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The Daoist Monastic Manual by Livia Kohn. Kohn is definitely one of the most prolific modern scholars on Taoism. However, my own professor questions her ability with Classical Chinese, arguing that she is far too prolific to have any deep understanding. But I find I still enjoy her books, though agree that sometimes her conclusions can be a bit broad. This book is a translation of a text on rules for monastic orders within Taoism, the Fengdao kejie. The exact dating is not that precise, estimated at around the 6th century, it is included in the Taoist canon, and 60 percent of it was found among the Dunhuang manuscripts.
She used the manual to write her own book on Taoist Monastic Life, which I have not read. The criticism of that book has been that Kohn seems to take the ideal described in the text for a true vision of how things were. By reading her translation you can get a step closer to the text, however with all translations the authors bias comes through. Unlike most translations she doesn't include the classical Chinese, only her interpretation of it, with a glossary at the end.
One of the more interesting phrases that appeared time and again in the precepts was, "all Daoists whether male of female" having had her linguistic skills questioned by my professor I took it in to have him verify that that was indeed what those characters meant. It was interesting to see them repeated time and again, how this apparently showed a lack of gender bias among Taoists, at least in their ideal state. This equality is shown in several places, the only difference in clothing for the women was their headdress, otherwise they were given the same respect. The ranks of the Taoist Priests were available to men and women. Kohn makes the interesting distinction here between Chinese and European clergy. In Christianity Priests are trained to handle the sacraments, preach, while monks and nuns live cloistered lives of worship and prayer. This was not true for the Taoist priest, whether male or female, they were also active participants in the community. A Daoist nun, or better priestess, would also be involved in teaching, preaching, taking disciples, and performing services. One interesting thing is that Kohn does not mention that at this time most priests were married. The idea of married clergy, (whether male or female) is not mentioned at all in her book. This is quite strange as at this time it was still common for Taoists to be married, and it was only later in the Complete Perfection school that true monasticism became common. (As I have been led to believe)
I would have liked to have seen some interpretation or evaluation of how closely the text matched with actual practices. The egalitarian nature of the text was very interesting, however without this information it is really hard to place the role of women in the religion. While all the levels were open to both men and women how many women actually were enrolled in all the levels? How did these numbers compare to those of men? How widespread in China during this time were these monasteries? Were there private monasteries or all government sponsored? Where they true monastic settings, or only temporary retreats?
Still a book which will be helpful to me in essay and in my dissertation.
She used the manual to write her own book on Taoist Monastic Life, which I have not read. The criticism of that book has been that Kohn seems to take the ideal described in the text for a true vision of how things were. By reading her translation you can get a step closer to the text, however with all translations the authors bias comes through. Unlike most translations she doesn't include the classical Chinese, only her interpretation of it, with a glossary at the end.
One of the more interesting phrases that appeared time and again in the precepts was, "all Daoists whether male of female" having had her linguistic skills questioned by my professor I took it in to have him verify that that was indeed what those characters meant. It was interesting to see them repeated time and again, how this apparently showed a lack of gender bias among Taoists, at least in their ideal state. This equality is shown in several places, the only difference in clothing for the women was their headdress, otherwise they were given the same respect. The ranks of the Taoist Priests were available to men and women. Kohn makes the interesting distinction here between Chinese and European clergy. In Christianity Priests are trained to handle the sacraments, preach, while monks and nuns live cloistered lives of worship and prayer. This was not true for the Taoist priest, whether male or female, they were also active participants in the community. A Daoist nun, or better priestess, would also be involved in teaching, preaching, taking disciples, and performing services. One interesting thing is that Kohn does not mention that at this time most priests were married. The idea of married clergy, (whether male or female) is not mentioned at all in her book. This is quite strange as at this time it was still common for Taoists to be married, and it was only later in the Complete Perfection school that true monasticism became common. (As I have been led to believe)
I would have liked to have seen some interpretation or evaluation of how closely the text matched with actual practices. The egalitarian nature of the text was very interesting, however without this information it is really hard to place the role of women in the religion. While all the levels were open to both men and women how many women actually were enrolled in all the levels? How did these numbers compare to those of men? How widespread in China during this time were these monasteries? Were there private monasteries or all government sponsored? Where they true monastic settings, or only temporary retreats?
Still a book which will be helpful to me in essay and in my dissertation.