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Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism

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Release : 1988
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 607/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism by : N. J. Girardot

Download or read book Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism written by N. J. Girardot. This book was released on 1988. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism examines some of the earliest texts associated with the Daoist tradition (primarily the Daode jing, Zhuangzi, and Huainanzi) from the outlook of the comparative history of religions and finds a kind of thematic and soteriological unity rooted in the mythological symbolism of hundun, the primal chaos being and principle that is foundational for the philosophy and practice of the Dao as creatio continua in cosmic, social, and individual life. Dedicated to the proposition that ancient Chinese texts and traditions are often best understood from a broad interdisciplinary and interpretive perspective, this work when it was written challenged many prevailing conceptions of the Daode jing and Zhuangzi as primarily philosophical texts without any religious significance or affinity with the later sectarian traditions. While controversial and at times playfully provocative, the methodology and findings of this book are still important for the ongoing scholarship about Daoism in China and the world.

Myths and Meaning in Early Taoism

Download Myths and Meaning in Early Taoism PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 1983
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Myths and Meaning in Early Taoism by : N. J. Girardot

Download or read book Myths and Meaning in Early Taoism written by N. J. Girardot. This book was released on 1983. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism

Download Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2008
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism by : N. J. Girardot

Download or read book Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism written by N. J. Girardot. This book was released on 2008. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism examines some of the earliest texts associated with the Daoist tradition (primarily the Daode jing, Zhuangzi, and Huainanzi) from the outlook of the comparative history of religions and finds a kind of thematic and soteriological unity rooted in the mythological symbolism of hundun, the primal chaos being and principle that is foundational for the philosophy and practice of the Dao as creatio continua in cosmic, social, and individual life. Dedicated to the proposition that ancient Chinese texts and traditions are often best understood from a broad interdisciplinary and interpretive perspective, this work when it was written challenged many prevailing conceptions of the Daode jing and Zhuangzi as primarily "philosophical" texts without any religious significance or affinity with the later sectarian traditions. While controversial and at times playfully provocative, the methodology and findings of this book are still important for the ongoing scholarship about Daoism in China and the world.

The Flood Myths of Early China

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Author :
Release : 2012-02-01
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 227/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Flood Myths of Early China by : Mark Edward Lewis

Download or read book The Flood Myths of Early China written by Mark Edward Lewis. This book was released on 2012-02-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Chinese ideas about the construction of an ordered human space received narrative form in a set of stories dealing with the rescue of the world and its inhabitants from a universal flood. This book demonstrates how early Chinese stories of the re-creation of the world from a watery chaos provided principles underlying such fundamental units as the state, lineage, the married couple, and even the human body. These myths also supplied a charter for the major political and social institutions of Warring States (481–221 BC) and early imperial (220 BC–AD 220) China. In some versions of the tales, the flood was triggered by rebellion, while other versions linked the taming of the flood with the creation of the institution of a lineage, and still others linked the taming to the process in which the divided principles of the masculine and the feminine were joined in the married couple to produce an ordered household. While availing themselves of earlier stories and of central religious rituals of the period, these myths transformed earlier divinities or animal spirits into rulers or ministers and provided both etiologies and legitimation for the emerging political and social institutions that culminated in the creation of a unitary empire.

From Deluge to Discourse

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Author :
Release : 1996-07-03
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 342/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis From Deluge to Discourse by : Deborah Lynn Porter

Download or read book From Deluge to Discourse written by Deborah Lynn Porter. This book was released on 1996-07-03. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with a reevaluation of the critical scholarship done on the Chinese text, the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan, the author challenges the view of the text as a product of historical composition. Porter then argues that the discursive structures of flood myths, elements of which appear in the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan, have their origins in an attempt to mediate linguistically the frightening consequences of the falsification of cosmological truths. The heuristic potential of the psychoanalytical theory of the symbol is used to explain the specific cosmogonic intentions underlying the genesis of myth, as well as broader manifestations of historical, social, and cultural behavior, most particularly literary works like the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan. The author explains how mythic symbols invested with cosmogonic and regenerative significance are appropriated in the literary resolution of a socio-political trauma analogous to those mediated by flood myths. Finally, she argues that not simply the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan but Chinese fictional discourse in general is most appropriately understood as a wholly symbolic form.

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