Definitions

The term daojia is a topic of debate among scholars, mainly concerning whether early Taoism constituted a “school” or “lineage,” as the term jia seems to imply, and the distinction between daojia and *daojiao, which is often understood to mean the religious forms of Taoism. The term daojia itself originated with Han historiographers as a bibliographic label, but has also been applied to texts related to Taoist religion in such modern compilations as the Sibu beiyao 四部 備要 (Complete Essentials from the Four Sections of Literature) and the Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 (Collectanea from the Four Sections of Literature).