Grove of Thoughts Ancient Taoist Scriptures 意林

Compiled by Ma Zong of the Tang Dynasty.

The book was completed in the third year of Zhenyuan (787).

Xin Tangshu·Yiwenzhi (New Book of Tang·Treatise on Literature and Arts) recorded it as three volumes.

The existing Song Dynasty printed edition has six volumes, while other versions including the Ming Dynasty Daozang (Daoist Canon) edition and the Imperial Polyglot edition all have only five volumes.

Grove of Thoughts Ancient Taoist Scriptures

The Daozang edition is included in the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) section.

This book is a compilation of excerpts from the works of various philosophers. According to the prefaces written by Dai Shulun and Liu Bocun at the beginning of the volume, Yu Zhongrong of the Liang Dynasty, finding the works of various philosophers excessively lengthy, excerpted them to compile a thirty-volume work titled Zichao (Anthology of Philosophers). Ma Zong of the Tang Dynasty then abridged Yu’s work to compile the three-volume Yilin. Most of the content recorded in the book consists of the essential passages from the philosophers’ works, preserving fragments of some lost philosophical texts. This book has also been cherished by textual researchers and scholars of successive dynasties. Its compilation criterion and ideological orientation are subtly connected with the theoretical system of Taoism and echo the philosophical propositions in Laozi.