"The Wisdom of the Tao is filled with 144 ancient stories that express profound truth by fusing delightful anecdotes with philosophy. Here are stories that lead people to do the following: flow with life, live from the heart, develop an openness to possibilities, live in balance…
Fabrizio Pregadio extensively examines the religious aspects of Chinese alchemy. The main focus is the relation of alchemy to the Daoist traditions of the early medieval period (third to sixth centuries).
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An anthology of English translations of primary texts of the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school of Daoism.
The ancient Taoist text that forms the central part of this book was discovered by Wilhelm, who recognized it as essentially a practical guide to the integration of personality.
Revealing the fundamental continuities that exist between vernacular fiction and exorcist, martial rituals in the vernacular language, Mark Meulenbeld argues that a specific type of Daoist exorcism helped shape vernacular novels in the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Focusing on …
Daoism is a global religious and cultural phenomenon characterized by multiculturalism and ethnic diversity. Daoism: A Guide for the Perplexed offers a clear and thorough survey of this ancient and modern religious tradition. The book includes an overview of Daoist history, incl…
The Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (369?286 B.C.E.) encountered a skull that later in a dream praises the pleasures of death over the toil of living. This anecdote became popular with poets in the second and third centuries and found renewed significance with the founders of Quanz…
The early Chinese text Master Zhuang (Zhuangzi) is well known for its relativistic philosophy and colorful anecdotes. In the work, Zhuang Zhou ca. 300 B.C.E.) dreams that he is a butterfly and wonders, upon awaking, if he in fact dreamed that he was a butterfly or if the butterf…
Examines the traditional and modern Western interpretations of the Tao-te-ching, and its author, Lao-tzu.
"Did Chinese mysticism vanish after its first appearance in ancient Taoist philosophy, to surface only after a thousand years had passed, when the Chinese had adapted Buddhism to their own culture? This first integrated survey of the mystical dimension of Taoism disputes the com…
The dao of the military: Liu An's art of war
by Liu, An
fromTranslations from the Asian classics
Master Sun's The Art of War, the best-known ancient text on adversarial strategy, is by no means China's only treatise on military affairs. A single chapter in the Huainanzi, an important compendium of philosophy and political theory written in the second century B.C.E., synthes…
The emergence of Daoism: creation of tradition
by Raz, Gil
fromRoutledge studies in Taoism
At the core of Daoism are ancient ideas concerning the Way, the fundamental process of existence (the Dao). Humans, as individuals and as a society, should be aligned with the Dao in order to attain the fullness of life and its potential. This book presents the history of early …
In the hills of China's central Hunan province, an anxious young apprentice officiates over a Daoist ritual known as the Banner Rite to Summon Sire Yin. Before a crowd of masters, relatives, and villagers--and the entire pantheon of gods and deceased masters ritually invited to …
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