One Important Daoist Form of Art That Produces a Sense of Harmony Between Human Beings and Nature

Daoist Philosophy

dao Along with Confucianism, "Daoism" (sometimes chosen "Taoism") is i of the two nifty indigenous philosophical traditions of China. As an English language term, Daoism corresponds to both Daojia ("Dao family unit" or "school of the Dao"), an early on Han dynasty (c. 100s B.C.E.) term which describes so-chosen "philosophical" texts and thinkers such as Laozi and Zhuangzi, and Daojiao ("teaching of the Dao"), which describes diverse so-called "religious" movements dating from the tardily Han dynasty (c. 100s C.E.) onward. Thus, "Daoism" encompasses thought and practice that sometimes are viewed equally "philosophical," every bit "religious," or every bit a combination of both. While modern scholars, peculiarly those in the West, take been preoccupied with classifying Daoist material as either "philosophical" or "religious," historically Daoists themselves accept been uninterested in such categories and dichotomies. Instead, they have preferred to focus on understanding the nature of reality, increasing their longevity, ordering life morally, practicing rulership, and regulating consciousness and nutrition. Primal Daoist ideas and concerns include wuwei ("effortless activity"), ziran ("naturalness"), how to get a shengren ("sage") or zhenren ("perfected person"), and the ineffable, mysterious Dao ("Mode") itself.

Tabular array of Contents

What is Daoism?
Classical Sources for Our Agreement of Daoism
Is Daoism a Philosophy or a Religion?
The Daodejing
Fundamental Concepts in the Daodejing
The Zhuangzi
Basic Concepts in the Zhuangzi
Daoism and Confucianism
Daoism in the Han
Celestial Masters Daoism
Neo-Daoism
Shangqing and Lingbao Daoist Movements
Tang Daoism
The Iii Teachings
The "Destruction" of Daoism
References and Further Reading

one. What is Daoism?

Strictly speaking there was no Daoism earlier the literati of the Han dynasty (c. 200 B.C.E.) tried to organize the writings and ideas that represented the major intellectual alternatives available. The name daojia, "Dao family unit" or "school of the dao" was a creation of the historian Sima Tan (d. 110 B.C.E.) in his Shi ji (Records of the Historian) written in the two^nd century B.C.Due east. and later completed by his son, Sima Qian (145-86 B.C.East.). In Sima Qian's classification, the Daoists are listed as one of the Six Schools: Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist, Legalist, School of Names, and Daoists. So, Daoism was a retroactive grouping of ideas and writings which were already at to the lowest degree one to two centuries erstwhile, and which may or may not take been ancestral to various postal service-classical religious movements, all self-identified as daojiao ("instruction of the dao"), offset with the reception of revelations from the deified Laozi past the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) lineage founder, Zhang Daoling, in 142 C.East.This article privileges the determinative influence of early texts, such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, simply accepts gimmicky Daoists' exclamation of continuity betwixt classical and post-classical, "philosophical" and "religious" movements and texts.

two. Classical Sources for Our Understanding of Daoism

Daoism does not name a tradition constituted by a founding thinker, even though the common belief is that a teacher named Laozi originated the school and wrote its major work, chosen the Daodejing, also sometimes known as the Laozi. The tradition is also called "Lao-Zhuang" philosophy, referring to what are commonly regarded as its 2 classical and about influential texts: the Daodejing or Laozi (3^rd Cn. B.C.E.) and the Zhuangzi (4^thursday-iii^rd Cn. B.C.Eastward.). Nonetheless, various streams of thought and do were passed along by masters (daoshi) before these texts were finalized. There are two major source problems to be considered when forming a position on the origins of Daoism. 1) What evidence is there for beliefs and practices subsequently associated with the kind of Daoism recognized by Sima Qian prior to the formation of the two classical texts? 2) What is the all-time reconstruction of the classical textual tradition upon which later Daoism was based?

With regard to the first question, Isabelle Robinet thinks that the classical texts are just the almost lasting testify of a movement she associates with a set of writings and practices associated with the Songs of Chu (Chuci), and that she identifies as the Chuci motility. This motion reflects a civilization in which male and female masters variously called fangshi, daoshi, zhenren, or daoren practiced techniques of longevity and used diet and meditative stillness anto create a way of life that attracted disciples and resulted in wisdom teachings. While Robinet's interpretation is controversial, there are undeniable connections betwixt the Songs of Chu and later Daoist ideas. Some examples include a coincidence of names of immortals (sages), a commitment to the pursuit of physical immortality, a belief in the epistemic value of stillness and quietude, forbearance from grains, breathing and sexual practices used to regulate internal energy (qi), and the use of ritual dances that resemble those nonetheless done past Daoist masters (the pace of Yu).

In add-on to the controversial connexion to the Songs of Chu, the Guanzi (350-250 B.C.E.) is a text older than both the Daodejing and probably all of the Zhuangzi, except the "inner chapters" (encounter below). The Guanzi is a very important work of 76 "chapters." Three of the capacity of the Guanzi are chosen the Neiye, a title which tin can mean "inner tillage." The self-cultivation practices and teachings put forward in this material may be fruitfully linked to several other important works: the Daodejing; the Zhuangzi; a Han dynasty Daoist piece of work chosen the Huainanzi; and an early on commentary on the Daodejing called the Xiang'er. Indeed, there is a stiff meditative tendency in the Daoism of late imperial People's republic of china known every bit the "inner alchemy" tradition and the views of the Neiye seem to be in the background of this movement. Two other chapters of the Guanzi are called Xin shu (Heart-heed book). The Xin shu connects the ideas of quietude and stillness found in both the Daodejing and Zhuangzi to longevity practices. The idea of dao in these capacity is very much like that of the classical works. Its image of the sage resembles that of the Zhuangzi. It uses the same term (zheng) that Zhuangzi uses for the corrections a sage must make in his body, the pacification of the center-mind, and the concentration and control of internal free energy (qi). These practices are called "belongings onto the 1," "keeping the One," "obtaining the One," all of which are phrases likewise associated with the Daodejing (chs. x, 22, 39).

