Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Series Editors’ Preface vii
4. Acknowledgments ix
5. Conventions xiii
6. Introduction 1
7. Chapter One. The Writ in Early Medieval Southern China 17
8. Chapter Two. The Religious Life of Objects The Talismans of the Writ and Their Surviving Fragments 49
9. Chapter Three. Beyond Talismans Alchemy, Charts, and Meditation in Relation to the Writ 83
10. Chapter Four. From Local Lore to Universal Dao The Cavern of Divinity and the Early Daoist Canon 121
11. Chapter Five. The Writ and Its Corpus The Rise and Fall of the Cavern of Divinity in Institutional Daoism 155
12. Conclusion 193
13. Appendix 1. List of Variant Titles for the Writ of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) in Early Medieval Sources 215
14. Appendix 2. Synopsis of the Principal Six Dynasties Sources Containing Fragments of the Writ of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) and Its Oral Instructions 219
15. Appendix 3. Comparative List of Talismans from the “Essential Instructions from the Western Citadel on the Great Characters in Celestial Script of the Three Sovereigns” (Xicheng yaojue sanhuang tianwen dazi) and the “Essential functions of the Three Sovereigns” (Sanhuang yaoyong pin) 225
16. Appendix 4. Comparative Inventory of Transmission Gages Associated with the Writ of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) 231
17. Notes 237
18. Works Cited 317
19. Index 355