Daoist Philosophy

daoAlong with Confucianism, "Daoism" (sometimes called "Taoism") is 1 of the two bang-up indigenous philosophical traditions of China. Equally an English term, Daoism corresponds to both Daojia ("Dao family unit" or "school of the Dao"), an early 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 and so-called "religious" movements dating from the late Han dynasty (c. 100s C.Eastward.) onward.  Thus, "Daoism" encompasses thought and practice that sometimes are viewed as "philosophical," as "religious," or as a combination of both.  While modern scholars, particularly those in the West, have been preoccupied with classifying Daoist cloth as either "philosophical" or "religious," historically Daoists themselves have 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 diet.  Fundamental Daoist ideas and concerns include wuwei ("effortless action"), ziran ("naturalness"), how to become a shengren ("sage") or zhenren ("perfected person"), and the ineffable, mysterious Dao ("Way") itself.

Tabular array of Contents

  1. What is Daoism?
  2. Classical Sources for Our Understanding of Daoism
  3. Is Daoism a Philosophy or a Organized religion?
  4. The Daodejing
  5. Fundamental Concepts in the Daodejing
  6. The Zhuangzi
  7. Bones Concepts in the Zhuangzi
  8. Daoism and Confucianism
  9. Daoism in the Han
  10. Angelic Masters Daoism
  11. Neo-Daoism
  12. Shangqing and Lingbao Daoist Movements
  13. Tang Daoism
  14. The 3 Teachings
  15. The "Destruction" of Daoism
  16. References and Further Reading

one. What is Daoism?

Strictly speaking at that place was no Daoism before the literati of the Han dynasty (c. 200 B.C.E.) tried to organize the writings and ideas that represented the major intellectual alternatives bachelor. The name daojia, "Dao family unit" or "school of the dao" was a cosmos of the historian Sima Tan (d. 110 B.C.E.) in his Shi ji (Records of the Historian) written in the 2nd century B.C.E. and later completed by his son, Sima Qian (145-86 B.C.Eastward.). In Sima Qian's classification, the Daoists are listed as one of the Half-dozen Schools: Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist, Legalist, School of Names, and Daoists. And then, Daoism was a retroactive group of ideas and writings which were already at least one to two centuries old, and which may or may not have been ancestral to various postal service-classical religious movements, all self-identified every bit daojiao ("teaching of the dao"), showtime with the reception of revelations from the deified Laozi by the Angelic Masters (Tianshi) lineage founder, Zhang Daoling, in 142 C.E.This article privileges the formative influence of early texts, such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, but accepts gimmicky Daoists' assertion of continuity betwixt classical and post-classical, "philosophical" and "religious" movements and texts.

2. Classical Sources for Our Agreement of Daoism

Daoism does non name a tradition constituted by a founding thinker, even though the common belief is that a teacher named Laozi originated the schoolhouse and wrote its major work, chosen the Daodejing, likewise sometimes known as the Laozi. The tradition is also chosen "Lao-Zhuang" philosophy, referring to what are normally regarded as its two classical and most influential texts: the Daodejing or Laozi (3rd Cn. B.C.Due east.) and the Zhuangzi (4th-3rd Cn. B.C.E.). However, various streams of thought and practice were passed along past masters (daoshi) before these texts were finalized. There are two major source issues to be considered when forming a position on the origins of Daoism. ane) What evidence is at that place for beliefs and practices later associated with the kind of Daoism  recognized by Sima Qian prior to the formation of the two classical texts? 2) What is the best reconstruction of the classical textual tradition upon which subsequently Daoism was based?

With regard to the first question, Isabelle Robinet thinks that the classical texts are simply the most lasting show 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 movement. This movement reflects a civilisation 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'southward interpretation is controversial, in that location 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 utilise of ritual dances that resemble those still washed by Daoist masters (the pace of Yu).

In addition to the controversial connection 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" (see below). The Guanzi  is a very important work of 76 "chapters." Three of the chapters of the Guanzi are chosen the Neiye, a title which can mean "inner cultivation." The self-cultivation practices and teachings put frontwards in this cloth 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 commentary on the Daodejing called the Xiang'er. Indeed, there is a stiff meditative trend in the Daoism of belatedly imperial People's republic of china known every bit the "inner abracadabra" tradition and the views of the Neiye seem to be in the background of this motion. Two other chapters of the Guanzi are called Xin shu (Heart-mind 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 chapters is very much like that of the classical works. Its image of the sage resembles that of the Zhuangzi. Information technology uses the aforementioned term (zheng) that Zhuangzi uses for the corrections a sage must make in his body, the pacification of the centre-listen, and the concentration and control of internal energy (qi). These practices are called "belongings onto the One," "keeping the One," "obtaining the 1," all of which are phrases also associated with the Daodejing (chs. 10, 22, 39).

