Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s10.t1.5

v1.c7.s10.t1.5

Contents expounded in *The Book of Lao Zi* is quite extensive, involving multiple of fields such as nature, society, human anecdotes, philosophy, politics, ethic, military affairs and culture. It contains rich philosophical thoughts, ie apart from the abstract subject like probing of ontology and unitarity of the universe, it also includes various exposition, argumentation and original thesis in the fields of epistemology, conception of history, outlook on life, cultural perspective, etc. The Confucianists and legalists all have assimilated to varying degrees Lao Zi’s thoughts; even phenomenology of modern Western world has also been influenced to some extent by its thoughts. Taoism reveres The Book of Lao Zi as the principal canon. There have been circulated many editions of the book throughout history, such as 14 stone inscription editions among which Yu Shinan’ edited and scribal edition in Tang Dynasty under the reign of Emperor Taizong is the oldest, and the next ancient edition is seen on the stone tablet of Dao De Jing erected in Long Xing Temple in Yi Prefecture in the second year of Jing Long reign of Tang Emperor Zhongzong. Besides, considerably huge numbers of remnant paper of hand-copied editions are widely scattered among Dunhuang Scripture. As for the wood engraving edition, the earliest appeared is Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing Begun with Sentence of He Shang Gong that was published in the Song Dynasty, now available in photocopy edition among the first compiled Imperial Collection of Four published by the Commercial Press. The Orthodox Collected Taoist Scriptures collected the text of the Book of Dao-De-Jing and annotated editions, respectively, published in dynasties of Han, Wei, Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan and Ming, totaling forty one. Experts to eliminate doubt and explain Lao Zi’s text in past dynasties are no less than a thousand, among them the most famous are as follows: Master Han fei’s Uncoiling Lao Zi and Explaining Lao Zi in the late Warring States Period, the Han Dynasty He Shang Gong’s Lao Zi’ Chapters, Wang Bi’s Annotation of the Book of Lao Zi in Wei and Jin dynasties, He Yan’s Discussion of Lao Zi’ Dao and De, Qiang Siqi’s Compilation of Quintessence of Lao Zi’s Classic, Song Dynasty Taoist Cheng Jingyuan’s Profound Explanation of Lao Zi’ Cannon, Song Dynasty Wang Anshi’s Annotation of the Book of Lao Zi (has been lost), Ming Dynasty Jiao Hong’s Annotation of The Book of Lao Zi, Qing Dynasty Bi Yuan’s Editing and Proofreading of The Book of Lao