What Is Taoism?

Download or read book What Is Taoism? written by Herrlee Glessner Creel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1982-09-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Is Taoism? traces, in nontechnical language, the history of the development of this often baffling doctrine. Creel shows that there has not been one "Taoism," but at least three, in some respects incompatible and often antagonistic. In eight closely related papers, Creel explicates the widely used concepts he originally introduced of "contemplative Taoism," "purposive Taoism," and "Hsien Taoism." He also discusses Shen Pu-hai, a political philosopher of the fourth century B.C.; the curious interplay between Confucianism, Taoism, and "Legalism" in the second century B.C.; and the role of the horse in Chinese history.