The Songs of Chu and Guanzi still stand for texts which are themselves creations of actual practitioners of Daoist teachings and sentiments, but every bit do the Daodejing and Zhuangzi. Who these persons were we do non know with certainty. It is possible that we do accept the names, remarks, and practices of some of these individuals (daoshi) embodied in the passages of the Zhuangzi. For example, in Chs. 1-7 alone, Xu You, Ch.one; Lianshu, Ch.1; Ziqi Ch. 2; Wang Ni, Ch. 2; Changwuzi, Ch. ii; Qu Boyu, Ch. iv; Carpenter Shi, Ch. 4; Bohun Wuren, Ch. v; Nu Y, Ch. 6; Sizi, Yuzi, Lizi, Laizi, Ch. half-dozen; Zi Sanghu, Meng Zifan, Zi Qinzan, Ch. half-dozen; Yuzi and Sangzi, Ch. vi; Wang Ni and Putizi, Ch. seven; Jie Yu, Ch. 7; Lao Dan, Ch. 7; Huzi, Ch. vii).

As for a reasonable reconstruction of the textual tradition upon which Daoism is based, we should not try to think of this chore so simply as determining the relationship between the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi , such as which text was first and which came later on. These texts are composite. The Zhuangzi, for example, repeats in very similar course sayings and ideas found in the Daodejing , specially in the essay composing Zhuangzi Chs. 8-10. However, we are not certain whether this means that whomever was the source of this fabric in the Zhuangzi knew the Daodejing and quoted it, or if they both drew from a common source, or fifty-fifty if the Daodejing in some way depended on the Zhuangzi. In fact, i theory about the legendary figure Laozi is that he was created first in the Zhuangzi and later became associated with the Daodejing. There are seventeen passages in which Laozi (a.k.a. Lao Dan) plays a role in the Zhuangzi and he is not mentioned by name in the Daodejing .

Based on what we know now, we could offering the following summary of the sources of early Daoism. Stage One: Zhuang Zhou'south "inner chapters" (chs. 1-7) of the Zhuangzi (c. 350 B.C.E.) and some components of the Guanzi, including perhaps both the Neiye and the Xin shu. Stage Two: The essay in Chs. 8-x of the Zhuangzi and some collections of fabric which correspond versions of our terminal redaction of the Daodejing , every bit well as Chs. 17-28 of the Zhuangzi representing materials likely gathered by Zhuang Zhou's disciples. Phase Three: the "Yellow Emperor" (Huang-Lao) manuscripts from Mawangdui and of the Zhuangzi (Chs. 11-nineteen, and 22), and the text known as the Huainanzi (c. 139 B.C.E.).

three. Is Daoism a Philosophy or a Religion?

In the late 1970s Western and comparative philosophers began to point out that an important dimension of the historical context of Daoism was being disregarded considering the previous generation of scholars had ignored or even disparaged connections between the classical texts and Daoist religious conventionalities and practice not previously thought to have developed until the 2^nd century C.E. We have to lay some of the responsibility for a prejudice against Daoism as a organized religion and the privileging of its earliest forms as a pure philosophy at the feet of the eminent translators and philosophers Wing-Tsit Chan and James Legge, who both spoke of Daoist religion as a degeneration of a pristine Daoist philosophy arising from the time of the Celestial Masters (run across below) in the late Han period. Chan and Legge were instrumental architects in the West of the view that Daoist philosophy (daojia) and Daoist religion (daojiao) are entirely different traditions.

Actually, our involvement in trying to carve up philosophy and religion in Daoism is more than revealing of the Western frame of reference we use than of Daoism itself. Daoist ideas fermented among master teachers who had a holistic view of life. These daoshi (Daoist masters) did not compartmentalize practices by which they sought to influence the forces of reality, increase their longevity, accept interaction with realities not credible to our normal mode of seeing things, and club life morally and by rulership. They offered insights nosotros might phone call philosophical aphorisms. Merely they also practid meditative stillness and emptiness to gain noesis, engaged in concrete exercises to increment the catamenia of inner energy (qi), studied nature for diet and remedy to foster longevity, practiced rituals related to their view that reality had many layers and forms with whom/which humans could interact, wrote talismans and practiced divination, engaged in spellbinding of "ghosts," led small communities, and advised rulers on all these subjects. The masters transmitted their teachings, some of them only to disciples and adepts, but gradually these teachings became more widely available equally is evidenced in the very creation of the Daodejing and Zhuangzi themselves.

The anti-supernaturalist and anti-dualist agendas that provoked Westerners to separate philosophy and religion, dating at least to the classical Greek period of philosophy was not part of the preoccupation of Daoists. Accordingly, the question whether Daoism is a philosophy or a religion is not one we can ask without imposing a set of understandings, presuppositions, and qualifications that practise non utilize to Daoism. But the hybrid nature of Daoism is not a reason to discount the importance of Daoist thought. Quite to the contrary, it may be one of the most significant ideas classical Daoism can contribute to the written report of philosophy in the present age.

4. The Daodejing

The Daodejing (hereafter, DDJ) is divided into 81 "chapters" consisting of slightly over v,000 Chinese characters, depending on which text is used. In its received form from Wang Bi (meet below), the two major divisions of the text are the dao jing (chs. 1-37) and the de jing (chs. 38-81). Actually, this division probably rests on little else than the fact that the main concept opening Affiliate one is dao (manner) and that of Chapter 38 is de (virtue). The text is a drove of short aphorisms that were not arranged to develop any systematic argument. The long standing tradition about the authorship of the text is that the "founder" of Daoism, known as Laozi gave it to Yin Eleven, the guardian of the pass through the mountains that he used to become from China to the West (i.e., India) in some unknown date in the distant past. But the text is actually a composite of collected materials, most of which probably originally circulated orally perchance fifty-fifty in single aphorisms or small collections. These were and so redacted as someone might string pearls into a necklace. Although D.C. Lau and Michael LaFargue had made preliminary literary and redaction critical studies of the texts, these are still insufficient to generate whatever consensus virtually whether the text was composed using smaller written collections or who were the likely editors.

For most 2,000 years, the Chinese text used past commentators in China and upon which all except the most recent Western linguistic communication translations were based has been chosen the Wang Bi, subsequently the commentator who used a complete edition of the DDJ sometime betwixt 226-249 CE. Although Wang Bi was non a Daoist, his commentary became a standard interpretive guide, and generally speaking even today scholars depart from information technology only when they tin make a compelling argument for doing so. Based on recent archaeological finds at Guodian in 1993 and Mawangdui in the 1970s we are certain that in that location were several simultaneously circulating versions of the Daodejing text as early on as c. 300 B.C.Eastward.

