Taoism ed. by Mou Zhongjian (review)

Abstract

part of the state cult, while the discussion of the Five Prohibitions, which were largely concerned with protecting private property, was not Confucian either (pp. 189, 198). Rituals at local god temples (as described on pp. 205–206), in which lisheng participated, also were not Confucian. Finally, I do not think that Liu has proven that ‘‘the promotion of Confucian rituals in the countryside greatly transformed rural social structures and local popular culture.’’ What he does show is that major social and institutional changes in rural Sibao were accompanied by the appropriate rituals, Confucian and non-Confucian. Despite these flaws the book is valuable for calling attention to the indispensable role of ritual in the countryside, for highlighting the importance of the lisheng, for introducing us to the Shangbao community compact, and for providing a rich picture of the deep changes that were taking place in rural western Fujian from the mid-Ming on. DAVID JOHNSON University of California, Berkeley MOU ZHONGJIAN, ed., Taoism. Translated by PAN JUNLIANG and SIMONE NORMAND. Religious Studies in Contemporary China Collection, vol. 2. Leiden: Brill, 2012. vi, 395 pp. J133, US$182 (hb). ISBN 978-90-04-17453-5 This book contains seventeen articles selected and translated into English from the original Dangdai Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu jingxuan congshu, Daojiao juan with a new introduction by Vincent Goossaert.1 It is a volume that aims at ‘‘showcasing representative works of Taoist studies in mainland China’’ (p. 1). The articles are rearranged from the Chinese edition. The first two chapters, by Qing Xitai 卿希泰 and Wang Ka 王卡 respectively, offer a survey of the state of the field (up to AD 2002) and of primary sources, including the recent monumental Taoist Canon of China (Zhonghua Daozang 中華道藏).2 The following nine articles are arranged in a loose chronological order, based on the periods concerned: from the Eastern Han to the Qing dynasty. Among them, the first five articles concern pre-Song Daoism: the Excerpt from the Scripture of Great Peace, the legend of Laozi 老子 converting the barbarians, Cao Cao 曹操, the SixHeavens cosmology, and the Twofold Mystery studies of Tang times. They precede four articles about Song and later times: two on Inner Alchemy and two on Quanzhen 全真 Daoism. The remaining six articles are thematic: three are on ethics (environmentalism, life protection, and morality books), one on medicine, and two on ritual. Although the book’s time period starts with the Eastern Han, pre-Qin Daoist philosophers are by no means left out. Many of the articles discuss the relationship between religious Daoism (daojiao 道教) and philosophical Daoism (daojia 道家) that was established in pre-Qin times, taking the stand that the two complement each other. Hong Xiuping 洪修平 suggests that religious Daoism based its theories 1 Mou Zhongjian 牟鐘鑒, Dangdai Zhongguo zongjiao yanjiu jingxuan congshu. Daojiao juan 當代中國宗教研究精選叢書, 道教卷 (Beijing: Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社, 2008). 2 Zhang Jiyu 張繼禹 comp., Zhonghua daozang 中華道藏 (Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe 華夏 出版社, 2004). BOOK REVIEWS 237 and practices on ‘‘attaining transcendence,’’ which is a core principle in the Laozi. Tang Yijie 湯一介 notes the contributions to Daoist philosophy from religious figures by exploring the ‘‘Twofold Mystery study’’ (Chongxuan xue 重玄學) of the eminent Cheng Xuanying 成玄英, an ordained Daoist priest active in the 7th century. The Twofold Mystery studies, as Tang evaluates them, are the third stage of the evolution of Daoist philosophy, and the theoretical foundation on which the ‘‘study of nature in Taoist inner alchemy’’3 eventually would be built (p. 175). Zhang Guangbao 張廣保 shows that Inner Alchemy’s goal of ‘‘communion of the Tao and Life’’ (shengdao heyi 生道合一) on both spiritual and physical levels was shared by pre-Qin Daoist philosophers. Concepts such as obtaining longevity and immortality from the realization of the Dao, and cultivating jing 精 and qi 氣 as an essential method to that realization are already found in the Zhuangzi 莊子, among other texts of philosophical Daoism. In discussing the concept of ‘‘follow and oppose’’ (shunni 順逆), Ge Guolong 戈國龍 argues that the Inner Alchemy practices based on the principle of ‘‘follow and oppose’’ were meant to enable practitioners to ‘‘return to the origin’’ by following the Dao and reverse (i.e. ‘‘oppose’’) the bodily degeneration process caused by socialization and materialization . The Daoist goal of ‘‘returning to the origin’’ was established by philosophical Daoism at...