of Songjiang in Shanghai, was the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) priest of highest standing in the Qing dynasty. He entered Longhushan young and became ri…
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 Shizhong, courtesy name Dangke, an important transmitter of the Tianxin Zhengfa system in the late Northern and early Southern Song, dates of birth and death unknown, …
Lu Xiujing, styled Yuande, was a celebrated Daoist priest of the Liu Song in the Southern Dynasties, a native of Dongqian, Wuxing, and a descendant of Lu Kai, chancellor …
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 …
Luo Gongyuan, a renowned Daoist priest of the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, counted together with Ye Fashan and Zhang Guo as one of the three extraordinary men…
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…
Mao Ying, styled Shushen, was the eldest of the Three Mao Lords of Daoism, venerated by the Shangqing school as the Perfected Lord Who Controls Destiny (Siming Zhenjun) a…
Max Kaltenmark, an Austrian-born French sinologist and student of Henri Maspero, held the chair in 'Chinese Religions' in the Fifth Section of the École pratique des haut…
Meng Anpai was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Gaozong of Tang and during the Zhou dynasty of Empress Wu Zetian, resident at Qingxi Temple; his dates of birth and de…
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…
Meng Zhizhou was a Daoist priest of the Liang in the Southern Dynasties, styled Master Xuanjing; his dates of birth and death are unknown. He wrote the Catalogue of the S…
Nan Huaijin, a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang, was a well-known modern lecturer on Chinese classical learning (guoxue). In his early years he studied martial arts and Chan m…
Nie Shidao, courtesy name Zongwei, was a Daoist priest of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, a native of Shezhou. He entered the Daoist life as a young man and received sc…
Paul R. Katz, an American historian, is a distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, working on Chinese popular religion, …
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…
Qi Zhicheng, a native of Datong in Shanxi, was the tenth-generation head of the Quanzhen order. In his youth he met Yu Daoxian and thereafter left home to enter the Quanz…
The relationship between Qin Shi Huang (Ying Zheng) and Daoism centers on his embrace and promotion of the Fangxian Dao of Yan and Qi. According to the "Basic Annals of Q…
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…
Ren Farong, a native of Tianshui, Gansu, was a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage. In 1955 he entered the priesthood at Louguantai in Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, and for many y…
Sa Shoujian, sobriquet 'Guest of Fenyang,' was a renowned Daoist priest of the Song dynasty, later venerated as 'Perfected Man Sa' or 'Patriarch Sa,' and is counted toget…
Sakai Tadao was a Japanese historian, professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, and president of the Japanese Society of Taoist Studies. He is known for his resear…
Shao Yizheng, sobriquet Chengkangzi, was a native of Kunming, Yunnan, a disciple of Liu Yuanran, and the leading Daoist figure at the early Ming court. During the Xuande …
Shao Yuanjie, a native of Guixi, Jiangxi, was a Daoist priest of the Shangqing Palace at Mount Longhu, who studied under Fan Wentai, Li Bofang, and others, learning the Q…
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…
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…
Song Defang, a native of Laizhou, Shandong, was a major figure in Quanzhen Daoism who studied under Liu Chuxuan and Qiu Chuji and accompanied Qiu Chuji on the journey wes…
Stephen R. Bokenkamp, an American sinologist and professor at Arizona State University (previously a longtime member of the faculty at Indiana University), is a leading f…
孙碧云，号虚玄子，明初高道。十三岁入华山出家，承陈抟一系隐修传统；洪武二十七年（1394）明太祖召见。永乐十年（1412）明成祖以其为「张三丰弟子」，命往武当山南岩办道，并敕其「审度其地、相其广狭、定其规制」——即参与武当皇家宫观群营建前的规划选址；成祖敕建遇真宫，亦与命其候访张三丰直接相关。永乐十二年奉敕任南岩宫住持，永乐十五年（141…
Sun Bu'er, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, and the wife of Ma Yu, was the only woman among the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. She took Wang Chongyang as her teacher along wi…
Sun En, styled Lingxiu, was a native of Langya in the Eastern Jin who "for generations followed the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice"; his uncle Sun Tai had studied under Du…
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…
Sun Xuanqing, a native of Shouguang, Shandong, was a Ming-dynasty Quanzhen Daoist priest of Mount Lao, of the fourth (some sources say fifth) generation of the Longmen li…
Tan Chuduan, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Originally a Confucian scholar, he suffered from a wind-paralysis affliction; hear…
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…
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 Changyue, a native of Changzhi in Shanxi, was the patriarch of the early Qing revival of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage. According to his own account, he traveled wide…
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 Chuyi, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, taking Wang Chongyang as his teacher in 1168. He then lived for nine years in ascet…
王光德，道名王通圣，湖北丹江口人，当代武当道教复兴的核心人物。1981 年出家武当山，先后师承李诚玉、赵元量、王教化（龙门派）、萧耀宛（三丰派）、黎遇航（正一派）诸尊宿，被称为「集龙门、三丰、正一、玄武诸派法脉于一身」。1984 年武当山道教协会成立后任首任会长，兼任中国道教协会副会长、湖北省道教协会会长、全国政协委员，主持了改革开放后武…
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 Ka was a research fellow at the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and director of its Daoist studies section, a leading scholar of co…
Wang Zhijin, sobriquet Qiyunzi, was a Quanzhen Daoist priest active during the Jin–Yuan transition, a disciple of Hao Datong (the Perfected Guangning) and one of the repr…
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…
Wei Huacun, style name Xian'an, was the daughter of Wei Shu, Minister of Works under the Western Jin; the Shangqing lineage honours her as its first-generation Grand Prec…
Wei Jie was a Daoist priest of the Louguan School under the Northern Zhou, together with Yan Da, Wang Yan and others one of the 'Ten Elders of Tiangu at Louguan' (also ca…
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…
Wenzi, traditionally a disciple of Laozi, was a Daoist figure of the Warring States period whose life is difficult to verify. The Bibliographic Treatise of the Han Histor…
Wu Shouyang, courtesy name Duanyang, sobriquet Chongxuzi, was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, a celebrated late-Ming master of internal alchemy, eighth-generation Longmen …
Wu Yun, courtesy name Zhenjie, was a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest and man of letters. In his youth he was well versed in the classics and histories and skilled in compositi…
Wu Zetian was the empress of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and proclaimed herself emperor, founding the Zhou dynasty, from 690 to 705. Her relationship with Daoism was two-side…
Xiao Baozhen, a native of Weizhou in Henan, was the founder of Taiyi Daoism in the Jin dynasty. According to stele biographies, during the Tianjuan era (1138–1140) he cla…
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…
Yan Junping, originally named Zhuang Zun (changed to "Yan" in the Eastern Han to avoid the taboo name of Emperor Ming), courtesy name Junping, was a native of Chengdu, Sh…
Yang Xi, style name Yihe, was the actual founder of the Shangqing lineage in the Eastern Jin, the first to transmit the Shangqing scriptural corpus. Originally from Wu, h…
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 …
Yoshioka Yoshitoyo, a Japanese scholar of Daoism, was a professor at Taishō University. In the 1940s he resided at the White Cloud Temple, Beijing, to conduct fieldwork t…
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…
Zang Jin was a Daoist priest of the Chen dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and the teacher of Wang Yuanzhi, the tenth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing lineage (one …
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 Ling, courtesy name Fuhan, known to later generations as Zhang Daoling, was a native of Feng in the state of Pei in the Eastern Han, and the founder of the Way of t…
