A Study On "The Inner Story Of Lao-Zi On High"

" The inner story of Lao-Zi on High " has been lost and there has long been a lack of special and deep research in academia. Firstly, through the analysis of related Shizhi Catalogue and extant lost articles of "The inner story of Lao-Zi", this paper points out that the one-volume " The inner story of Lao-Zi on High "written in the Southern and Northern Dynasties had been adapted to three-volume by being added the contents of the book "the preface of the inner story of Lord-Lao" of "Zhang Ling" in his else’s name. In the later quotations of the Taoist books, the three-volume "The inner story of Lao-Zi" was called "The chronicle of Lao-Zi" or "The chronicle of Lord-Lao", which will become another example for the Taoist book clearing activity of Six Dynasties in early Tang Dynasty that has been stated by scholars. Next, through the addendum of the "The inner story of Lao-Zi" based on its text variation, the author differentiates and analyses the contents which belongs to original manuscript "The inner story of Lao-Zi on High" from extant lost articles, making it possible to discuss the prototype status of the Taoist book. Finally, the paper makes an investigation from three different aspects--the style source of the inner story, the title-name and image tracing of Lao-Zi, considering that the original manuscript of the inner story was actually written by Ge Hong’s successors in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty.