Daoist Modern : Innovation, Lay Practice, and the Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai / Xun Liu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Liu, Xun, author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 313.

Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 313

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chen, Yingning, 1880-1969--Influence.

Chen, Yingning.

Community life--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.

Community life.

Laity--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.

Laity.

Mind and body--Social aspects--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.

Mind and body.

Social change--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.

Social change.

Taoism--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.

Taoism.

China--History--Republic, 1912-1949.

China.

Shanghai (China)--Politics and government--20th century.

Shanghai (China).

Shanghai (China)--Religious life and customs.

Shanghai (China)--Social conditions--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 396 p. :) ill. ;

Distribution:

Leiden; Boston : BRILL, 2009.

Other Title:

Innovation, Lay Practice, and the Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai

Place of Publication:

Boston : Harvard University Asia Center, 2009.

Summary:

This book explores the Daoist encounter with modernity through the activities of Chen Yingning (1880-1969), a famous lay Daoist master, and his group in early twentieth-century Shanghai. In contrast to the usual narrative of Daoist decay, with its focus on monastic decline, clerical corruption, and popular superstitions, this study tells a story of Daoist resilience, reinvigoration, and revival.Between the 1920s and 1940s, Chen led a group of urban lay followers in pursuing Daoist self-cultivation techniques as a way of ensuring health, promoting spirituality, forging cultural self-identity, building community, and strengthening the nation. In their efforts to renew and reform Daoism, Chen and his followers became deeply engaged with nationalism, science, the religious reform movements, the new urban print culture, and other forces of modernity.Since Chen and his fellow practitioners conceived of the Daoist self-cultivation tradition as a public resource, they also transformed it from an "esoteric" pursuit into a public practice, offering a modernizing society a means of managing the body and the mind and of forging a new cultural, spiritual, and religious identity.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction

Late Qing and Early Republican Daoism

A Journey from Anqing to Shanghai

Innovating the Immortals' Body

Practice Makes Perfect

The Inner Alchemic Community

The Print Culture and Revival of Inner Alchemy

Conclusion

Chen Yingning and Post-1949 Daoism

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Harvard East Asian Monographs.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-68417-486-4

OCLC:

1132226497

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9781684174867 DOI