Zhang Heng, courtesy name Lingzhen, was the son of Zhang Ling and the second-generation leader of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, honored by Daoism as the "Successor M…
Zhang Jizong, the fifty-fourth-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan, succeeded to the office in the seventeenth year of the Kangxi reign (1678), and was among the ea…
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 Shangying, styled Tianjue, with the sobriquet Wujin Jushi (Layman of the Boundless), was a Northern Song court official and scholar who was appointed chancellor in …
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 Sicheng, the thirty-ninth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, was the eldest son of Zhang Yucai. He succeeded to the office in 1317 and was granted the additional tit…
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 Yanyu, the forty-eighth-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office in the seventeenth year of Hongzhi (1504). He lived through the Hongzhi…
Zhang Yuchu, the forty-third-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, was the most learned of the Ming Celestial Masters, succeeding to the office in the eleventh yea…
Zhang Zehong, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, has long studied Daoist ritual protocol and the re…
Zhang Zhengchang, the forty-second-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office during the Zhizheng era of the Yuan. When Emperor Hongwu of Ming r…
Zhang Zhijing, a native of Anci in Hebei, was the eighth-generation head of the Quanzhen order. He left home to become a priest in his childhood, studying under Li Zhicha…
Zhang Zongyan was the thirty-sixth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu. He succeeded to the office at the end of the Southern Song, and in the thirteenth year of the Zhiyuan…
Zhao Daojian, originally named Jiugu, was a Quanzhen priest and a disciple of Qiu Chuji. In 1220 he accompanied Qiu Chuji on his journey to the west, and died of illness …
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…
Zhou Ziliang, style name Yuanhe, was a Daoist priest of Maoshan under the Liang and a disciple of Tao Hongjing. He entered the mountain in his youth to attend upon Tao Ho…
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…
Founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1991 by the Taiwanese Zhengyi priest Wu Zhicheng (Wu Jyh Cherng), it maintains a Daoist temple and trains Brazilian-national priests, and has…
The Belgian branch of the Taoist Tai Chi Society / Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism, with teaching centers in Brussels, Antwerp and elsewhere; it teaches "Taoist Tai Chi"…
Founded in Toronto in 1970 by the Hong Kong Daoist priest Moy Lin-shin, it primarily teaches "Taoist Tai Chi," with branches in 26 countries worldwide and tens of thousan…
A Daoist organization in Germany existing in the form of a registered association (e.V.), whose members are mostly German Daoist priests and practitioners of taiji and qi…
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…
An international Daoist gathering co-hosted by the Chinese Taoist Association and the China Religious Culture Communication Association: the International Forum on the Da…
A local Dutch organization for Daoist philosophy and practice, which holds lectures on the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, courses in meditation and taiji, and publishes Dutc…
The religious organization of the Taoist Tai Chi Society, venerating the Three Teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, originating from the Fung Ying Seen Koon / …
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…
The provincial organization for Daoism in Shaanxi, headquartered at the Eight Immortals Palace in Xi'an, it coordinates temples such as Louguantai, Chongyang Palace, Yuqu…
Founded by Khigh Dhiegh in Los Angeles in 1970 and later relocated to San Diego, it was the first Daoist religious organization to receive government recognition in the U…
Founded in 1961 on the initiative of Daoist halls such as Fung Ying Seen Koon, Ching Chung Koon, and the Yuen Yuen Institute, and registered as a nonprofit corporation in…
Founded by a British-national priest of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage, it engages in the translation of Daoist scriptures (such as the Qingjing jing and the Treatise of th…
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…
In the mid-to-late Eastern Han, on the foundation of Huang–Lao Dao, belief in the Taiping jing, and popular shamanic cults, religious communities emerged that possessed s…
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…
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 collection guide to the British Library's holdings of Stein Dunhuang manuscripts (Or.8210/S. shelfmarks), with images provided mainly through IDP. The Daoist material i…
An open, full-text repository of classical texts built by Donald Sturgeon. Its 'Daoist' section holds pre-Qin Daoist source texts such as the Daodejing, Zhuangzi, Liezi, …
An electronic dictionary of Buddhist terminology maintained by Charles Muller, containing over 70,000 entries, many of which are terms shared or borrowed between Buddhism…
An international Daoist organization founded in Canada in 1970 by the Daoist master Moy Lin-shin, with the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism as its religious body. It prom…
The Gallica digital platform of the Bibliothèque nationale de France makes public the complete high-resolution images of the Dunhuang manuscripts acquired by Paul Pelliot…
In collaboration with the National Library of China, the Harvard-Yenching Library has digitized its entire collection of Chinese rare books and made them openly browsable…
The Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica is one of the major centers of Daoist studies in Taiwan; scholars such as Lee Fong-mao and Liao Chao…
The Daoism Handbook, published by Brill, its 30 chapters written by specialists in various fields; it systematically introduces the findings of Daoist studies organized b…
An Asian art museum of the Smithsonian Institution, holding fragments of Yuan-dynasty Daoist murals, paintings of Daoist immortals, and Daoist artifacts; its collections …
The National Palace Museum, Taipei, holds a large number of Daoist-related paintings and calligraphy (such as Daoist Immortals, copies of the Procession of Immortals Payi…
The general entry on Daoism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, written by Chad Hansen, with separate entries on Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Neo-Daoism (Xuanxue). It dis…
Stephen R. Bokenkamp selected, translated, and extensively annotated early Daoist scriptures including the Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi, the Commands and Admonitions …
An image database of rare Chinese-text editions made public by the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, including Ming- and Qing-dynasty printed e…
The ancestral court of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen, and the seat of the China Taoist Association and the China Taoist College; the Perfected Changchun, Qiu Chuji, onc…
The Daozang category of Chinese Wikisource, containing texts of Daoist classics such as the Daodejing, the Scripture of Great Peace, the Zhouyi cantong qi, the Baopuzi an…
The classical-text repository of the Zdic (Hanyu) website, holding electronic texts of Daoist philosophical and religious classics such as the Daodejing, Zhuangzi, Liezi,…
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 Cult of Wenchang Dijun is the worship, within Daoism, of the deity who presides over civil office and emolument, formed by the merging of two strands: one is the loca…
Daoism in Southeast Asia arrived with waves of Chinese emigration from Fujian, Guangdong, Chaozhou, Hakka, and Hainan communities from the nineteenth century onward, taki…
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…
Daoism in Hong Kong and Macau consists mainly of Daoist halls (daotan), temples, and married (huoju) Zhengyi Daoist priests who arrived from Guangdong from the late Qing …
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 …
Jingming Daoism (Pure and Bright Daoism) is a Daoist order formed during the Song and Yuan at Xishan, Nanchang, Jiangxi, taking Xu Xun of the Eastern Jin as its patriarch…