The Songs of Chu and Guanzi however represent texts which are themselves creations of actual practitioners of Daoist teachings and sentiments, just as practice the Daodejing and Zhuangzi.  Who these persons were we do not know with certainty.  Information technology is possible that we do have the names, remarks, and practices of some of these individuals (daoshi) embodied in the passages of the Zhuangzi. For example, in Chs. 1-7 lonely, Xu You, Ch.1; Lianshu, Ch.1; Ziqi Ch. two; Wang Ni, Ch. 2; Changwuzi, Ch. 2; Qu Boyu, Ch. 4; Carpenter Shi, Ch. 4; Bohun Wuren, Ch. v; Nu Y, Ch. 6; Sizi, Yuzi, Lizi, Laizi, Ch. 6; Zi Sanghu, Meng Zifan, Zi Qinzan, Ch. 6; Yuzi and Sangzi, Ch. 6; Wang Ni and Putizi, Ch. 7; 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 non endeavor to think of this task so merely as determining the human relationship between the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi , such as which text was first and which came afterwards. These texts are composite. The Zhuangzi, for case, repeats in very similar form sayings and ideas  found in the Daodejing , especially in the essay composing Zhuangzi Chs. 8-x. However, we are non certain whether this means that whomever was the source of this material 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, one theory about the legendary figure Laozi is that he was created get-go in the Zhuangzi and later on became associated with the Daodejing. In that location are seventeen passages in which Laozi (a.grand.a. Lao Dan) plays a role in the Zhuangzi and he is not mentioned by proper noun in the Daodejing .

Based on what we know now, we could offer the following summary of the sources of early Daoism. Stage One: Zhuang Zhou'southward "inner chapters" (chs. 1-7) of the Zhuangzi (c. 350 B.C.E.) and some components of the Guanzi, including peradventure both the Neiye and the Xin shu. Phase Two: The essay in Chs. 8-ten of the Zhuangzi and some collections of material which represent versions of our last redaction of the Daodejing , also as Chs. 17-28 of the Zhuangzi representing materials likely gathered by Zhuang Zhou'southward disciples. Stage Three: the "Yellow Emperor" (Huang-Lao) manuscripts from Mawangdui and of the Zhuangzi (Chs. 11-19, and 22), and the text known as the Huainanzi (c. 139 B.C.E.).

3. Is Daoism a Philosophy or a Religion?

In the tardily 1970s Western and comparative philosophers began to point out that an of import dimension of the historical context of Daoism was being overlooked because the previous generation of scholars had ignored or fifty-fifty disparaged connections between the classical texts and Daoist religious conventionalities and practice not previously idea to accept developed until the 2nd century C.E. We have to lay some of the responsibility for a prejudice against Daoism as a religion and the privileging of its primeval 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 every bit a degeneration of a pristine Daoist philosophy arising from the time of the Celestial Masters (run into beneath) in the late Han menstruum. 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 interest in trying to dissever philosophy and religion in Daoism is more than revealing of the Western frame of reference we employ than of Daoism itself. Daoist ideas fermented amongst 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, have interaction with realities not apparent to our normal manner of seeing things, and order life morally and by rulership. They offered insights nosotros might phone call philosophical aphorisms. But they also practid meditative stillness and emptiness to gain noesis, engaged in physical exercises to increment the flow 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, only gradually these teachings became more widely available as 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 to the lowest degree to the classical Greek period of philosophy was not part of the preoccupation of Daoists. Appropriately, the question whether Daoism is a philosophy or a religion is not i we can ask without imposing a set up of understandings, presuppositions, and qualifications that do not apply to Daoism. Merely the hybrid nature of Daoism is not a reason to discount the importance of Daoist thought. Quite to the opposite, it may be one of the most significant ideas classical Daoism can contribute to the report of philosophy in the present age.

4. The Daodejing

The Daodejing (hereafter, DDJ) is divided into 81 "chapters" consisting of slightly over 5,000 Chinese characters, depending on which text is used. In its received form from Wang Bi (run across below), the two major divisions of the text are the dao jing (chs. ane-37) and the de jing (chs. 38-81). Actually, this division probably rests on little else than the fact that the principal concept opening Affiliate 1 is dao (way) and that of Chapter 38 is de (virtue). The text is a collection of short aphorisms that were not arranged to develop any systematic statement. The long standing tradition nigh the authorship of the text is that the "founder" of Daoism, known every bit Laozi gave it to Yin Xi, the guardian of the pass through the mountains that he used to get from China to the West (i.e., India) in some unknown appointment in the distant past. Just the text is actually a blended of nerveless materials, most of which probably originally circulated orally perchance even in single aphorisms or modest collections. These were then redacted as someone might string pearls into a necklace. Although D.C. Lau and Michael LaFargue had fabricated preliminary literary and redaction disquisitional studies of the texts, these are still insufficient to generate any consensus nigh whether the text was composed using smaller written collections or who were the probable editors.

For almost 2,000 years, the Chinese text used past commentators in China and upon which all except the most recent Western language translations were based has been called the Wang Bi, later the commentator who used a complete edition of the DDJ sometime between 226-249 CE. Although Wang Bi was not a Daoist, his commentary became a standard interpretive guide, and generally speaking even today scholars depart from it only when they tin make a compelling argument for doing so. Based on contempo archaeological finds at Guodian in 1993 and Mawangdui in the 1970s we are certain that there were several simultaneously circulating versions of the Daodejing text as early as c. 300 B.C.East.

