This volume covers Quanzhen Daoism both as a historical phenomenon and a living religion. The contributors explore continuities and innovations in the realm of geneaological discourse canonical compilation and transmission and ritual codification. Also discussed is the relationship of Quanzhen Daoism the state and local society.
Xun Liu is professor of history at Rutgers University. His research addresses the history of Daoism and the impact of Daoists temples upon local culture and society. He is the author of Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice and the Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai (2009) and coeditor of Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 1500–2010 (IEAS, 2013).
Education: B.A., Huazhong Normal University; Ph.D., University of Southern California
Vincent Goossaert is professor of history at École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) and serves as deputy director of Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL). He works on the social history of modern religions in China. His coedited volumes include The Religious Question in Modern China (2011) and Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 1500-2010 (IEAS, 2013).
Education: B.A., École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC); M.A., Université Paris 4 DEA, Sciences Religieuses, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris; Ph.D., Sciences Religieuses, EPHE, Paris
“The volume reads like a lively and always precise introduction to the social and cultural role that religious figures and traditions played in late imperial and modern China. Quanzhen presence is shown to have been overwhelming. This is explained by Gossaert’s [sic] intriguing list of this group’s multiple identities….The volume is an essential contribution to the history of religion in China on methodological grounds documented in particular in the introduction and because of its wealth of materials.”—Barbara Hendrischke University of Sydney Religious Studies Review 41 no. 3 (September 2015): 127.
“This detailed work is aimed at specialists in the field but also at a wider intellectual audience interested in Chinese society as a whole and the complex religious landscape that in part defines it. It will doubtless become a precious manual for university students of religious studies and Chinese history….One major appeal of the work is that through variations in approach scale and perspective (historical Sinological sociological and anthropological) it succeeds in demonstrating that Quanzhen has not been a homogeneous category in time or space.” —Adeline Herrou Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Laboratoire d’Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative (France) Daoism: Religion History and Society no. 8 (2016): 294–309.
398 pp.6 x 9
9781557291073$35.00|£30.00Paper
Dec 2013