|
|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Oriental religions > Taoism
Routledge is now re-issuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes
originally published between 1910 and 1965. The titles include
works by key figures such asC.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget,
Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan
Isaacs. Each volume is available on its own, as part of a themed
mini-set, or as part of a specially-priced 204-volume set. A
brochure listing each title in the "International Library of
Psychology" series is available upon request.
The term Yao refers to a non-sinitic speaking, southern "Chinese"
people who originated in central China, south of the Yangzi River.
Despite categorization by Chinese and Western scholars of Yao as an
ethnic minority with a primitive culture, it is now recognized that
not only are certain strains of religious Daoism prominent in Yao
ritual traditions, but the Yao culture also shares many elements
with pre-modern official and mainstream Chinese culture. This book
is the first to furnish a history-part cultural, part political,
and part religious-of contacts between the Chinese state and
autochthonous peoples (identified since the 11th century as Yao
people) in what is now South China. It vividly details the
influence of Daoism on the rich history and culture of the Yao
people. The book also includes an examination of the specific
terminology, narratives, and symbols (Daoist/ imperial) that
represent and mediate these contacts. "This is an important piece
of work on a little studied, but very interesting subject, namely,
Taoism among the non-Sinitic peoples of South China and adjoining
areas." - Professor Victor Mair, University of Pennsylvania "This
brilliant study by Eli Alberts has now cleared away much of the
cloud that has been caused by previous, mostly impressionistic
scholarship on the "Dao of the Yao." - Professor Barend J.ter Haar,
Leiden University
A main pillar of Chinese tradition and culture is the Lunar
Calendar and the many festivals and stories it encompasses. Though
most explorations of Taoism take place within the realm of
scripture, exercises, formal lectures, and meditation, in "The
Lunar" Tao Ming-Dao looks to the Lunar Calendar and highlights
where these festivals and stories coincide with Taoism. Each day of
the Lunar year is represented with a reading meditation, Chinese
illustrations, and interesting facts about festivals and
traditions, providing readers with the context that gives Taoism
such depth and resonance. Unlike any other book, "The Lunar Tao"
gives readers a new way to explore Taoism and shows readers a way
to include the tenets of Taoism into daily life.
This is an introductory guide to the Dao de Jing, exploring key
themes and passages in this key work of Daoist thought. The Dao De
Jing represents one of the most important works of Chinese
philosophy, in which the author, Lao Zi (c. 580-500 BC), lays the
foundations of Taoism. Composed of 81 short sections, the text
itself is written in a poetic style that is ambiguous and
challenging for the modern reader. Yet while its meaning may be
obscure, the text displays the originality of Lao Zi's wisdom and
remains a hugely influential work to this day. In "Reading the Dao:
A Thematic Inquiry", Wang Keping offers a clear and accessible
guide to this hugely important text. Wang's thematic approach opens
up key elements of the Dao De Jing in a way that highlights and
clarifies the central arguments for the modern reader. Presenting
comprehensive textual analysis of key passages and a useful survey
of recent Taoist scholarship, the book provides the reader with an
insight into the origins of Taoist philosophy. This is the ideal
companion to the study of this classic Taoist text.
The Classic of Changes (Yi jing) is one of the most ancient texts
known to human civilization, always given pride of place in the
Chinese classical tradition. And yet the powerful fascination
exerted by the Classic of Changes has preserved the archaic text,
widely attracting readers with a continuing interest in trying to
understand it as a source of reflection and guide to ordinary
circumstances of human life. Its monumental influence over Chinese
thought makes the text an indispensable element in any informed
approach to Chinese culture.Accordingly, the book focuses on the
archaic core of the Classic of Changes and proposes a structural
anthropological analysis for two main reasons. First, unlike many
treatments of the Yi jing, there is a concern to place the text
carefully in the context of the ancient culture
There is an intense love of freedom evident in the "Xing zi
mingchu," a text last seen when it was buried in a Chinese tomb in
300 B.C.E. It tells us that both joy and sadness are the ecstatic
zenith of what the text terms "qing." Combining emotions into qing
allows them to serve as a stepping stone to the Dao, the
transcendent source of morality for the world. There is a process
one must follow to prepare qing: it must be beautified by learning
from the classics written by ancient sages. What is absent from the
process is any indication that the emotions themselves need to be
suppressed or regulated, as is found in most other texts from this
time. The Confucian principles of humanity and righteousness are
not rejected, but they are seen as needing our qing and the Dao.