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…
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…
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 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 Celestial Masters refers to the branch of the Way of the Celestial Masters that developed in Jiangnan during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, usually …
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…
Lingguan Fa refers to the system of ritual methods and liturgies centered on invoking the Daoist Dharma-protecting deity Wang Lingguan (also called Wang E or Wang Shan, a…
The Way of Great Peace (Taiping Dao) was an early Daoist religious community founded by Zhang Jiao in Jizhou at the end of the Eastern Han, and together with the Way of t…
The Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao) is the continuation and further development of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice after Zhang Lu's surrender to Wei in 215, …
The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice (Wudoumi Dao) was a Daoist religious community founded by Zhang Daoling (Zhang Ling) in the Ba-Shu region at the end of the Eastern Han,…
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 Xihe Lineage is a ritual tradition that honors Sa Shoujian as its founding patriarch, taking its name from Sa Shoujian's self-styling as the "Sa Guest of Fenyang" and…
Yao Daoism refers to the form of Daoism believed in and transmitted by the Yao people (particularly the various branches of the Guoshan Yao and the Panyao). From the Song…
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…
Zhengyi Daoism takes the Celestial Masters of Longhushan as its patriarchal line and is characterized by talismans, registers, and rites of retreat and offering; together…
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 eighth of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, one hundred and fifty li in circumference and titled the "Heaven of the Golden Altar and Splendid Yang," governed by the Perfe…
The ninth of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, four hundred li in circumference and titled the "Heaven of the Left Spirits and Dark Emptiness" (also written "Dragon Spirits a…
The Association Française Taoïste was founded in 2001 by Dr. Karine Martin (Daoist name Jingxiu), the leading Daoist organization in France. The Association has long enga…
Baiyun Mountain in Songxian lies in the heartland of the Funiu Mountains; its main peak, Yuhuang Summit, is the highest point of the Funiu range, with a Yuhuang Pavilion …
The tenth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies at Mount Magu, and is the place where the Perfected Cai Jing attained the Dao." It is identified today with Mount Mag…
The thirteenth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies north of Jianyang County, Jianzhou, and is the retreat of the Perfected Yin." It is identified today with Jianya…
The fifteenth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies south of Shan County, Yuezhou, and is governed by the Perfected Fang Ming." It is identified today with Wozhou in…
The sixteenth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies south of Shan County, and is governed by the Perfected Wei Xianren." This is Mount Tianmu, the mountain of Li Bai…
The seventeenth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies south of Kuaiji County, Yuezhou, and is governed by the Perfected Shan Shiyuan." This is the Ruoye Stream of th…
The nineteenth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Qingyuan County, Guangzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Yin." It is identified today with Qingyuan, Guan…
The second of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands, described as lying “in Xiandu County, Quzhou, governed by the Perfected Shi Cun”; there is also a Gaizhu Mountain Grotto-Heav…
The twenty-first of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies east of the water within the walls of Chenzhou, the retreat of the Perfected Su Dan." It is identified today w…
The twenty-third of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Changsha County, Tanzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Han Zhong of the Western Peak." Later tradition …
The twenty-fifth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies at the western headwaters of the Southern Peak, and is governed by the Perfected Feng."
The twenty-ninth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Hengyang County, Wenzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Bao Cha." It is identified today with Pingyang (…
The third of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands, “governed by the Perfected Zhang Zhonghua,” located around Baixi within the territory of Wenzhou; now conjectured to be Yueqin…
The thirty-third of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies north of Shangrao County, Xinzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Mo." It is identified today with Mount Lin…
The thirty-fifth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Qianhua County, Qianzhou, and is governed by Qiu Jizi." It is identified today with Mount Jinjing in Ningdu…
The thirty-sixth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: “It lies in Xingan County, Jizhou, and is governed by the Perfected Guo.” Du Guangting’s Record of Grotto-Heavens, Bles…
The thirty-seventh of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Fengcheng County, Hongzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Yin."
The thirty-eighth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Nanchang County, Hongzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Xu." This is the site of Xu Xun's practice at …
The thirty-ninth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies east of Xinwu County, Hongzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Liu." It is identified today with the area of…
The forty-first of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Dantu County, Runzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Zhong." It is identified today with the area of Dany…
The forty-second of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Changzhou County, Suzhou, and is governed by the Perfected Zhuang." This is Xishan in Lake Tai, traditional…
The forty-third of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies in Liyang County, Hezhou, and is governed by the Perfected Guo." It is identified today with Mount Jilong in He…
49th of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Lianshan county, Lian prefecture, under the administration of the Perfected Lord Fan,' identified with the Lianzhou–Lianshan ar…
51st of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Duchang county, Jiang prefecture, administered by Perfected Sun and Anqi Sheng,' identified with present-day Duchang.
52nd of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Poyang county, Rao prefecture, administered by the Perfected Zizhou.'
59th of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Yixing county, Chang prefecture, administered by the Perfected Kang Sang,' identified with the Zhanggong Cave in Yixing today, …
The sixth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands, described as lying “east of the Eastern Sea, reachable by boat, governed by the Perfected Liu”; now conjectured to be Mount Na…
61st of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Changshan county, Qi prefecture, administered by the Perfected Mao,' identified with present-day Zouping (Tang-dynasty Changsha…
63rd of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Jianchang county, Nankang prefecture, administered by the Perfected Zhang Xuanxuan,' identified with present-day Yongxiu, Jiang…
66th of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in southern Qian, the place administered by the Perfected Ning,' tentatively identified with southeastern Guizhou or Qianjiang, Ch…
68th of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'at the garrison of Guxian, under the administration of the Perfected Shi'; 'Guxian garrison' cannot be identified with certainty, …
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…
71st of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'in Lianjiang county, Fu prefecture, under the administration of the Perfected Xie,' identified with present-day Lianjiang, Fujian.
