"Chinese Religion" is a new introduction to the field of Chinese religion and culture. It seeks to guide readers through some of the primary source material and to introduce them to continuing, contemporary debates and interpretations of religious ideas, concepts and practices in China and beyond. Religious beliefs are never pursued and held in a vacuum; they are an integral part of a particular culture, interwoven and interactive with other elements of the culture and tradition. Chinese religion in this sense can be said to be part of Chinese culture and history. In this clear account, Xinzhong Yao and Yanxiz Zhao move away from the traditional and outmoded definition of Chinese religion, the three institutional doctrines: Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, towards a multi-layered hermeneutic of the syncretic nature and functions of religions in China. Additional features include questions for reflection and discussion and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter.

Karma has become a household word in the modern world, where it is associated with the belief in rebirth determined by one's deeds in earlier lives. This belief was and is widespread in the Indian subcontinent as is the word "karma" itself. In lucid and accessible prose, this book presents karma in its historical, cultural, and religious context. Initially, karma manifested itself in a number of religious movements?most notably Jainism and Buddhism?and was subsequently absorbed into Brahmanism in spite of opposition until the end of the first millennium C.E. Philosophers of all three traditions were confronted with the challenge of explaining by what process rebirth and karmic retribution take place. Some took the drastic step of accepting the participation of a supreme god who acted as a cosmic accountant, others of opting for radical idealism. The doctrine of karma was confronted with alternative explanations of human destiny, among them the belief in the transfer of merit. It also had to accommodate itself to devotional movements that exerted a major influence on Indian religions. The book concludes with some general reflections on the significance of rebirth and karmic retribution, drawing attention to similarities between early Christian and Indian ascetical practices and philosophical notions that in India draw their inspiration from the doctrine of karma.

It is widely claimed that notions of gods and religious beliefs are irrelevant or inconsequential to early Chinese ("Confucian") moral and political thought. Rejecting the claim that religious practice plays a minimal philosophical role, Kelly James Clark and Justin Winslett offer a textual study that maps the religious terrain of early Chinese texts. They analyze the pantheon of extrahumans, from high gods to ancestor spirits, discussing their various representations, as well as examining conceptions of the afterlife and religious ritual. Demonstrating that religious beliefs in early China are both textually endorsed and ritually embodied, this book goes on to show how gods, ancestors and afterlife are philosophically salient. The summative chapter on the role of religious ritual in moral formation shows how religion forms a complex philosophical system capable of informing moral, social, and political conditions.

Sun Tzu's Original Art of War is a remastering of the Chinese classic: using the latest archeological discoveries and modern translation techniques, this brand new translation -- prominently adorned with the latest reconstruction of the original Chinese -- updates the unnecessary wordiness and stodginess of traditional academic translations to bring the modern English reader as close as possible to experiencing Sun Tzu as his readers first did some 2500 years ago.

Eschewing the needlessly complex and inaccurately abstract phrasings that mar previous renditions, translator Andrew W. Zieger uses the latest academic research, analysis and methodology to to bring it all back to the simple military text Sun Tzu intended. Vivid, clear, somewhat poetic and at times spiritual: that is the voice of Sun Tzu.

Whether it's for the boardroom, the battlefield or cultural study, Sun Tzu's Original Art of War makes the brilliance of Sun Tzu plain for all to see.

This accessible history of Confucianism, or the 'Way of the Ru', emphasizes the religious dimensions of the tradition. It clearly explains the tradition's unique and subtle philosophical ideals as well as the 'arts of the Ru' whereby seemingly simple acts such as reading, sitting quietly, good manners, and attending to family and state responsibilities, became ways of ultimate transformation. This book explains the origins of the Ru and documents their impact in imperial China, before providing extensive coverage of the modern era. Confucianism in China: An Introduction shows how the long history of the Ru is vital to comprehending China today. As the empire drew to an end, there were impassioned movements both to reinvent and to eradicate Ru tradition. Less than forty years ago, it seemed close to extinction, but today it is undergoing spectacular revival. This introduction is suitable for anyone wishing to understand a tradition that shaped imperial China and which is now increasingly swaying Chinese religious, philosophical, political, and economic developments. The book contains a glossary of key terms and 22 images, and further resources can be found on the book's webpage http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/confucianism-in-china-9781474242462/.