Holloway argues that the Dao here is the same Dao of Laozi's Daode
jing. As a missing link between what came to be called Confucianism
and Daoism, the "Xing zi mingchu" is changing the way we look at
the history of religion in early China.
The timeless wisdom of this classic Taoist text can become a
companion on your own spiritual journey.
The Chuang-tzu is the second major text of the Taoist tradition.
It was compiled in the third century BCE and follows the lead of
the best-known and oldest of all Taoist texts, the Tao-te-ching
(Book of the Tao and Its Potency). Representing the philosophy of
its main author, Chuang Chou, along with several other early Taoist
strands, the text has inspired spiritual seekers for over two
thousand years.
Using parable, anecdote, allegory and paradox, the Chuang-tzu
presents the central message of what was to become the Taoist
school: a reverence for the Tao the "Way" of the natural world and
the belief that you are not truly virtuous until you are free from
the burden of circumstance, personal attachments, tradition and the
desire to reform the world. In this special SkyLight Illuminations
edition, leading Taoist scholar Livia Kohn, PhD, provides a fresh,
modern translation of key selections from this timeless text to
open up classic Taoist beliefs and practices. She provides
insightful, accessible commentary that highlights the Chuang-tzu's
call to reject artificially imposed boundaries and distinctions,
and illustrates how you can live a more balanced, authentic and
joyful life at ease in perfect happiness by following Taoist
principles."
As China is rapidly reemerging as the world's dominant economic
powerhouse that it had been until the mid-eighteenth century,
interest in its religions and philosophies is on the rise. Just as
the history and culture of Western civilizations can hardly be
grasped without a measure of knowledge about Christianity, an
understanding of Chinese civilization and its history seems
impossible without some comprehension of Daoism. Though it has long
been clear that modern Daoism has its roots in Daoist movements of
the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), research on premodern Daoism had been
largely neglected. Published in six languages (Italian, French,
English, German, Chinese, and Japanese), the pioneering studies by
Monica Esposito (1962-2011) on Qing Daoism have been instrumental
in kindling keen scholarly interest both in the West and in China
and Japan. This book presents corrected and augmented versions of
three of Dr Esposito's seminal articles that had originally been
published in English ("Daoism in the Qing," "The Longmen School and
its Controversial History," and "Longmen Daoism in Qing China:
Doctrinal Ideal and Local Reality") along with English versions of
two articles that had hitherto only been available in Japanese and
Chinese: "Beheading the Red Dragon: The Heart of Feminine Alchemy"
and "An Example of Daoist and Tantric Interaction during the Qing
Dynasty: The Longmen xinzong." In addition, this volume contains a
bibliography of all her publications and a detailed index.
 |
Daodejing
(Paperback)
Lao zi; Translated by Martyn Crucefix
|
R307
Discovery Miles 3 070
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
|
|
"so both thrive both discovering bliss-real power is female it
rises from beneath" These 81 brief poems from the 5th century BCE
make up a foundational text in world culture. In elegant, simple
yet elusive language, the Daodejing develops its vision of
humankind's place in the world in personal, moral, social,
political and cosmic terms. Martyn Crucefix's superb new versions
in English reflect - for the very first time - the radical fluidity
of the original Chinese texts as well as placing the mysterious
'dark' feminine power at their heart. Laozi, the putative author,
is said to have despaired of the world's venality and corruption,
but he was persuaded to leave the Daodejing poems as a parting
gift, as inspiration and as a moral and political handbook.