72nd of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: 'twenty-five li east of Hai prefecture, under the administration of the Perfected Wang,' identified with present-day Yuntai Mountai…
The eighth of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands: "It lies west of the Eastern Sea, adjoining Fusang, and is governed by the Perfected Liu Ziguang." This is a legendary mariti…
Cebu Taoist Temple was built in 1972, funded by Cebu's Chinese-Filipino community, on the high ground of the Beverly Hills subdivision overlooking downtown Cebu City; it …
In 1949, Zhang Enpu, the 63rd-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan in Jiangxi, crossed the strait to Taiwan together with his son Zhang Yunxian and the ancestral swo…
The Chi Sin Buddhist and Taoist Association is located on Powell Street in Chinatown, and like the Jeng Sen Buddhism and Taoism Association belongs to the category of ass…
The Chinese Cemetery in Kingston was founded and is administered by the Chinese Benevolent Association, established in 1891, and belongs alongside the Chinese sanatorium,…
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…
Chongyang Palace is the burial place of Wang Chongyang, the patriarch of Quanzhen Daoism, and the foremost of the three great ancestral courts of Quanzhen (the other two …
Daode Zhonggong stands in the old town of Bozhou, and is also known as the Hall of the Old Ancestor; it was first built in the Tang dynasty as a temple for sacrifices to …
The Daodejing Stele-Pillar at the Longxing Temple in Yixian is the most complete and largest surviving Tang-dynasty Daodejing stele-pillar in China. The inscription on th…
The Daodejing stele-pillar at Xingtai originally stood at the Longxing Temple in Xingzhou; it was erected on the fifth day of the eighth month of the twenty-seventh year …
The Daoist Association of Russia (Даосская Ассоциация России) was founded in 2021 by Li Jia and Cheng Bohan, and is the principal Daoist organization in the Russian-speak…
The US Daoist Foundation was founded in September 2007 by the Daoist studies scholar Louis Komjathy (Kang Sixi) and Kate Townsend, registered as a 501(c)(3) religious and…
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…
Duqiao Mountain, also known as Nanshan, has Danxia landform terrain and is listed in Daoist texts as the twentieth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the "Baoxuan G…
The Erxian Nunnery stands east of the Qingyang Palace. It was built in the thirty-fourth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing (1695) by the Sichuan judicial commissioner …
The cult of the 'Two Immortals' (Erxian) is widespread in the Shangdang region of southeastern Shanxi; tradition holds that the two daughters of the Yue family attained t…
Mount Mingshan in Fengdu, also called Mount Pingdu, is known in Daoism as the 'Blessed Land of Pingdu,' one of the Seventy-two Blessed Lands. Tradition holds that Yin Cha…
The Fulong Temple (Temple of the Subdued Dragon) stands atop the Litui hillock at Dujiangyan; tradition holds that when Li Bing controlled the floods he subdued an evil d…
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…
The most important Daoist remains in Hebei are the Beiyue Temple at Quyang (Yuan dynasty), Wahuang Palace in Shexian, and the Daodejing Stele-Pillar at Longxing Temple in…
The Sheng-An Temple, located in Ji'an, Hualien, principally enshrines the Boundless Empyrean Heavenly Wangmu Niangniang (the Queen Mother of the West), and is the first t…
The Jeng Sen Buddhism and Taoism Association occupies the second floor of a building on Waverly Place (formerly called Tin How Temple Street) in Chinatown, and is one of …
Kaohsiung Daode Temple is dedicated primarily to the Most High Ancestor of the Dao (Laozi), and also worships the Three Pure Ones, the Jade Emperor, and the Three Officia…
Khanh Van Nam Vien is one of the few temples in Vietnam, and indeed in Southeast Asia, that is a Daoist monastery in the strict sense: it preserves traditional Chinese Da…
Klenteng Cu An Kiong is the oldest Chinese temple in the town of Lasem on the north coast of Java, generally traced back to the early eighteenth century or earlier. Lasem…
The first of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the "Grotto-Heaven of Huolin," governed by the immortal Wang Weixuan. Today it is Mount Huotong in Ningde, Fujia…
The twelfth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the "Heaven of the Celestial Pillar and Treasured Ultimate Mystery," governed by the Perfected Tang Gongcheng.…
The fifteenth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the "Heaven of Noble Mystery and Ruling Perfection," governed by the Perfected Cui Wenzi. Today it is Mount …
The sixteenth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of True Ascension and Mystical Transformation,” governed by the Perfected Liu Shaogong. Identifi…
The seventeenth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Great Mystery's Dharma-Joy,” governed by the Perfected Liang Boluan. Identified with pr…
The twenty-first of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Elegant Joy and Lasting Perfection,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Bai. Identified wi…
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-fourth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Hidden Watchtower of Cavernous Yang,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Liu. Identif…
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…
The twenty-sixth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Great Yu's Flourishing Wonder,” governed by the Perfected Yin. Identified with present-day…
The twenty-eighth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the “Heaven of Cinnabar Radiance,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Wang. Identified with present-day Mount M…
The twenty-ninth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Immortal Capital's Quest for Transcendence,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Zhao. …
The third of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the "Grotto-Heaven of Zhuling," governed by the immortal Shi Changsheng. This is the Southern Marchmount, Mount …
The thirtieth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Qingtian's Great Crane,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Fu. Identified with present-day T…
The thirty-first of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Vermilion Sun’s Great Growth,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Gong. Today it is Mo…
The thirty-second of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Everlasting Constancy,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Li. Identified with present-da…
The thirty-third of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Purple Mystery's Cavernous Radiance,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Gongsun. The Char…
The thirty-fourth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the Celestial Canopy's Cleansed Mystery,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Jiang. Ident…
The thirty-fifth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of the White Horse's Mysterious Light,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Xie. Identified wi…
The thirty-sixth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Jinhua's Cavernous Origin,” governed by the Immortal Perfected Dai. Identified with presen…
The fourth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the "Grotto-Heaven of the Assembled Immortals" (also written "Supreme Ultimate, Assembled Immortals"), governed…
The eighth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the "Grotto-Heaven of Numinous Truth," governed by the Perfected Zhou Zhengshi. This is Mount Lu in Jiangxi, si…
The ninth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, titled the “Heaven of Cinnabar Mountain and Crimson Water,” governed by the Perfected Diao Daolin. Today it is Mount Si…
Ling Sen Tong stands at the foot of the limestone hills of Ipoh's Kinta Valley, neighboring Sam Poh Tong and Nam Thean Tong, and is generally believed to have been built …
The area of the Longmen Mountains in Pengzhou was one of the core regions of early Celestial Master Daoism. Of the Twenty-four Parishes established by Zhang Daoling, the …
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…
Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple originated in the early 1980s, when several anglers discovered scattered Daoist, Buddhist and Hindu deity statues on a beach at the end of the …
The Macau Taoist Association was founded by the local community of householder Zhengyi priests; its founding year is given as either 2001 (per the association's own websi…
The Mansion of the Celestial Masters was the residence and seat of authority of successive generations of the Celestial Master Zhang. It was built by imperial decree at G…