"What's this you're writing?... asked Pooh, climbing onto the writing table. "The Tao of Pooh,... I replied. "The how of Pooh?... asked Pooh, smudging one of the words I had just written. "The Tao of Pooh,... I replied, poking his paw away with my pencil. "It seems more like ow! of Pooh,... said Pooh, rubbing his paw. "Well, it's not,... I replied huffily. "What's it about?... asked Pooh, leaning forward and smearing another word. "It's about how to stay happy and calm under all circumstances!... I yelled. "Have you read it?... asked Pooh... ...Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear, and Pooh's Way, as Benjamin Hoff brilliantly demonstrates, seems strangely close to the ancient Chinese principles of Taoism. Follow the Pooh Way in this humorous and enlightening introduction to Taoism, with classic decorations by E.H.Shepard throughout. Over a million copies sold.

Setting the context for the upheavals and transformations of contemporary China, this text provides a re-assessment of Max Weber's celebrated sociology of China. Returning to the sources drawn on by Weber in The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, it offers an informed account of the Chinese institutions discussed and a concise discussion of Weber's writings on 'the rise of modern capitalism'. Notably it subjects Weber's argument to critical scrutiny, arguing that he drew upon sources which infused the central European imagination of the time, constructing a sense of China in Europe, whilst European writers were constructing a particular image of imperial China and its Confucian framework. Re-examining Weber's discussion of the role of the individual in Confucian thought and the subordination, in China, of the interests of the individual to those of the political community and the ancestral clan, this book offers a cutting edge contribution to the continuing debate on Weber's RoC in East Asia today, against the background of the rise of modern capitalism in the "little dragons" of Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea, and the "big dragons" of Japan and the People's Republic of China.

A New Way of Healing

""Tao of Surfing" is an inspired book and a unique reflection that will have a lasting effect on anyone who reads it."
-Bob Walch, "The Monterey County Herald"

The roads I travel and the waves I search for and ride exemplify the flowing movement and continuous change of life itself. - From the book

"Author Allen.in fine, thoughtful fashion.writes well, informally, and there is haiku in his observations.A delightful book, effortlessly wise."
-The Book Reader

"From the first pages of this remarkable book I was captivated by the gently profound philosophy of riding through life with graceful balance."
-Greg Ambrose, author of "Surfer's Guide to Hawaii" and co-author of "Memories of Duke, the Legend Comes to Life"

Internationally acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize nominated author Michael A. Allen, takes you on a journey into the recesses of your soul and explores the ontological question, "What is our underlying essence?" Mr. Allen uses the metaphor of the sea, and its ebb and flow, to describe the Tao of life's cycle. And he discovers within this unique reflection a new way to comfort and heal the Self from the trauma of death.

His long time interest in film brought him to write the screenplay adaptation with his brother in law Alex Carig in order to make "Tao of Surfing" into a full-length feature motion picture. Mr. Allen was initially inspired to write "Tao of Surfing" after his brother-his surfing partner-died from the complication of AIDS.

An exploration of the rich complexity of the worship of the deity Inari in contemporary Japan. The work covers institutional and popular power in religion, the personal meaningfulness of religious figures and the communicative styles that preserve homogeneity in the face of factionalism.

Recently discovered ancient silk and bamboo manuscripts have transformed our understanding of classical Chinese thought. In this book, Wang Zhongjiang closely examines these texts and, by parsing the complex divergence between ancient and modern Chinese records, reveals early Chinese philosophy to be much richer and more complex than we ever imagined. As numerous and varied cosmologies sprang up in this cradle of civilization, beliefs in the predictable movements of nature merged with faith in gods and their divine punishments. Slowly, powerful spirits and gods were stripped of their potency as nature's constant order awakened people to the possibility of universal laws, and those laws finally gave birth to an ideally conceived community, objectively managed and rationally ordered.

