![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yesterday I re-read Isabelle Robinet's book Taoism: Growth of a Religion. I read this book a year ago as an introduction to religious Taoism and I thought it was very good. But as it was on the reading list I thought I'd go through it again as I didn't remember very much, except that it was good.
Reading it the second time with a better understanding of Taoism I was able to get a much clearer idea of what was being discussed. A lot seemed like review but it's definitely a good reference book for who thought what and when. It outlines nicely the difference and similarities between the different Taoist movements and gives a good list of their key texts. The celestial masters, Shangqing and Lingbao schools are all a bit clearer in my mind now. I think partly this is due to having read some of their texts in Bokencamp's Book.
Robinet's section on the Tang was a little disappointing as it didn't mention Wu Zeitian at all, however she did talk about the strange Buddhist influence Taoism that was popular at the time, and that will definitely be useful for future papers. Also on page 51 she makes reference to "liaozi bianhua jing" Book of the transformations of Laozi, which only survives as a Dun-Huang manuscript as was studied by Anna Seidel. Something to look up for the first essay,
Amusingly enough the book came with it's invoice, it cost SOAS £25 which I found funny as I think I bought mine from amazon sellers for about $15! But this book is definitely the best introduction to religious Taoism that I have found and would highly recommend it as a starting point. Hopefully one day I will be able to read it in the original French.
Reading it the second time with a better understanding of Taoism I was able to get a much clearer idea of what was being discussed. A lot seemed like review but it's definitely a good reference book for who thought what and when. It outlines nicely the difference and similarities between the different Taoist movements and gives a good list of their key texts. The celestial masters, Shangqing and Lingbao schools are all a bit clearer in my mind now. I think partly this is due to having read some of their texts in Bokencamp's Book.
Robinet's section on the Tang was a little disappointing as it didn't mention Wu Zeitian at all, however she did talk about the strange Buddhist influence Taoism that was popular at the time, and that will definitely be useful for future papers. Also on page 51 she makes reference to "liaozi bianhua jing" Book of the transformations of Laozi, which only survives as a Dun-Huang manuscript as was studied by Anna Seidel. Something to look up for the first essay,
Amusingly enough the book came with it's invoice, it cost SOAS £25 which I found funny as I think I bought mine from amazon sellers for about $15! But this book is definitely the best introduction to religious Taoism that I have found and would highly recommend it as a starting point. Hopefully one day I will be able to read it in the original French.