Taiping Jing is the name of several different Daoist texts. At least two works were known by this title:
, Pinyin tiān guān lì bāo yuán tàipíng jīng, 12 Chapters, contents unknown, author: Gan Zhongke 甘忠可, Pinyin tàipíng qīng lǐng shū, 170 Chapters, only 57 of which survive via the Daozang

Daozang

Daozang , meaning "Treasury of Dao" or "Daoist Canon", consists of around 1400 texts that were collected circa C.E. 400...

, author: unknown

Taiping Jing usually refers to the work which has been preserved in the Daozang

Daozang

Daozang , meaning "Treasury of Dao" or "Daoist Canon", consists of around 1400 texts that were collected circa C.E. 400...

. It is considered to be a valuable resource for researching early Daoist beliefs and the society at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

. Zhang Jue

Zhang Jiao

Zhang Jue was the leader of the Yellow Turban rebels during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. He was said to be a follower of Taoism and a sorcerer. His name is sometimes read as Zhang Jiao, since the Chinese character of Zhang's given name can be read as either "Jiao" or "Jue"...

 (d. 184), the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion

Yellow Turban Rebellion

The Yellow Turban Rebellion, also translated as Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt that broke out in 184 AD in China during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty...

, based his form of Daoism (太平道) on this work.

The contents of Taiping Jing are diverse, but primarily deals with subjects such as heaven and earth, five elements, Yin and yang

Yin and yang

In Asian philosophy, the concept of yin yang , which is often referred to in the West as "yin and yang", is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Opposites thus only...

 and the sexagenary cycle

Sexagenary cycle

The Chinese sexagenary cycle , also known as the Stems-and-Branches , is a cycle of sixty terms used for recording days or years. It appears, as a means of recording days, in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang dynasty oracle bones from the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years...

.

Fundamental concepts in the Taiping Jing

The Taiping jing is a guide that reveals the proper methods to bring forward an era of Great Peace or Equality (an idea that probably dates back to the Warring States period). The idea of the Great peace became exspecially more prominent during the Han period. The main idea brought forward by the scriptures is that the world is in a terrible state of chaos. There is a loss of cosmic balance, and this is made obvious by omens such as droughts, floods, famines, epidemics and other natural disasters. There is also chaos in the courts of the imperial house (during the Han dynasty) proven by recorded events such as freakish births (perhaps a hint at the meddling of eunuchs), all of which demonstrate Heaven's displeasure towards the mortal realm. Humans have been polluted by their sins and their ancestors' sins (evil accumulated through many generations). The Universe reciprocates the mortal realm's condition; for there to be balance again, the people must heal themselves and cultivate their inner Dao. Salvation lies in the hand of great princes known as Celestial Masters. Chinese antiquity was divided into three eras: shang-ku (High Antiquity), chung-ku and hsia-ku, but it was only the shang-ku (High Antiquity) that contained a time of Great Peace, maintained with the collaborative efforts of the rulers of that era and the Celestial Masters. There was no infant mortality, no bad harvests and the climate was convenient. This balance was so delicate that the suffering of one entity was enough to make things out of synch. A better era than the one experienced by the Han dynasty can only begin with the emergence of a new healthy emperor, a new Heavenly Mandate and an end to evil omens.

The modern Taiping Jing (Wang Ming's Edition)

There has not been a definitive, modern version of the Taiping Jing until 1960, when Wang Ming published the Taiping jing hejiao. The Taiping Jing once contained 170 chapters divided into 10 parts (each containing 17 chapters). Each "part" is labelled by the ten Celestial Stems. However. the first two parts (37 chapters) and the last three parts (the last 51 chapters) are missing in Ming's modern edition. So, in actuality, only five parts remain, and of these parts, certain chapters have not been accounted for. Ming's edition also includes "Magic Texts" (divided into four chapters and 2133 magic characters) and some images. Some chapters follow the form of a dialogue between the Heavenly Teacher and the six True Men (chen-jen), while others stick to the essay format, containing methods, instructions or notes. Perhaps the Taiping Jing had many authors, hence the various writing styles in the chapters.

The Taiping Jing and the Han dynasty

There are two known versions of the Taiping Jing that emerged during the Han dynasty. The first one was presented to Emperor Ch'eng (32-7 BC)under the title T'ien-kuan li pao-yuan t'ai-p'ing ching It was written in this book that the House of Han was nearing the end of its cosmological cycle and that a new mandate was about to be presented to restore the dynasty. The book decrees that a man by the name of Ch'ih-ching tzu would bring and teach the ways of the Dao to the emperor. Emperor Shun (A.D. 126-145) also received similar scriptures called T'ai-p'ing ch'ing-ling shu, which would later be used by the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Hsiang Cheng's memorial states that it was based on respect between Heaven and Earth and conformity with the Five Elements. Another version of the scriptures of the Great peace was called the T'ai-p'ing tung-chi ching, and was supposedly introduced to the Celestial Master by T'ai-shang Lao-chun.