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This elegant and lucid introduction to the traditions of Taoism and the masters who transmit them will reward all those interested in China and in religions.
If any subject lends itself to treatment in an edited volume, it is Chinese Religions; It is a recognized fact that the boundaries between the various religions in China, and those between religion and culture in general, have always been fluid. This can only be duly acknowledged by careful research from many angles – and by many experts. It is exactly these mutual influences that form the leading theme in this Festschrift in honour of Kristofer Schipper, taken up by a selection of his many expert pupils and colleagues. The thirteen contributions span over two millennia, ranging from the late Zhou to the present. Topics include divination, religious puppet theatre, the art of translating, late Ming Christianity, and literature. The major focus, however, is Taoism and its connections with medieval society, popular cults and medicine. Special mention, in this connection, should be made of an extensive analysis and translation of a fourth century poem from the Taoist Canon, and a study of the social circle of a leading Tang dynasty Taoist.
A celebration of Taoist art traces the influence of philosophy on the visual arts in China.
Taoism remains the only major religion whose canonical texts have not been systematically arranged and made available for study. This long-awaited work, a milestone in Chinese studies, catalogs and describes all existing texts within the Taoist canon. The result will not only make the entire range of existing Taoist texts accessible to scholars of religion, it will open up a crucial resource in the study of the history of China. The vast literature of the Taoist canon, or Daozang, survives in a Ming Dynasty edition of some fifteen hundred different texts. Compiled under imperial auspices and completed in 1445—with a supplement added in 1607—many of the books in the Daozang concern the hi...
An interdisciplinary group of scholars explores the social history and anthropology of Daoism from the late nineteenth century to the present, focusing on the evolution of traditional forms of practice and community, as well as modern reforms and reinventions. Essays investigate ritual specialists, body cultivation and meditation traditions, monasticism, new religious movements, state-sponsored institutionalization, and transnational networks"--Publisher's Web site.
Stephen Eskildsen offers an overview of Daoist religious texts from the Latter Han (25–220) through Tang (618–907) periods, exploring passive meditation methods and their anticipated effects. These methods entailed observing the processes that unfold spontaneously within mind and body, rather than actively manipulating them by means common in medieval Daoist religion such as visualization, invocations, and the swallowing of breath or saliva. Through the resulting deep serenity, it was claimed, one could attain profound insights, experience visions, feel surges of vital force, overcome thirst and hunger, be cured of ailments, ascend the heavens, and gain eternal life. While the texts discussed follow the legacy of Warring States period Daoism such as the Laozi to a significant degree, they also draw upon medieval immortality methods and Buddhism. An understanding of the passive meditation literature provides important insights into the subsequent development of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy, meditation that emerged from the Song period onward.
Nicolas Standaert demonstrates the gradual interweaving of Chinese and European ritual practices at all levels of interaction in 17th century China.
A theoretically sophisticated and cross-disciplinary reader in the anthropology of the body.
Challenges standard views of the origins of the Daodejing, revealing the works roots in a tradition of physical cultivation. Thomas Michaels study of the early history of the Daodejing reveals that the work is grounded in a unique tradition of early Daoism, one unrelated to other early Chinese schools of thought and practice. The text is associated with a tradition of hermits committed to yangsheng, a particular practice of physical cultivation involving techniques of breath circulation in combination with specific bodily movements leading to a physical union with the Dao. Michael explores the ways in which the text systematically anchored these techniques to a Dao-centered worldview. In...
Judith Allen Shelly and Arlene B. Miller write from a historically and theologically grounded understanding of nursing as a vocation. They give nurses a framework for understanding and living out that vocation: service to God through caring for others.