Chapter 25 Compilation of the second section "Tao Zang"

The work of compiling Dao Zang in the Ming Dynasty is worth mentioning. Historically, since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people in various dynasties have sorted out Taoist scriptures and compiled a bibliography of Taoist scriptures.After Lu Xiujing, Master Meng, Tao Hongjing and others compiled the catalog of Taoist scriptures.In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, even more people did this work.Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty advocated Taoism. He once specially sent people to search for Taoist scriptures, and compiled the first "Tao Cang" in history, which was copied and circulated.But soon, the Anshi Rebellion broke out, and the Taoist scriptures collected by the imperial court were destroyed by the war.Du Guangting and others in the Five Dynasties also sorted out the Taoism.

Great achievements were made in the compilation of Dao Zang in the Song Dynasty.First Song Taizong ordered Xu Xuan and others to revise the Taoism.Later, in the early years of Dazhong Xiangfu, Song Zhenzong asked Wang Qinruo to preside over the collation of Dao Zang.Soon, Zhang Junfang was asked to edit "The Treasure of the Heavenly Palace of the Great Song Dynasty".After Zhang Junfang finished this work, he selected Taoist scriptures that he thought were more important and compiled them into "Seven Signs of Yunji", which has been handed down.Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty once ordered to revise the "Tao Cang", and soon engraved and printed "Zhenghe Wanshou Dao Cang", which was the first fully printed "Tao Cang" in history.

During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Sun Mingdao spent several years searching Taoist scriptures, supplementing the already incomplete "Zhenghe Wanshou Taoist Collection", and published "Great Jin Xuandu Treasure".In 1244 AD, Taoist priest Song Defang collected Taoist scriptures with the support of the Mongolian royal family, compiled and published "Xuandu Treasure", which is said to have more than 7,800 volumes.Judging from the number of volumes alone, it is probably the largest volume in the history of Taoism.But more than 10 years later, Daoist scriptures were burned.The cause is the old issue of quarreling between Buddhism and Taoism, that is, the authenticity of the "Hua Hu Jing".The two religions of Buddhism and Taoism were debated in front of Xianzong (Boer Jijin Mengge), but Taoism did not argue with Buddhist monk Fuyu and Emperor Shi Basiba. Dozens of Taoist scriptures.More than 20 years later, in the early 1380s, Buddhists accused the Quanzhen Sect of "Changchun Palace Taoists murdered Senglu Guangyuan", and that the Taoist scriptures that were stipulated to be burned last time were "mostly hidden and not destroyed". Bilie ordered Qi Zhicheng, the leader of the Quanzhen Sect, to burn most of the Taoist scriptures and printing plates, and the Taoist scriptures suffered even greater damage.The Daozang was burned twice in the Yuan Dynasty, and the world was in chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, so the scriptures of the Daozang were not completely preserved.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Yuchu, the 43rd Celestial Master, and others were ordered by the court to be responsible for editing.After Zhang Yuchu died, his younger brother Zhang Yuqing, the 44th generation celestial master, continued to be in charge.It was not until the orthodox tenth year of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty (1445 A.D.) that the printing and distribution of "Orthodox Daozang" was finally completed.In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1607 A.D.), Zhang Guoxiang, the 50th generation of heavenly master, was ordered to compile Xudao Zang.These two volumes add up to about 1,500 kinds of Daoist scriptures, 5,485 volumes, and are divided into 512 letters. Each letter is numbered in the order of "Thousand Characters", which is what we call "Orthodox Dao Cang" today. "Thousand Characters" is a children's enlightenment book written by Liang Zhou Xingsi during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The full text has a total of 1,000 characters, and only a few words appear twice.People who can read have memorized this four-character rhyme reading material from childhood, and it is used as the volume number of the Taoist scriptures. It is not very difficult for users to find a certain font size in the voluminous Taoist scriptures.

The number of Taoist classics has gradually increased throughout history.Later, the volume of "Tao Cang" became larger, and more Taoist scriptures were collected.The "Orthodox Dao Cang" in the Ming Dynasty is the last "Tao Cang" in Chinese feudal society. It is very complex in content and has a large number of volumes.Among them, there are not only a large number of Taoist classics, alchemy scriptures, talisman scriptures, precepts, biographies of immortals, palaces and mountain annals, etc., but also hundreds of works of Confucianism and various schools of thought, many of which are based on the income of "Taoist Collection". be preserved.In addition, it also includes many works on ancient Chinese science and technology, such as works on medicine and astronomy and calendar.

After the Ming Dynasty, there are mainly three kinds of Daoist series with more volumes, namely "The Continuation of Daozang", "The Essentials of Daozang" and "The Essence of Daozang". "The Continuation of Dao Zang" was compiled by Min Yide of the Qing Dynasty, and collected many Qing works, but only 23 kinds of the first volume. "Dao Zang Ji Yao" was completed by Taoist Peng Dingqiu in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. It collected nearly 300 kinds of Taoist books, a considerable part of which were written by Ming and Qing people that were not included in the "Dao Zang" of the Ming Dynasty. "The Essence of Daozang" was compiled by Song Yizi, and part of it was written in the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

Many suicide notes discovered in Dunhuang, Gansu Province at the beginning of this century were also Taoist documents.These are important materials for the study of Taoism. Taoist literature, especially the series of "Orthodox Taoist Collection", objectively preserves a large number of ancient Chinese literature, which is of great value to the understanding and research of the history of Taoism, the history of ancient Chinese academic thought, and the history of ancient Chinese science and technology.