The True Classic of Penetrating the Mysteries 通玄真经

Originally titled Wenzi.

The Hanshu·Yiwenzhi (Book of Han·Treatise on Literature and Arts) recorded nine chapters of the Wenzi, with a note stating: "A disciple of Laozi, he lived during the same period as Confucius." This version of the book has long been lost. In recent years, a bamboo-slip copy of the Wenzi was unearthed from a Han Dynasty tomb in Dingxian County, Hebei Province, which is confirmed to be a Daoist work from the Warring States Period; however, most of its content is not found in the existing version. The current version of the Wenzi, comprising twelve chapters, is believed to have been compiled after the Wei and Jin dynasties. Li Xian of the Northern Wei Dynasty, in his Annotations on Wenzi, first stated that Wenzi’s surname was Xin, given name Xing, and courtesy name Jiran; he was the teacher of Fan Li, and "having studied under Laozi, he recorded his master’s teachings and compiled them into twelve chapters". Later Daoist followers adopted this account. In the first year of the Tianbao reign period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, an imperial edict conferred the title of Tongxuan Zhenren (True Person of Penetrating Mystery) on Wenzi and honored his book as the Tongxuan Zhenjing (The True Scripture of Penetrating Mystery). Currently, three annotated versions of this book are included in the Yujue (Jade Commentary) category of the Dongshen Section of the Daozang (Daoist Canon). The book is divided into eighty-eight chapters; each chapter first quotes the sayings of "Laozi" and then provides a brief exposition and interpretation. Quite a few of these quotes do not appear in the existing version of the Daode Jing. Thus, Liu Zongyuan criticized the book for frequently quoting from other texts to reconcile its ideas.