Mawangdui is the name for a site of tombs discovered near Changsha in Hunan province. The Mawangdui discoveries consist of two incomplete editions of the DDJ on silk scrolls (boshu) now simply called "A" and "B." These versions take two primary differences from the Wang Bi. Some discussion choice divergencies are nowadays. The order of the capacity is reversed, with 38-81 in the Wang Bi coming earlier chapters 1-37 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, 40, 42-66, 80, 81, 67-79, one-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 associates the Mawangdui versions with a blazon of Daoism known as the Way of the Yellow Emperor and the Old Chief (Huanglao Dao).

The Guodian discover consists of 730 inscribed bamboo slips establish near the village of Guodian in Hubei province in 1993. There are 71 slips with material that is as well plant in 31 of the 81 capacity of the DDJ and respective to Capacity 1-66. It may date every bit early as c. 300 B.C.E. If this is a correct engagement, and then the Daodejing was already extant in a written form when the "inner capacity" (see below) of the Zhuangzi were composed. These slips contain more than meaning variants from the Wang Bi than do the Mawangdui versions. A complete translation and study of the Guodian cache has been published by Scott Cook (2013).

five. Key Concepts in the Daodejing

The term Dao means a road, and is often translated equally "the Mode." This is because sometimes dao is used as a nominative (that is, "the dao") and other times as a verb (i.e. daoing). Dao is the process of reality itself, the way things come together, while still transforming. All this reflects the deep seated Chinese belief that change is the most bones character of things. In the Yi jing (Archetype of Change) the patterns of this alter are symbolized by figures continuing for 64 relations of correlative forces and known as the hexagrams. Dao is the amending of these forces, most frequently only stated equally 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 (Great Ultimate) as the source of correlative change and assembly it with the dao. The contrast is non between what things are or that something is or is non, but between chaos (hundun) and the way reality is ordering (de). Yet, reality is not ordering into i unified whole. Information technology is the 10,000 things (wanwu). There is the dao just non "the World" or "the cosmos" in a Western sense.

The Daodejing teaches that humans cannot fathom the Dao, because any name we give to it cannot capture it. It is across what we can express in language (ch.1). Those who experience oneness with dao, known every bit "obtaining dao," volition be enabled to wu-wei . Wu-wei is a difficult notion to interpret. Yet, information technology is mostly agreed that the traditional rendering of information technology as "nonaction" or "no activeness" is incorrect. Those who wu wei do act. Daoism is not a philosophy of "doing nothing." Wu-wei means something like "human action naturally," "effortless activeness," or "nonwillful activeness." The indicate is that there is no need for human being tampering with the flow of reality. Wu-wei should be our way of life, because the dao e'er benefits, it does not impairment (ch. 81) The way of heaven (dao of tian) is always on the side of good (ch. 79) and virtue (de) comes forth from the dao alone (ch. 21). What causes this natural embedding of good and benefit in the dao is vague and elusive (ch. 35), not fifty-fifty the sages sympathize it (ch. 76). Only the world is a reality that is filled with spiritual force, merely as a sacred image used in religious ritual might exist inhabited by numinal power (ch. 29). The dao occupies the place in reality that is analogous to the office of a family's house gear up bated for the altar for venerating the ancestors and gods (the ao of the business firm, ch. 62). When we think that life'southward occurrences seem unfair (a human discrimination), nosotros should remember that heaven'due south (tian) cyberspace misses aught, it leaves nothing undone (ch. 37)

A primal theme of the Daodejing is that correlatives are the expressions of the movement of dao. Correlatives in Chinese philosophy are not 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 often suggest to interpreters that the DDJ is filled with paradoxes. For example, ch. 22 says, "Those who are kleptomaniacal will exist perfected. Those who are bent will be straight. Those who are empty volition exist full." While these announced paradoxical, they are probably ameliorate understood as correlational in pregnant. The DDJ says, "straightforward words seem paradoxical," implying, however, that they are not (ch. 78).