The Meizhou Mazu Ancestral Temple is the site of origin for the cult of Mazu (Lin Mo); after Lin Mo underwent Feathered Transformation in the fourth year of the Yongxi er…
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 Kunyu is the cradle of Quanzhen Daoism. In the seventh year of the Dading reign of the Jin dynasty (1167), Wang Chongyang traveled east from the Zhongnan Mountains …
Mount Lao is known as 'the foremost mountain by the sea,' and in Daoism as 'the dwelling of immortals and the abode of the numinous and marvelous.' Tradition holds that Z…
Mount Longhu is the ancestral seat of Zhengyi Daoism (the Way of the Celestial Masters). According to tradition, Zhang Daoling refined the Nine-Heaven Divine Elixir here …
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 Tai is foremost among the Five Marchmounts, anciently called Daizong or the Eastern Peak, and the site where successive emperors performed the Feng and Shan sacrifi…
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 Yunmeng lies in the western part of Qi County and is traditionally held to be the place where Guiguzi (Wang Xu), the Warring States strategist of the School of Dipl…
Nam Thean Tong is one of the earliest limestone-cave temples developed in Ipoh; according to the temple's own history it was built in 1867, developed by a Daoist priest, …
The National Palace Museum, Taipei, inherits the former Qing imperial collection; it was established on 10 October 1925 in the Forbidden City in Beiping, and after the co…
磨针井是「铁杵磨成针」传说的武当版本圣迹：真武圣传谓净乐国太子修道意怠欲下山，行至此处遇紫气元君化身老妪于井边磨铁杵，问之，答曰「磨针」，太子悟「功到自然成」之理，遂回山复修，终成大道。此传说出自《玄天上帝启圣录》圣传系统（另一版本附会李白）。武当道门又以此地每日最先承接纯阳之气，故名纯阳宫。现存建筑为清咸丰间重建的小型院落，殿前有姥姆亭…
Sanching Temple is located at the foot of the hills beside Meihua Lake in Dongshan Township, Yilan County, and is dedicated primarily to the Three Pure Ones (the Celestia…
Sakado Seitenkyu, in full "Seitenkyu of the Ascending Five Thousand Dragons," is the largest Daoist building in Japan, and also the site with the purest Daoist character …
Sekizan Zen-in is traditionally said to have been completed in the fourth year of the Ninna era (888) in accordance with the dying instructions of Jikaku Daishi Ennin (th…
Shangqing Palace stands beneath the First Peak of Mount Qingcheng, beside Laoxiao Summit, and is the highest temple on the front range of the mountain. It was first built…
The Wong Tai Sin Temple is the most actively worshipped Daoist temple in Hong Kong, administered by the charitable organization Sik Sik Yuen. Wong Tai Sin is Huang Chupin…
Penang's Snake Temple was built in 1805 and is dedicated mainly to Chor Soo Kong (Qingshui Zushi), an eminent Song-dynasty monk of Anxi, Quanzhou, and the ancestral-homel…
The Sociedade Taoísta do Brasil was established on 15 January 1991, founded by the Taipei-born Daoist priest Wu Jyh Cherng (1958–2004), and belongs to the Zhengyi lineage…
Louguantai, also known as the Zongsheng Guan or "Ancient Louguan," is traditionally said to be the place where Yin Xi wove grass into a tower to observe the stars and whe…
The Stele of the Three Mao Lords, Perfected Ones Granted the Nine Bestowals records how the Three Mao Lords (Mao Ying, Mao Gu, and Mao Zhong) received the title "Perfecte…
Taiqing Palace at Luyi is a memorial temple at the reputed birthplace of Laozi. In the eighth year of the Yanxi reign of the Eastern Han (165), Emperor Huan sent the pala…
The Taiwanfu City God Temple was built in the twenty-third year of Yongli of the Ming (1669), originally named the Chengtianfu City God Temple, and is Taiwan's earliest o…
The Tang Imperial Daodejing Commentary Stele at the Taiqing Palace in Luyi bears Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's imperial commentary on the Daodejing, and is the earliest surv…
The Tang stone seated statue of Laojun held at the Xi'an Beilin Museum originally stood at the Laojun Temple on Mount Li in Lintong, Shaanxi, before being moved into the …
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…
Tung Sen Tan was founded in 1938 in Central, Hong Kong Island, belonging to the Quanzhen cult of Patriarch Lü, one of the many Quanzhen Daoist halls established in Hong K…
The polychrome sculptures in the Hall of the Twenty-eight Lunar Mansions, on the west side of the third courtyard of Yuhuang Temple, Fucheng, are the pinnacle of Chinese …
White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan) is one of the Three Great Ancestral Courts of Quanzhen Daoism and the ancestral court of the Longmen Lineage, and is also the seat of the…
The Wong Dai Sin Temple, Markham, opened in 2015, dedicated primarily to Wong Tai Sin (Huang Daxian), and belongs to the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism; it was designed…
Wuliang Temple is the foremost Daoist temple of Mount Qian. In the early Kangxi reign of the Qing (c. 1667), Liu Tailin, an eighth-generation Longmen Quanzhen priest, cam…
The Xi'an Beilin Museum has its origins in the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, established in 1944; its collection of steles can be traced back to the Northern Song, a…
Heavenly Lake in the Tianshan Mountains has come to be identified in later tradition with the 'Turquoise Pond' where King Mu of Zhou met the Queen Mother of the West in t…
Yanqing Temple was built to commemorate the transformation-departure (yuhua) of the Quanzhen patriarch Wang Chongyang in Kaifeng. In the tenth year of the Dading reign of…
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…
Zhinan Temple, popularly known as the Immortal Lord's Temple (Xiangong Miao), is dedicated mainly to Sovereign Lord Fuyou, Lü Dongbin, and is the most famous place of Lü …
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…
Compiled by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin, it records the deeds of over eighty immortals, continuing and elaborating on Liu Xiang's Biographies of Exemplary Immortals. It is…
Attributed to Liu Xiang of the Western Han (though most scholars now hold it to have been compiled in the Eastern Han), it records over seventy immortals, including Chiso…
The Seventy-two Blessed Lands, mostly described as 'places where perfected beings attained the Dao,' of a scale secondary to the Grotto-Heavens — for example, Mount Difei…
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 …
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.…
The second of the Three Pure Ones, also called the Most High Lord of the Dao (Taishang Daojun) or the Great Emperor of the Highest Clarity, dwelling in the Yuyu Heaven of…
The foremost of the Three Pure Ones, dwelling in the Qingwei Heaven (Pure Tenuity) of the Jade Clarity Realm, a supreme deity held to have existed before the creation of …
A concept of causality put forward in the Scripture of Great Peace (Taiping jing): the good or evil deeds of earlier generations bring blessings or misfortunes that are b…
A philosophical current in Sui and Tang Daoism developed from the phrase 'mystery upon mystery' in the Daodejing, with Cheng Xuanying and Li Rong as its representative fi…
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…
The supreme category in Daoist philosophy and religion. The Daodejing states, 'The Dao that can be told is not the constant Dao,' meaning the ultimate reality and fundame…
A text of some five thousand characters attributed to Laozi, divided into the Dao chapters and the De chapters across eighty-one sections. It is the foundational scriptur…
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. …
The manifestation and function of the Dao within concrete things: 'The Dao engenders them, De nurtures them.' The myriad things obtain the Dao and thereby possess De; a p…
Compiled by Tao Hongjing from the pronouncements and biographies recorded by Yang Xi, Xu Mi, and Xu Hui during revelations by descending Perfected Immortals, in twenty sc…
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…
'The middling adept wanders among famous mountains' — one who, though immortal, remains in the human world dwelling in the grotto-heavens of famous mountains. Ge Hong hel…
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-…
The Empress of Earth Who Embodies Heaven, Emulates Its Virtue, and Manifests Great Brightness, one of the Four Sovereigns, who rules over mountains, rivers, and land, and…
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…
Ascension into the celestial realm after cultivation has succeeded; the highest form is 'ascension in broad daylight,' as when, according to legend, Huangdi (the Yellow E…
The art of geomancy (kanyu), which determines the orientation of dwellings and graves according to Yin and Yang, the Five Phases, the Eight Trigrams, and the configuratio…
Written by Wang Chongyang, it sets out fifteen discourses — on dwelling in a hermitage, wandering as a cloud, studying scriptures, compounding medicines, building temples…
The Five Celestial Lords of the Five Directions: Qingling Shilao of the East, Danling Zhenlao of the South, Yuanling Yuanlao of the Center, Haoling Huanglao of the West, …
