Chinese Religion: An Anthology of Sources

About this book

For centuries westerners have referred to Chinas numerous traditions of spiritual expression as "religious"--a word born of western thought that cannot completely characterize the passionate writing that fills the pages of this pathbreaking anthology. The first of its kind in well over thirty years this text offers the student of Chinese ritual and cosmology the broadest range of primary sources from antiquity to the modern era. Readings are arranged chronologically and cover such concepts as Taoism Confucianism Buddhism and even communism. A large number of the selections concern the role of the female in Chinese religion and are either by or about women. Through invocations poetry drama philosophical texts religious treatises and modern fiction students hear the voices of numerous Chinese masters expounding on the movements and traditions that inspired them: the mysterious Tao-te ching of Lao Tzu cloaked in the mists of deepest antiquity; the Analects of stately reverent Confucius; "Nailing a Stick into Empty Space " from The Recorded Conversations of Chan Master I-hsuan and many others including the work of Mencius Pan Chao Han Shan Chang Tsai Wang Yang-ming Lu Hsun and Mao Tse-tung. Fully one third of the translations are new and each reading is preceded by an introduction that explains its importance and salient features. Complete with a helpful chronology of dynasties and list of possible video sources this remarkable volume collects under one cover the most significant and influential works of Chinas dynamic spiritual tradition making a fundamental contribution to courses in Chinese religion literature and history.