A Stairway to Heaven

Daoist Self-Cultivation in Early Modern China
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-69569-6
Verlag: World Bank Publications

Buch, Englisch, Band 166, 500 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 862 g

Reihe: Sinica Leidensia

By the eleventh century, communities of religious practitioners in China had developed a theory and practice of meditative self-cultivation that combined the so-called Three Teachings. By the seventeenth century, Wu Shouyang created a synthesis of the various lineages of this “inner alchemy,” combining it with elements from Buddhism and Confucianism. By the late nineteenth century, his writings had become bestsellers in the genre and his became the standard account of this tradition.
This first book-length English-language study of Wu Shouyang’s life and works introduces his remarkable life and formulates answers to fundamental questions about this important tradition.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Enckevort, Paul van

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Östliche Religionen Taoismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgements

Note to Reader

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 What This Book Is About

2 Some Notes on Semantics

3 Interpretation

4 Literature Review

5 What Can Be Expected in the Following Chapters

1 History and Religion

1 Quanzhen and Longmen

2 Inner Alchemy

2 An Immortal in the Family

1 Sources

2 1574–1593

3 1593–1612

4 1612–1644

5 The Lineage

6 Miscellaneous Biographical Themes

3 Writing and Publishing

1 Works, Editions, and Texts

2 Comparing the Editions

3 Writing and Publication History

4 The Way of Immortality

1 The Stages

2 Refining the Self and Returning to Emptiness

3 The First Pass

4 The Middle Pass

5 The Upper Pass

5 A Stairway to Heaven

1 Daoist Models

2 Buddhist Models

3 Wu Shouyang’s Model of Progress through Cultivation

4 Wu Shouyang’s Model of Progress through Rebirth

6 An Inversion of Nature

1 Sexual Reproduction

2 Restoring Sexual Function

3 The Bedchamber Arts

7 The Return to Emptiness

1 The Celestial Immortal as a Celestial Official

2 The Cosmological and Psychological Return to Emptiness

3 Daoist Emptiness and Buddhist Nirvana

Conclusion

1 Wu Shouyang

2 Inner Alchemy

Appendix 1: Comparing the Three Editions of the Dialogues and Other Texts

Appendix 2: Wu Shouyang’s Writings: an Annotated Bibliography

Appendix 3: Research Note on Exemplar 1

Appendix 4: Research Note on Exemplar 2

Appendix 5: Research Note on Exemplar 3

Appendix 6: Research Note on Exemplar 4

Appendix 7: Longmen Lineage (Zhang-Li-Cao-Wu)

Appendix 8: Wu Family

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Paul van Enckevort, Ph.D. (2020), Leiden University, is an independent scholar. His publications include “Quanzhen and Longmen Identities in the Works of Wu Shouyang” (2013) and “The Three Treasures: An Enquiry into the Writings of Wu Shouyang” (2014).