What is the image of the ideal person, the sage (sheng ren), or the perfected person (zhen ren) in the DDJ? Well, sages wu-wei , (chs. 2, 63). They act effortlessly and spontaneously every bit one with dao and in so doing, they "virtue" (de) without deliberation or volitional claiming. In this respect, they are like newborn infants, who move naturally, without planning and reliance on the structures given to them by culture and society (ch. 15). The DDJ tells us that sages empty themselves, condign void of the discriminations  used in conventional language and culture. Sages concentrate their internal energies (qi). They clean their vision (ch. x). They manifest naturalness and plainness, becoming similar uncarved wood (pu) (ch. 19). They alive naturally and free from desires rooted in the discriminations that homo society makes (ch. 37) They settle themselves and know how to be content (ch. 46). The DDJ makes use of some very famous analogies to drive home its betoken. Sages know the value of emptiness as illustrated by how emptiness is used in a basin, door, window, valley or canyon (ch. eleven). They preserve the female person (yin), pregnant that they know how to be receptive to dao and its ability (de) and are not unbalanced favoring exclamation and action (yang) (ch. 28). They shoulder yin and embrace yang, blend internal energies (qi) and thereby attain harmony (he) (ch. 42). Those following the dao do not strive, tamper, or seek to control their own lives (ch. 64). They do non endeavor to help life along (ch. 55), or use their center-heed (xin) to "solve" or "effigy out" life's apparent knots and entanglements (ch. 55). Indeed, the DDJ cautions that those who would try to do something with the world will fail, they will actually ruin both themselves and the world (ch. 29). Sages practise not engage in disputes and arguing, or try to prove their point (chs. 22, 81). They are pliable and supple, not rigid and resistive (chs. 76, 78). They are like water (ch. 8), finding their own place, overcoming the hard and strong by suppleness (ch. 36). Sages act with no expectation of reward (chs. ii, 51). They put themselves final and yet come first (ch. 7). They never make a display of themselves, (chs. 72, 22). They do not brag or avowal, (chs. 22, 24) and they do not linger after their work is washed (ch. 77). They leave no trace (ch. 27). Because they embody dao in practise, they take longevity (ch. xvi). They create peace (ch. 32). Creatures practise non impairment them (chs. 50, 55). Soldiers exercise not kill them (ch. 50). Heaven (tian) protects the sage and the sage'due south spirit becomes invincible (ch. 67).

Among the most controversial of the teachings in the DDJ are those directly associated with rulers. Recent scholarship is moving toward a consensus that the persons who developed and collected the teachings of the DDJ played some function in advising civil administration, but they may too have been practitioners of ritual arts and what we would call religious rites. Be that equally information technology may, many of the aphorisms directed toward rulers in the DDJ seem puzzling at first sight. According to the DDJ, the proper ruler keeps the people without knowledge, (ch. 65), fills their bellies, opens their hearts and empties them of desires (ch. iii). A sagely ruler reduces the size of the state and keeps the population small. Even though the ruler possesses weapons, they are not used (ch. 80). The ruler does non seek prominence. The ruler is a shadowy presence, never continuing out (chs. 17, 66). When the ruler's 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 we call back that the philosopher and legalist political theorist named Han Feizi used the DDJ equally a guide for the unification of China. Han Feizi was the foremost advisor of the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-206 B.C.E.). However, it is a pity that the emperor used the DDJ's admonitions to "fill 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 keep the people without noesis, it probably means that they do not encourage human noesis equally the highest form of knowing but rather they encourage the people to "obtain oneness with the dao."

6. The Zhuangzi

The 2d of the 2 most important classical texts of Daoism is the Zhuangzi. This text is a collection of stories and remembered too every bit imaginary conversations.  The text is well known for its inventiveness and skilful utilise of language. Within the text nosotros observe longer and shorter treatises, stories, poesy, and aphorisms. The Zhuangzi may engagement as early on as the 4thursday century B.C.E. and according to majestic bibliographies of a later appointment, the Zhuangzi originally had 52 "chapters." These were reduced to 33 by Guo Xiang in the iiird century C.Eastward., although he seems to accept had the 52 affiliate text available to him.  Ronnie Littlejohn has argued that the later work Liezi may contain some passages from the and then-chosen "Lost Zhuangzi" 52 affiliate version. Dissimilar the Daodejing which is ascribed to the mythological Laozi, the Zhuangzi may really comprise materials from a teacher known every bit Zhuang Zhou who lived between 370-300 B.C.Eastward. Chapters one-vii are those well-nigh often ascribed to Zhuangzi himself (which is a title significant "Chief Zhuang") and these are known equally the "inner capacity." The remaining 26 chapters had other origins and they sometimes accept different points of view from the Inner Chapters. Although there are several versions of how the remainder of the Zhuangzi may be divided, one that is gaining currency is Chs. ane-7 (Inner Chapters), Chs. 8-ten (the "Daode" essay), Chs. eleven-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 final redactor.

seven. Bones Concepts in the Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi taught that a gear up of practices, including meditative stillness, helped 1 accomplish unity with the dao and get a "perfected person" (zhenren). The mode to this state is non the result of a withdrawal from life. Notwithstanding, it does require disengaging or emptying oneself of conventional values and the demarcations fabricated past society. In Chapter 23 of the Zhuangzi, aNanrong Chu inquiring of the grapheme Laozi nigh the solution to his life's worries was answered promptly: "Why did you come with all this oversupply of people?" The man looked around and confirmed he was standing solitary, but Laozi meant that his problems were the outcome of all the baggage of ideas and conventional opinions he lugged about with him. This baggage must be discarded earlier anyone can be zhenren , motion in wu-wei and limited profound virtue (de ).

