Daoist Canon

Abstract

The term daozang道藏, commonly rendered as “Daoist Canon,” originally referred to collections of texts kept in Daoist establishments. Later, the same term was also used to designate a series of major compendia of Daoist texts, usually compiled by imperial decree and distributed to temples throughout China. While these compendia may be deemed to reflect the Daoist orthodoxy at the different periods of their compilation, this is not implied in the term daozang itself, which does not literally mean “canon,” but only “repository of the Way.” The Daoist Canon of the Ming dynasty—published in 1445 and known as the Zhengtong Daozang正統道藏, or Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Reign Period—is the last of these collections and the only one extant. A supplement entitled Xu Daozang jing續道藏經, or Sequel to the Scriptures of the Daoist Canon, was added in 1607, and since then has been an integral part of the collection. Together, the two parts of the Canon contain almost 1,500 works. As described in more detail in different sections of this bibliography, the roots of the Daoist Canon lie in a now-lost catalogue compiled in the late 5th century, which classified scriptures into three broad categories corresponding to the main Daoist traditions of that time. Additional categories were added about one and a half centuries later, to take account of textual corpora that had been disregarded in the former classification. After the first Canon was compiled in the mid-8th century, works related to newly created schools and lineages were progressively added to the earlier collections, while older works were omitted owing to loss or to editorial decisions. The result of this evolution is the present-day Daozang, which contains sources related to all major Daoist branches and lineages until the mid-15th century. While the Daozang as we know it is still formally organized according to the classification of scriptures devised one millennium before its publication, it does not use distinctions that originate outside of Daoism, such as those between “philosophical” and “religious” texts, or between daojia道家 (a term often understood as “philosophical Daoism”) and daojiao道教 (so-called “religious Daoism”). The Zhonghua Daozang中華道藏 or Daoist Canon of China, published by the Huaxia Chubanshe in 2003, is the first new edition of the Canon since the Zhengtong Daozang. Besides the entire Canon, it includes additional texts, such as transcriptions of about sixty Dunhuang manuscripts. Instead of following the traditional plan of the Canon, texts are arranged into broad headings such as lineages, literary genres (ritual compendia, hagiography, descriptions of practices, encyclopedias, etc.), and commentaries on major texts. While texts are punctuated and the new arrangement may be clearer to a modern user, the large majority of scholars, both in China and elsewhere, continue to refer to the Zhengtong Daozang in their studies.