Myth And Meaning In Early Taoism

Author : N. J. Girardot
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0520064607

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Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism by N. J. Girardot Pdf

Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism examines some of the earliest texts associated with the Daoist tradition (primarily the Daode jing, Zhuangzi, and Huainanzi) from the outlook of the comparative history of religions and finds a kind of thematic and soteriological unity rooted in the mythological symbolism of hundun, the primal chaos being and principle that is foundational for the philosophy and practice of the Dao as creatio continua in cosmic, social, and individual life. Dedicated to the proposition that ancient Chinese texts and traditions are often best understood from a broad interdisciplinary and interpretive perspective, this work when it was written challenged many prevailing conceptions of the Daode jing and Zhuangzi as primarily philosophical texts without any religious significance or affinity with the later sectarian traditions. While controversial and at times playfully provocative, the methodology and findings of this book are still important for the ongoing scholarship about Daoism in China and the world.

Author : N. J. Girardot
Publisher : Three Pine Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : IND:30000127284366

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Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism by N. J. Girardot Pdf

Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism examines some of the earliest texts associated with the Daoist tradition (primarily the Daode jing, Zhuangzi, and Huainanzi) from the outlook of the comparative history of religions and finds a kind of thematic and soteriological unity rooted in the mythological symbolism of hundun, the primal chaos being and principle that is foundational for the philosophy and practice of the Dao as creatio continua in cosmic, social, and individual life. Dedicated to the proposition that ancient Chinese texts and traditions are often best understood from a broad interdisciplinary and interpretive perspective, this work when it was written challenged many prevailing conceptions of the Daode jing and Zhuangzi as primarily "philosophical" texts without any religious significance or affinity with the later sectarian traditions. While controversial and at times playfully provocative, the methodology and findings of this book are still important for the ongoing scholarship about Daoism in China and the world.

Author : Zuyan Zhou
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2003-02-28
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0824825713

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Androgyny in Late Ming and Early Qing Literature by Zuyan Zhou Pdf

The frequent appearance of androgyny in Ming and Qing literature has long interested scholars of late imperial Chinese culture. A flourishing economy, widespread education, rising individualism, a prevailing hedonism--all of these had contributed to the gradual disintegration of traditional gender roles in late Ming and early Qing China (1550-1750) and given rise to the phenomenon of androgyny. Now, Zuyan Zhou sheds new light on this important period, offering a highly original and astute look at the concept of androgyny in key works of Chinese fiction and drama from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The work begins with an exploration of androgyny in Chinese philosophy and Ming-Qing culture. Zhou proceeds to examine chronologically the appearance of androgyny in major literary writing of the time, yielding novel interpretations of canonical works from The Plum in the Golden Vase, through the scholar-beauty romances, to The Dream of the Red Chamber. He traces the ascendance of the androgyny craze in the late Ming, its culmination in the Ming-Qing transition, and its gradual phasing out after the mid-Qing. The study probes deviations from engendered codes of behavior both in culture and literature, then focuses on two parallel areas: androgyny in literary characterization and androgyny in literati identity. The author concludes that androgyny in late Ming and early Qing literature is essentially the dissident literati's stance against tyrannical politics, a psychological strategy to relieve anxiety over growing political inferiority.

Author : Robert Cummings Neville
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2008-06-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791478219

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Ritual and Deference by Robert Cummings Neville Pdf

Brings Confucianism and Daoism into conversation with contemporary philosophy and the contemporary world situation.

Author : Kristofer Schipper
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : History
ISBN : 0520082249

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The Taoist Body by Kristofer Schipper Pdf

This elegant and lucid introduction to the traditions of Taoism and the masters who transmit them will reward all those interested in China and in religions.

Author : K. K. Yeo
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 905 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190909796

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The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in China by K. K. Yeo Pdf

"The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in China deftly examines the Bible's translation, expression, interpretation, and reception in China. Forty-eight essays address the translation of the Bible into China's languages and dialects; expression of the Bible in Chinese literary and religious contexts; Chinese biblical interpretations and methods of reading; and the reception of the Bible in the institutions and arts of China. This comprehensive and unique volume presents insightful, succinct, and provocative evidence about and interpretations of encounters between the Bible and China for centuries past, continuing into the present, and likely prospects for the future"--

Author : Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791482223

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The Flood Myths of Early China by Mark Edward Lewis Pdf

Explores how the flood myths of early China provided a template for that society’s major social and political institutions. Early Chinese ideas about the construction of an ordered human space received narrative form in a set of stories dealing with the rescue of the world and its inhabitants from a universal flood. This book demonstrates how early Chinese stories of the re-creation of the world from a watery chaos provided principles underlying such fundamental units as the state, lineage, the married couple, and even the human body. These myths also supplied a charter for the major political and social institutions of Warring States (481–221 BC) and early imperial (220 BC–AD 220) China. In some versions of the tales, the flood was triggered by rebellion, while other versions linked the taming of the flood with the creation of the institution of a lineage, and still others linked the taming to the process in which the divided principles of the masculine and the feminine were joined in the married couple to produce an ordered household. While availing themselves of earlier stories and of central religious rituals of the period, these myths transformed earlier divinities or animal spirits into rulers or ministers and provided both etiologies and legitimation for the emerging political and social institutions that culminated in the creation of a unitary empire. Mark Edward Lewis is Kwoh-ting Li Professor of Chinese Culture at Stanford University and the author of Writing and Authority in Early China and The Construction of Space in Early China, both published by SUNY Press.