Like the DDJ, Zhuangzi also valorizes wu-wei , especially in the Inner Chapters, the Xanthous 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. One 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 craft. When asked near his great skill, Ding says, "What I care most is dao, which goes across skill. When I get-go began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. Later on 3 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 take come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the large hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a principal joint. A good melt changes his knife once a year—because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month—because he hacks. I've had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I've cut upwards thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as expert as though it had just come up from the grindstone. In that location are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness….[I] motility the pocketknife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! The whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground." (Ch. iii, The Underground of Caring for Life)  The recurring point of all of the stories in Zhuangzi about wu-wei is that such spontaneous and effortless acquit as displayed past these many examples has the aforementioned experience every bit acting in wu-wei.  The point is not that wu-wei results from skill development. Wu-wei is not a cultivated skill. It is a souvenir of oneness with dao.  The Zhuangzi's teachings on wu-wei are closely related to the text's consistent rejection of the utilize of reason and argument as means to dao (chs. 2; 12, 17, 19).

Persons who exemplify such understanding are called sages, zhenren, and immortals. Zhuangzi describes the Daoist sage in such a manner as to suggest that such a person possesses extraordinary powers. Just as the DDJ said that creatures do non impairment the sages, the Zhuangzi likewise 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 be burned by burn, practise not experience cold in the freezing forests, and life and death have no effect on them (ch. 2).  Just how we should take such remarks is not without controversy.  To exist sure, many Daoist in history took them literally and an unabridged tradition of the transcendents or immortals (xian) was collected in text and lore.

Zhuangzi is drawing on a prepare of beliefs about principal teachers that were probably regarded equally literal by many, although some think he meant these to exist taken metaphorically. For example, when Zhuangzi says that the sage cannot be harmed or fabricated to suffer by annihilation that life presents, does he mean this to be taken equally 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 equally any more than or less desirable than affluence, to recognize blindness every bit worse than sight, to recognize decease as any less desirable than life? As the Zhuangzi says in Chapter One, Free and Easy Wandering, "There is nothing that can impairment this homo." This is also the theme of Chapter Two, On Making All Things Equal. In this chapter people are urged to "make all things 1," pregnant that they should recognize that reality is one. It is a man judgment that what happens is beautiful or ugly, right or incorrect, fortunate or not. The sage knows all things are one (equal) and does not judge. Our lives are snarled and jumbled so long as we make conventional discriminations, but when nosotros set them aside, we appear to others as extraordinary and enchanted.

An important theme in the Zhuangzi is the utilise 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? Almost certainly Zhuangzi thought that nosotros were in a abiding country of process, changing from i course into another (see the substitution betwixt Chief Lai and Principal Li in Ch. half dozen, The Great and Venerable Teacher). In Daoism, immortality is the result of what may be described every bit a wu xing transformation. Wu xing means "5 phases" and it refers to the Chinese agreement of reality according to which all things are in some land of combined correlation of qi as forest, fire, water, metallic, and earth. This was not exclusively a "Daoist" physics. It underlay all Chinese "science" of the classical period, although Daoists certainly fabricated use of it. Zhuangzi wants to teach us how to engage in transformation through stillness, breathing, and experience of numinal power (come across ch. 6). And withal, perchance Zhuangzi's teachings on immortality hateful that the person who is free of discrimination makes no difference between life and death. In the words of Lady Li in Ch. 2, "How exercise I know that the expressionless do not wonder why they ever longed for life?"

Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) is the most prominent immortal mentioned in the text of the Zhuangzi and he is a main character in the sections of the book called "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 prove that those who learn to live according to the according to the dao have long lives. Pengzu, one of the characters in the Zhuangzi, is said to accept 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 manus, the Inner Chapters (chs. i-seven) reject the function of ruler as a feasible vocation for a zhenren and consistently criticize the futility of government and politics (ch. seven).  On the other hand, the Yellow Emperor materials in Chs. eleven-13 present rulership as valuable, so long every bit the ruler is acts past wu-wei.  This second position is also that taken in the work entitled the Huainanzi (run into beneath).

The Daoists did not think of immortality as a souvenir from a god, or an achievement in the religious sense normally idea of in the West. Information technology was a upshot 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 graphic symbol for xian (immortal) is made upward of two components, the ane existence shan "mountain" and the other existence ren "person." Undoubtedly, some removal to the mountains was a role of the journey to condign a zhenren "true person." Because Daoists believed that nature and our own bodies were correlations of each other, they even imagined their bodies every bit mountains inhabited by immortals. The struggle to wu-wei was an endeavour to become immortal, to exist born anew, to grow the embryo of immortality inside. A part of the disciplines of Daoism included false of the animals of nature, because they were thought to act without the intention and willfulness that characterized human decision making. Physical exercises included animal dances (wu qin xi) and movements designed to enable the unrestricted menses of the cosmic life strength 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 raise the menstruum of qi energy. They even practiced external abracadabra, using burners to change the composition of cinnabar into mercury and made potions to drink and pills to ingest for the purpose of adding longevity. Many Daoist practitioners died equally a outcome of these alchemical substances, and even a few Emperors who followed their instructions lost their lives as well, Qinshihuang being the most famous.

