From the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy. It also serves as the basis for an on-line Coursera course.

This classic book of Chinese philosophy and wisdom explores issues of life, morality and the nature of man's quest for meaning in a world of trouble and turmoil. A huge influence on the history of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoist practice, it is invaluable reading for the spiritual seeker, as well as those interested in the history of Eastern religious. mystical and ethical thought.