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…
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…
Lord Immortal Ge, the Supreme Ultimate's Immortal of the Left, a Daoist priest of the Wu kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, great-uncle of Ge Hong. He is said to h…
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 highest of the Daoist Thirty-six Heavens, encompassing all the heavens, without superior and without exterior; it is where the Dao resides and where the Celestial Wor…
The highest-ranking jiao rite in Daoism, in which all the deities of the Three Realms and Ten Directions are invited (luotian meaning the Great Canopy Heaven, Daluo tian)…
Meaning 'a grotto chamber within a mountain that communicates with heaven above,' referring to a separate world within a mountain inhabited by immortals and perfected bei…
The Daoist system of sacred sites. In the Tang dynasty, Sima Chengzhen's Chart of the Palaces and Bureaus of Heaven and Earth and Du Guangting's Record of Grotto-Heavens,…
The deification of Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms period. From the Song onward Daoism enfeoffed him as 'Perfected Lord Chongning'; Emperor Shenzong of Ming granted him the…
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…
Head of the Order (zhangjiao) was the supreme leadership position of the Quanzhen order during the Jin and Yuan dynasties. After Wang Chongyang, the post was held in succ…
The ten Heavenly Stems (jia, yi, bing, ding, wu, ji, geng, xin, ren, gui) combine with the twelve Earthly Branches (zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu, …
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…
A Han-dynasty current of thought that took Huangdi and Laozi as its founders, blending the non-action of Daoist philosophy with immortality techniques and yin-yang numero…
The ideal person of Daoism: one who has attained the Dao through cultivation, achieved immortality, and gained the ability to transform freely. The Baopuzi (Master Who Em…
The lord of the heavens who oversees the Three Realms, the ten directions, and the four modes of birth and six paths of rebirth. Emperor Zhenzong of Song honored him as t…
A concept of time and cosmic catastrophe borrowed from the Buddhist notion of the kalpa. Daoism, especially the Lingbao scriptural tradition, holds that the cosmos passes…
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…
Li Er, a Spring and Autumn period thinker and author of the Daodejing, founder of Daoist philosophy. Daoism venerates him as its founding teacher and as an incarnation of…
The claim that after Laozi passed west through the Hangu Pass he traveled to India and became the Buddha to teach the western barbarians, making Buddhism a branch of Daoi…
A moral self-examination handbook that records daily good and bad deeds and assigns them quantified scores; the earliest example is the Southern Song Ledger of Merit and …
Attributed to Lie Yukou, the received text in eight chapters is generally thought to have been compiled by people of the Wei-Jin period. The Tang court honored it as the …
A verse used by each lineage to fix the order of generational succession; disciples take their Daoist names according to the characters of the verse, as in the Longmen Li…
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 Daoist lineage that flourished at Louguan on the Zhongnan Mountains from the Northern Dynasties through the Sui and Tang; it venerated Yin Xi as its founder, holding th…
A short Tang-dynasty treatise on cultivation, traditionally annotated by Sima Chengzhen, divided into eight chapters — immortality, simplicity, the gradual gate, fasting …
Popular religious texts that propagate the doctrine of retribution and exhort people to do good, with the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response, the Tract on H…
The Morning and Evening Liturgy is the daily course of scripture recitation held in Daoist temples at dawn and dusk, drawn from the Daily Morning and Evening Liturgy of t…
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…
The seven stars of the Northern Dipper (together with two attendant stars, making nine stars in all) govern life, death and lifespan in the human world according to Daois…
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 …
According to legend, one of the Three Sacred Mountains in the Eastern Sea (Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou), inhabited by immortals and possessing the elixir of immortali…
The Zhuangzi calls the utmost person who embodies the Dao a zhenren, "Perfected Person." Daoism uses the term as an honorific for immortals and adepts who have attained t…
Compiled by Meng Anpai of the Tang in ten scrolls, it systematically summarizes Daoist doctrine under thirty-seven headings, including the Dao and De, the Dharma-body, th…
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…
The original, unitary qi that constitutes the cosmos — the 'One' of 'the Dao generates the One.' Daoism holds that qi engenders heaven, earth and the myriad things, and t…
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…
'Clarity' (qing) means being free of impurity and contamination; 'stillness' (jing) means not acting recklessly. The Scripture of Constant Clarity and Stillness (Qingjing…
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…
Perfected Man Sa, a Song-dynasty Daoist priest who transmitted the Thunder Rites of Shenxiao and secret methods of incantation with jujubes, known for burning down licent…
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…
The Taishang laojun shuo chang qingjing jing, which appeared in the Tang dynasty. In only four hundred characters it expounds clarity, stillness, and non-action, and the …
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…
The Lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, the foremost scripture of the Lingbao School. It proclaims that the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning opens the kalpa …
The Huangdi yinfu jing, just over three hundred characters, appeared in the Tang dynasty (though some hold it to be earlier). It expounds the principle of mutual 'pilferi…
Wang Chongyang's seven great disciples — Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Sun Bu'er — who respectively founded the Yuxian, Nanwu, S…
Compiled by Zhang Junfang of the Northern Song in 122 scrolls, it is a digest of the Precious Canon of the Celestial Palace of the Great Song, excerpting Daoist scripture…
The cycle of sixty combinations formed by pairing the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Daoism assigns to each of the sixty combinations a Year-Governing Taisui deity …
A Thunder Rite lineage founded by Wang Wenqing and Lin Lingsu in the late Northern Song, vigorously patronized by Emperor Huizong of Song, venerating the Supreme Sovereig…
'The inferior adept dies first and then sloughs off the body' — the practitioner appears to die but in fact sheds the physical husk and becomes an immortal, so that only …
An expanded version of the Four Sovereigns: besides the Jade Emperor, the Great Emperor of Purple Tenuity, the Great Emperor of Curved Array, and the Empress of Earth, it…
The six stars of the Dou lunar mansion. In Daoist belief, the Six Officiating Star Lords of the Southern Dipper govern the extension of life and the bestowal of blessings…
A method of divination and revelation in which a planchette writes on a tray of sand to invite a deity's descent; already flourishing in the Song dynasty, a great many Da…
The deification of Laozi, the third of the Three Pure Ones as the Celestial Worthy of the Dao and Virtue (Daode Tianzun), residing in the Great Scarlet Heaven of the Grea…
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 structure of the Daoist celestial realm: six heavens of the Desire Realm, eighteen heavens of the Form Realm, and four heavens of the Formless Realm, making twenty-ei…
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…
The highest deities of Daoism: the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning of the Jade Clarity, the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure of the Highest Clarity, and the…
A concept borrowed by Daoism from Buddhism, referring to the Desire Realm, the Form Realm and the Formless Realm, or alternatively to the three realms of Heaven, Earth an…
A morality book that appeared at the end of the Northern Song, in just over a thousand characters. It holds that 'misfortune and fortune have no gate of their own — each …
Written by Wu Yun of the Tang in thirty-three chapters, it discusses the Dao and De, heaven and earth, nature and emotion, and the attainability of immortality, arguing t…
Twenty-eight constellations near the ecliptic, divided among the Four Symbols: the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South,…
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 …