The attitude and practices necessary to the pursuit of immortality made this life all the more than meaning. 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. Even so, Daoism was a consummate philosophy of life and not an easy mode to learn.

When superior persons learn the Dao, they practice information technology with zest.

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

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

If they did not laugh, information technology would non exist worthy of being the Dao.DDJ, 41

eight. Daoism and Confucianism

Arguably, Daoism shared some emphases with classical Confucianism such as a this-worldly business organization for the concrete details of life rather than speculation near abstractions and ideals. Withal, information technology largely represented an alternative and critical tradition divergent from that of Confucius and his followers. While many of these criticisms are subtle, some seem very clear.

I of the most primal teachings of the DDJ is that human discriminations, such equally those made in police force, morality (good, bad) and aesthetics (beauty, ugly) really create the troubles and problems  humans experience, they do not solve them (ch. 3a). The articulate implication is that the person post-obit the dao must cease ordering his life according to human-fabricated distinctions (ch. 19). Indeed, it is only when the dao recedes in its influence that these demarcations emerge (chs. 18; 38), considering they are a form of disease (ch. 74). In dissimilarity, Daoists believe that the dao is untangling the knots of life, blunting the sharp edges of relationships and issues, and turning down the light on painful occurrences (ch. 4). And so, it is best to practise wu-wei in all endeavors, to human action naturally and non willfully attempt to oppose or tamper with how reality is moving or try to control it by human discriminations.

Confucius and his followers wanted to change the earth and be proactive in setting things direct. They wanted to tamper, orchestrate, plan, educate, develop, and propose solutions. Daoists, on the other hand, accept their easily off of life when Confucians want their fingerprints on everything. Imagine this comparison. If the Daoist goal is to become similar a piece of unhewn and natural wood, the goal of the Confucians is to become a carved sculpture. The Daoists put the slice earlier us only every bit it is plant in its naturalness, and the Confucians polish information technology, shape information technology, and decorate it. This line of criticism is made very explicitly in the essay which makes upward Zhuangzi Chs. 8-ten.

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

The Yellowish Emperor sections of the Zhuangzi in Chs. 12, 13 and fourteen incorporate five text blocks in which Laozi is portrayed in dialogue with Confucius and according to which he is pictured equally Confucius' master and teacher.  These materials provide a directly access into the Daoist criticism of the Confucian projection.

ix. Daoism in the Han

The teachings that were subsequently called Daoism were closely associated with a stream of thought chosen Huanglao Dao (Yellowish Emperor-Laozi Dao) in the third and 2nd cn. B.C.E. The thought globe transmitted in this stream is what Sima Tan meant past Daojia. The Huanglao school is best understood as a lineage of Daoist practitioners more often than not residing in the state of Qi (mod 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.East.) elevated Confucianism to the condition of the official state ideology and training in it became mandatory for all bureaucratic officials, the tension with Daoism became more evident. And yet, at court, people still sought longevity and looked to Daoist masters for the secrets necessary for achieving information technology. Wu connected to engage in many Daoist practices, including the use of abracadabra, 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 product of the work called the Masters of Huainan (Huainanzi, 180-122 B.C.E.).  This is a highly constructed work formed at what is known every bit the Huainan university and greatly influenced by Yellow Emperor Daoism.  John Major and a squad of translators published the first complete English language version of this text (2010).  The text was an endeavor 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 piece of work, Laozi bin ahua jing (Volume of the Transformations of Laozi) the Chinese physics that persons and objects change forms was employed in order to place Laozi with the Yellowish Emperor.

10. Celestial Masters Daoism

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

Easily the most important of the Daoist trends at the end of the Han period was the wudou mi dao (Manner of V Bushels of Rice) movement, all-time known every bit 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 mountain near mod Chengdu in Sichuan. According to an account in Ge Hong's Biographies of Spirit Immortals, Laozi appeared to Zhang (c. 142 CE) and gave him a commission to announce the soon cease of the world and the coming age of Bully Peace (taiping). The revelation said that those who followed Zhang would become part of the Orthodox Ane Covenant with the Powers of the Universe (Zhengyi meng wei). Zhang began the move that culminated in a Celestial Master land. The administrators of this state were called libationers (ji jiu), considering they performed religious rites, equally well as political duties. They taught that personal affliction and civil mishap were owing to the mismanagement of the forces of the body and nature. The libationers taught a strict class of morality and displayed registers of numinal powers they could access and control. Libationers were moral investigators, continuing in for a greater celestial bureaucracy. The Angelic Chief state developed against the background of the reject of the afterwards Han dynasty. Indeed, when the empire finally decayed, the Angelic Chief regime was the only order in much of southern Red china.

When the Wei dynastic rulers became uncomfortable with the Celestial Masters' power, they broke upwardly the power centers of the movement. Merely this backfired because it actually served to disperse Celestial Masters followers throughout China. Many of the refugees settled near Ten'ian in and around the site of Louguan tai. The motion remained strong because its leaders had assembled a catechism of texts [Statutory Texts of the One and Orthodox (Zhengyi fawen)]. This group of writings included philosophical, political, and ritual texts. It became a central part of the later authorized Daoist canon.

