(245) A SET OF TWO HUNDRED FORTY FIVE ENGRAVED WOOD BLOCK PRINTING COLLECTION OF DAOIST TEXTS: 'THE DAOZANG JIYAO’. THREAD-BOUND BOOK.HARDCOVER. WITH TWO WOODEN BOOK BOXES. B007.China.19/20th century. Published by the Erxian an of Chengdu (Sichuan).The Daozang jiyao is the most important collection of Daoist texts of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912).After the Daoist Canon of the Ming period (Zhengtong Daozang, 1445), the Daozang jiyao (Essentials of the Daoist Canon) is the most important collection of Daoist texts. It is by far the largest anthology of premodern Daoist texts and an indispensable source for research on Daoism in the Ming and Qing period (fourteenth to late nineteenth century). Although the collection is chiefly derived from the Ming Canon, it contains numerous texts that are not included there and thus is undoubtedly the most valuable collection of Daoist literature of the late imperial period. It features texts on neidan or inner alchemy, cosmology, philosophy, ritual, precepts, commentaries on Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist classics, hagiographic, topographic, epigraphic works, and much else. The genesis of this collection is still hardly explored. According to the most common account, often presented even in recent articles and primarily based on Zhao Zongcheng (1995)’s hypothesis (see also Qing Xitai, 1996), it is believed that there are at least three different editions of the Daozang jiyao: 1. by Peng Dingqiu (1645-1719) compiled around 1700 and containing 200 titles from the Ming Canon; 2. by Jiang Yuanting (Yupu, 1755-1819), who reportedly added 79 texts not contained in the Ming Canon (Weng Dujian, 1935) during the Jiaqing era (1796-1820);3. by He Longxiang and Peng Hanran published in 1906 at the Erxian an of Chengdu (Sichuan) under the name of Chongkan Daozang jiyao (New Edition of the Essentials of the Daoist Canon), and (according to this hypothesis) containing a total of 319 titles.C Property from a Private Chinese Collection. Measure: Height 47.6", Width 19.7",Length 31.82 ".B007.