A supplement to the Daoist Canon compiled by imperial order under the fiftieth Celestial Master Zhang Guoxiang in the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming (16…
The god of literary learning who governs examination success and official rank, formed by the merging of the star Wenchang with Zhang Yazi, a deity of Zitong in Sichuan. …
A morality tract said to have been revealed by Lord Wenchang, composed around the Song-Yuan transition. It urges people to perform hidden virtue widely, and together with…
Attributed to Wenzi, a disciple of Laozi, it was honored by the Tang court as the Tongxuan zhenjing. It frequently cites Laozi's words to expound the principles of Dao, D…
Huang Chuping, a Jin-dynasty Daoist priest of Jinhua, Zhejiang; the Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) records that he transformed stones into sheep by a sh…
'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…
A principle of conduct and statecraft that accords with what is natural and refrains from forced action: 'The Dao constantly takes no action, yet nothing is left undone.'…
An early Celestial Masters commentary on the Daodejing, traditionally attributed to Zhang Daoling or Zhang Lu; the first half survives in a Dunhuang fragment (S.6825). It…
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…
The birthday of Qiu Chuji on the nineteenth day of the first month, marked by a grand temple fair at White Cloud Temple, Beijing. According to tradition, immortals take o…
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…
The ancients imagined that immortals grew feathered wings and ascended, and so becoming an immortal was called 'feathered transformation' (yuhua), as in the phrase 'feath…
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…
Meaning 'being so of itself' or 'being as it originally is': 'Humans model themselves on earth, earth models itself on heaven, heaven models itself on the Dao, and the Da…
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 Panxi ji (Anthology of Panxi) is a collection of poetry and lyrics by Qiu Chuji (styled Changchunzi), in six juan, containing over five hundred poems, lyrics and eulo…
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 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 Baopuzi Outer Chapters is Ge Hong's work discussing gains and losses in the human world and the merits and faults of worldly affairs, fifty chapters, classified among…
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 Biographies of Grotto Immortals was originally in ten chapters, of which only the one chapter included in scroll 110 of the Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds…
Biographies of Suspected Immortals, in three fascicles, bears a suggestive title: the 'suspected' (yi) of its name signals that all the figures it records performed extra…
The Biography of the Perfected Lord Xu records the life and wonders of Xu Xun (c. 239–374) of the Eastern Jin: styled Jingzhi, a native of Nanchang, he once served as mag…
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…
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 Tiandi Gongfu Tu (Chart of the Palaces and Bureaus of Heaven and Earth) is the earliest surviving text to systematically arrange the Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands,…
Cheng Xuanying's Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi is the subcommentary written on Guo Xiang's commentary by Cheng Xuanying, the great master of Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) l…
The Chronological Biographies of the Seven Perfected (Qizhen nianpu), in one scroll, records year by year in annalistic form the births, deaths, ordinations, teaching act…
The Classic of Filial Piety of Lord Wenchang purports to have been transmitted through spirit-writing by Wenchang Dijun, composed in imitation of the format of the Confuc…
The Collected Compilation on the Treatise on Action and Response is the most widely circulated and voluminous of the many commentarial editions of the Treatise of the Mos…
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…
The Chongyang Quanzhen ji (Collected Works of Wang Chongyang on Complete Perfection) is a collection of Wang Chongyang's poetry and prose, in thirteen juan, containing ov…
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 Youxiang Liexian Quanzhuan (Complete Illustrated Biographies of Immortals) in nine scrolls is the largest illustrated collection of immortal biographies from the Ming…
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 Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals Who Embodied the Dao through the Ages), abbreviated Xianjian, is the largest-scale collective biograp…
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 Xuanmen Risong Zaowan Gongke Jing (Daily Morning and Evening Liturgy of the Mysterious Gate) is a compilation of scriptures and litanies recited daily, morning and ev…
The Daodejing is the most fundamental classic of Daoist philosophy and religion, traditionally attributed to Lao Dan, Historian-Archivist of the Zhou royal library. The w…
The Daoist Canon of the Kaiyuan Era is the first Daoist Canon in history to be compiled and promulgated throughout the realm under state sponsorship. Emperor Xuanzong of …
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 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 Digest of Essential Rites, Regulations and Precepts is a Daoist compendium of ritual regulations and precepts compiled by Zhu Faman, a Daoist priest of Yuqing Temple …
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…
Early Daoist Scriptures is a landmark work of English translation and scholarship on early Daoist texts. Bokenkamp selected key scriptures of Six Dynasties Daoism and tra…
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…
The Hanwudi neizhuan (Esoteric Biography of Emperor Wu of the Han) is presented as an account of Emperor Wu of the Han's quest for immortality: on the seventh day of the …
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…
Extended Meaning of the Tract on Hidden Merit is a commentary on the Tract on Hidden Merit composed by the Qing-dynasty lay Buddhist Zhou Mengyan (style name Siren, sobri…
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 Huangdi Sijing (Four Classics of Huangdi) comprises four ancient lost texts found at the head of manuscript B of the Laozi among the Mawangdui silk manuscripts, and i…
The Gazetteer of Patriarch Lü, in six scrolls, is included in the Supplementary Daoist Canon of the Wanli Era and is a compendious document of the cult of Lü Dongbin. The…
Baiyun Guan in Beijing, the ancestral court of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen Daoism and the seat of the Chinese Taoist Association, had its predecessors in the Tang-dyn…
The Genealogy of the Han Celestial Masters is the official lineage record of the Zhengyi Celestial Masters of Mount Longhu. Beginning with the first-generation Celestial …
The Qingwei Xianpu (Genealogy of the Immortals of the Qingwei Tradition) is a one-fascicle genealogy of the Qingwei school's patriarchal transmission, compiled by Chen Ca…
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…
There are two principal works sharing the title Daojiao Dacidian (Great Dictionary of Daoism). The first was edited by Li Shuhuan and published by the Chuliu Book Company…
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…
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…
Guo Xiang's Commentary on the Zhuangzi is the earliest complete extant commentary on the Zhuangzi, and also a summa of Wei–Jin Dark Learning (xuanxue). Guo Xiang condense…
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…
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 eighteen-juan Daishi (History of Mount Dai), compiled by Zha Zhilong of the Ming, is the earliest comparatively complete surviving gazetteer of Mount Tai. Mount Tai, …
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…
The Illustrated Biographies of the Immortal Origins of the Orthodox Golden Lotus Lineage (Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan), in one scroll, records the patriarchs of…
The Inner Biographies of the Immortals of the Ancestral Court on Mount Zhongnan (Zhongnanshan zuting xianzhen neizhuan), in three scrolls, is devoted to the deeds of seve…
The Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun is the record kept by Li Zhichang, a disciple of Qiu Chuji, of his master's journey in answer to the summons of Chinggi…
The Later Collection of the Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals Who Embodied the Dao through the Ages (Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian houji), in six scrolls, is the largest …
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…
'Ledgers of Merit and Demerit for Admonishing the World' is a general term for the large number of admonitory ledger-of-merit-and-demerit morality books printed during th…
