Harvard University
Department of East Asian
Languages and Civilizations		 Tu Wei-ming

Chinese History 260: Taoism (Conference Course)


Orientation: An exploration of the formation, transformation, and implications of the Taoist (Daoist) tradition in China. Although the emphasis of the course is "philosophical" interpretation, attention will be given to the religious and spiritual dimensions of Taoism (Daoism). Indeed, a main concern of the course is to develop an approach, a method, an attitude, or a world view that is most appropriate for the academic study of Taoism.

Themes:
February 4:   A Discourse on the Way
  11: Lao Tzu (Laozi) as a Strategist
  18: Chuang Tzu's (Zhuangzi) Philosophy of Spontaneity
  25: Taoist (Daoist) Syncretism
March 4: Huang-Lao as an Art of Governance
  11: "Profound Learning"
  18: Probing the "Esoteric Teaching"
  25: Taoism (Daoism) as a Religious Phenomenon
April 8: Taoism and Chan (Zen)
  15: Taoist Aesthetics
  22: "Embodied Thinking" in the Taoist Perspective
  29: Implications


Suggested Readings

Bauer, Wolfgang, China and the Search for Happiness: Recurring Themes in Four
     Thousand Years of Chinese Cultural History, trans. from the German, Michael Shaw
     (New York, 1976).
Chang, Chung-yuan, Creativity and Taoism (New York, 1963).
Creel, Herrlee G., What is Taoism? And Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History
     (Chicago, 1970).
Finazzo, Giancarlo, The Notion of Tao in Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu (Taipei, 1968).
Girardot, N. J., Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (hun-tun)
     (Berkeley, 1983).
Graham, A.C., trans., Chuang Tzu: The Seven Inner Chapter and Other Writings from the
     Book Chuang-tzu (London, 1981).
Izutsu, Tashihiko, Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts
     (reprint; Berkeley, 1983).
Kaltenmark, Max, Lao Tzu and Taoism, trans. from the French, Roger Creaves (Stanford,
     1975).
Lau, D. C., trans. Tao Te Ching (London, 1963).
Lu K'uan Yu, Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality (New York, 1970).
Maspero, Henri, Taoism and Chinese Religion, trans. from the French, Frank A. Kierman,
     Jr. (Amherest, 1981).
Munro, Donald J., ed., Individualism and Holism: Studies in confucian and Taoist Values
     (Ann Arbor, 1985).
Porker, Manfred, The Theoretical Foundation of Chinese Medicine Systems of
     Correspondence (Cambridge, Mass., 1974).
Schipper, Kristoffer, Le Corps Taoiste (Paris, 1982).
Siu, R. G. H., Ch'i: A Neo-Taoist Approach to Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1974).
Watson, Burton, trans., Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings (New York, 1964).
Welch, Holmes and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion (New
     Haven, 1979).
Wilhelm, Richard, The Secret of the Golden Flower (London, 1947).
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