清靜經 Qing Jing Jing - Quiet Calm Weave Introduction

Qing Jing Jing is a relatively modern writing that was reportedly written around 800 A.D.. The book's modern use of words usually carry sizably different meanings than what the words would have implied during the Confucian era of pre-200 B.C..

Qing Jing Jing begins by lightly paraphrasing the first paragraphs of the popular Dao De Jing book. However, unlike the Dao De Jing book that had several different authors, some of whom inappropriately added Buddhist beliefs, the Qing Jing Jing book is purposefully focused on Buddhist ideas.

In spite of the book being Buddhist, Qing Jing Jing is said to be very popular amongst some Taoists.

Similar to all other popular Chinese texts, each translation is different. The first goal of this series is to investigate what the first two words of the title — 清靜 (qing jing) — were meant to imply. The two words 'quiet calm' are foreknown to not be accurate as a direct translation, but the behavior of 'quiet calm' is what would occur if an individual were to acquire 'the Way' as the book claims to speak of.

The title's third word 經 (jing) is simple of its meaning 'weave'. However, since all cultures' generations change meanings of words, then it is interesting to determine if the author's use of 經 still implied 'weave' or if he inferred a different meaning.

Therefore, the over-all purpose of investigating 清靜經 (Qing Jing Jing) is to simply discover what the book is speaking of, and from there we can then have an idea of what some of the 9th century beliefs may have been like.