Daoist Books (daojia lei 道家類)

Daoist Books (daojia lei 道家類) is a subcategory in traditional Chinese bibliographies and part of the category of Masters and Philosophers (zibu 子部). It includes almost exclusively writings of philosophical Daoism and collections of biographies of Daoist immortals. Writings on religious practices, like diet, fasting, alchemy, ecclesiastical rites, and talismans are barely considered and only included in some chapters of the Baopuzi 抱朴子 and the Zhouyi cantong qi 周易參同契. The focus lies on the writings Laozi Daodejing 老子道德經 and Zhuangzi 莊子 which were always highly respected also by scholars not inclined to Daoism. The Daoist section in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 includes 44 books.
There is a separate tradition of biographies of Daoist masters and immortals. The search for physical immortality in early Daoism was also reflected in the search for a herb providing immortality even by high-standing persons as the First Emperor of Qin 秦始皇帝 (r. 246-210 BCE) or Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE) of the Han dynasty. A lot of books were produced narrating the lives of Daoist immortals, how they became immortals and with which supernatural powers they were endowed as a result of their practices. The first book including stories of immortals is the Liexianzhuan 列仙傳, followed by the Shenxianzhuan 神仙傳, both written during the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE). During the age of Southern and Northern division 南北朝 (300~600) political unrest and social hardship resulted in a deeper interest in religion. Both Buddhism and Daoism profited from this, and it was especially the Daoist side which produced, not only for historiographical, but also for missionary reasons, a lot of stories about immortals. A lot of immortals were historically existing persons, like Dongfang Shuo 東方朔, whom popular belief later attributed supernatural characters. Most stories are relatively short and literally not very high-standing.