Author : Stephen R. Bokenkamp
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 520 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2023-11-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780520923126

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Early Daoist Scriptures by Stephen R. Bokenkamp Pdf

For centuries Daoism (Taoism) has played a central role in the development of Chinese thought and civilization, yet to this day only a few of its sacred texts have been translated into English. Now Stephen R. Bokenkamp introduces the reader to ancient scriptures never before published in the West, providing a systematic and easily accessible introduction to early Daoism (c. 2nd-6th C.E.). Representative works from each of the principal Daoist traditions comprise the basic structure of the book, with each chapter accompanied by an introduction that places the material within a historical and cultural context. Included are translations of the earliest Daoist commentary to Laozi's Daode jing (Tao Te Ching); historical documents relating the history of the early Daoist church; a petitioning ritual used to free believers from complaints brought against them by the dead; and two complete scriptures, one on individual meditation practice and another designed to rescue humanity from the terrors of hell through recitation of its powerful charms. In addition, Bokenkamp elucidates the connections Daoism holds with other schools of thought, particularly Confucianism and Buddhism. This book provides a much-needed introduction to Daoism for students of religion and is a welcome addition for scholars wishing to explore Daoist sacred literature. It serves as an overview to every aspect of early Daoist tradition and all the seminal practices which have helped shape the religion as it exists today.

Author : Jeaneane Fowler
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
Page : 459 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781800858251

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Causality by Jeaneane Fowler Pdf

This book examines the concepts of cause and effect from two dimensions. The first concerns the macrocosm of the Universe and how each belief system views creation. The second dimension explores the ways in which beliefs about creation influence the microcosmic world in terms of the nature of the self, the proximate goals within each system, the answers each belief system offers to the presence of evil and suffering in existence, and ideas about the ultimate goal of release from them. All these ideas inform and are fundamental to the understanding of the present-day practices of different faiths, presenting challenges for scriptural testimony balanced with existential living. The final two chapters explore current research in physics concerning the beginnings of the cosmos and what implications such research might have for existence within it, with the final chapter examining scientific views of the nature of the self. Contents include: Judaic and Christian Traditions. Islam. Hinduism. Early Buddhism. Sikhism. Classical Taoism. Recycled Stardust. Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Atoms: The Life and Death of the Self.

Author : Laozi
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 1972
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:670129765

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Tao Te Ching by Laozi Pdf

Author : Julian F. Pas
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
Page : 477 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1998-06-04
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780810866379

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Historical Dictionary of Taoism by Julian F. Pas Pdf

This reference book on Taoism, one of the major spiritual traditions of China, includes in its coverage both Taoist philosophy and Taoist religion. An introduction provides overall insight into Taoist development through the ages, while the dictionary itself is comprised of 275 entries that define Taoist concepts, scriptures, deities, practices, and personalities. Includes an extensive bibliography.

Author : Livia Kohn,Michael LaFargue
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 1998-03-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0791436004

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Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching by Livia Kohn,Michael LaFargue Pdf

Examines the traditional and modern Western interpretations of the Tao-te-ching, and its author, Lao-tzu.

Author : Nicholas F. Gier
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 331 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2012-03-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791492826

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Spiritual Titanism by Nicholas F. Gier Pdf

This work in comparative philosophy uses the concept of Titanism to critique certain trends in both Eastern and Western philosophy. Titanism is an extreme form of humanism in which human beings take on divine attributes and prerogatives. The author finds the most explicit forms of spiritual Titanism in the Jaina, Samkhya, and Yoga traditions, where yogis claim powers and knowledge that in the West are only attributed to God. These philosophies are also radically dualistic, and liberation involves a complete transcendence of the body, society, and nature. Five types of spiritual Titanism are identified; and, in addition to this typology, a heuristic based on Nietzsche's three metamorphoses of camel, lion, and child is offered. The book determines that answers to spiritual Titanism begin not only with the Hindu Goddess religion, but also are found in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, especially Zen Buddhism and Confucianism.

Author : John S. Major
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 1993-08-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781438411736

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Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought by John S. Major Pdf

The Huainanzi has in recent years been recognized by scholars as one of the seminal works of Chinese thought at the beginning of the imperial era, a summary of the full flowering of early Taoist philosophy. This book presents a study of three key chapters of the Huainanzi, "The Treatise on the Patterns of Heaven," "The Treatise on Topography," and "The Treatise on the Seasonal Rules," which collectively comprise the most comprehensive extant statement of cosmological thinking in the early Han period. Major presents, for the first time, full English translations of these treatises. He supplements the translations with detailed commentaries that clarify the sometimes arcane language of the text and presents a fascinating picture of the ancient Chinese view of how the world was formed and sustained, and of the role of humans in the cosmos.

Author : Fabrizio Pregadio
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 1602 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2013-05-13
Category : Reference
ISBN : 9781135796341

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The Encyclopedia of Taoism by Fabrizio Pregadio Pdf

The Encyclopedia of Taoism provides comprehensive coverage of Taoist religion, thought and history, reflecting the current state of Taoist scholarship. Taoist studies have progressed beyond any expectation in recent years. Researchers in a number of languages have investigated topics virtually unknown only a few years previously, while others have surveyed for the first time textual, doctrinal and ritual corpora. The Encyclopedia presents the full gamut of this new research. The work contains approximately 1,750 entries, which fall into the following broad categories: surveys of general topics; schools and traditions; persons; texts; terms; deities; immortals; temples and other sacred sites. Terms are given in their original characters, transliterated and translated. Entries are thoroughly cross-referenced and, in addition, 'see also' listings are given at the foot of many entries. Attached to each entry are references taking the reader to a master bibliography at the end of the work. There is chronology of Taoism and the whole is thoroughly indexed. There is no reference work comparable to the Encyclopedia of Taoism in scope and focus. Authored by an international body of experts, the Encyclopedia will be an essential addition to libraries serving students and scholars in the fields of religious studies, philosophy and religion, and Asian history and culture.