The commentary on the Tao Te Ching attributed to Zhang Daoling is called the Xiang’er. Its title is also rendered Xiang Er and is sometimes translated as “thinking of you,” although the exact meaning remains debated.
The Xiang’er is one of the earliest surviving texts associated with the Way of the Celestial Masters, an important organized Taoist movement. It interprets the Daodejing through religious themes including moral discipline, repentance, longevity, and the relationship between human conduct and cosmic order.
The surviving manuscript was discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the Mogao Caves and reached Europe in the early twentieth century with material collected by Aurel Stein. It preserves commentary on only chapters 3 through 37 of the Daodejing, suggesting that a second portion may once have existed but is now lost.
The attribution needs care. Later tradition connects the work with Zhang Daoling, founder of the Celestial Masters, while early sources more specifically associate its authorship with Zhang Lu, his grandson and the movement’s third Celestial Master. That uncertainty affects authorship, not the title Xiang’er.