Zhonghua daozang 中華道藏

Zhonghua daozang 中華道藏 is a collection in 49 volumes of Daoist writings. It was compiled under the guidance of Zhang Jiyu 張繼禹 (b. 1962) and published in 2004 by the Huaxia Chubanshe 華夏出版社. The collection is a revised, punctuated and annotated edition of the traditional Daoist Canon (Zhengtong) Daozang (正統)道藏 and the supplement (Wanli) Xu daozang (萬曆)續道藏 with 1,473 texts, but adds more than 100 additional texts like re-discovered ancient writings unearthed from tombs or discovered in Dunhuang 敦煌, as well as printed texts from the Jurchen-Jin 金 (1115-1234) and the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368), resulting in 1,526 texts with a total length of 5,500 juan.

The books in the series are superficially arranged according to the traditional Three Caverns and Four Auxiliaries (sandong sifu 三洞四輔), but the order of these seven categories and the traditional 12 formal types of texts as sub-categories is turned around. Instead, the book are categorized according to content, chronological order, and religious affiliation. The Zhonghua daozang thus established the categories true scriptures of the Three Caverns (Sandong zhenjing 三洞真經), true scriptures of the Four Auxiliaries (Sifu zhenjing 四輔真經), collected discourses and teachings of Daoism (Daojiao lunji 道教論集), methods of the Dao and miscellaneous techniques (Daofa zhongshu 道法眾術), Daoist liturgy (Daojiao keyi 道教科儀), biographies of immortals and local gazetteers through the history of Daoism (Xianzhuan daoshi 仙傳道史), and catalogues (Mulu 目錄).

Figure 1. Page of the Zhonghua daozang 中華道藏

First page of the Taishang dongxuan lingbao yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, Vol. 3, No. 26. This scripture was the first text of the (Zhengtong) Daozang. The text in the box provides information of the basic text for this punctuated re-setting. The setting resembles that of the most widespread edition of the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka, the (Taishō) Shinshū Daizōkyō (大正)新脩大藏經.