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Books > Religion & Spirituality > 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.
"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?"
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.
Bringing the Dao to life for readers of all generations Fables entertain us, enlighten us, and guide us. We recognize ourselves in the characters, be they emperors, village children, or singing frogs. They help us see our own weaknesses, our strengths, and the many possibilities. Their lessons transcend time and culture, touching what it really means to be alive. Whoever we are, wherever we're going, these short tales help us along the path-the Way. Some offer a moral compass. Some illustrate the dangers in human folly. Others just make us laugh. In this collection of fables, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming shares the stories that have influenced him most as a teacher, a partent, martial artist and lifelong student of the Dao. These fables bring the Dao to life for readers of all generations. The Dao in Action will inspire young readers to refine their character. Older readers will smile and recognize moments of truth. This collection is for anyone who would like to explore the enduring lessons of virtue and wisdom. These lean, concise fables illustrate balance, the duality of yin and yang, always shifting, always in correction. They help us laugh at our human predicaments-and maybe even at ourselves. We can all use some reflection and inspiration from time to time.
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.
Bruce Lee's daughter illuminates her father's most powerful life philosophies, and how we can apply his teachings to our daily lives 'Empty your mind; be formless, shapeless like water' Bruce Lee is a cultural icon, world renowned for his martial arts and film legacy. But Lee was also a deeply philosophical thinker, believing that martial arts are more than just an exercise in physical discipline - they are a perfect metaphor for personal growth. In Be Water, My Friend, Shannon Lee shares previously untold stories from her father's life along with the concepts at the core of his teachings. Each chapter reveals a lesson from Bruce Lee, expanding on the foundation of his iconic 'be water' philosophy to reveal a path to an enlightened way of being. This is an inspirational call to action to consider our lives with new eyes and a testament to Lee's unique power to ignite our imaginations and transform our lives.
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. |
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