Taoist scriptures in translation with introductions: the Tao Te Ching, the Classic of the Hidden Talisman, the Scripture of Clarity and Stillness, the Liezi and more.
An introduction to the Yellow Emperor's Classic of the Hidden Talisman—its traditional authorship, its commentators through the ages, and the themes of its three parts—followed by the full text, on heaven and humanity acting together, the three thieves, and cutting off one source of benefit.
The full text of the Mind Seal Scripture of the Exalted Jade Emperor with a line-by-line commentary. Built around the three grades of superior medicine—spirit, qi, and essence—it explains the stages of inner alchemy and the essentials of dual cultivation of nature and life.
The complete Precious Litany of Azure Mystery for Saving from Suffering, used for the deliverance of the dead: it invokes the Three Treasures and the Heavenly Worthy Who Saves from Suffering, then repents on the departed's behalf of nine kinds of sin, each followed by nine invocations of the Worthy's holy names.
Liturgical texts used to close scripture recitation: the Short Hymn, the Earth God Incantation, the Lingguan Incantation invoking Marshal Wang to guard the altar, the Three Refuges, and the Closing Gatha, praising the merit of recitation and dedicating it to dispel calamity and increase blessings.
Liturgical texts used at the close of scripture recitation: a gatha and invocation of the Heavenly Worthy of Thunder, the Hymn of the Central Hall recited kneeling, and Patriarch Qiu's Litany of Repentance, which confesses the sins of past kalpas, makes over twenty great vows, and ends with twelve wishes.
The full text of Patriarch Sa Shoujian's Song of Refining One's Nature, in lines of three, three, and seven characters, urging early practice: step back and be yielding, bear insult without contention, remove selfishness, let the heart's fire descend, shut the six gates, and accumulate virtue until perfection comes.
The scripture in which the Heavenly Worthy teaches Perfected Zuoxuan that cultivating the Tao begins with renouncing affairs and sitting in inner observation, extinguishing the moving mind but not the illuminating mind, balancing tension and ease to enter true concentration from which wisdom arises, with the seven signs of attainment and a closing hymn.
The complete Classic of Clarity and Stillness: the formless Tao gives birth to heaven and earth, the spirit loves clarity but the mind disturbs it, and by dispelling desire and settling the mind one enters true stillness. It closes with words from Immortal Elder Ge, Perfected Zuoxuan, and Perfected Zhengyi on the scripture's transmission and merits.
The complete scripture in which the Heavenly Worthy, assembling the heavens in the land of Chanli, lists the calamities of the year and month, the net of heaven and snare of earth, illness, water, fire, war, and thieves, and teaches that repenting before the Jade Emperor and upholding this scripture averts them all.
The complete scripture praising the Heavenly Worthy Who Saves from Suffering, whose majestic power fills the ten directions to rescue all beings. It lists the holy names of the Heavenly Worthies of the ten directions, promises relief from the hells and blessings in heaven to those who recite it, and closes with a hymn of the Flying Heavenly Spirit Kings.
The complete Scripture on Protecting Life with its opening gatha: the Primordial Heavenly Worthy expounds being and nonbeing, form and emptiness, so that beings may know emptiness as not empty and form as not form and leave the net of doubt, with Flying Heavenly Spirit Kings guarding the scripture.
The complete scripture in which the Primordial Heavenly Worthy, on Mount Yujing, teaches the heavenly immortals to rely on fasting and precepts, put aside all entanglements, observe inwardly, and draw in the true qi of supreme harmony to realize the Three Primes and attain the Tao, closing with the immortals' gatha.
The full text of a moral admonition in the voice of the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak: heaven and earth are impartial and the gods observe all; power and blessings must not be used to the full; good deeds grow like spring grass and evil wears away like a whetstone.
Wang Changyue distinguishes the physical body and the body of the Law, lifespan and wisdom-life, answers critics who say a wordless Tao needs no teaching by pointing to the Three Pure Ones, and recounts how he came to open the ordination altar in the capital.
Wang Changyue teaches that the ties of attachment are more harmful than obstructions: they are the ancestor of all demons. Everything a renunciant delights in must be dropped at once, as the tale of a Taoist reborn as a moth drawn to a lamp warns.
Wang Changyue teaches that sages differ from ordinary people only in resolve and in being public-minded rather than selfish, that one must bear suffering to escape it, and sets out long verses of resolves and vows, closing with a warning that time is short.
Continuing from wisdom and light, Wang Changyue draws on the Yinfu Jing, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Cantong Qi to show that true spiritual power turns the six consciousnesses into six penetrations and transforms demons through virtue, not talismanic tricks.
Wang Changyue explains the threefold refuge in the Tao, the scriptures, and the masters. Reciting before sacred images is not enough: one must take refuge in one's own body, mind, and intention, governing them with precepts, concentration, and wisdom.
