The Poetic Ode to Dao De Jing 道德经篇章玄颂

The Poetic Ode to Dao De Jing

Composed by Song Luan, Censor-in-Chief of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Consisting of two volumes, it is included in the Zansong (Eulogy) category of the Dongshen Section of the Daozang (Daoist Canon).

This work eulogizes the purport of the eighty-one chapters of the Laozi through seven-character poems. As noted in the text, its style follows the principle: "Sometimes reciting line by line, sometimes narrating the whole chapter". Its core tenets are basically purity and tranquility, non-action, few desires and selfishness, and free and unfettered transcendence of the mortal world. This work was recorded in the Secret Catalogue of the Southern Song Dynasty under the title Daode Pian Mu Xian Yin (Leisure Chants on the Chapters of the Classic of the Dao and Virtue).