dan g. reid says, "heshang gong’s insights into daoist wisdom, history, cosmogony, and meditative practices, have been an essential aid to understanding the meaning, applicability, and cultural context of the dao de jing throughout chinese history. he was the first to explain, in written form, its many paradoxical idioms and place them in context of the time and culture in which they were written. every subsequent commentary, re-editing, and translation of the dao de jing has absorbed some degree of influence from his work."