A01=Livia Kohn
Anatta
Ancient China
Author_Livia Kohn
Bianhua
Bodhisattva
Buddha-nature
Buddhism
Buddhist ethics
Buddhist texts
Category=QRRL5
Category=QRVK2
Chan Buddhism
Chen Tuan
Chinese Buddhism
Chinese culture
Chinese philosophy
Confucianism
Confucius
Deity
Divination
Doctrine
Dunhuang manuscripts
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Ge Hong
Good and evil
Guo Xiang
Han dynasty
Huainanzi
Ineffability
Jade Emperor
Jizang
Laozi
Liezi
Lightness (philosophy)
Literature
Longevity
Morality
Mysticism
Otherworld
Perennial philosophy
Philosopher
Philosophy
Pratityasamutpada
Queen Mother of the West
Reality
Reincarnation
Religion
Religious philosophy
Religious text
Righteousness
Ruan Ji
Sect
Shamanism
Sima Xiangru
Six Dynasties
Soteriology
Sun Simiao
Sunyata
Tao Hongjing
Tao Te Ching
Taoism
The Other Hand
The Perennial Philosophy
Traditional Chinese medicine
Utopia
Vipassana
Wang Bi
Warring States period
World view
Writing
Wu Xing
Yin and yang
Zhuangzi (book)
Zuowang
Product details
- ISBN 9780691020655
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Nov 1991
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Did Chinese mysticism vanish after its first appearance in ancient Taoist philosophy, to surface only after a thousand years had passed, when the Chinese had adapted Buddhism to their own culture? This first integrated survey of the mystical dimension of Taoism disputes the commonly accepted idea of such a hiatus. Covering the period from the Daode jing to the end of the Tang, Livia Kohn reveals an often misunderstood Chinese mystical tradition that continued through the ages. Influenced by but ultimately independent of Buddhism, it took forms more various than the quietistic withdrawal of Laozi or the sudden enlightenment of the Chan Buddhists. On the basis of a new theoretical evaluation of mysticism, this study analyzes the relationship between philosophical and religious Taoism and between Buddhism and the native Chinese tradition. Kohn shows how the quietistic and socially oriented Daode jing was combined with the ecstatic and individualistic mysticism of the Zhuangzi, with immortality beliefs and practices, and with Buddhist insight meditation, mind analysis, and doctrines of karma and retribution.
She goes on to demonstrate that Chinese mysticism, a complex synthesis by the late Six Dynasties, reached its zenith in the Tang, laying the foundations for later developments in the Song traditions of Inner Alchemy, Chan Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism.
