Timeline
The historical development of Chinese contemplative traditions.
Baopuzi Composed (c. 314–320s CE)
Ge Hong compiles the Baopuzi — inner chapters on practice, outer chapters on the world — while in seclusion; the fourth-century consolidation that turns scattered sitting instructions into a catalog.
Cheng Yi and Yang Shi: Standing in Snow (1093 CE)
The 'Cheng Men Li Xue' episode — Yang Shi standing respectfully in the snow rather than disturb Cheng Yi's sitting — becomes the iconic image of Neo-Confucian jingzuo.
Daoshu: 'Inner Contemplation Is Sitting in Oblivion' (12th c.)
Zeng Zao's Song encyclopedia of Daoist methods preserves the tradition's own equation — 内观即坐忘 — the strongest classical warrant for treating the two names as one practice.
Ge Hong's Baopuzi: Shouyi Systematized (c. 320 CE)
Ge Hong's Baopuzi neipian 'Dizhen' chapter converts shouyi from scripture teaching into a codified practice with numbered versions and claimed signs of attainment.
Guodian Daodejing Manuscripts (c. 300 BCE or earlier)
The oldest surviving Daodejing fragments, excavated in 1993 from a Chu tomb at Guodian sealed around 300 BCE — the earliest material witness to the text.
Huangting Jing: The Three-Dantian System (c. 3rd–4th c.)
The Shangqing scripture that first systematized the three cinnabar fields — the fixed inner geography of later Chinese contemplative practice.
Kou Qianzhi's Reform (415–442 CE)
The Northern Celestial Master reform: the 415 revelation, the purge of the Zhangs' institutions, and the first emperor to take Daoist registers — Daoism's first imperial institution.
Liezi Compiled (Jin Era, c. 285–400 CE)
From the lost Han bibliography entry to the received eight-chapter book: the Liezi's Jin-era compilation, with the 285 CE terminus, Zhang Zhan's commentary, and the Tang canonization.
Qingjing Jing and Neiguan Jing Composed (Six Dynasties–Early Tang)
The two anonymous scriptures that bridge Han visualization and Tang zuowang — the Qingjing Jing's emptying ladder and the Neiguan Jing's inner observation — take shape between the sixth and seventh centuries.
Shiji Biographies of Laozi and Zhuang Zhou (c. 100 BCE)
Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian gives the oldest surviving accounts of Laozi and Zhuang Zhou — and candidly admits its own uncertainty about Laozi.
Sima Chengzhen Writes the Zuowang Lun (Tang)
Sima Chengzhen (647–735), twelfth Shangqing patriarch, writes the seven-stage Zuowang Lun at the height of Tang Daoism — the founding systematic treatise of seated meditation.
Taiping Jing: Shouyi and the Exit Conditions (Eastern Han)
The Taiping Jing 太平经 records the earliest sustained shouyi (guarding the One) teaching, including the instruction to stop sitting when restless.
The Heshang Gong Commentary (c. 2nd c. CE)
The anonymous elder by the river becomes the name on the earliest surviving full Laozi commentary — the chapter-titled, body-governing recension that carried the Daodejing into practice.
The Shangqing Revelations (364–370 CE)
The night sessions at Jurong: Yang Xi's mediumship, the claimed descent of the Lady Wei, the scriptures that became the Highest Clarity corpus — and their fifth-century compilation into the Zhengao.
The Zhuangzi Takes Shape (c. 4th–2nd c. BCE)
From Zhuang Zhou's Inner Chapters through two centuries of follower writings to Guo Xiang's 33-chapter recension — how the anthology of Chinese contemplative literature was assembled.
Wang Bi's Laozi Commentary (c. 249 CE)
The twenty-three-year-old's annotation that became the book's earliest surviving philosophical reading — no chapter titles, no qi-work, just mystery and emptiness: the received text's other foundation.
Xiao Zhiguan: The Five Adjustments (6th c.)
Zhiyi's beginner's manual codifies the five pre-sitting adjustments — diet, sleep, body, breath, mind — the vocabulary that crossed traditions.
Zhu Xi Prescribes Jingzuo: 'Half a Day Sitting, Half a Day Reading' (12th c.)
Zhuzi Yulei juan 116 records Zhu Xi's famous prescription of half-day sitting, half-day reading — addressed to one scattered student as a remedy, not a universal program.