Culture and Arts
ArtsArchitecture, images, music, and literature. This directory lists public entries assigned to this category, organized by knowledge entity and page.
- Temple architecture
- Painting and sculpture
- Daoist music
- Literature and theatre
- Folk arts
Culture and Artsentries
Ba Xian Tu
八仙圖, Eight Immortals ImagesBa Xian Tu is an artistic subject featuring the Eight Immortals and their stories in murals, paintings, prints, paper cuts, and temple decoration. Early groups need not match the later standard cast.
Bai Juyi's Daoist-Themed Poetry
白居易道詩, Daoist Themes in Bai Juyi's Poetry, Bai Juyi and DaoismBai Juyi's Daoist-themed poems are writings on Daoist ideas, specialists, temples, and immortal imagery, not a single classical book he compiled. Critical poems on quests for immortality and later poems of religious association require distinct readings.
Baojuan
寶卷, Precious ScrollsBaojuan, or 'precious scrolls,' are religious and popular narrative texts shaped for recitation or performance. They cannot be assigned to Daoism alone.
Buxu
步虛, Bu Xu, Buxu ChantBuxu first names a Daoist liturgical form combining ceremonial movement, praise, and recitation. It also names associated lyrics and melodic traditions. From the Sui and Tang periods onward, literary authors used buxu as a poetic form about journeys among immortals. Ritual, music, and literature must therefore be distinguished.
Danshi
丹詩, Daoist alchemical verseDanshi is Daoist verse, including poems and lyrics, that discusses inner- or external-alchemy ideas. Its symbols are literary and interpretive, not a ready-made procedure.
Daofu
道服, Dao Fu, Daoist ClothingDaofu is a general term for Daoist clothing, including garments worn in ceremonies and robes used in everyday religious life.
Daoist Architecture
道教建築, Taoist Architecture, Daojiao JianzhuDaoist architecture comprises buildings and complexes used for worship, teaching, cultivation, and communal life. They may include halls, dining and residential spaces, and other facilities. Names such as gong, guan, miao, zhi, and jing do not have identical meanings across periods or places.
Daoist Visual Art
道教美術, Daoist Art, Taoist ArtDaoist art is the visual expression of Daoist deities, scriptural narratives, liturgical settings, and religious concepts. It includes sculpture, murals, architectural decoration, painting, and imagery on implements. Its works also share techniques and subjects with the wider art of their periods.
Daoist Music
道教音樂, Taoist Music, Daojiao YinyueDaoist music includes vocal and instrumental forms used in scripture recitation, liturgy, daily temple observance, and festivals. Scripture melodies, hymns, buxu chant, percussion patterns, and instrumental tunes vary by lineage and locality; there is no single score for every Daoist temple and era.
Daoqing
道情, Dao Qing, Yugu DaoqingDaoqing has several meanings. In older writing it can refer to feeling informed by the Dao, a cultivator's disposition, or companionship among fellow practitioners. In the history of performance it also names regional sung-storytelling traditions associated with Daoist song; this last sense is common in modern discussions.
Dongjing Music
洞經音樂, Dongjing YinyueDongjing music is a regional musical tradition of Yunnan with direct connections to Daoist scripture recitation and religious gatherings. It combines vocal and instrumental repertories and has been practised among several communities, including Han, Bai and Naxi communities.
Fayi
法衣, Fa Yi, Ritual VestmentsFayi refers to the ritual vestments worn by a Daoist ritual master during liturgical services; fafu is another name for them.
Fang Congyi
方從義, Fang Wuyu, FanghuFang Congyi was a painter associated with Daoist communities at Longhu Mountain during the late Yuan and early Ming. Known as Fanghu, he is especially remembered for expressive ink landscapes; exact dates and individual attributions still require checking.
Daoist Dress
冠服, Guanfu, Guan FuGuanfu is a collective term for headwear and clothing used by Daoist priests, including women priests. Daoist texts also distinguish ordinary dress from ritual vestments by rank, occasion, and scriptural tradition. No single dress code covers every period and community.
Huang Gongwang
黃公望, Huang ZijiuHuang Gongwang (1269–1354) was a Yuan landscape painter associated with Quanzhen Daoism. His painting and religious life are both important to his biography, but one should not be used as a simple explanation of the other.
Huangliang Meng
黃粱夢, Millet Dream, Dream of the Yellow MilletHuangliang Meng is both a story motif about a lifetime experienced before millet finishes cooking and the title of a Yuan-period Daoist conversion drama. The dreamer Lu Sheng in the Tang story is not Lü Dongbin in the later play.
Ji Kang
嵇康, Xi Kang, Ji ShuyeJi Kang, courtesy name Shuye, was a writer, musician, and thinker of the Cao Wei period and is counted among the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. The Chinese entry connects his literary and philosophical arguments with his refusal to cooperate with the rising Sima faction.
