Texts
Classical Chinese texts with original, translations and context.
Baopuzi (The Master Who Embraces the Uncarved Block)
The Baopuzi 抱朴子 by Ge Hong: the fourth-century encyclopedia of Daoist practice — the source of this site's taixi definition and its economy-argument for guarding the One.
Daodejing (the Book)
The Daodejing 道德经: the 81-chapter classic of the Way and Virtue — wuwei, the One, and the subtraction program. Manuscript history (Mawangdui 1973, Guodian 1993) and why chapter numbers vary.
Huangting Jing (the Book)
The Huangting neijing jing 黄庭内景经: the Shangqing scripture that fixed the three-dantian map — the inner geography every later practice inherits, and its signature line.
Liezi (The Book of Master Lie)
The Liezi 列子: the fable treasury of the Daoist canon — and the book with the most contested authorship in the tradition. The full controversy, stated with both sides.
Neiguan Jing (Scripture of Inner Observation)
The Neiguan Jing 内观经: the Sui-Tang scripture of inner observation — 'still the spirit, settle the mind, let no wild thoughts arise.' The text behind Tang zuowang practice.
Qingjing Jing (Scripture of Clarity and Stillness)
The Qingjing Jing 清静经: the ~400-character classic of Daoist stillness — 'if people can be constantly clear and still, heaven and earth all return to them.' Dating, structure, and the empty-emptiness ladder.
Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace)
The Taiping Jing 太平经: the Eastern Han scripture that turned guarding-the-One from a saying into a systematic meditation with a protocol — the site's primary source for the shouyi tradition.
Xiao Zhiguan (the Book)
Zhiyi's beginner's meditation manual 童蒙止观: the five adjustments and four faulty breaths that became the common operating manual of Chinese sitting across traditions.
Zhuangzi (the Book)
The Zhuangzi 庄子: a 33-chapter anthology compiled from multiple hands, the source of zuowang and xinzhai, and the classical basis of Daoist contemplative language. Structure, authorship, and reception.
Zuowang Lun (Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion)
Sima Chengzhen's Zuowang Lun 坐忘论: the Tang seven-stage system that turned the Zhuangzi's classical state description into a graduated method — reverent faith to attaining the Dao.