Wen di yin zhi tu shuo ren jing yang qiu [Commentaries on the Tract of the Quiet Way by Wenchang Wan] by YAN, Zheng & HUANG, Zhengyuan, commentators

Numerous woodcuts in the text. 80; 68 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, stitched as issued. [China]: Xishan wen chang gong, 1844. The teachings of the Taoist deity Wenchang, sometimes known as the "God of Literature," as given in his Tract of the Quiet Way, is a guide to the conduct of life and ethical behavior. This ancient text is one of the three most important Taoist Holy Scriptures for advising the good, along with Lao-Tzu's Treatise on the Response of the Tao and Holy Emperor Guan's True Scripture to Awaken the World. The commentaries by Zheng Yan (15th century) and Zhenguan Huang (active 1713-55) were first published in 1777 but without illustrations. Our edition contains a series of fine woodcuts with depictions of karma on the lower half of many of the pages and text above. Wenchang's text is presented with the commentaries of Yan and Huang. One of the prefaces is printed in "seal script." Fine set, with mostly marginal worming. WorldCat locates no copy of this work in North America.