Essays on Daoist Culture
A Hundred Thousand Questions About the Dao
Starting with a detail in an object, an action, a person, or an institution, these essays follow texts and images to ask how Daoist culture took shape, and how it illuminates the human condition.
Contents
46 entriesArticles
- 01So Even Immortality Has Ranks: What Exactly Are Tianxia, Xianxia, and Jianxia?1,534 words
- 02Does Greater Spirituality Mean a Weaker Body? The Spirit Has Gone Ahead, but Life Has Yet to Catch Up1,254 words
- 03Why Do Daoist Priests Write Official Documents to the Celestial Court?1,274 words
- 04Why Do Gods Dwell in the Body? Another Map of the Human Body in the “Scripture of the Yellow Court”1,442 words
- 05Why Does a Daoist Talisman Look Like Neither Writing nor a Picture?1,456 words
- 06Why Is a Daoist Talisman Often Burned?1,208 words
- 07Deities and Immortals Have Names, So Why Can’t We Call Them Casually?1,414 words
- 08Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands: Geography or Another World?1,376 words
- 09Why Do Daoist Priests Perform Rituals with a Mirror?1,098 words
- 10Why Do Daoist Priests Walk on the Stars?1,284 words
- 11“Act at Once, in Accordance with the Statutes!”—Who Is Being Ordered?1,006 words
- 12How Can a Wooden Sword Cut What Cannot Be Seen?1,026 words
- 13Why Do Immortals Need Registration Records Too?1,011 words
- 14Why Does a Daoist Priest's Scripture Recitation Sound Like Singing?962 words
- 15Who Is the Empty Chair at a Ritual Altar Reserved For?1,041 words
- 16Why Would a Daoist Nurture an “Infant” Inside the Body?1,032 words
- 17Why Is a Talisman's Most Important Part Called Its “Gallbladder”?1,044 words
- 18Do Immortals Have to Undergo Assessments Too?1,153 words
- 19Was Lan Caihe Male or Female? Why Did Earlier Writers Never Make It Clear?1,280 words
- 20Why Is Zhongli Quan Also Called “Han Zhongli”?1,138 words
- 21Why Can We Recognize the Eight Immortals When Not One Appears in the Picture?1,072 words
- 22Why Can Zhang Guolao Fold His Donkey into a Box?1,037 words
- 23Why Keep a Body with a Limp After Becoming Immortal?1,158 words
- 24How Did Eight People from Different Eras Become the Eight Immortals?1,373 words
- 25Why Does the Great Emperor Zhenwu Wear His Hair Loose and Go Barefoot?1,393 words
- 26When Did Laozi Become the Most High Lord Lao?1,432 words
- 27Why Did Wang Chongyang Call His Retreat the “Tomb of the Living Dead”?1,233 words
- 28How Did the Queen Mother of the West Go from Tiger Teeth and a Leopard Tail to Head of the Female Immortals?1,511 words
- 29Why Can Some Daoist Priests Marry While Others Cannot?1,615 words
- 30Why Does Wearing a Ritual Robe Seem Like Wearing the Whole Celestial World?1,173 words
- 31Why Did Wu Zetian Ask for Her Transgressions to Be Removed on a Golden Tablet?1,132 words
- 32After Pursuing His Enemy for Twelve Years, Why Did Wang Lingguan Become His Disciple?1,046 words
- 33Why Was Tao Hongjing Called the “Prime Minister in the Mountains” After Retiring?1,102 words
- 34Why Does the Thunder God Have a Bird's Beak and Carry a Hammer?1,099 words
- 35Why Was Zhang Lu Not Afraid People Would Take Too Much Roadside Rice and Meat?1,117 words
- 36Qiu Chuji Traveled for Two Years—Then Told Genghis Khan There Was “No Drug for Immortality”?1,286 words
- 37Why Did the Thought of a Back Scratch from Magu Lead to a Whipping?1,210 words
- 38Ge Hong Sought Immortality, but Complained About Costly Medicines When Compiling Remedies1,412 words
- 39Fei Changfang Lost a Talisman—and His Life1,407 words
- 40Wang Zhi Watched a Go Game, Then Returned Home to Find No One He Knew1,223 words
- 41The Emperor Asked Chen Tuan About Making Gold; He Urged Him to Govern the Realm1,451 words
- 42Zuo Ci Fished the Bass Cao Cao Wanted from a Bronze Basin1,207 words
- 43Duxian Was One Step Away—Then Du Zichun Cried Out1,444 words
- 44The “Heavenly Text” in the Ox’s Belly Gave Shaoweng Away1,303 words
- 45Guo Pu Said He Would Die That Very Day1,361 words
- 46How Did Huang Chuping’s Sheep Become a Mountain of White Stones?1,232 words
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