The Heguanzi Taoist Scriptures 鹖冠子
Paul PengThe Heguanzi
The Hanshu·Yiwenzhi (Book of Han·Treatise on Literature and Arts) recorded one chapter of the Heguanzi in the Daoism category; it was written by a hermit of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period, and the original text has been lost.
The existing version of the Heguanzi, consisting of nineteen chapters, is an apocryphal work compiled under a pseudonym by later generations, roughly dating from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, with annotations by Lu Dian of the Northern Song Dynasty. The version preserved in the Daozang (Daoist Canon) has three volumes and is included in the Taiqing (Supreme Purity) section.
The Heguanzi
This book compiles the thoughts of the Huang-Lao School and the School of Names and Actualities dating from the late Warring States Period to the Qin and Han dynasties, extensively expounding on heaven, earth, yin and yang, as well as the ways of state governance and education, whose ideological origins are closely linked to the doctrines of Laozi and the theoretical system of Taoism.