Jiyi Temple Murals
稷益廟壁畫, Murals of Jiyi MiaoThe Jiyi Temple murals are Ming-period wall paintings at a temple in Yangwang village, Xinjiang County, Shanxi. They depict legendary culture heroes, agricultural life, divine assemblies, and an underworld scene.
Ma Zhiyuan
馬致遠, Ma DongliMa Zhiyuan (c. 1250–after 1321) was a Yuan dramatist and writer of sanqu songs. Several plays associated with him use Daoist immortals and withdrawal from official life as dramatic themes.
Neijiaquan (Internal-School Boxing)
內家拳, Internal-School Boxing, NeijiaquanNeijiaquan is a historical martial-arts term contrasted with waijia, or 'external school.' Ming and Qing writings connect it with Wang Zhengnan, Zhang Songxi, and a Zhang Sanfeng origin story; later usage applies 'internal' to other arts without proving a shared historical lineage.
Qianshi
籤詩, Divination-Slip Poems, Lot PoemsQianshi is a verse genre associated with divination slips. Daoist collections include four-, five-, and seven-character forms with rankings and explanations; the poems are religious literature, not reliable predictions.
Quanzhen Zhengyun
全真正韻Quanzhen Zhengyun is a Quanzhen collection of chant texts with percussion and beat marks. The public account reports about fifty-six pieces in a Qing-era compilation printed at Erxian An, but the notation does not fully preserve melody.
Ruan Ji
阮籍, Ruan Sizong, Ruan BubingRuan Ji (210–263), courtesy name Sizong, was a Cao Wei poet and thinker associated with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. His writings bring Lao-Zhuang thought into dialogue with political caution and, in some contexts, Confucian ritual and music.
Daoist Music of Shaanxi
陝西道教音樂Daoist music in Shaanxi includes temple chant, percussion-accompanied recitation, wind-and-percussion music at Baiyun Shan, and local traditions that intersect with Xi'an drum music and daoqing performance.
Twelve Zodiac Animals
十二屬相, Twelve Animal Signs, Shier ShengxiaoThe Twelve Zodiac Animals are animals paired with the Twelve Earthly Branches. Early records do not always match the later familiar set, so their history must be reconstructed from excavated and transmitted witnesses.
Daoist Themes in Su Shi's Poetry
蘇拭仙道詩詞, Su Shi and Daoist Poetry, Dongpo's Daoist ImagerySu Shi (1037–1101) wrote poetry and lyrics drawing on Daoist sites, texts, and immortal imagery. These works form part of his broader engagement with the religious culture of his time.
Taijiquan
太極拳, Tai Chi Chuan, Taiji BoxingTaijiquan is a Chinese martial art whose movements and later explanations draw on ideas of taiji, yin and yang, and the interplay of softness and firmness. Its historical schools, Daoist interpretations, and health-oriented modern use are related but should not be collapsed into one origin story.
Wenxin Diaolong
文心雕龍Wenxin Diaolong is Liu Xie's fifty-chapter study of literary writing and criticism, composed around 501–502. It draws on several intellectual traditions but is a work of literary theory, not a Daoist scripture.
Wu Xiaobang
吳曉邦Wu Xiaobang (1906–1995) was a Chinese modern-dance artist, educator, and theorist. His work joined experimentation in movement with teaching and responses to twentieth-century social life.
Wu Zongyuan
武宗元Wu Zongyuan was a Northern Song painter, probably dying around 1050, known in historical accounts for Buddhist and Daoist figures and temple murals. Records of his work at Yuqing Zhaoying Gong and a scroll associated with him are central to studying his religious painting.
Yongle Gong Murals
永樂宮壁畫, Yongle Palace MuralsThe Yongle Gong murals are a major group of Yuan-period Daoist paintings at Yongle Gong in Ruicheng, Shanxi. Across several halls they combine divine assemblies, Quanzhen narratives, and historical painting techniques.
Yuyin Fashi
玉音法事Yuyin Fashi is a three-juan collection of vocal pieces for Daoist ritual. Its texts and unusual graphic notation are valuable evidence for the history of Daoist ceremonial music.
Yunnan Daoist Music
雲南道教音樂, Daoist Music of YunnanYunnan Daoist music comprises chanting and instrumental traditions associated with Daoist communities and dongjing associations in Yunnan. Repertory, instruments, and social settings vary by locality.
Daoist Liturgical Melody
韻腔, Yunqiang, Scripture-Chant MelodyYunqiang is a collective name for melodic modes used to chant or recite Daoist liturgical texts. The Chinese source distinguishes several ways of singing and intoning, as well as brighter and more mournful settings. It is not the name of one tune.
Ziyang Pai Xiandan Shi
紫陽派仙丹詩, Ziyang-Lineage Alchemical PoetryZiyang Pai Xiandan Shi is a grouping of inner-alchemy poetry associated with five Southern Lineage figures, not a single fixed book or author.