Treatise on the Comprehensive Gateways 通门论

Compiled by Taoist Priest Song Wenming during the Liang Dynasty of the The Northern and Southern Dynasties of Ancient China.

This work is quoted in Sandong Zhunang (Pearl Satchel of the Three Caverns).

Originally consisting of two volumes (Upper and Lower), it is not included in the Zhengtong Daozang (Orthodox Daoist Canon).

Treatise on the Comprehensive Gateways

Three Dunhuang manuscripts survive today (P2861, P2256, P3001). Combining the first two manuscripts yields over 380 lines of text. According to the colophon at the end of the volume, it was copied by Taoist priest Suo Dongxuan in the second year of the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty (714 CE). The original manuscript had no title; Onoda Shunji identified it as the Lower Volume of Tongmen Lun by Song Wenming in his On the Ancient Lingbao Scriptures.

The content of the book is divided into two parts. The first half is a catalog, mainly recording the titles and volumes of more than thirty ancient Lingbao Scriptures based on Lingbao Jingmu (Catalogue of Lingbao Scriptures) compiled by Lu Xiujing, with notes on whether each text survives and its classification. The second half is a commentary on the opening meanings of the Lingbao Scriptures.

Quoting Lu Xiujing’s theories, the author divides the Lingbao Scriptures into twelve categories: Scripture Texts, Taoist Talismans, Jade Secrets, Spiritual Diagrams, Genealogies and Records, Precepts, Etiquette, Methods, Techniques, Biographies, Hymns, and Memorials. Song Wenming provides detailed explanations of the names and meanings of these twelve categories, with his doctrines largely centered on Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) philosophy—the core theoretical system of Taoism during the Sui and Tang dynasties.

This book is of great reference value for studying the compilation date of the Lingbao Scriptures during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, as well as the formation of the Taoist twelve-category scripture system.