Ocean of Inquiry - A Daoist Anthology 海琼问道集
Paul PengOcean of Inquiry - A Daoist Anthology
Composed by Bai Yuchan during the Song Dynasty and compiled by his disciple Liu Yuanchang.
Consisting of one scroll, it is included in the Zhengyi Section within the Taoist Canon (The Daozang).
Ocean of Inquiry - A Daoist Anthology
This work was transmitted by Bai Yuchan to Liu Yuanchang in the tenth year of the Jiading reign (1217 CE). It collects eight prose pieces, poems, and odes by Bai, among which Ode to Dragon and Tiger, Scripture of Crow and Hare, Treatise on the Manifest and Secret of the Mysterious Gateway, Ode to the Golden Fluid Great Return Elixir, Poem on the Golden Fluid Great Return Elixir, and Ballad of the Fundamental Pivot of the Dao’s Threshold respectively elaborate on the theories and essential practices of Internal Alchemy (Neidan).
The other two works—Prose on the Hermit of Hidden Mountain by Lord Hai Qiong and Record of the Land of Perpetual Quiet Light—the former expounds the pleasures of secluding oneself in mountains and forests, while the latter recounts the author’s experiences, observations, and feelings during his travels to the "Land of Great Wisdom, Bright Heaven, and Perpetual Quiet Light"—an ideal realm fictionalized by Bai Yuchan.
