Product Description
For advanced readers of Chinese, this series includes essays about influential figures in Chinese history from the pre-Qin through the Qing dynasties. After each essay, there is a vocabulary list in Chinese, pinyin and English translation. The title of ea ... Read more

Product Description
This is a new interpretation of Chinese Taoist philosophy from the view of anthropology, psychology, and social biology. The idle life of ancient egalitarian society is regarded as the Taoist ideal, and to bridge the gap between the Taoist wisdom and the daily life of ordinary people in modern society, human nature, freedom, happiness, death/immortality are elucidated on six levels, namely, the biological, the social, the cultural, ithe ntellectual, the spiritual, and the cosmic level. The introduction of the concepts, two levels of human society, basic human nature and peripheral potentials, and the unique angle from the spare time of self-enjoyment shed considerable new light on some common issues like the cultural difference between the West and the East.

This book suits both general and academic readers. This interpretation sheds considerable new light on some academic issues regarding Chinese culture in relation to sociology and anthropology.

Taoism is a philosophy, a religion, and a way of life. It is a vehicle of pure philosophical speculation and also serves as a practical guide to living. Traditionally Taoism emphasises teaching without words. It is like a piece of art that conveys something more beyond its form. Thus, early Taoist writers pursued a style of combining literary art with philosophical exploration to achieve a special humorous and relaxing effect.

To follow those examples, the author tried to create an artistic mood in line with Taoism for reading. Fables, stories, and even fictions are interwoven with elucidating text to make them enjoyable and informative for a general reader.

There is a short story at the beginning of each chapter except chapter 15, and an additional seven in 1.2 (Chapter 1 Section 2), 3.3, 7.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.6, and 14.5 respectively. Those stories are either from the Taoist classics or from other well-known books to illustrate the Taoist way of thinking and the Chinese cultural traditions. Those stories, all in Italic, can be read alone as a collection of Taoist fables. Chapter 4 presents a fictional account of the lives of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu to give the reader a more vivid impression about what kind of philosophers we are encountering while reading this book. Academic readers can skip them if they are tight in time.

The first chapter describes the era when Taoist philosophy first appeared, and also identifies some branching points at which Western and Chinese cultures departed in history in order to help the Western reader to understand Taoism.In fact, all chapters can be read alone as independent essays on specific topics, but there may be some minor repeating if one reads the whole book.

For this book, though excellent as it is, a very limited number of copies were printed, and only a few copies have been sold locally. Its new approach to an old topic will always make a good buy to those who are interested.

The modern world with a powerless United Nations as a platform for countries to work out their difference at various levels is pretty much like the political situation of China from 2100 BC to 476 BC when a relatively powerless king and his court were trying to keep peace among numerous independent states and when human nature was highly respected in politics and in life, which eventually gave birth to Chinese Taoist philosophy.

The world has entered a new era, and we need a new way of life. We believe that the ancient wisdom of Chinese Taoist philosophy provides a good choice, since it emphasizes the value of naturalness and simplicity, which are complementary to the Western philosophy of materialism. Life is for us to enjoy, and joy resides in satisfaction with a simple life. Therefore author wrote this book and created the website ( http://taoism21cen.com ) to introduce the Taoist ideology. Please join us to create a happier life and a better world for ourselves and for our children.

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