Canons Left Out of Dao Zang

Except the authentic Dao Zang (Taoist Canon), all other Taoist books that are not included in Dao Zang are called as Zang Wai Dao Jing (Canons Left Out of Dao Zang).

Numerous books are not included Dao Zang. There are many reasons that Dao Zang did no include these books. Some canons had been available at that time and should be compiled into Dao Zang, but they were left out because of various subjective reasons. Some other canons came into being after the compilation of Dao Zang.

The canons left out of Dao Zang are very useful materials for research on China's traditional culture and Taoism. Many of them are important and excellent writings. For example, Shen Xian Zhuan (Biographies of the Immortals) by famous Taoist Ge Hong was included in various Chinese ancient books, but it was not included in Dao Zang. The book is of great importance for research on the religious philosophy and social thoughts of that time. Another example is that only a few writings of Chen Tuan, a famous Taoist of the 10th century who was called Lao Zu (ancestor) of the Taoism by later generations, were included in Dao Zang. Taiping Jing (Classic of Great Peace) is a very important classic of Taoism, but only fewer than 1/3 of its contents are collected into Dao Zang.

In the past several decades, more and more personages in the Taoist field strived to add new contents into Dao Zang or recompile it. All of them find that it is a very urgent and significant task.