Overview and Origin
The Qingjing Jing is a short, mostly-versified text comprising some 390 Chinese characters in 90 verses. It is widely read, has numerous commentaries, and is considered one of the most important texts in the Daoist religion.
Two passages of the Qingjing Jing are attributed to Laozi, with the honorific "Lord Lao" (老君, see Three Pure Ones). This has led many traditional sources to attribute authorship of the entire text to Laozi, so the text exists under a variety of honorific titles that link it to him. Scholars believe the received text dates from around the middle Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE).
The oldest extant commentary is by Du Guangting (杜光庭, 850-933 CE), a prolific editor of Daoist texts during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period. Du says prior to being written down by Ge Xuan (164-244 CE), the Qingjing Jing was orally transmitted for generations, supposedly going back to the mythical Queen Mother of the West.
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