Taoism: The Enduring Tradition

Description

This clear and reliable introduction to Taoism (also known as Daoism) brings a fresh dimension to a tradition that has found a natural place in Western society. Examining Taoist sacred texts together with current scholarship, it surveys Taoism's ancient roots, contemporary heritage and role in daily life. From Taoism's spiritual philosophy to its practical perspectives on life and death, self-cultivation, morality, society, leadership and gender, Russell Kirkland's essential guide reveals the real contexts behind concepts such as Feng Shui and Tai Chi.

Russell Kirkland is Associate Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at the University of Georgia. He is a member of the executive board of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, and of the board of directors of the U.S. Taoist Association. He has been writing on Taoism for over twenty years.

'Those of us who have been waiting for a thoroughly undated introduction to Daoism need wait no longer. Russell Kirkland, among America's best known scholars of Daoism, has offered us one in Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. ... [T]his work is a genuinely new introduction to Daoism that helps clear away much of the dense underbrush of Daoist history and textual relations, and also utilizes the most recent findings and conclusions of scholars of Daoism to set the reader on a more solid path to understanding China's most misunderstood and underappreciated transformational tradition.' -- Ronnie Littlejohn, Philosophy East & West