Follow the Shangqing texts
Read its imagery, transmission records and textual criticism.
MAOSHAN · THE CLASSICS ROOMA tradition,
A tradition,
in its own words.
From the writings of Maoshan to Laozi and Zhuangzi.
Open a book. Discover a person, a practice, a mountain.
WHERE TO BEGIN
Three ways into the texts
People, books and the mountain
Sima Chengzhen’s discourse and the history preserved by Liu Dabin.
A first encounter
From philosophical language to a short scripture and stories.
ON THE BOOKSHELF
Continue reading →Find a book. Take your time.
Books closest to Maoshan come first, marked MAOSHAN.
Each book shows its coverage. Choose a primary text or a reading guide to begin.
12 works
Gazetteer of Mount Mao
茅山志
People belong to a place. This thirty-three-juan gazetteer brings together masters, temples, landscape, inscriptions and writings: a way from the lineage back into the mountain’s historical setting.
Contents guide · linked primary textOpen bookThe Great Cavern Scripture
上清大洞真经
Meet a central scripture of Shangqing. Read alongside the Yellow Court scripture and Zhen’gao to explore the tradition’s sacred world and transmission.
Reading guideOpen bookDeclarations of the Perfected
真诰
Accounts of Shangqing revelation, records of people, letters and editorial observations meet in this compilation. It leads back to Yang Xi, the Xu family and Tao Hongjing—and to the question of how their writings survived.
Guide · two extracts from juan 1Open bookConcealed Instructions for Ascent to Perfection
登真隐诀
Alongside transmitted instructions, this work preserves an editor’s questions: is a formula reliable, and does it agree with its cited scripture? Its annotations reveal Tao Hongjing as a critical reader.
Guide · two short extractsOpen bookInner Scripture of the Yellow Court
黄庭内景玉经
Seven-character verse imagines the body as an inner world of chambers and divine presences. It gives the Shangqing tradition a vocabulary and a landscape beyond the names in a lineage.
Complete Chinese text · 36 chaptersOpen bookDiscourse on Sitting in Forgetfulness
坐忘论
Faith and respect, releasing entanglements, gathering the mind, simplifying affairs, true observation, profound stability and attaining the Dao: this discourse considers attention and daily affairs as well as sitting.
Complete Chinese text · preface & seven sectionsOpen bookSacred Proclamation of the Three Mao Lords
三茅真君宝诰
A sacred proclamation gives reverence a language of honorific names and praise. Follow it into devotion to the Three Mao Lords.
Reading guideOpen bookAdmonitions of the Three Mao Lords
三茅真君垂训文
Read cultivation alongside good deeds, and bring reflection on the Dao into conduct and relationships.
Reading guideOpen bookPrecious Repentance of the Three Mao Lords
三茅帝君宝忏
Explore how reverence, reflection and prayer meet in the language of temple liturgy.
Reading guideOpen bookTao Te Ching
道德经
Begin with Dao, de, non-forcing and naturalness. The existing reading room offers all eighty-one chapters with James Legge’s English translation and thematic reading paths.
Complete · 81 chapters · Chinese & EnglishOpen bookScripture of Clarity and Stillness
清静经
A short scripture connecting the cosmos, the heart-mind, desire and stillness. Read it after the Tao Te Ching, paying attention to how responsiveness and quietness can coexist.
Complete Chinese text · main text & three appended sayingsOpen bookNo matching books. Try another name.
A FEW USEFUL WORDSA vocabulary
A vocabulary
for the journey.
Read an unfamiliar term in its setting.
Its meaning may shift from one work to another.
- Shangqing
- A sacred realm in scriptures and a Daoist tradition formed around texts and their transmission.
- Visualization & bodily divinities
- Chambers, colours and divine names describe the body in scripture. Read these as religious imagery rather than modern anatomical categories.
- Sitting in forgetfulness
- Zuowang lun draws on Zhuangzi to discuss attachment and attention. The expression belongs to different contexts in different works.
- Jing · gao · jue · zhi
- Titles suggest scripture, declaration, instruction or gazetteer. These are useful starting points, not rigid or mutually exclusive genres.
BEYOND THE PAGE
Explore the lineage Return to the people behind the texts.
Tao Hongjing’s compilations, Sima Chengzhen’s discourse, Liu Dabin’s gazetteer. Move between the writings and the people who shaped their transmission.
About this collection
This collection includes philosophical classics, scriptures, contemplative writings and a gazetteer. They are not all exclusive to Maoshan. The book covers are typographic designs, not historical facsimiles.
New primary texts are public-domain classical works transcribed in public archives. Each book links to its sources and adopted revisions. Newly written Chinese and English guides offer reading pointers; electronic transcriptions do not replace critical editions.