The Path, Not the Peak: Rethinking the Liezi Beyond the Laozi and Zhuangzi

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite contributions to a Special Issue on “The Path, Not the Peak: Rethinking the Liezi Beyond the Laozi and Zhuangzi”.

This Special Issue centres on the Liezi 列子, known in the Daoist tradition as the True Classic of the Perfect Virtue of Simplicity and Emptiness 沖虛至德真經. Long ranked as the third foundational text alongside the Laozi and Zhuangzi, the Liezi occupies a paradoxical place in Daoist history: canonised in name, yet rarely read on its own terms—one of the tradition's most significant classics, yet the object of persistent scholarly neglect. For decades, research was almost entirely consumed by questions of authenticity: whether the work is a pre-Qin classic or a fourth-century forgery. While the authenticity debate has clarified aspects of transmission, it has left the text's philosophical and literary dimensions comparatively underexplored.

More decisively, the Liezi need not be read as a derivative appendix or footnote to the Laozi and Zhuangzi. The Laozi and Zhuangzi are often read as portraits of realisation already attained. The Liezi, as Eva Wong has suggested, stages the struggle itself: figures who falter, persist, and gradually cultivate understanding. This is not to claim that the Laozi and Zhuangzi lack their own accounts of practice, nor to reduce the Liezi to their practical complement. Rather, it is a question this issue invites contributors to test: does the Liezi disclose a distinctive mode of Daoist subject-formation, one not reducible to a supplement of the other two texts? In taking up this question, the Special Issue promises more than filling a lacuna in Daoist studies. At stake is whether giving the Liezi fuller attention on its own terms might enrich the pertaining interpretive framework that has long privileged the Laozi and Zhuangzi within modern academic studies of Daoism, and in doing so open additional avenues for understanding the tradition’s intellectual diversity.

Original research articles and reviews are invited. Possible areas include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Liezi's Distinctive Path to Realisation vs. the Laozi and Zhuangzi

Reassessing the Liezi's pedagogical frameworks, spiritual practices, and narratives of transformation. Moving beyond traditional comparative paradigms, contributions in this line may explore how the text models the incremental, often fraught process of self-cultivation for ordinary practitioners, and whether this constitutes a distinctive paradigm of Daoist subject-formation in its own right.

• Textual Criticism, Philology, and Literature of the Liezi

Reevaluating the internal structure, stylistic features, and historical strata of the Liezi using contemporary philological, linguistic, and literary methods. Recent scholarship moves beyond simplistic binary views of its authenticity; new critical examinations are encouraged to uncover fresh insights into its literary composition, linguistic evolution, and historical layers.

• The Commentarial Tradition and Hermeneutic Strategies

Long overshadowed by debates over the root text's origin, the commentaries (and sub-commentaries) of the Liezi are understudied. Close study of these works offers valuable insights into how the text was reinterpreted across different dynastic eras, contributing to the broader field of Chinese hermeneutics.

• Translation, Transmission, and Comparative Approaches

Tracing the Liezi's transmission outside China and exploring the comparative possibilities these transmissions open. Contributions may examine how cross-cultural readings (such as Rosemary Brant's dialogue with Epicurean thought) yield new insights into the text's philosophy, reception, and its capacity to speak across intellectual traditions.

• Other related topics substantially connected to the Liezi's philosophy, textual history, or reception.

Interested authors are invited to submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words outlining their intended contribution. Please send these to the Guest Editors or the Assistant Editor Ms. Loretta Chen (loretta.chen@mdpi.com) of the journal Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure appropriate fit with the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will subsequently undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Shichuang Zhan
Prof. Dr. Xuetao Li
Dr. Xing Lan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• the Liezi
• Daoism
• Chinese religions
• Chinese classics
• hermeneutics