Notes on the Daozang tiyao

FEATURES Notes on the Daozang tiyao Ren Jiyu and Zhong Zhaopeng, editors. Daozang tiyao MIlEsISc. Beijing: Chinese Academy ofSocial Science, 1991. 1532 pp. In the winter of 1910 Liu Shipei (1884-1919) took up lodging at the Baiyun Guan (White Cloud Abbey) in Beijing. He spent his time examining the Ming printing of the Daozang (Daoist Canon) at the abbey, jotting down notes regarding prefaces and colophons and writing up résumés for each text read. The Du Daozangji (Notes on Reading the Daoist Canon) that resulted from his briefperusal ofthe Canon includes analyses for thirty-seven titles (Liu Shipei 1922). His commentary now serves as the foundation for a number ofentries in the Daozang tiyao, edited by Ren Jiyu and Zhong Zhaopeng and published in 1991 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. The idea for compiling the Daozang tiyao, Ren Jiyu writes in a preface dated 1988, evolved as one of the goals set forth upon the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1978. According to the publication announcement printed in a recent issue ofthe Shijie zongjiao yanjiu ("Daojiao yanjiu de zhongda chengguo" 1992), the project was officially taken up in 1981, with the formation ofthe Department of Daoist Studies within the Institute for Research on World Religions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. As the title denotes, the Daozang tiyao is modeled on the monumental bibliographic enterprise of the Qing, the Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao. By 1984, sample entries for forty-nine and twenty-three titles appeared in two consecutive issues of the Shijie zongjiao yanjiu {"Daozang tiyao xuankan" 1984a, 1984b). The journal of the Institute also published a copy ofRen Jiyu's preface and Zhong Zhaopeng's colophon in advance ofthe Daozang tiyao itself (Ren Jiyu and Zhong Zhaopeng 1989). Ren's preface supplies both a bibliographic and a historical survey ofDaoism in China. He also outlines the contents ofthe work and lists the names ofeight Chinese and three Japanese scholars whose publications were consulted. Liu Shipei is the first name listed. Authorship of individual entries is not revealed. Both the colophon by Zhong c 1994 by University zhaopeng and the publication announcementlist seven contributors in addition awm ? ress^ Zhong: Wang Ka, Yang Huarong, LiYongsheng, ZhuYueli, Chen Bing, Dai Jingsu, and Wu Shouju. The research notes that Li Yongsheng ^¿KM and Dai 2 China Review International: Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 1994 Jingsu IUcJR^ compiled prior to 1981 reportedly laid the groundwork for the Daozang tiyao. The provenance of the analyses for some categories oftexts can be deduced from the publications of contributors. A handbook edited by the Department ofDaoist Studies (Wang Ka et al. 1990), a copy ofwhich Wang Ka kindly provided me in December 1990, includes a wide range ofaccounts reflecting the unit's research on the Canon. Wang took the responsibility for a number of essays in this volume concerning the history of Daoism through the Yuan as well as an entry on the history ofthe Daozang. Another contributor to the Daozang tiyao, Wu Shouju ^SéïS, authored accounts on various ritual and meditative practices. Publications ofpertinence in the Institute's journal include Wang Ka (1989, 1992) on cosmogonie writings and the early history of Daoism, Yang Huarong (1985, 1987) on Daoism during Song Huizong's reign and on the provenance of Chen Tuan; Zhu Yueli (1982, 1983, 1986, 1989) on graphic variants, Wunengzi (HY 1022), Yangxingyanming Iu (HY 837), and Shanhaijing (HY 1025); Chen Bing (1984, 1989, 1992) on the Quanzhen heritage and on the development of qigong, and Zhong Zhaopeng (1981, 1987, 1988) on Huanglao, medical , andfuji Í£¿L writings. Five supplements follow the text proper. The first (pp. 1 177-1254) is a collection ofbiographical notes on the authors and editors named in the entries, with either a complete or partial list of their compilations, depending upon the quantity involved. The names are listed according to stroke count, preceded by an index, and also organized by a stroke count of surnames. The second supplement (pp. 1255-1318) is an index of the contents of the Canon according to nine major headings: (1) general works such as indexes and collectanea; (2) scriptures; (3) precepts and...