Now the question arises, If all human beings are endowed with Buddha-nature, why have they not come naturally to be Enlightened? To answer this question, the Indian Mahayanists told the parable of the drunkard who forgets the precious gems put in his own pocket by one of his friends. The man is drunk with the poisonous liquor of selfishness, led astray by the alluring sight of the sensual objects, and goes mad with anger, lust, and folly. Thus he is in a state of moral poverty, entirely forgetting the precious gem of Buddha-nature within him. -from "The Nature of Man" There are, unknown to many Western minds, two schools of Buddhist thought: the Theravada, the one Westerners are generally more familiar with, and the Mahayanistic, or Zen, philosophy, which is still a great mystery even to occidental explorers of world religions. This 1913 book, one of the first works on Zen written in the English language, examines the Zen mode of meditation, which is virtually unchanged from the practices of the pre-Buddhistic recluses of India, and discusses the intensely personal aspects of this branch of Buddhism, which stresses the passing of wisdom through teachers rather than Scripture. Ardently spiritual and beautifully reflective, this splendid book will be treasured by all seekers of the divine. KAITEN NUKARIYA was a professor at Kei-o-gi-jiku University and So-to-shu Buddhist College, Tokyo.

The "Zhongyong" - translated here as "Focusing the Familiar" has been regarded as a document of enormous wisdom for more than two millennia and is one of Confucianism's most sacred and seminal texts. It achieved truly canonical preeminence when it became one of the Four Books compiled and annotated by the Southern Song dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Within the compass of world literature, the influence of these books (Analects of Confucius, Great Learning, Zhongyong, and Mencius) on the Sinitic world of East Asia has been no less than the Bible and the Qu'ran on Western civilization. With this translation David Hall and Roger Ames seek to provide a distinctly philosophical interpretation of the Zhongyong, remaining attentive to the semantic and conceptual nuances of the text to account for its central place within classical Chinese literature. They present the text in such a way as to provide Western philosophers and other intellectuals access to a set of interpretations and arguments that offer insights into issues and concerns common to both Chinese and Western thinkers.

The single most influential work in Chinese history is Lunyu, the Confucian Analects. Its influence on the Chinese people is comparable to that of the bible on the Western world. It is neither a tract of prosaic moralism contained in the fortune cookies in Chinese restaurants nor a manual of political administration that prescribes do's and don't's for new initiates. A book claiming a readership of billions of people throughout the history in China and East Asia and now even in the Western world must be one that has struck a chord in the readers, one which appears to arise from the existential concerns that Confucius shared: How can one overcome the egoistic tendency that plagues life? How does one see the value of communal existence? What should be one's ultimate concern in life?These questions call for a line of inquiry on the Analects that is explicitly existential. An existential reading of the Analects differs from other lines of inquiry in that it not only attempts to reveal how the text spoke to the original audience but also to us today. It is not only a pure academic exercise that appeals to the scholarly minded but also an engagement with all who feel poignantly about existential predicaments.In this existential reading of the Analects, the author takes Paul Tillich as an omnipresent dialogical partner because his existential theology was at one time very influential in the West and currently very popular in Chinese academia. His analysis of ontological structure of man can be applied to the Analects. This conceptual analysis reveals that that this foundational text has three organically connected levels of thought, proceeding from personal cultivation through the mediation of the community to the metaphysical level of Ultimate Reality. Few scholarly attempts like this one have been made to reveal systematically the interconnectedness of these three levels of thought and to the prominence to their theological underpinnings.This existential reading of the Analects carries with it a theological implication. If one follows the traditional division of a systematic theology, one will find that the Analects has anthropological, ethical, and theological dimensions, which correspond to the three levels of thoughts mentioned. If one understands soteriology more broadly, one will find the Analects also has a soteriological dimension. The Analects points to the goal of complete harmony in which a harmony within oneself, with the society and cosmos are ensured.If one is to construct a theology of the Analects, the existential reading enables the drawing of certain contrasts with Paul Tillich's existential theology. The Confucian idea of straying from the Way differs from the symbol of fall. The Confucian reality of social entanglement differs from the reality of estrangement. The Confucian paradoxical nature of Heaven differs from trinitarian construction of God. The most important contribution of this study is that it reveals the religious or theological dimension of the Confucian Analects.This is an important book for those engaged in the study of the Confucian Analects, including those in Chinese studies as well as comparative theology and religion.

Originally published in 1934. Contents Include - Sources and General Characteristics - Mythology and Cosmogony - Pantheon - Wordhip, Priesthood and Ritual - Ethics - Magic, Divination, &c - The Revival of Shinto - Sectarian Shinto - Present Position and Future Prospects