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Catherine Despeux’s book Taoism and Self Knowledge is a study of the Internal Alchemical text "Chart for the Cultivation of Perfection." It begins with an analysis of pictographic and symbolic representation of the body in early Taoism after which the author examines different extant versions of the "Chart" as it was transmitted among Quanzhen groups in the Qing dynasty. The book is comprised of four main parts: the principal parts of the body and their nomenclature in Internal Alchemy, the spirits in the human body, and the alchemical processes and procedures used in thunder rituals and self-cultivation.
This is a revised, expanded edition of the original French edition Taoïsme et connaissance de soi. La carte de la culture de la perfection (Xiuzhen tu) Paris, 2012.
Price: $172.00
Pages: 298
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Sinica Leidensia
Publication Date:
29 November 2018
ISBN: 9789004322158
Format: Hardcover
"Stuckrad’s book is a useful reference guide for twentieth-century notions of the soul and related themes such as nature, animism, consciousness, energy, and vitalism."
– Dominic Zoehrer, University of Vienna, in Religious Studies Review 45.4 (December 2019).
"The volume at hand—a good translation of an expanded version of the French title published in 2012—directly opens the gate to an impressive image of the religion that thoroughly explains its fundamental and timeless impact on Chinese life and thought. The book is a thorough, reliable, and all considered, well-readable presentation of an eighteenth-century text and its history."
– Barbara Hendrischke, University of Sydney, in Religious Studies Review 45.4 (2019).
– Dominic Zoehrer, University of Vienna, in Religious Studies Review 45.4 (December 2019).
"The volume at hand—a good translation of an expanded version of the French title published in 2012—directly opens the gate to an impressive image of the religion that thoroughly explains its fundamental and timeless impact on Chinese life and thought. The book is a thorough, reliable, and all considered, well-readable presentation of an eighteenth-century text and its history."
– Barbara Hendrischke, University of Sydney, in Religious Studies Review 45.4 (2019).
Catherine Despeux, Ph.D (1976), Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, is honorary professor of Chinese thought. She has published and edited monographs, translations and articles on Chinese Buddhism, Taoism and Medicine, including the edition of Médecine, religion et société dans la Chine médiévale. Les manuscrits médicaux de Dunhuang, Paris 2010.
Jonathan Pettit, Ph.D. (2013), University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa, is an Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions. He has published articles on early medieval notions of geography and Daoist ritual. He has also written articles on early Republican redemptive societies. His work focuses on the production, circulation, and reproduction of early Daoist scriptures.
Jonathan Pettit, Ph.D. (2013), University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa, is an Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions. He has published articles on early medieval notions of geography and Daoist ritual. He has also written articles on early Republican redemptive societies. His work focuses on the production, circulation, and reproduction of early Daoist scriptures.