Crucefix's versions reveal an astonishing empathy with what the
poems have to say about good and evil, war and peace, government,
language, poetry and the pedagogic process. When the true teacher
emerges, no matter how detached, unimpressive, even muddled she may
appear, Laozi assures us "there are treasures beneath".
The Daode Jing, a highly enigmatic work rooted in ancient Chinese
cosmology, ontology, metaphysics, and moral thinking, is regularly
offered to college and high-school students in religion,
philosophy, history, literature, Asian studies, and humanities
courses. As a result, an ever-expanding group of faculty with very
different backgrounds and training routinely confront the question:
"How should I teach the Daode Jing?"
Written for non-specialists who may not have a background in
ancient Chinese culture, the essays collected in this volume
provide up-to-date information on contemporary scholarship and
classroom strategies that have been successful in a variety of
teaching environments.
A classic text like the Daode Jing generates debate among scholars
and teachers who ask questions like: Should we capitalize on
popular interest in the Daode Jing in our classrooms? Which of the
many translations and scholarly approaches ought we to use? Is it
appropriate to think of the Daode Jing as a religious text at all?
These and other controversies are addressed in this volume.
Contributors are well-known scholars of Daoism, including Livia
Kohn, Norman Girardot, Robert Henricks, Russell Kirkland,
Hans-Georg Moeller, Hall Roth, and Michael LaFargue. In addition,
there are essays by Eva Wong (Daoist practitioner), David Hall
(philosophy), Gary DeAngelis (mysticism), and a jointly written
essay on pedagogical strategies by Judith Berling, Geoffrey Foy,
and John Thompson (Chinese religion).
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 Daoism, tracing the development of the tradition
between the first and the fifth centuries CE. This book discusses
the emergence of several Daoist movements during this period,
including the relatively well-known Way of the Celestial Master
that appeared in the second century, and the Upper Clarity and the
Numinous Treasure lineages that appeared in the fourth century.
These labels are very difficult to determine socially, and they
obscure the social reality of early medieval China, that included
many more lineages. This book argues that these lineages should be
understood as narrowly defined associations of masters and
disciples, and it goes on to describe these diverse social
groupings as 'communities of practice'. Shedding new light on a
complex and multifaceted phenomenon, the formation of Daoism as a
new religion in early medieval China, this book presents a major
step forward in Daoist Studies.
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.
The notion of qi/gi ( ) is one of the most pervasive notions found
within the various areas of the East Asian intellectual and
cultural traditions. While the pervasiveness of the notion provides
us with an opportunity to observe the commonalities amongst the
East Asian intellectual and cultural traditions, it also allows us
to observe the differences. This book focuses more on understanding
the different meanings and logics that the notion of qi/gi has
acquired within the East Asian traditions for the purpose of
understanding the diversity of these traditions. This volume begins
to fulfill this task by inquiring into how the notion was
understood by traditional Korean philosophers, in addition to
investigating how the notion was understood by traditional Chinese
philosophers.
The Daode jing ("Book of the Dao and Its Virtue") is an essential
work in both traditional Chinese culture and world philosophy. The
oldest text of philosophical Daoism, and widely venerated among
religious Daoist practitioners, it was composed around the middle
of the 4th century BCE. Ascribed to a thinker named Laozi, a
contemporary of Confucius, the work is based on a set of aphorisms
designed to help local lords improve their techniques of
government. The most translated book after the Bible, the Daode
jing appears in numerous variants and remains highly relevant in
the modern world. This guide provides an overview of the text,
presenting its historical unfolding, its major concepts, and its
contemporary use. It also gives some indication of its essence by
citing relevant passages and linking them to the religious
practices of traditional Daoism.
