Gil Raz is Associate Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College specializing in the study of medieval Chinese religion. His book The Emergence of Daoism: Creation of Tradition (2012) and many publications examine Daoist notions of space and time, sexual practices, and religious interactions in medieval China. Anna M. Shields, Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University, specializes in the literary history of the Tang through Northern Song. Her most recent book is One Who Knows Me: Friendship and Literary Culture in Mid-Tang China (2015); current research examines the reception of Tang literature, 10th-11th centuries.

Introduction (Gil Raz and Anna M. Shields), Part 1: Poetry, 1. Brushing Past Rainbows: Religion and Poetry in the Xu Mi Stele (Jonathan Pettit), [...] Bo and Hu Ziyang: Companions of the Way (Paul W. Kroll), [...] Pian: Poet and Patron (Franciscus Verellen), 4.Traces of the Way: The Poetry of Divine Transcendence in the Northern Song Anthology Literature's Finest (Anna M. Shields), Part II: Visuality and Materiality, 1. A Reexamination of the Second Chapter of the Array of the Five Talismans (Wang Zongyu), 2. True Forms and True Faces: Daoist and Buddhist Discourse on Images (Gil Raz), Part III: Texts and Contexts, 1. After the Apocalypse: The Evolving Ethos of the Celestial Master Daoists (Terry Kleeman), 2. Shangqing Scriptures as Performative Texts (Robert Ford Company), 3. The Sutra in Forty-Two Chapters: Beyond the Buddhist Canon (James Robson), 4.Taking Stock: The Scholarship of Daoism in Recent Decades (John Lagerwey),Epilogue,Traversing the Golden Porte: Problems with Daoist Studies (Stephen R. Bokenkamp)