The Xiang’er (Simplified Chinese: 想尔, Traditional Chinese: 想爾)
is a commentary to the Dao De Jing that is best known for being
one of the earliest surviving texts from the Way of the
Celestial Master variant of Daoism. The meaning of the title
Xiang’er is debated, but can be translated as meaning ‘thinking
of you.’ The Xiang’er was most likely written in between 190 and
220 CE, a time when the Celestial Masters controlled a
theocratic state in Sichuan. Early sources indicate that the
text was written by Zhang Lu, the third Celestial Master and
grandson to Zhang Daoling. The text available to us today was
discovered in the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang in the early 20th
century and was part of the trove that traveled to London along
with Aurel Stein. However, the Xiang’er that survives only
comments upon half of the Daode Jing. Presumably there was also
a second part of the Xiang’er, but it has now been lost. The
Xiang’er text found at Dunhuang likely dates from the 5th or 6th
centuries. The Xiang’er reveals a gr