11. Neo-Daoism

The resurgence of Daoism after the Han dynasty is oftentimes known every bit Neo-Daoism. Every bit a result, Confucian scholars sought to comment and reinterpret their own classical texts to move them toward greater compatibility with Daoism, and they fifty-fifty wrote commentaries on Daoist works.  A new blazon of Confucianism known but equally the Way of Mysterious Learning (Xuanxue) emerged. Information technology is represented past a set of scholars, including some of the almost prominent thinkers of the period: 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 effort to reinterpret the social and moral agreement of Confucianism in ways to make it more uniform with Daoist philosophy. In fact, for many interpreters, the extent to which Daoist influence is evident in the texts of these writers has led some scholars to phone call this movement 'Neo-Daoism.' Wang Bi and Guo Xiang who wrote commentaries respectively on the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, were the near important voices in this evolution. Traditionally, the famous "7 Sages of the Bamboo Grove" (Zhulin qixian) take also been associated with the new Daoist way of life that expressed itself in culture and non merely in mountain retreats. These thinkers included mural painters, calligraphers, poets, and musicians.

Among the philosophers of this period, the smashing representative of Daoism in southern Cathay was Ge Hong (283-343 CE). He adept non merely philosophical reflection, merely besides external alchemy, manipulating mineral substances such as mercury and cinnabar in an attempt to gain immortality. His work the Inner Chapters of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity (Baopuzi neipian) is the virtually of import Daoist philosophical work of this period. For him, longevity and immortality are not the aforementioned, the former is simply the first step to the latter.

12. Shangqing and Lingbao Daoist Movements

Subsequently the invasion of China by nomads from Primal Asia, Daoists of the Celestial Master tradition who had been living in the north were forced to drift into southern 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. The Xu family was an aristocratic group from what is today the metropolis of Nanjing. Seeking Daoist philosophical wisdom and the long life it promised, many of them moved to Mao Shan Mount, near the urban center. There they claimed to receive revelations from immortals, who dictated new wisdom and morality texts to them. Yang Eleven 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'south writings formed the basis for Highest Purity (Shangqing) Daoism. The writings were extraordinarily well washed and fifty-fifty the calligraphy in which they were written was beautiful.

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

Some 30 years after the Maoshan revelations, a descendent of Ge Hong, named Ge Chaofu went into a mediumistic trance and authored a set of texts called the Numinous Treasure (Lingbao ) teachings. These works were ritual recitation texts like to Buddhist sutras, and indeed they borrowed heavily from Buddhism. At first, the Shangqing and Lingbao texts belonged to the full general stream of the Angelic 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

Equally the Lingbao texts illustrate, Daoism acted every bit 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 northward Communist china in the quaternary and 5th centuries, and Daoism the south. Only gradually this intellectual currency actually reversed. Daoism grew in telescopic and impact throughout China.

Past the fourth dimension of the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE) Daoism was the intellectual philosophy that underwrote the national understanding. The imperial family claimed to descend from Li (past lore, the family of Laozi). Laozi was venerated past royal decree. Officials received Daoist initiation as Masters of its philosophy, rituals, and practices. A major heart 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 China trade routes. The Celestial Masters who held leadership at Dragon and Tiger Mountain were later called "Daoist popes" by Christian missionaries because they had considerable political ability.

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

fourteen. The Three Teachings

During the 5 Dynasties (907-960 CE) and Vocal periods (960-1279 CE) Confucianism enjoyed a resurgence and Daoists plant their place past teaching that chief thinkers of their tradition were Confucian scholars besides. Most notable among these was Lu Dongbin, a legendary Daoist immortal that many believed was originally a Confucian teacher.

Daoism became a consummate philosophy of life, reaching into religion, social action, and individual wellness and physical well-being. A huge network of Daoist temples known past the proper name Dongyue Miao (also called tianqing guan) was created through the empire, with a miao in nearly every town of any size. The Daoist masters who served these temples were ofttimes appointed equally authorities officials. They also gave medical, moral, and philosophical advice, and led religious rituals, dedicated especially to the Lord of the Sacred Mountain of the East named Taishan. Daoist masters had wide authorization. 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 Iii Teachings (sanjiao) of China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. This process of synthesis continued throughout the Vocal and into the catamenia of the Ming Dynasty.

Such a wide dispersal of Daoist thought and practise, taken together with its involvement 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'southward goal to bring the three teachings into a single bang-up synthesis. For the kickoff fourth dimension, 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 trunk and material globe. The Quanzhen lodge became powerful as the main partner of the Mongols (Yuan dynasty), who gave their patronage to its expansion. Less frequently, the Mongol emperors favored the Celestial Masters and their leader at Dragon and Tiger Mountain in an effort to undermine the power of the Quanzhen leaders. For example, the Zhengyi (Celestial Master) master of Beijing in the 1220s was Zhang Liusun. Under patronage he was immune to build a Dongyue Miao in the city in 1223 and make information technology the unofficial town hall of the capital. Simply past the fourth dimension 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 equally 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 creation of the first complete Daoist Canon (Daozang), which was edited betwixt 1408 and 1445. This was an eclectic collection, including many Buddhist and Confucian related texts. Daoist influence reached its zenith.