Wang Changyue teaches that leaving the world does not mean going somewhere beyond heaven and earth, but seeing through worldly impermanence and bringing body and mind to clarity and stillness, using the false body to cultivate the true and setting aside alchemical metaphors.
Drawing on Confucius and Mencius, the Buddha, and the Three Pure Ones and the Jade Emperor, Wang Changyue teaches that to save living beings one must first save the stray thoughts within oneself, and sets out nine stages of self-salvation, from resoluteness to naturalness.
Wang Changyue sets out the proper way to seek a teacher: he exposes wandering Taoists who talk of elixir formulas and alchemical frauds, teaches that sincerity is what finds a true master and that the six senses can all be teachers, and urges seeking within first.
Wang Changyue explains how, after receiving the Precepts of the Central Ultimate, wisdom and light arise from precepts and concentration, expounding the Jade Pivot Scripture line by line: enter by sincerity, keep by silence, use by softness.
Wang Changyue teaches that practitioners must cut off the obstructions of principle and of affairs. Using the image of a ship afraid to sail under dark clouds, and citing the Jade Emperor Scripture, he lists the subtle obstructions that arise in study, inquiry, and meditation.
Through the story of three Taoists who met different fates, Wang Changyue teaches that karmic debts must be fully repaid rather than escaped, and explains how to repay the four kindnesses of heaven and earth, sun and moon, sovereign, and parents.
Wang Changyue calls the precepts the pestle that subdues demons and the ladder to heaven. He condemns ordained Taoists who sell robes and break fasts, and tells of an underworld bureau that records violations and of a lapsed disciple whom ghosts later greeted on their knees.
Wang Changyue teaches that after taking refuge in the Three Treasures one must repent of sinful karma. He exposes self-deception and knowing transgression, explains why the treacherous sin more gravely than the ignorant, and composes a repentance text for daily recitation.
Following the chapter on repenting of sinful karma, this is the repentance text for precept disciples: it lists the faults of those who hold only the empty name of ordination, vows reform, and urges reciting it with shame and fierce resolve.
Wang Changyue names the poison of anger as the practitioner's first great sickness. Anger must be subdued by enduring insult and lust removed first; two karmic tales, of a precept disciple's dream and of an old debt to a donkey, show why one must repay old debts calmly.
In 1663, while expounding the precepts at Biyuan in Nanjing, Wang Changyue tells his disciples how he sought the Tao, met an enlightened master on Mount Wangwu, and opened the altar to teach in plain words; a disciple's verse follows.
The preface written when the Heart Method of the Dragon Gate was printed in the Tongzhi era: on the orthodox source of the Tao and the one mind behind all methods, and how Wang Changyue's manuscript came to be expounded at a precept ordination and carved for circulation.
Wang Changyue teaches the difference between true and false: the impermanent body is false, while the spirit that receives retribution is true. He rejects form-bound practices such as circulating essence and cauldron arts, and explains “secret conduct” through the three hundred Precepts of the Central Ultimate.
Wang Changyue matches the Initial Perfection, Central Ultimate, and Celestial Immortal precepts to precepts, concentration, and wisdom, explains the word “central,” refutes the claim that after death one is just a breath of qi, and shows how wisdom arises within concentration.
The afterword written in 1663 by Shao Shoushan and Zhan Shouchun: from Wang Chongyang's founding of Quanzhen and Perfected Changchun's spreading of the precepts, through four centuries of decline, to Precept Master Kunyang's plain-spoken teaching of the precepts.
Wang Changyue criticizes side doors such as suppressing thought, cooking lead and mercury, and waiting in retreat for an inner embryo. The infant is simply innate, unobscured knowing; awakening means leaving all edges, as the Yellow Emperor's lost pearl was found by Formless.
The closing chapter of the book urges the assembly to stride forward by precepts, concentration, and wisdom and seek long life in the body of the Law, and teaches through parallel verses that every method taught was only medicine for an illness, to be set aside on awakening.
Wang Changyue explains that preserving life and prolonging existence does not mean clinging to the body or extending one's years, but guarding the wisdom-life bestowed by heaven and the indestructible body of the Law, drawing on the Scripture of Protecting Life.
Wang Changyue urges the assembly to see through impermanence and fiercely investigate the great matter of birth and death: where one's life stood before one's parents gave birth, and where one rests after death, proceeding layer by layer through precepts, concentration, and wisdom.
The Heshang Gong edition of the Tao Te Ching, chapters 22 to 60, including “the Tao follows what is so of itself,” superior virtue that does not hold itself as virtue, “the Tao gives birth to one,” losing day by day, and governing a great state like cooking a small fish.
The Heshang Gong edition of the Tao Te Ching, chapters 61 to 81: the great state that stays low, the three treasures of compassion, frugality, and not daring to be first, heaven's vast net, the small state with few people, and the sage who acts without contending.
