The Seal of the Unity of the Three — Vol. 2: Bibliographic Studies on the Cantong qi: Commentaries, Essays, and Related Works

by Fabrizio Pregadio

The Cantong qi is the main text of Taoist Internal Alchemy (Neidan). In addition to Taoist masters and adepts, it has also attracted the attention of philosophers, cosmologists, poets, literati, calligraphers, philologists, and bibliophiles. Thirty-eight commentaries written through the end of the nineteenth century are extant, and dozens of texts found in the Taoist Canon and elsewhere are related to it. The present book is the most complete guide to this vast literature available in any language.

The book is divided into two main parts. Part 1 contains a catalogue of extant and lost commentaries, essays, and related texts, listing altogether about 150 works with systematic details on their authors, editions, and reprints. Part 2 contains a survey of the textual tradition of the Cantong qi, focused on the composition and contents of about 40 major texts. A final index of authors, editors, titles, and editions facilitates the use of the book.

This book is a companion to the complete translation found in The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir.

278 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

Fabrizio Pregadio has taught at different universities in Italy, Germany, the United States, and Canada. He is the author of Great Clarity Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Stanford University Press, 2006) and the editor of The Encyclopedia of Taoism (Routledge, 2008).

In addition to his scholarly activities, he publishes translations of original texts on Taoism and Taoist Internal Alchemy (Neidan) addressed to a wider audience. These translations, all published by Golden Elixir Press, include the The Seal of the Unity of the Three (Cantong qi); the Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian); the Commentary on the Mirror for Compounding the Medicine (Ruyao jing); and Cultivating the Tao , a work by the eminent Taoist master, Liu Yiming (1734-1821).