15. 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 Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain of his ability at court. Only Quanzhen was tolerated. White Cloud 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, and then did Christian missionaries. In 1849, the Hakka people of Guangxi province, among China's poorest citizens, rose in revolt. They followed Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be Jesus' younger brother. This millennial movement built on a strange version of Chinese Christianity sought to found the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (taiping). As the Taiping swept throughout southern China, they destroyed Buddhist and Daoist temples and texts wherever they constitute them. The Taiping army completely raised the Daoist complexes on Dragon Tiger Mountain. During near of the 20th century the drive 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 twelvemonth 1926 only two copies of the Daoist Catechism (Daozang) existed and Daoist philosophical heritage was in great jeopardy. But permission was granted to re-create the canon kept at the White Deject Monastery, then the texts were preserved for the world. At that place are 1120 titles in this collection in 5,305 volumes. Much of this fabric has withal to receive scholarly attention and very little of information technology has been translated into any Western language.

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) attempted to complete the destruction of Daoism. Masters were killed or "re-educated." Unabridged lineages were cleaved up and their texts were destroyed. The miaos were closed, burned, and turned into war machine barracks. At i time, there were 300 Daoist sites in Beijing lone, now there are merely a handful. However, Daoism is non expressionless. It survives every bit a vibrant philosophical system and way of life every bit is evidenced past the revival of its practice and study in several new Academy institutes in the People'due south Democracy.

16. References and Further Reading

  • Ames, Roger and Hall, David. (2003). Daodejing: "Making This Life Significant" 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 Printing.
  • Boltz, Judith Grand. (1987). A Survey of Taoist Literature: 10th to Seventeenth Centuries, Prc Enquiry Monograph 32. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Chan, Alan. (1991). 2 Visions of the Fashion: A Translation and Study of the Heshanggong and Wang Bi Commentaries on the Laozi. Albany: Country Academy of New York Press.
  • Melt, Scott (2013). The Bamboo Texts of the Guodian: A Study & Complete Translation. New York: Cornell University East Asia Program.
  • Coutinho, Steve (2014). An Introduction to Daoist Philosophies.New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Creel, Herrlee 1000. (1970). What is Taoism? Chicago: University of Chicago Printing.
  • 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 Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Anarchy (hun-tun). Berkeley: Academy of California Press.
  • Graham, Angus. (1981). Chuang tzu: The Inner Chapters. London: Allen & Unwin.
  • Graham, Angus. (1989). Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient Cathay. 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, Chad (1992). A Daoist Theory of Chinese Idea. New York: Oxford Academy Press.
  • Hendrischke, Barbara (2015, reprint ed.). The Scripture on Great Peace: The Taiping jing and the Beginnings of Daoism. Berkeley: The Academy 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: Seven Bridges Press.
  • Kjellberg, Paul and Ivanhoe, Philip J., eds. (1996) Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ideals in the Zhuangzi. Albany: State University of New York.
  • Kleeman, Terry (1998). Cracking Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millenial Kingdom. Honolulu: University 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 Printing.
  • Kohn, Livia and LaFargue, Michael., eds. (1998). Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Albany: Country University of New York Press.
  • Kohn, Livia and Roth, Harold., eds. (2002). Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
  • 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 Press.
  • Lin, Paul J. (1977). A Translation of Lao-tzu's Tao-te-ching and Wang Pi'due south 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 Classic of the Way and Virtue: A New Translation of the Tao-Te Ching of Laozi equally Interpreted by Wang Bi. New York: Columbia University Printing.
  • Mair, Victor, ed. (2010). Experimental Essays on Zhuangzi. Petrograd: 3 Pines Printing. New edition of University of Hawai'i, 1983.
  • Mair, Victor. (1990). Tao Te Ching: The Archetype Volume of Integrity and the Fashion. New York: Bantam Press.
  • Mair, Victor (1994). Wandering on the Style: 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 Practise of Government in Early Han China. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Maspero, Henri. (1981). Taoism and Chinese Faith. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
  • Miller, James (2003). Daoism: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • 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: Clan 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: University of California Press.
  • Slingerland, Edward, (2003). Effortless Action: Wu-Wei As Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early Communist china. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Waley, Arthur (1934). The Way and Its Power: A Report of the Tao Te Ching and its Identify in Chinese Thought. London: Allen & Unwin
  • Watson, Burton. (1968). The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia Academy Press
  • Welch, Holmes. (1966). Taoism: The Departing of the Way. Boston: Beacon Press.
  • Welch, Holmes and Seidel, Anna, eds. (1979). Facets of Taoism. New Haven: Yale Academy Printing.

Author Information

Ronnie Littlejohn
Electronic mail: ronnie.littlejohn@belmont.edu
Belmont University
U. Southward. A.