Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places.
This book provides a succinct, authoritative and accessible introduction to one of the great religious traditions.
The book is organised around nine key themes: Origins and Historical Development; Aspects of the Divine; Sacred Texts; Sacred Persons; Ethical Principles; Sacred Spaces; Sacred Time; Death and the Afterlife; Society and Religion. Each of these themes is supplemented by extracts from or summaries of historical texts, with an author commentary that explains the significance of each piece or places it in context.
More specifically, the subjects covered include:
- Laozi, Zhuangzi and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
- The 'Tao Te Ching' and other sacred Taoist texts
- Rituals, Alchemy and Exorcism
- Yellow Turbans and Celestial Masters
- Adepts and the Eight Immortals
- Taiji Quan
- The Ethics of Wu Wei
