\tThe Liezi \u5217\u5b50 "Master Lie" is a Daoist book attributed to Lie Yukou \u5217\u5fa1\u5bc7 (also written \u5217\u5704\u5bc7 or \u5217\u5709\u5bc7, also called Lie Zhoukou \u5217\u5468\u5bc7) from the Warring States period \u6218\u56fd (5th cent.-221 BCE). He is said to have been from the state of Zheng\u90d1. His thoughts are very similar to that in the book Zhuangzi \u5e84\u5b50, which often mentiones him. He is said to have been able to ride the wind (yu feng er xing \u5fa1\u98ce\u800c\u884c) in perfect non-action (wuwei \u65e0\u4e3a)\uff0e\u3000His first teacher was a certain Huqiuzi \u58f6\u4e18\u5b50, later Bogaozi \u4f2f\u9ad8\u5b50. For Liezi the bad kings of antiquity had lost their realms because they dispised the true way and only esteemed richness and their own profit (zhong li, shi yi wang \u91cd\u5229\uff0c\u662f\u4ee5\u4ea1). During the Tang period \u5510 (618-907), in 742, Liezi was elevated to a Daoist saint and was given the honorific title of Chongxu zhenren \u51b2\u865a\u771f\u4eba "Perfect Man of Serene Tranquillity". During the Song period \u5b8b (960-1279), in 1007, he was even further elevated to one of the four great Daoist Masters (the others being Zhuangzi, Wenzi \u6587\u5b50 and Kangcangzi \u4ea2\u4ed3\u5b50) and bestowed the title of Chongxu zhide zhenren \u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u4eba "Perfect Man of Serene Tranquillity and Highest Virtue".<\/p>\n
\tThe book contains a lot of parables and popular stories of immortals or Daoist adepts trying to achieve longevity. A lot of those stories have become standard popular tales, as Yugong yishan \u611a\u516c\u79fb\u5c71 "The foolish old man moves a mountain";Qiren youtian \u675e\u4eba\u5fe7\u5929 "A man from Qi worried that the sky might fall down"; the journey of King Mu \u5468\u7a46\u738b (10th cent. BCE) to visit the Queen Mother of the West \u897f\u738b\u6bcd. The literary quality of the Liezi is, like that of the Zhuangzi, of a very high standard, which was the reason for the wide readership the Liezi has attracted. Some stories are taken from the Zhuangziand have been expanded by the author of the Liezi. The Liezi vividly describes types of persons and their character, like Han E \u97e9\u5a25 or Pian Que \u6241\u9e4a in the chapter Tangwen \u6c64\u95ee. The patterns of some stories were used by later writers, like the transformation of the heart in the novel collection Liaozhai zhiyi \u804a\u658b\u5fd7\u5f02. The seventh chapter contains stories and sayings by the sophist and hedonist Yang Zhu \u6768\u6731.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\tThe eight chapters long book Liezi seems to have been very widespread during the early Former Han period \u524d\u6c49 (206 BCE-8 CE), as the imperial librarian Liu Xiang \u5218\u5411 said, but gradually lost popularity. Liu Xiang rearranged the original 20 "inner" and "outer" chapters (neishu \u5185\u4e66, waishu \u5916\u4e66) into eight chapters, the same number as in the received version. Part of the chapters seems to have consisted of redundant paragraphs that could be abolished without any loss. During the Eastern Jin period \u4e1c\u664b (317-420) Zhang Zhan \u5f20\u6e5b wrote a commentary, the Liezi zhu \u5217\u5b50\u6ce8. There is a Song period print of Zhang Zhan's commentary with the title Chongxu zhide zhenjing zhu \u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u7ecf\u6ce8. A lot of commentaries are included in the Daoist canon Daozang \u9053\u85cf, namely Lin Xiyi's \u6797\u5e0c\u9038 Chongxu zhide zhenjing lizhai kouyi \u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u7ecf\u9b33\u658b\u53e3\u4e49, Jiang Yu's \u6c5f\u9079Chongxu zhide zhenjing jie \u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u7ecf\u89e3, Zhao Ji's \u8d75\u4f76 (i. e. emperor Song Huizong \u5b8b\u5fbd\u5b97, r. 1100-1125) Chongxu zhide zhenjing yijie \u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u7ecf\u4e49\u89e3, Gao Shouyuan's \u9ad8\u5b88\u5143 Chongxu zhide zhenjing sijie \u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u7ecf\u56db\u89e3 (a collection of the commentaries of Zhang Zhan, Lu Chongxuan \u5362\u91cd\u7384, Song Zhenghe \u5b8b\u653f\u548c and Fan Zhixu \u8303\u81f4\u865a), and Yin Jingshun's \u6bb7\u656c\u987aLiezi chongxu zhide zhenjing shiwen \u5217\u5b50\u51b2\u865a\u81f3\u5fb7\u771f\u7ecf\u91ca\u6587 (with a supplement by Chen Jingyuan \u9648\u666f\u5143). A modern commentary was written by Yang Bojun \u6768\u4f2f\u5cfb, the Liezi jishi \u5217\u5b50\u96c6\u91ca.
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| \n \t\t\t\t\tContents<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \t\t\t\t\t1. \u5929\u745e Tianrui<\/em> Heavenly portents |