The Ledger of Merit and Demerit of the Immortal Lord of Taiwei is the earliest surviving "ledger of merit and demerit" (gongguoge), a moral account book that records good…
Liaofan's Four Lessons is a Ming-dynasty book of instruction that Yuan Huang wrote for his son, divided into four chapters: "The Study of Establishing One's Destiny," "Th…
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 re…
Lineage of the Perfected, compiled by Li Bo of the Tang, is a genealogy of Shangqing transmission, preserved today in fascicle 5, 'Section on the Transmission of Scriptur…
Lu Xiujing was the founder of Daoist retreat and offering ritual; while editing the scriptures of the Three Caverns he also drew on the ancient Lingbao scriptures to esta…
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 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 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 Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching (Daojiao yishu) is a compendium of Daoist doctrine compiled by the Tang priest Meng Anpai of Qingxi, expounding fundamental Da…
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 Precept Scripture of the Most High Lord Lao is presented as precepts spoken by Laozi to Yin Xi as he passed through the pass, proclaiming Daoism's 'Five Precepts' (ag…
The Precious Canon of the Mysterious Metropolis (Yuan) (Xuandu baozang) is the largest Daoist canon in history. The Quanzhen Daoist Song Defang (sobriquet Pi Yunzi, a dis…
The Precious Records of the Jade Calendar is the most widely circulated illustrated morality book on hell, attributed to the Song-dynasty Daoist Danchi, who is said to ha…
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 Quanzhen Qinggui (Pure Rules of Complete Perfection) is a one-fascicle compilation of Quanzhen monastic regulations compiled by Lu Daohe in the Yuan dynasty, the earl…
The Dongtian Fudi Yuedu Mingshan Ji (Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains) is the definitive text of Daoist sacred geography.…
The Record of Ranks of the Mysterious (Xuanpin lu), in five scrolls, was compiled by the celebrated Yuan-dynasty Daoist and poet-calligrapher Zhang Yu, who arranges Daois…
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 Record of the Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Lotus (Jinlian zhengzong ji) is the earliest formal historiographical biography of the Quanzhen tradition, providing biog…
《玄天上帝启圣录》八卷是真武传说最完备的集成文献。卷一以「王宫诞圣」「紫霄圆道」等四字标题分段，完整敷演玄帝本迹：托胎净乐国善胜皇后，十五岁辞父母出家，受玉清圣祖紫元君（紫气元君）点化授「无极上道」入武当修炼，中经「铁杵磨针」（老妪磨针、「功到自然成」）等考验，修炼四十二年，九月初九功成飞升，受册封为太玄元帅；卷二至卷八汇录宋代真武灵应故…
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…
The Danyang zhenren yulu (Recorded Sayings of the Perfected Danyang) compiles the teachings of Ma Yu (styled Danyangzi), foremost of the Quanzhen Seven Perfected, edited …
The Qinghe zhenren beiyou yulu (Recorded Sayings of the Perfected Qinghe on the Northern Journey) compiles the teachings given to disciples by Qiu Chuji's successor, Yin …
The Panshan Yulu (盘山语录, Recorded Sayings of Wang Zhijin of Mount Pan) compiles the sayings of the Quanzhen priest Wang Zhijin (a disciple of Hao Datong, sobriquet Qiyun) …
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 Daoist Miraculous Efficacy is the most important collection of Daoist miracle-tales from the Tang and Five Dynasties, compiled by Du Guangting, gathering sever…
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 …
The Yongcheng jixian lu (Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City) is China's first collective biographical compilation devoted exclusively to fema…
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 Records of the Immortal Stream of Ganshui (Ganshui xianyuan lu) is a general compilation of Quanzhen stele inscriptions, edited by Li Daoqian, who served as prior of …
The Register of the Cinnamon of Cinnabar is a Qing-dynasty compilation of morality-book texts centered on the cult of Wenchang Dijun; 'cinnabar cinnamon' (dangui) alludes…
The Regulations for the Practice of Daoism in Accordance with the Scriptures of the Three Caverns is the most important compendium of medieval Daoist institutional regula…
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 Rites for Leaving the Family and Transmission of Ordination is a ritual manual for the ordination of Daoist priests written by the Northern Song Daoist Jia Shanxiang,…
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 Qingjing jing (Scripture of Constant Clarity and Stillness) runs to only a little over 390 characters in total, and is one of the most frequently recited short script…
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 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 Jiutian Shengshen Zhang jing (Scripture of the Nine Heavens' Stanzas of Life-Giving Spirit) is an important scripture among the ancient Lingbao scriptures, describing…
The Benji jing (Scripture of the Original Bound) was one of the most widely circulated doctrinal scriptures of Daoism at the turn of the Sui and Tang; nearly a hundred ma…
《元始天尊说北方真武妙经》是真武（玄天上帝）信仰最核心的「本传」经典，经中元始天尊为妙行真人说真武来历：净乐国王与善胜皇后梦吞日光，怀胎十四月，于开皇元年三月初三日诞太子于王宫；太子「生而神灵，长而勇猛，不统王位，唯务修行」，誓断天下妖魔，遂辞父母入武当山修道四十二年，功成果满，白日登天，玉帝敕镇北方，统摄真武之位；又敕真武率天兵下界收断…
The Perfected Writs in Red Script of the Five Elders is a core scripture among the ancient Lingbao texts, placed first among all the scriptures in Lu Xiujing's Catalogue …
The Scripture of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) is the foundational scripture of the Dongshen (Cavern of Spirit) Section among the Daoist "Three Caverns," standing a…
The Scripture of the Void of Free Wandering (also written Xiaoyao Xu Jing), in two fascicles, was compiled by Hong Yingming during the Wanli era of the Ming, and is a pop…
The Haikong Zhizang jing (Scripture of the Wisdom Treasury of Ocean-Emptiness) is a Daoist doctrinal scripture composed by the Tang-dynasty Chongxuan school in imitation …
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 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 Scripture Spoken by Lord Lao on Requiting the Profound Kindness of Parents proclaims, in the name of the Supreme Venerable Sovereign, the kindness of parents in beari…
《清微神烈秘法》二卷，出自元末武当山清微道士之手，是武当清微一系（张守清法脉）的代表性法本。分〈雷奥秘论〉〈师派〉〈圣位〉〈习定坐法〉〈祈祷建四溟外坛式〉〈符命一宗〉诸门。〈雷奥秘论〉立论「万法以心为正……其妙乃以吾神合彼神，吾灵合彼灵……静则是道，动则是法」，并述元始一炁分梵、清、景三炁的雷法宇宙论，称人间清微雷法为「下品灵书，应世宗师…
The Selected Daoist Texts Series (Daojiao Dianji Xuankan) is a series of critically collated and annotated Daoist classics published by Zhonghua Book Company, appearing s…
The Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian xubian (Sequel to the Comprehensive Mirror of Immortals), in five juan, supplements thirty-four Daoist figures of the Song–Yuan transiti…
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 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…
The Zhongnanshan Shuojingtai Lidai Zhenxian Beiji (Stele Records of Perfected Immortals through the Ages at the Scripture Platform on Mount Zhongnan), in one juan, record…
The Xu xian zhuan (Supplementary Biographies of Immortals) is a collection of immortal biographies compiled around the Tang–Five Dynasties transition; the author, Shen Fe…
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 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 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 Tract on Hidden Merit of Lord Wenchang, together with the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response and the True Scripture of Awakening the World by Lord Guan,…
The Taishang ganying pian (Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response) is the most widely circulated Daoist morality book in China; its opening lines, 'Fortune and …
The Treatise on the Mysterious Guideline (Xuangang lun) is a work by the eminent Tang priest Wu Yun systematically expounding Daoist philosophy and the theory of cultivat…
The True Scripture of Awakening the World by Lord Guan is one of the "Three Sage Scriptures," the morality books of the Ming and Qing periods, attributed to Guan Yu (Lord…
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…
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 Wenzi is a work of the Daoist Huang-Lao school, expounding the principles of the Dao and De, non-action, and self-cultivation and statecraft in the format of sayings …
The Duren jing, in full the Wondrous Scripture of the Upper Chapters on Limitless Salvation of Primordial Beginning, is the first scripture of the Lingbao lineage, and th…
The Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi is the early Way of the Celestial Masters' (Wudoumi Dao) religious commentary on the Daodejing, and the key document through which Da…
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 Zhonghua Daozang is the first systematic reorganization of Daoist scriptures undertaken in nearly five hundred years since the Ming, edited in chief by Zhang Jiyu of …
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…
「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…