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.
The event
In the Southern Song (12th century), the scholar Zeng Zao (曾慥) compiled the Daoshu (“Pivot of the Dao” — the title itself taken from the Zhuangzi’s “the pivot of the Dao,” 道枢): forty-two juan, 108 chapters, gathering Daoist practice literature from the Han through the Northern Song — philosophy, alchemy, breathing, fetal-breathing, and meditation techniques, school by school.
Among its preserved dialogues is the sentence this site relies on most heavily for the identity of the two central practices: asked what inner contemplation (内观) is, the answer recorded is “inner contemplation is sitting in oblivion” (内观即坐忘).
Why it matters
- The tradition’s own equation. Modern scholarship separates “Daoist meditation” into distinct lineages; the Daoshu shows the Song tradition itself treating 内观 and 坐忘 as one practice under two names — the strongest single traditional warrant for this site’s treatment of them as a unified field.
- A compilation, not a system. Zeng Zao gathered, he did not reconcile: the Daoshu preserves schools side by side, including methods (visualization, alchemy) quite different from the stillness tradition. It is evidence of continuity and diversity, not of a single orthodoxy.
- The Zhuangzi as terminological sourcebook. Even the book’s title borrows from the Qiwulun — a reminder that by the Song, the Inner Chapters had become the common lexicon of all Daoist practice.
Uncertainty preserved: the “inner contemplation is sitting in oblivion” sentence is a dialogue attributed to the Zhong-Lü lineage, compiled at least two centuries after the alleged speakers; it records the Song tradition’s view, not a Tang transcript. That is precisely how this site cites it.
Sources
- Daoshu (道枢), comp. Zeng Zao (曾慥), Southern Song; 42 juan, 108 chapters; title from Zhuangzi ch. 2 ('the pivot of the Dao')
- Daoshu, Chuandao chapter: '内观即坐忘' — inner contemplation is sitting in oblivion