Taoism

 

 

TAO.  A road, a path, the way by which people travel,

the way of nature and finally the Way of ultimate Reality.

 

"The Way to do is to be."

 

Wei wu wei. This paradoxical expression is the key to Chinese mysticism. It cannot be translated literally and still render its meaning. Wei is a verb corresponding to the English do or act but sometimes meaning other things, depending on the expression. Wu is a negative. Thus, clumsily, wei wu wei is to do without doing, To act without action. Put positively, it means to get along as nature does: the world gets created, living things grow and pass away without any sign of effort.

During the third century, B.C.E., another group developed an indigenous and probably very ancient dualism into a more or less systematic purview of nature.They became known as the "Yin-Yang" experts. Their writings have perished, but from quotations, it is known that they developed cosmological ideas and a limited amount of geographical information comparable to that of the early Ionian thinkers.

Yin and Yang are the famed cognates of Chinese thought about nature. Generally speaking, Yin stands for a constellation of such qualities as shade ("on the north side of a hill") darkness, cold, negativeness, weakness, female; while Yang ("on the south side of a hill") denotes light, heat, strength, positiveness, maleness. The Yin-Yang experts regarded the interaction of these cognates as the explanation of all change in the universe. Not even politics was exempt.

 

 

 

Chinese Symbolism & Art Motifs:

 A comprehensive handbook on symbolism

in Chinese art through the ages

By C. A. S. Williams, 1974

 

The Shambhala Dictionary of Taoism

By Ingrid Fisher-Schreiber

Translated by Werner Wunsche, 1996

 

The Way of Life:

 According to Lao Tzu

An American Version

Translated

by Witter Bynner, 1944/1980

 

The Way of Life

By Lao Tzu 

  A New Translation of the Tao Te Ching

By R. B. Blakney, 1955

 

The Secret of the Golden Flower:

A Chinese Book of Life

 Translated and Explained by Richard Wilhelm, 1962

 

The Way of Chuang Tzu

By Thomas Merton, 1969

 

Lao Tzu and Taoism

By Max Kaltenmark

Translated from the French

by Roger Creaves, 1969

 

Taoism: The Parting of the Way

By Holmes Welch, 1970

 

Creativity and Taoism:

A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art, and Poetry

By Chang Chung-yuan, 1970,

 

Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain

the essence of Tai Chi

By Al Chung-liang Huang, 1973

 

Taoism:

The Road to Immortally

By John Blofeld, 1978

 

Facets of Taoism:

 Essays in Chinese Religion

Edited By Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, 1979

 

The Essence of T'ai Chi Ch'uan:

 The Literary Tradition Translated and Edited

by Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo, 1985

 

Tao Te Ching:

The book of Meaning and Life by Lao Tzu

The Richard Wilhelm Edition, 1987

 

The Tao Te Ching

New translation with Commentary

By Ellen M. Chen, 1989

 

Chronicles of Tao:

 The Secret Life of a Taoist Master

by Deng Ming-Dao, 1993

 

Hua Hu Ching:

 The Latter Teachings of Lau Tzu

by Hua-Ching Ni, 1995

 

The I Ching

 

The I Ching

or

Book of Changes

 The Richard Wilhelm Translation Rendered into English

by Cary F. Baynes, 1950

Foreward by C. G. Jung

Bollingen Series XIX 

 

 

I Ching

 Edited and with an Introduction

by Raymond Van Over

Based on the translation

by James Legge, 1971

 

Secrets of the I Ching

by Joseph Murphy, 1973

 

I Ching:

 A New Interpretation for Modern Times

by Sam Reifler, 1974/91

 

 

Understand the I Ching:

 The History and use of the world's most ancient system of divination

 By Tom Riseman, 1980

 

I Ching

By Kerson and Rosemary Huang, 1987