Mawangdui is the proper name for a site of tombs discovered nearly Changsha in Hunan province. The Mawangdui discoveries consist of 2 incomplete editions of the DDJ on silk scrolls (boshu) now simply chosen "A" and "B." These versions take two principal differences from the Wang Bi. Some give-and-take pick divergencies are nowadays. The order of the chapters is reversed, with 38-81 in the Wang Bi coming before chapters i-37 in the Mawangdui versions. More precisely, the guild of the Mawangdui texts takes the traditional 81 chapters and sets them out like this: 38, 39, twoscore, 42-66, 80, 81, 67-79, i-21, 24, 22, 23, 25-37. Robert Henricks has published a translation of these texts with extensive notes and comparisons with the Wang Bi under the championship Lao-Tzu, Te-tao Ching (1989). Gimmicky scholarship assembly the Mawangdui versions with a type of Daoism known as the Manner of the Yellow Emperor and the Sometime Master (Huanglao Dao).

The Guodian find consists of 730 inscribed bamboo slips found nigh the village of Guodian in Hubei province in 1993. There are 71 slips with material that is besides constitute in 31 of the 81 capacity of the DDJ and corresponding to Chapters i-66. Information technology may date as early as c. 300 B.C.E. If this is a correct appointment, and so the Daodejing was already extant in a written form when the "inner capacity" (run across below) of the Zhuangzi were composed. These slips contain more meaning variants from the Wang Bi than do the Mawangdui versions. A consummate translation and written report of the Guodian enshroud has been published past Scott Cook (2013).

5. Fundamental Concepts in the Daodejing

The term Dao means a road, and is often translated as "the Mode." This is because sometimes dao is used as a nominative (that is, "the dao") and other times as a verb (i.east. daoing). Dao is the process of reality itself, the mode things come together, while nonetheless transforming. All this reflects the deep seated Chinese belief that change is the nigh basic grapheme of things. In the Yi jing (Classic of Change) the patterns of this change are symbolized past figures continuing for 64 relations of correlative forces and known as the hexagrams. Dao is the amending of these forces, most often simply stated every bit yin and yang. The Xici is a commentary on the Yi jing formed in about the same period as the DDJ. It takes the taiji (Peachy Ultimate) as the source of correlative alter and associates it with the dao. The contrast is not between what things are or that something is or is not, merely between anarchy (hundun) and the way reality is ordering (de). Yet, reality is not ordering into ane unified whole. It is the 10,000 things (wanwu). At that place is the dao but not "the World" or "the cosmos" in a Western sense.

The Daodejing teaches that humans cannot fathom the Dao, because whatsoever name we give to it cannot capture information technology. It is beyond what nosotros can express in language (ch.1). Those who experience oneness with dao, known as "obtaining dao," will be enabled to wu-wei . Wu-wei is a hard notion to interpret. Yet, it is generally agreed that the traditional rendering of information technology as "nonaction" or "no activeness" is incorrect. Those who wu wei practice deed. Daoism is non a philosophy of "doing nada." Wu-wei ways something similar "act naturally," "effortless activeness," or "nonwillful action." The point is that there is no need for man tampering with the flow of reality. Wu-wei should be our way of life, considering the dao always benefits, it does non harm (ch. 81) The way of heaven (dao of tian) is ever on the side of practiced (ch. 79) and virtue (de) comes forth from the dao alone (ch. 21). What causes this natural embedding of proficient and benefit in the dao is vague and elusive (ch. 35), not fifty-fifty the sages understand it (ch. 76). Merely the world is a reality that is filled with spiritual forcefulness, just every bit a sacred image used in religious ritual might be inhabited by numinal power (ch. 29). The dao occupies the identify in reality that is analogous to the function of a family'south house set aside for the chantry for venerating the ancestors and gods (the ao of the firm, ch. 62). When we call back that life'due south occurrences seem unfair (a man bigotry), we should call up that heaven's (tian) net misses aught, it leaves nothing undone (ch. 37)

A central theme of the Daodejing is that correlatives are the expressions of the movement of dao. Correlatives in Chinese philosophy are non opposites, mutually excluding each other. They represent the ebb and flow of the forces of reality: yin/yang, male/female; backlog/defect; leading/following; active/passive. As one approaches the fullness of yin, yang begins to horizon and emerge and vice versa. Its teachings on correlation ofttimes suggest to interpreters that the DDJ is filled with paradoxes. For example, ch. 22 says, "Those who are crooked volition be perfected. Those who are aptitude volition be straight. Those who are empty will be full." While these announced paradoxical, they are probably better understood as correlational in meaning. The DDJ says, "straightforward words seem paradoxical," implying, however, that they are non (ch. 78).

What is the image of the platonic person, the sage (sheng ren), or the perfected person (zhen ren) in the DDJ? Well, sages wu-wei , (chs. two, 63). They human action effortlessly and spontaneously every bit one with dao and in so doing, they "virtue" (de) without deliberation or volitional challenge. In this respect, they are like newborn infants, who motion naturally, without planning and reliance on the structures given to them past culture and society (ch. 15). The DDJ tells us that sages empty themselves, becoming void of the discriminations used in conventional language and culture. Sages concentrate their internal energies (qi). They clean their vision (ch. 10). They manifest naturalness and plainness, becoming like uncarved wood (pu) (ch. nineteen). They live naturally and free from desires rooted in the discriminations that human being society makes (ch. 37) They settle themselves and know how to be content (ch. 46). The DDJ makes employ of some very famous analogies to drive abode its point. Sages know the value of emptiness as illustrated by how emptiness is used in a bowl, door, window, valley or canyon (ch. 11). They preserve the female (yin), pregnant that they know how to be receptive to dao and its ability (de) and are not unbalanced favoring assertion and action (yang) (ch. 28). They shoulder yin and embrace yang, blend internal energies (qi) and thereby achieve harmony (he) (ch. 42). Those post-obit the dao do not strive, tamper, or seek to control their own lives (ch. 64). They do non endeavor to assist life forth (ch. 55), or apply their heart-mind (xin) to "solve" or "effigy out" life's apparent knots and entanglements (ch. 55). Indeed, the DDJ cautions that those who would try to exercise something with the world volition fail, they volition actually ruin both themselves and the world (ch. 29). Sages practise not engage in disputes and arguing, or try to prove their signal (chs. 22, 81). They are pliable and supple, not rigid and resistive (chs. 76, 78). They are like water (ch. eight), finding their own place, overcoming the hard and strong by suppleness (ch. 36). Sages human activity with no expectation of reward (chs. ii, 51). They put themselves final and yet come up kickoff (ch. 7). They never brand a display of themselves, (chs. 72, 22). They practice not brag or boast, (chs. 22, 24) and they practice not linger after their work is done (ch. 77). They leave no trace (ch. 27). Because they embody dao in do, they have longevity (ch. 16). They create peace (ch. 32). Creatures do non harm them (chs. 50, 55). Soldiers exercise non kill them (ch. 50). Heaven (tian) protects the sage and the sage's spirit becomes invincible (ch. 67).