Just as Christianity has its Vatican in Rome, modern Daoism boasts
of a unique center of religious authority and administration: the
Temple of the White Clouds (Baiyun guan) in Beijing, seat of the
general headquarters of the Chinese Daoist Association. This temple
complex in Beijing, called by Dr Esposito "modern Daoism's
Vatican," houses the grave of the mythical founder of Daoism's
Quanzhen tradition and celebrates the patriarchs of its Longmen
("Dragon Gate") branch as his legitimate heirs. Monica Esposito
describes in this book how Daoist masters and historiographers in
China, much like their Catholic counterparts in Europe, invented a
glorious patriarchal lineage as well as a system of ordination
designed to perpetuate orthodox transmission and central control.
They also created a kind of New Testament: a new canonical
collection of scriptures entitled "The Gist of the Daoist Canon"
(Daozang jiyao). It contains hundreds of texts including the Daoist
classic The Secret of the Golden Flower which achieved fame through
the commentary by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. A classic
study on the invention of religious traditions, the four parts of
Creative Daoism describe in detail the construction of the Daoist
Vatican's lineage of patriarchs, system of ordination, canon of
sacred scriptures, and doctrine of universal salvation.
The Ethical Foundations of Early Daoism: Zhuangzi's Unique Moral
Vision presents a comprehensive study of the normative dimensions
of early Daoism in general and the classic text Zhuangzi in
particular. Lee argues that our inclination to view Daoism as an
amoral tradition stems from Orientalist assumptions about Daoism as
well as our received assumptions about the nature of morality. By
enlarging the scope of morality, Lee suggests that early Daoist
texts like the Zhuangzi can be read as works of moral philosophy
that speak to specifically moral concerns in ethics, government,
and society. Lee casts the moral imperative of the Zhuangzi as an
ethics of attunement to the Way and develops this thesis in the
context of friendship, government, death, and human flourishing.
A number of features mark this book apart from others. There is
simply no book currently available on Daoism (Taoism) written
primarily from a psychological perspective, covering topics on
Laozi's sociopolitical and psychological thoughts and their points
of contact with Western psychology, particularly that of Carl Jung.
The book comprises an in-depth introduction and a considered
translation of Laozi's classic on virtue and the Dao (Way). The
introduction covers Daoism as the counterculture in China and
beyond; the originality and distinctiveness of Laozi's thoughts;
the classic's influence and contemporary relevance to life in the
21st century; and insights on bilingualism that the author gained
in the process of translation. The book contains the very first
English translation of the Beida Laozi (Peking University Laozi),
in which the chapters on virtue precede those on the Dao.
Accordingly, the classic is renamed The Classic of Virtue and the
Dao. The author has given his best to honor both accuracy and
poetic beauty by paying great attention to diction, clarity, and
economy of expression. The Classic of Virtue and the Dao is one of
the most creative and thought-provoking texts of antiquity. All of
the 77 chapters of the classic are categorized into 13 thematic
groups, each of which begins with an introduction. This would make
it easier for the reader to grasp its major viewpoints and
concepts, such as virtue, humility, and selflessness. Titles for
individual chapters, as well as comments and notes, have also been
added.
This book questions whether temples and Daoism are two independent
aspects of modern Chinese religion or if they are indissolubly
linked. It presents a useful analysis as to how modern history has
changed the structure and organization of religious and social life
in China, and the role that Daoism plays in this. Using an
interdisciplinary approach combining historical research and
fieldwork, this book focuses on urban centers in China, as this is
where sociopolitical changes came earliest and affected religious
life to the greatest extent and also where the largest central
Daoist temples were and are located. It compares case studies from
central, eastern, and southern China with published evidence and
research on other Chinese cities. Contributors examine how Daoism
interacted with traditional urban social, cultural, and commercial
institutions and pays close attention to how it dealt with
processes of state expansion, commercialization, migration, and
urban development in modern times. This book also analyses the
evolution of urban religious life in modern China, particularly the
ways in which temple communities, lay urbanites, and professional
Daoists interact with one another. A solid ethnography that
presents an abundance of new historical information, this book will
be of interest to academics in the field of Asian studies, Daoist
studies, Asian religions, and modern China.
|
You may like...
The Tao of Pooh
Benjamin Hoff
Paperback
(1)
R265
R237
Discovery Miles 2 370
|