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Libra Esoterica

The Yellow court scripture

Also known as Huang ting jing; Huangtingjing

by Livia Kohn

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Languages: Chinese, English

"The Huangting jing (Yellow Court Scripture) is a central classic of Daoist meditation. It comes in two major versions, an "outer" and an "inner" text, that are both revealed by senior deities and written in lines of seven characters. Going back to the early middle period, with major commentaries from the Tang dynasty, they are rather mysterious and poetic in diction, presenting the human body in terms of energies and spirits, towers and chambers. Without giving specific instructions, they suggest visualization, energy circulation, and alignment with the celestial bodies to maintain and control these internal powers in order to enhance life, increase longevity, and reach for immortality. Both texts, moreover, carry celestial potency in themselves and have been chanted since they first appeared. This book, after a historical introduction, translates both versions with their main commentaries, prefaces, and recitation instructions. Allowing the sources to speak for themselves, it opens a new vista on Daoist meditation, traditional cosmology, and the Chinese understanding of body and mind"

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Asian esoteric and internal traditions.

  • Controlled discovery queries from bnf matched “taoïsme”. Retained metadata contains “taoïsme” in the subject metadata.

    • taoïsme· via Bibliothèque nationale de France
    • taoïsme· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Links to ISBN 1931483736; other editions may be cheaper. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

One edition cataloged here.

BnF national bibliography record

C 2023Three Pines pressChinese, English
  • 9781931483735
  • 1931483736
Catalog record

Subjects

3 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloged from

Catalog id
bnf:ark:/12148/cb47260805z
Edition coverage
Bnf source record
Retrieved