Amid the most controversial of the teachings in the DDJ are those straight associated with rulers. Recent scholarship is moving toward a consensus that the persons who developed and collected the teachings of the DDJ played some role in advising ceremonious administration, merely they may also take been practitioners of ritual arts and what nosotros would call religious rites. Exist that equally it may, many of the aphorisms directed toward rulers in the DDJ seem puzzling at offset sight. According to the DDJ, the proper ruler keeps the people without cognition, (ch. 65), fills their bellies, opens their hearts and empties them of desires (ch. 3). A sagely ruler reduces the size of the state and keeps the population small. Fifty-fifty though the ruler possesses weapons, they are non used (ch. fourscore). The ruler does non seek prominence. The ruler is a shadowy presence, never standing out (chs. 17, 66). When the ruler's piece of work is done, the people say they are content (ch. 17). This picture of rulership in the DDJ is all the more than interesting when nosotros remember that the philosopher and legalist political theorist named Han Feizi used the DDJ equally a guide for the unification of Red china. Han Feizi was the foremost counselor of the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-206 B.C.E.). However, information technology is a compassion that the emperor used the DDJ's admonitions to "make full the bellies and empty the minds" of the people to justify his program of destroying all books not related to medicine, astronomy or agriculture. When the DDJ says that rulers go on the people without knowledge, it probably means that they exercise not encourage human knowledge as the highest course of knowing just rather they encourage the people to "obtain oneness with the dao."

6. The Zhuangzi

The second of the ii most important classical texts of Daoism is the Zhuangzi. This text is a collection of stories and remembered besides as imaginary conversations. The text is well known for its inventiveness and proficient use of linguistic communication. Inside the text nosotros find longer and shorter treatises, stories, verse, and aphorisms. The Zhuangzi may engagement as early as the iv^th century B.C.Eastward. and co-ordinate to majestic bibliographies of a afterward engagement, the Zhuangzi originally had 52 "chapters." These were reduced to 33 by Guo Xiang in the 3^rd century C.E., although he seems to have had the 52 affiliate text bachelor to him. Ronnie Littlejohn has argued that the later work Liezi may contain some passages from the so-called "Lost Zhuangzi" 52 chapter version. Unlike the Daodejing which is ascribed to the mythological Laozi, the Zhuangzi may actually comprise materials from a teacher known every bit Zhuang Zhou who lived between 370-300 B.C.E. Chapters 1-seven are those well-nigh ofttimes ascribed to Zhuangzi himself (which is a title meaning "Chief Zhuang") and these are known as the "inner chapters." The remaining 26 chapters had other origins and they sometimes accept different points of view from the Inner Chapters. Although at that place are several versions of how the balance of the Zhuangzi may be divided, i that is gaining currency is Chs. 1-7 (Inner Chapters), Chs. 8-10 (the "Daode" essay), Chs. 11-16 and parts of 18, 19, and 22 (Yellowish Emperor Chapters), and Chs. 17-28 (Zhuang Zhou's Disciples' material), with the remains of the text attributable to the terminal redactor.

vii. Basic Concepts in the Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi taught that a set of practices, including meditative stillness, helped one achieve unity with the dao and go a "perfected person" (zhenren). The way to this state is not the result of a withdrawal from life. However, it does require disengaging or emptying oneself of conventional values and the demarcations made past society. In Chapter 23 of the Zhuangzi, aNanrong Chu inquiring of the character Laozi near the solution to his life's worries was answered promptly: "Why did yous come with all this oversupply of people?" The human looked around and confirmed he was continuing lonely, just Laozi meant that his problems were the result of all the luggage of ideas and conventional opinions he lugged nearly with him. This baggage must be discarded before anyone can be zhenren , move in wu-wei and express profound virtue (de ).

Similar the DDJ, Zhuangzi also valorizes wu-wei , peculiarly in the Inner Chapters, the Yellow Emperor sections on rulership, and the Zhuangzi disciples' materials in Ch. 19. For its examples of such living the Zhuangzi turns to analogies of craftsmen, athletes (swimmers), ferrymen, cicada-catching men, woodcarvers, and even butchers. Ane of the most famous stories in the text is that of Ding the Butcher, who learned what information technology means to wu wei through the perfection of his arts and crafts. When asked about his great skill, Ding says, "What I care well-nigh is dao, which goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could run across was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now—now I become at it by spirit and don't look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a finish and spirit moves where it wants. I continue with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never bear on the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a principal joint. A adept melt changes his pocketknife one time a year—because he cuts. A mediocre melt changes his knife one time a month—because he hacks. I've had this pocketknife of mine for nineteen years and I've cut upwards thousands of oxen with information technology, and yet the bract is every bit good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces betwixt the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness….[I] move the pocketknife with the greatest subtlety, until—bomb! The whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground." (Ch. iii, The Hush-hush of Caring for Life) The recurring point of all of the stories in Zhuangzi nearly wu-wei is that such spontaneous and effortless acquit as displayed by these many examples has the same experience as interim in wu-wei. The point is not that wu-wei results from skill development. Wu-wei is non a cultivated skill. It is a gift of oneness with dao. The Zhuangzi'southward teachings on wu-wei are closely related to the text's consistent rejection of the use of reason and argument as ways to dao (chs. two; 12, 17, 19).

Persons who exemplify such understanding are chosen sages, zhenren, and immortals. Zhuangzi describes the Daoist sage in such a fashion as to advise that such a person possesses extraordinary powers. Just as the DDJ said that creatures exercise not harm the sages, the Zhuangzi also has a passage teaching that the zhenren exhibits wondrous powers, frees people from disease and is able to brand the harvest plentiful (ch.1). Zhenren are "spirit like" (shen yi), cannot exist burned by fire, do not feel cold in the freezing forests, and life and expiry take no effect on them (ch. 2). Just how we should take such remarks is not without controversy. To be certain, many Daoist in history took them literally and an entire tradition of the transcendents or immortals (xian) was collected in text and lore.

Zhuangzi is drawing on a prepare of behavior about main teachers that were probably regarded equally literal by many, although some recollect he meant these to be taken metaphorically. For example, when Zhuangzi says that the sage cannot be harmed or made to suffer by anything that life presents, does he hateful this to be taken as maxim that the zhenren is physically invincible? Or, does he mean that the sage has so freed himself from all conventional understandings that he refuses to recognize poverty as any more or less desirable than affluence, to recognize incomprehension as worse than sight, to recognize death as any less desirable than life? As the Zhuangzi says in Chapter 1, Free and Easy Wandering, "At that place is zippo that can harm this man." This is too the theme of Affiliate 2, On Making All Things Equal. In this affiliate people are urged to "make all things i," pregnant that they should recognize that reality is one. It is a human being judgment that what happens is cute or ugly, right or wrong, fortunate or not. The sage knows all things are one (equal) and does non judge. Our lives are snarled and jumbled so long as we make conventional discriminations, but when we ready them aside, we appear to others as boggling and enchanted.