The Heshang Gong edition of the Tao Te Ching, chapters 1 to 21: from “The Tao that can be spoken of” through being and non-being, governing by non-action, the valley spirit, water as the highest good, stillness, and embracing simplicity.
The full text of “The Tallies,” the fourth chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: essence, spirit, and the hun and po souls matched with the Five Phases, and why life and death are only the gathering and scattering of one qi.
The full text of “The Spoon,” the sixth chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: dreams, thought, and pain cannot truly divide self from others; form can be divided, joined, prolonged, and hidden; and though “I” am everywhere, there has never been a self.
The full text of “The Counting Rods,” the eighth chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: the undivided Tao knows no past or present; the things of the Five Phases are five yet change beyond counting; and the sage, united with heaven, sees neither the Tao nor things.
A brief introduction to the True Classic of Wenshi, also called the Guanyinzi, attributed to Yin Xi, the pre-Qin keeper of the pass, which sets out the fundamental laws of the cosmos and teaches union with the formless, utterly refined Tao.
The full text of “The Mirror,” the fifth chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: a clouded mind is seized by ghosts, feelings arise from the mind and the mind from nature, and one who is skilled at removing consciousness transforms consciousness into wisdom.
The full text of “The Pillars,” the second chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: heaven and earth arise from the rising and falling of one qi and exist through consciousness, so the sage does away not with heaven and earth but with consciousness.
The full text of “The Remedies,” the ninth chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi, a set of miscellaneous prescriptions for living and cultivation: do not slight small things, utmost wisdom looks like folly, the sage follows time and custom, and practices sincerity, simplicity, forgiveness, and silence without clinging to subtle words.
The full text of “The Ultimate,” the third chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi, honoring the sage who governs the world by means of the world, follows people and events without clinging to his own views, and is like the multitude yet never confined by things.
The full text of “The Cauldron,” the seventh chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: one who attains the Tao transcends time and space, commands spirits, controls qi, and transforms things, while the sage yields to transformation without being transformed; like the sea and its creatures, all things change yet their nature is one.
The full text of “The Cosmos,” the first chapter of the True Classic of Wenshi: the Tao cannot be spoken or thought; Heaven, Destiny, Spirit, and the Primal together are the Tao; and through images of water, the potter, and the basin pond, the Tao is attained in a single breath.
The complete text of “The Yellow Emperor,” the second chapter of the Liezi: the Yellow Emperor's dream of the land of Huaxu, Liezi riding the wind, Shangqiu Kai passing through water and fire, the tiger keeper, the swimmer of Lüliang, the monkeys' three and four, and the fighting cock like wood.
The complete text of “Explaining Conjunctions,” the eighth chapter of the Liezi: holding back to stay in front, Liezi learning archery, the Shi and Meng families who met or missed their times, Jiufang Gao judging horses, the lost sheep at the forked roads, the suspected axe thief, and the man who grabbed gold.
The complete text of “The Questions of Tang,” the fifth chapter of the Liezi: the boundless cosmos and the five floating mountains, followed by the Foolish Old Man who moved mountains, Kuafu chasing the sun, Bian Que's exchange of hearts, Boya and Ziqi, and Yanshi's automaton.
The complete text of “Yang Zhu,” the seventh chapter of the Liezi: on name and reality, enjoying life's brief span, death as the great leveler, nurturing life and sending off the dead, Zichan's dissolute brothers, and refusing to give one hair to benefit the world.
The complete text of “Heaven's Gifts,” the first chapter of the Liezi: the unborn that gives birth to all births, the stages of cosmic genesis, the limits of heaven, earth, and sage, and parables such as Rong Qiqi's three joys, the man of Qi who feared the sky would fall, and the two thieves.
The complete text of “King Mu of Zhou,” the third chapter of the Liezi: the king's spirit journey with a magician and his ride to the Queen Mother of the West, the arts of illusion, the signs of waking and dreaming, and parables of the toiling servant, the hidden deer, and the man who forgot.
The complete text of “Effort and Destiny,” the sixth chapter of the Liezi: a dialogue between Effort and Destiny, the rich and poor neighbors Beigongzi and Ximenzi, the friendship of Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya, Ji Liang's three physicians, and Duke Jing's tears, all showing that life, death, success, and failure lie with destiny.
The complete text of “Zhongni,” the fourth chapter of the Liezi: Confucius on the sorrow of one who delights in heaven and knows destiny, Kangcangzi who sees with his ears, Liezi's nine years of learning and his inward journeying, and parables of Longshu's illness, Gongyi Bo's strength, and the sophist Gongsun Long.
A brief introduction to the True Classic of Perfect Emptiness, better known as the Liezi, written by Lie Yukou of the Warring States period, honored by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang as a Taoist scripture, and composed largely of parables expounding the Taoist ideal of clear emptiness and non-action.