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Bill found my a copy of Kaltenmarks book Lao Tsu et le taoisme last year but alas my french then was not good enough to read a book on mystical philosophy. But Professor Ebrey recommended it to me and so I broke down and went and found myself a copy in English. The French edition is beautifully illustrated with lots of Daoist artwork, unfortunately there are no pictures in the English version.
The book itself is a very good introduction to the subject of Daoism. It looks more at the philosophical side of Daoism than the religious side. Though it does have an interesting chapter on religious Daoism. I think this book is a nice compliment to Isabelle Robinet's book that focused mainly on the history of the religious side, though she argued that you can't really split the two into two distinct categories.
Kaltenmark looked at the history of the earliest philosophers, what we know and don't know. And then tried to explain the key concepts as written by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tsu. (as they are called in wade giles, the book originally being written in 1964). I was very pleased to find that the passage I had been translating in my classic Chinese textbook was from the very first chapter of Lao Tzu, Tao de Ching. There was something amazingly wonderful about translating ancient daoist wisdom with a migrane, half blind. While AC Graham still remains my favorite author on explaining daoist concepts, this book also did a very good job. It was a nice succinct introduction to the subject. It was a good refresher for me before I start my Ge Hong book that I got last week. And now I've read the English I think I'm brave enough to attempt to start the French.
The book itself is a very good introduction to the subject of Daoism. It looks more at the philosophical side of Daoism than the religious side. Though it does have an interesting chapter on religious Daoism. I think this book is a nice compliment to Isabelle Robinet's book that focused mainly on the history of the religious side, though she argued that you can't really split the two into two distinct categories.
Kaltenmark looked at the history of the earliest philosophers, what we know and don't know. And then tried to explain the key concepts as written by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tsu. (as they are called in wade giles, the book originally being written in 1964). I was very pleased to find that the passage I had been translating in my classic Chinese textbook was from the very first chapter of Lao Tzu, Tao de Ching. There was something amazingly wonderful about translating ancient daoist wisdom with a migrane, half blind. While AC Graham still remains my favorite author on explaining daoist concepts, this book also did a very good job. It was a nice succinct introduction to the subject. It was a good refresher for me before I start my Ge Hong book that I got last week. And now I've read the English I think I'm brave enough to attempt to start the French.