Abstract

This study presents an important theory regarding early developments in the Daoist philosophy of time. It does so from the perspective of an understudied but quite influential masterwork of Chinese philosophy, _Heshang Gong Zhangju_ 河上公章句 (_Chapters and Verses of the Master on the Upper River_), which is Heshang Gong’s 河上公 commentary to the _Daodejing_ 道德經. The first sections of this study identify Heshang Gong’s text of the _Daodejing_ and his appended commentary with Huang-Lao 黃老 Daoism and situates it in relation to Laozi’s 老子 version of the earlier text. The following sections introduce the Daoist concepts of form and formlessness as appropriate methodological tools with which to understand Heshang Gong’s philosophy of time, with the intent to open new pathways into Daoist philosophy. Lastly, by engaging a range of Chinese research, this study assists in bridging the often-gaping division between Chinese language and English language scholarship.