The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2438 page)

 
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Tao-shih
.

The scholars and ritual functionaries of religious
Taoism
(
tao-chiao
). In addition to local congregations, they came to take charge of organized communities, eventually developing monastic rules. See
CHANG LU
.

 
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Tao-te Ching
(The Book of the Way and its Power)
.

A work attributed to
Lao-tzu
(hence reference to it as
Lao-tzu
), foundation text of
Taoism
. It is made up of 5,000 pictograms, hence the title,
Text of the Five Thousand Signs
. Trad. dated to 6th cent. BCE, it is more likely to come from 4th/3rd cent.; the oldest existing copy is
c.
200 BCE. The text expounds the
Tao
as the unproduced and inexpressible source of all appearance, which nevertheless becomes manifest through
Te
, through proper understanding of which the return to, and union with, Tao becomes possible.

 
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see
SAN-CH’ING
.

 
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see
BRONZE VESSELS
.

 
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Tao-tsang
.

The
Taoist
‘
canon
’ of authoritative texts. After a list in Pan Ku's
Han Shu
(1st cent. CE), an early attempt to list such texts was made by
Ko Hung
in
Pao Pu Tzu
. Lu Hsu Ching (5th cent.) was the first to divide Taoist writings into Three Caves (
tung/dung
); later Four Supplements were added. The first edition supported by the emperor appeared in the Tang dynasty, and contained anything (according to different accounts) between 3,000 and 8,000 rolls (texts), but it was lost or destroyed in the ensuing wars and rebellions. Further editions appeared until the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when the Tao-tsang included nearly 8,000 rolls. There is no organizing principle, and many of the texts are concerned with immortality—with the foundations in Tao and
ch’i
, with the cosmological support in
myths
and
rituals
, and with techniques for attaining immortality.

 
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