The Writ of the Three Sovereigns

This monograph traces an essential Daoist text from local tradition to empire-wide religion, unfolding a mysterious chapter of medieval China.

In 648 CE, Tang imperial authorities collected every copy of the Writ of the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang wen) and burned them. Two or three centuries earlier, this text was only known in Jiangnan, where it was regarded as essential local lore. In the span of a few generations, it would become the cornerstone of one of the three basic corpora of the Daoist Canon, a pillar of Daoism—and a perceived threat to the state.

This volume provides a lucid reconstruction of the text’s hidden history and enigmatic practices while shedding light on its contributions to the religious landscape of medieval China.