Great Cases of Taoist Realization 玄教大公案

Composed and explained by Miao Taisu, a Quanzhen Taoist priest of the Yuan Dynasty, and compiled by his disciple Wang Zhidao, this work was completed around the Jiazi year of the Taiding reign (1324). It consists of two volumes and is included in the Taixuan Section of The Daozang.

Modeled after Chan Buddhist gong’an (public cases), this book expounds the essential principles of cultivating life and nature in Daoism. At the beginning of the book are four prefaces written by Ke Daochong (a Taoist from Jinling), Tang Daolin (a retired scholar), Li Congyi (Investigating Censor of the Branch Secretariat), and Wang Zhidao (disciple of Miao Taisu).

Great Cases of Taoist Realization

The main text is divided into two parts: The first part, “Ascending the Hall to Illuminate Antiquity”, contains sixty-four entries. It extracts passages from the Tao Te Ching, Wenshi Jing, Nanhua Jing, Chongxu Jing, Du Ren Jing, and Zhouyi, as well as sayings from earlier figures including Lü Dongbin, Zhang Boduan, Zhou Dunyi, Wang Chongyang, Bai Yuchan, and the Three Mao Lords. Each quotation is followed by explanations, judgments, and attached verses. The second part, “Entering the Chamber to the Three Ultimates”, contains three entries that directly state the essentials of cultivating life and nature.

The book’s main doctrine follows the thought of the Golden Elixir school during the Song and Yuan dynasties: the unity of the Three Teachings and the dual cultivation of life and nature. It holds that practitioners should both calm the mind to realize nature and nourish qi to cultivate life, practicing dual cultivation of life and nature. One who only cultivates nature but not life is a “foolish Chan follower” attached to one extreme.

The essence of cultivating life and nature lies in forgetting emotions, eliminating thoughts, calming the spirit, regulating the breath, and returning to the original subtle jade-vast body and pure Dao-body, where true emptiness and wonderful being are merged into one. True emptiness is the original luminous nature; wonderful being is the true luminous life — the root of life and nature.

Thus the book states: “The five ‘not‑yet’ passages in the Nanhua Jing, Trace them from beginning to end. This thought arises from the mind, One mind arises from nature; Nature depends on the root of life, Life and nature are one body. Wonderful being merges with true emptiness, The mysterious jade-vast body.”

It also says: “When principle is exhausted, nature is fulfilled; Principle is mind. Therefore, when the mind is empty and bright, nature is still and clear.”

The empty and bright mind is like a precious mirror: it reflects when things arrive, and returns to emptiness when things depart. Realizing this emptiness leads one to forget objects, simplify affairs, reverse emotions, and calm the mind; naturally one’s nature becomes perfectly luminous.

This theory integrates the theories of mind and nature from Chan Buddhism and Neo‑Confucianism, yet differs from them.