An important theme in the Zhuangzi is the use of immortals to illustrate various points. Did Zhuangzi believe some persons physically lived forever? Well, many Daoists did believe this. Did Zhuangzi believe that our substance was eternal and only our form changed? Nearly certainly Zhuangzi thought that we were in a abiding land of process, changing from 1 form into another (encounter the exchange between Master Lai and Master Li in Ch. 6, The Great and Venerable Teacher). In Daoism, immortality is the result of what may exist described as a wu xing transformation. Wu xing means "five phases" and it refers to the Chinese agreement of reality co-ordinate to which all things are in some state of combined correlation of qi as woods, fire, water, metal, and earth. This was non exclusively a "Daoist" physics. It underlay all Chinese "science" of the classical period, although Daoists certainly fabricated apply of it. Zhuangzi wants to teach the states how to engage in transformation through stillness, breathing, and experience of numinal power (see ch. half-dozen). And even so, perhaps Zhuangzi's teachings on immortality hateful that the person who is free of discrimination makes no departure betwixt life and death. In the words of Lady Li in Ch. 2, "How exercise I know that the dead practice not wonder why they always longed for life?"

Huangdi (the Yellowish Emperor) is the near prominent immortal mentioned in the text of the Zhuangzi and he is a principal grapheme in the sections of the book chosen "the Yellow Emperor Chapters" noted above. He has long been venerated in Chinese history as a cultural exemplar and the inventor of civilized human life. Daoism is filled with other accounts designed to bear witness that those who learn to alive according to the according to the dao have long lives. Pengzu, ane of the characters in the Zhuangzi, is said to take lived eight hundred years. The most prominent female person immortal is Xiwangmu (Queen Female parent of the West), who was believed to reign over the sacred and mysterious Mount Kunlun.

The passages containing stories of the Yellow Emperor in Zhuangzi provide a window into the views of rulership in the text. On the one hand, the Inner Chapters (chs. 1-vii) refuse the role of ruler equally a viable vocation for a zhenren and consistently criticize the futility of government and politics (ch. 7). On the other hand, the Xanthous Emperor materials in Chs. eleven-xiii present rulership as valuable, so long every bit the ruler is acts by wu-wei. This second position is also that taken in the work entitled the Huainanzi (see beneath).

The Daoists did not think of immortality equally a gift from a god, or an achievement in the religious sense commonly idea of in the West. It was a consequence of finding harmony with the dao, expressed through wisdom, meditation, and wu-wei. Persons who had such knowledge were reputed to live in the mountains, thus the character for xian (immortal) is made up of ii components, the one being shan "mountain" and the other being ren "person." Undoubtedly, some removal to the mountains was a part of the journeying to condign a zhenren "true person." Considering Daoists believed that nature and our own bodies were correlations of each other, they even imagined their bodies as mountains inhabited by immortals. The struggle to wu-wei was an effort to become immortal, to exist born anew, to grow the embryo of immortality within. A role of the disciplines of Daoism included imitation of the animals of nature, because they were thought to deed without the intention and willfulness that characterized human conclusion making. Physical exercises included beast dances (wu qin xi) and movements designed to enable the unrestricted menstruation of the cosmic life force from which all things are made (qi). These movements designed to channel the flow of qi became associated with what came to be called tai qi or qi gong. Daoists practiced breathing exercises, used herbs and other pharmacological substances, and they employed an instruction booklet for sexual positions and intercourse, all designed to enhance the menses of qi energy. They fifty-fifty practiced external alchemy, using burners to alter the limerick of cinnabar into mercury and fabricated potions to drinkable and pills to ingest for the purpose of adding longevity. Many Daoist practitioners died every bit a outcome of these alchemical substances, and even a few Emperors who followed their instructions lost their lives as well, Qinshihuang beingness the most famous.

The attitude and practices necessary to the pursuit of immortality made this life all the more significant. Butcher Ding is a master butcher because his qi is in harmony with the dao. Daoist practices were meant for everyone, regardless of their origin, gender, social position, or wealth. However, Daoism was a complete philosophy of life and not an easy manner to acquire.

When superior persons learn the Dao, they do it with zest.

When average persons learn of the Dao, they are indifferent.

When fiddling persons acquire of the Dao, they laugh loudly.

If they did not laugh, it would not exist worthy of existence the Dao.DDJ, 41

eight. Daoism and Confucianism

Arguably, Daoism shared some emphases with classical Confucianism such as a this-worldly concern for the physical details of life rather than speculation almost abstractions and ideals. Nevertheless, it largely represented an alternative and disquisitional tradition divergent from that of Confucius and his followers. While many of these criticisms are subtle, some seem very clear.

Ane of the nearly fundamental teachings of the DDJ is that human discriminations, such as those made in law, morality (proficient, bad) and aesthetics (beauty, ugly) actually create the troubles and problems humans experience, they practice not solve them (ch. 3a). The clear implication is that the person following the dao must cease ordering his life according to homo-made distinctions (ch. 19). Indeed, it is only when the dao recedes in its influence that these demarcations emerge (chs. xviii; 38), because they are a grade of disease (ch. 74). In contrast, Daoists believe that the dao is untangling the knots of life, blunting the sharp edges of relationships and bug, and turning down the light on painful occurrences (ch. 4). So, it is best to practice wu-wei in all endeavors, to act naturally and not willfully endeavour to oppose or tamper with how reality is moving or attempt to command information technology past human discriminations.

Confucius and his followers wanted to change the world and be proactive in setting things straight. They wanted to tamper, orchestrate, programme, brainwash, develop, and advise solutions. Daoists, on the other hand, have their hands off of life when Confucians desire their fingerprints on everything. Imagine this comparison. If the Daoist goal is to become like a slice of unhewn and natural forest, the goal of the Confucians is to become a carved sculpture. The Daoists put the piece earlier united states of america just as it is institute in its naturalness, and the Confucians shine it, shape it, and decorate it. This line of criticism is made very explicitly in the essay which makes up Zhuangzi Chs. 8-x.

