Details

Subject(s)

• Laozi—Dao de jing [Browse]
• Confucius—Lun yu. [Browse]

Series

• SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture. [More in this series]
• SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

Summary note

Thomas Michael's study of the early history of the Daodejing reveals that the work is grounded in a unique tradition of early Daoism, one unrelated to other early Chinese schools of thought and practice. The text is associated with a tradition of hermits committed to yangsheng, a particular practice of physical cultivation involving techniques of breath circulation in combination with specific bodily movements leading to a physical union with the Dao. Michael explores the ways in which the text systematically anchored these techniques to a Dao-centered worldview. Including a new translation of the Daodejing, In the Shadows of the Dao opens new approaches to understanding the early history of one of the world's great religious texts and great religious traditions.

Notes

Description based upon print version of record.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Source of description

Description based on print version record.

Language note

English

Contents

• Contents; Acknowledgments; Preface; 1. Reading the Daodejing Synthetically; Orientations; Conventions; Shadows; On the early daoism label; 2. Modern Scholarship on the Daodejing; Religious and philosophical approaches to the daodejing; Modern western approaches to the daodejing; Modern chinese approaches to the daodejing; 3. Traditions of Reading the Daodejing; Daojia, daojiao, and early daoism; The role of commentary in the daodejing; The heshang gong commentary; The xiang'er commentary; The wang bi commentary; Three commentaries in comparison; 4. The Daos of Laozi and Confucius
• Records of the interviewGlimpses into the dao of antiquity; The fault line; Two disciplines of the body; Laozi and confucius revisited; 5. Early Daoism, Yangsheng, and the Daodejing; The hiddenness of early daoism; A separate history; Orality and the daodejing; Early daoism and yangsheng; Two master traditions and a third; Yangsheng and the daodejing; 6. The Sage and the World; Early chinese archetypes: the sage, the king, and the general; The benefits of the sage; Qi: the stuff of life; De: circulation is not always virtuous; De in action; 7. The Sage and the Project; The death-world
• ProjectsThe great project of the world; Salvation; 8. The Sage and Bad Knowledge; A confucian study break; Knowledge and yangsheng sequences; Brightness and yangsheng sequences; Knowledge is a sickness; The question of early daoism revisited; 9. The Sage and Good Knowledge; The second-order harmony; Yangsheng and the knowledge of the sage; Appendix: The Daodejing; Notes; Bibliography; Primary Sources and Critical Texts: Daodejing; Secondary Sources; Index

ISBN

1-4384-5899-1

OCLC

921987743

Doi

• 10.1515/9781438458991

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