Confucians think they can engineer reality, understand it, name it, control information technology. But the Daoists think that such endeavors are the source of our frustration and fragmentation (DDJ, chs. 57, 72). They believe the Confucians create a gulf betwixt humans and nature that weakens and destroys us. Indeed, as far every bit the Daoists are concerned, the Confucian project is like a cancer that saps our very life. This is a cardinal difference in how these two peachy philosophical traditions think persons should approach life, and as shown above it is a consequent difference establish also between the Zhuangzi and Confucianism.

The Yellow Emperor sections of the Zhuangzi in Chs. 12, 13 and 14 comprise five text blocks in which Laozi is portrayed in dialogue with Confucius and according to which he is pictured as Confucius' main and teacher. These materials provide a direct access into the Daoist criticism of the Confucian project.

nine. Daoism in the Han

The teachings that were later called Daoism were closely associated with a stream of thought called Huanglao Dao (Yellow Emperor-Laozi Dao) in the 3rd and 2nd cn. B.C.E. The idea world transmitted in this stream is what Sima Tan meant by Daojia. The Huanglao schoolhouse is best understood as a lineage of Daoist practitioners generally residing in the country of Qi (modernistic Shandong area). Huangdi was the name for the Yellow Emperor, from whom the rulers of Qi said they were descended. When Emperor Wu, the sixth sovereign of the Han dynasty (r. 140-87 B.C.E.) elevated Confucianism to the status of the official country ideology and training in it became mandatory for all bureaucratic officials, the tension with Daoism became more evident. And yet, at courtroom, people still sought longevity and looked to Daoist masters for the secrets necessary for achieving information technology. Wu continued to engage in many Daoist practices, including the use of alchemy, climbing sacred Taishan (Mt. Tai), and presenting talismanic petitions to heaven. Liu An, the Prince of Huainan and a nephew of Wu, is associated with the production of the piece of work called the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi, 180-122 B.C.East.). This is a highly synthetic work formed at what is known as the Huainan university and greatly influenced by Yellow Emperor Daoism. John Major and a team of translators published the first complete English version of this text (2010). The text was an attempt to merge cosmology, Confucian ideals, and a political theory using "quotes" attributed to the Yellow Emperor, although the statements actually parallel closely the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. All this is of added significance because in the later Han work, Laozi bin ahua jing (Book of the Transformations of Laozi) the Chinese physics that persons and objects alter forms was employed in order to identify Laozi with the Yellow Emperor.

10. Celestial Masters Daoism

Even though Emperor Wu forced Daoist practitioners from court, Daoist teachings found a fertile basis in which to grow in the environment of discontent with the policies of the Han rulers and bureaucrats. Popular uprisings sprouted. The Xanthous Turban movement tried to overthrow Han purple authorisation in the proper name of the Yellow Emperor and promised to establish the Way of Nifty Peace (Tai ping). Indeed, the bones moral and philosophical text that provided the intellectual justification of this movement was the Archetype of Great Peace (Taiping jing), provided in an English version by Barbara Hendrischke. The present version of this work in the Daoist canon is a later and contradistinct iteration of the original text dating about 166 CE and attributed to transnormal revelations experienced by Zhang Jiao.

Hands the most important of the Daoist trends at the end of the Han flow was the wudou mi dao (Way of Five Bushels of Rice) motility, best known as the Way of the Celestial Masters (tianshi dao). This movement is traceable to a Daoist hermit named Zhang ling, also known as Zhang Daoling, who resided on a mount near modern Chengdu in Sichuan. According to an account in Ge Hong'south Biographies of Spirit Immortals, Laozi appeared to Zhang (c. 142 CE) and gave him a commission to announce the presently end of the globe and the coming age of Great Peace (taiping). The revelation said that those who followed Zhang would become function of the Orthodox One Covenant with the Powers of the Universe (Zhengyi meng wei). Zhang began the movement that culminated in a Celestial Primary state. The administrators of this state were called libationers (ji jiu), because they performed religious rites, as well as political duties. They taught that personal illness and civil mishap were owing to the mismanagement of the forces of the torso and nature. The libationers taught a strict form of morality and displayed registers of numinal powers they could access and command. Libationers were moral investigators, standing in for a greater celestial bureaucracy. The Celestial Master state developed against the background of the decline of the afterwards Han dynasty. Indeed, when the empire finally decayed, the Celestial Master authorities was the only lodge in much of southern China.

When the Wei dynastic rulers became uncomfortable with the Celestial Masters' ability, they broke upwards the power centers of the movement. Simply this backfired because it actually served to disperse Celestial Masters followers throughout Red china. Many of the refugees settled near X'ian in and around the site of Louguan tai. The move remained potent because its leaders had assembled a canon of texts [Statutory Texts of the 1 and Orthodox (Zhengyi fawen)]. This group of writings included philosophical, political, and ritual texts. It became a key part of the afterwards authorized Daoist canon.

11. Neo-Daoism

The resurgence of Daoism subsequently the Han dynasty is oft known as Neo-Daoism. As a result, Confucian scholars sought to annotate and reinterpret their own classical texts to move them toward greater compatibility with Daoism, and they even wrote commentaries on Daoist works. A new blazon of Confucianism known simply as the Way of Mysterious Learning (Xuanxue) emerged. It is represented by a fix of scholars, including some of the nigh prominent thinkers of the flow: Wang Bi (226-249), He Yan (d. 249), Xiang Xiu (223?-300), Guo Xiang (d. 312) and Pei Wei (267-300). In general, these scholars share in common an endeavour to reinterpret the social and moral agreement of Confucianism in ways to make it more than compatible with Daoist philosophy. In fact, for many interpreters, the extent to which Daoist influence is axiomatic in the texts of these writers has led some scholars to telephone call this movement 'Neo-Daoism.' Wang Bi and Guo Xiang who wrote commentaries respectively on the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, were the nearly important voices in this evolution. Traditionally, the famous "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" (Zhulin qixian) have also been associated with the new Daoist way of life that expressed itself in civilisation and not merely in mountain retreats. These thinkers included landscape painters, calligraphers, poets, and musicians.

Among the philosophers of this flow, the peachy representative of Daoism in southern China was Ge Hong (283-343 CE). He practiced not only philosophical reflection, simply too external alchemy, manipulating mineral substances such every bit mercury and cinnabar in an effort to gain immortality. His work the Inner Capacity of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi neipian) is the most important Daoist philosophical work of this catamenia. For him, longevity and immortality are not the same, the onetime is just the first step to the latter.

12. Shangqing and Lingbao Daoist Movements

Afterward the invasion of Red china by nomads from Cardinal Asia, Daoists of the Angelic Chief tradition who had been living in the due north were forced to migrate into southern Red china, where Ge Hong's version of Daoism was strong. The mixture of these two traditions is represented in the writings of the Xu family unit. The Xu family was an aristocratic grouping from what is today the city of Nanjing. Seeking Daoist philosophical wisdom and the long life it promised, many of them moved to Mao Shan Mountain, virtually the metropolis. There they claimed to receive revelations from immortals, who dictated new wisdom and morality texts to them. Yang 11 was the most prominent medium recipient of the Maoshan revelations (360-370 CE). These revelations came from spirits who were local heroes named the Mao brothers, but they had been transformed into deities. Yang Xi's writings formed the basis for Highest Purity (Shangqing) Daoism. The writings were extraordinarily well washed and even the calligraphy in which they were written was cute.

The importance of these texts philosophically speaking is to be found in their idealization of the quest for immortality and transference of the cloth practices of the alchemical science of Ge Hong into a form of cogitating meditation. In fact, the Shangqing school of Daoism is the beginning of the tradition known as "inner alchemy" (neidan), an individual mystical pursuit of wisdom.

Some thirty years after the Maoshan revelations, a descendent of Ge Hong, named Ge Chaofu went into a mediumistic trance and authored a set of texts chosen the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao ) teachings. These works were ritual recitation texts similar to Buddhist sutras, and indeed they borrowed heavily from Buddhism. At first, the Shangqing and Lingbao texts belonged to the general stream of the Celestial Masters and were not considered separate sects or movements inside Daoism, although later lineages of masters emphasized the uniqueness of their teachings.

13. Tang Daoism

As the Lingbao texts illustrate, Daoism acted as a receiving structure for Buddhism. Many early translators of Buddhist texts used Daoist terms to render Indian ideas. Some Buddhists saw Laozi as an avatar of Shakyamuni (the Buddha), and some Daoists understood Shakyamuni as a manifestation of the dao, which also means he was a manifestation of Laozi. An often made generalization is that Buddhism held n Cathay in the fourth and 5th centuries, and Daoism the south. Just gradually this intellectual currency actually reversed. Daoism grew in scope and touch on throughout People's republic of china.

Past the time of the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE) Daoism was the intellectual philosophy that underwrote the national agreement. The imperial family unit claimed to descend from Li (by lore, the family unit of Laozi). Laozi was venerated by purple decree. Officials received Daoist initiation every bit Masters of its philosophy, rituals, and practices. A major center for Daoist studies was created at Dragon and Tiger Mountain (longhu shan), chosen both for its feng shui and because of its strategic location at the intersection of numerous southern Prc trade routes. The Angelic Masters who held leadership at Dragon and Tiger Mountain were later called "Daoist popes" by Christian missionaries considering they had considerable political ability.

In aesthetics, two great Daoist intellectuals worked during the Tang. Wu Daozi adult the rules for Daoist painting and Li Bai became its about famous poet. Interestingly, Daoist alchemists invented gunpowder during the Tang. The earliest block-print book on a scientific bailiwick is a Daoist work entitled Xuanjie lu (850 CE). As Buddhism gradually grew stronger during the Tang, Daoist and Confucian intellectuals sought to initiate a conversation with information technology. The Buddhism that resulted was a reformed version known as Chan (Zen in Japan).

14. The Three Teachings

During the Five Dynasties (907-960 CE) and Song periods (960-1279 CE) Confucianism enjoyed a resurgence and Daoists constitute their place by teaching that principal thinkers of their tradition were Confucian scholars as well. Most notable among these was Lu Dongbin, a legendary Daoist immortal that many believed was originally a Confucian teacher.

Daoism became a complete philosophy of life, reaching into organized religion, social action, and individual health and physical well-existence. A huge network of Daoist temples known by the name Dongyue Miao (also called tianqing guan) was created through the empire, with a miao in about every town of any size. The Daoist masters who served these temples were ofttimes appointed as authorities officials. They also gave medical, moral, and philosophical communication, and led religious rituals, dedicated especially to the Lord of the Sacred Mountain of the East named Taishan. Daoist masters had wide authority. All this was obvious in the temple iconography. Taishan was represented as the emperor, the City God (cheng huang) was a high official, and the Earth God was portrayed equally a prosperous peasant. Daoism of this period integrated the 3 Teachings (sanjiao) of China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. This process of synthesis connected throughout the Song and into the period of the Ming Dynasty.

Such a wide dispersal of Daoist thought and practice, taken together with its interest in merging Confucianism and Buddhism, eventually created a fragmented ideology. Into this confusion came Wang Zhe (1113-1170 CE), the founder of Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism. It was Wang'south goal to bring the 3 teachings into a single neat synthesis. For the first time, Daoist teachers adopted monastic forms of life, created monasteries, and organized themselves in means they saw in Buddhism. This version of Daoist idea interpreted the classical texts of the DDJ and the Zhuangzi to call for a rejection of the torso and material globe. The Quanzhen order became powerful as the main partner of the Mongols (Yuan dynasty), who gave their patronage to its expansion. Less oftentimes, the Mongol emperors favored the Celestial Masters and their leader at Dragon and Tiger Mount in an effort to undermine the power of the Quanzhen leaders. For case, the Zhengyi (Celestial Master) master of Beijing in the 1220s was Zhang Liusun. Under patronage he was allowed to build a Dongyue Miao in the city in 1223 and make it the unofficial boondocks hall of the capital. But by the time of Khubilai Khan (r. 1260-1294) the Buddhists were used against all Daoists. The Khan ordered all Daoist books except the DDJ to be destroyed in 1281, and he closed the Quanzhen monastery in the city known every bit White Cloud Monastery (Baiyun Guan ).

When the Ming (1368-1644) dynasty emerged, the Mongols were expulsed, and Chinese rule was restored. The emperors sponsored the cosmos of the first complete Daoist Canon (Daozang), which was edited between 1408 and 1445. This was an eclectic collection, including many Buddhist and Confucian related texts. Daoist influence reached its zenith.

fifteen. The "Destruction" of Daoism

The Manchurian tribes that became rulers of China in 1644 and founded the Qing dynasty were already under the influence of conservative Confucian exiles. They stripped the Celestial Chief of Dragon Tiger Mountain of his power at court. But Quanzhen was tolerated. White Deject Monastery (Baiyun Guan )) was reopened, and a new lineage of thinkers was organized. They called themselves the Dragon Gate lineage (Longmen pai). In the 1780s, the Western traders arrived, so did Christian missionaries. In 1849, the Hakka people of Guangxi province, among Communist china'southward poorest citizens, rose in defection. They followed Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to exist Jesus' younger brother. This millennial movement built on a strange version of Chinese Christianity sought to establish the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (taiping). Every bit the Taiping swept throughout southern China, they destroyed Buddhist and Daoist temples and texts wherever they found them. The Taiping army completely raised the Daoist complexes on Dragon Tiger Mountain. During most of the 20th century the bulldoze to eradicate Daoist influence has continued. In the 1920s, the "New Life" movement drafted students to become out on Sundays to destroy Daoist statues and texts. Accordingly, by the year 1926 but two copies of the Daoist Canon (Daozang) existed and Daoist philosophical heritage was in groovy jeopardy. Simply permission was granted to re-create the catechism kept at the White Cloud Monastery, so the texts were preserved for the world. There are 1120 titles in this collection in five,305 volumes. Much of this textile has withal to receive scholarly attending and very little of it has been translated into whatever Western linguistic communication.

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) attempted to consummate the destruction of Daoism. Masters were killed or "re-educated." Entire lineages were broken upwardly and their texts were destroyed. The miaos were closed, burned, and turned into military barracks. At one time, there were 300 Daoist sites in Beijing lonely, at present there are only a handful. However, Daoism is non dead. It survives every bit a vibrant philosophical system and way of life as is evidenced by the revival of its practice and study in several new Academy institutes in the People's Republic.

16. References and Further Reading

Ames, Roger and Hall, David. (2003). Daodejing: "Making This Life Meaning" A Philosophical Translation. New York: Ballantine Books.
Ames, Roger. (1998). Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. (1997). Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boltz, Judith M. (1987). A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to Seventeenth Centuries, People's republic of china Research Monograph 32. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chan, Alan. (1991). Two Visions of the Way: A Translation and Study of the Heshanggong and Wang Bi Commentaries on the Laozi. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Melt, Scott (2013). The Bamboo Texts of the Guodian: A Study & Complete Translation. New York: Cornell University East Asia Programme.
Coutinho, Steve (2014). An Introduction to Daoist Philosophies.New York: Columbia University Printing.
Creel, Herrlee G. (1970). What is Taoism? Chicago: Academy of Chicago Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, Marker and Ivanhoe, Philip J., eds. (1999). Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi. Albany: State University of New York.
Girardot, Norman J. (1983). Myth and Pregnant in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (hun-tun). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Graham, Angus. (1981). Chuang tzu: The Inner Capacity. London: Allen & Unwin.
Graham, Angus. (1989). Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court.
Graham, Angus. (1979). "How much of the Chuang-tzu Did Chuang-tzu Write?" Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 47, No. 3.
Hansen, Republic of chad (1992). A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hendrischke, Barbara (2015, reprint ed.). The Scripture on Nifty Peace: The Taiping jing and the Beginnings of Daoism. Berkeley: The University of California Press.
Henricks, Robert. (1989). Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching. New York: Ballantine.
Hochsmann, Hyun and Yang Guorong, trans. (2007). Zhuangzi. New York: Pearson.
Ivanhoe, Philip J. (2002). The Daodejing of Laozi. New York: 7 Bridges Press.
Kjellberg, Paul and Ivanhoe, Philip J., eds. (1996) Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi. Albany: State University of New York.
Kleeman, Terry (1998). Cracking Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millenial Kingdom. Honolulu: Academy of Hawaii Press.
Kohn, Livia, ed. (2004). Daoism Handbook, 2 vols. Boston: Brill.
Kohn, Livia (2009). Introducing Daoism. London: Routledge.
Kohn, Livia (2014). Zhuangzi: Text and Context.St. Petersburg: Three Pines Press.
Kohn, Livia and LaFargue, Michael., eds. (1998). Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Albany: Land University of New York Press.
Kohn, Livia and Roth, Harold., eds. (2002). Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Printing.
Komjathy, Louis (2014). Daoism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Bloomsbury.
LaFargue, Michael. (1992). The Tao of the Tao-te-ching. Albany: Land Academy of New York Printing.
Lin, Paul J. (1977). A Translation of Lao-tzu'south Tao-te-ching and Wang Pi'southward Commentary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Lau, D.C. (1982). Chinese Classics: Tao Te Ching. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Printing.
Littlejohn, Ronnie (2010). Daoism: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris.
Littlejohn, Ronnie (2011). "The Liezi'south Use of the Lost Zhuangzi." Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic. Eds. Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann. Albany: State University of New York.
Lynn, Richard John. (1999). The Archetype of the Style and Virtue: A New Translation of the Tao-Te Ching of Laozi as Interpreted by Wang Bi. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mair, Victor, ed. (2010). Experimental Essays on Zhuangzi. St. Petersburg: Three Pines Press. New edition of Academy of Hawai'i, 1983.
Mair, Victor. (1990). Tao Te Ching: The Archetype Book of Integrity and the Fashion. New York: Bantam Press.
Mair, Victor (1994). Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Printing.
Major, John, Queen, Sarah, Set Meyer, Andrew, and Roth, Harold, trans. (2010). The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Regime in Early Han China. New York: Columbia University Press.
Maspero, Henri. (1981). Taoism and Chinese Religion. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Printing.
Miller, James (2003). Daoism: A Brusk Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Printing.
Moeller, Hans-Georg (2004). Daoism Explained: From the Dream of the Butterfly to the Fishnet Allegory. Chicago: Open Court.
Robinet, Isabelle. (1997). Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Roth, Harold (1999). Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Printing.
Roth, Harold D. (1992). The Textual History of the Huai Nanzi. Ann Arbor: Association of Asian Studies.
Roth, Harold D. (1991). "Who Compiled the Chuang Tzu?" In Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts, ed. Henry Rosemont, 84-95. La Salle: Open Court.
Schipper, Kristofer. (1993). The Taoist Body Berkeley: Academy of California Press.
Slingerland, Edward, (2003). Effortless Activity: Wu-Wei As Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early on China. New York: Oxford Academy Press.
Waley, Arthur (1934). The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought. London: Allen & Unwin
Watson, Burton. (1968). The Consummate Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia Academy Printing
Welch, Holmes. (1966). Taoism: The Departing of the Manner. Boston: Beacon Printing.
Welch, Holmes and Seidel, Anna, eds. (1979). Facets of Taoism. New Haven: Yale University Printing.

Writer Data

Ronnie Littlejohn
Email: ronnie.littlejohn@belmont.edu
Belmont University
U. S. A.

serenaphrovis.blogspot.com

Source: https://iep.utm.edu/daoismdaoist-philosophy/