Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China

Pregadio F (2006)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Authored book, Monography

Publication year: 2006

Publisher: Stanford University Press

City/Town: Stanford, CA

URI: https://www.goldenelixir.com/publications/great_clarity.html

Abstract

This is the first book to examine extensively the religious aspects of Chinese alchemy. Its main focus is the relation of alchemy to the Daoist traditions of the early medieval period (third to sixth centuries). It shows how alchemy contributed to and was tightly integrated into the elaborate body of doctrines and practices that Daoists built at that time, from which Daoism as we know it today evolved. The book also clarifies the origins of Chinese alchemy and the respective roles of alchemy and meditation in self-cultivation practices. It contains full translations of three important medieval texts, all of them accompanied by running commentaries, making available for the first time in English the gist of the early Chinese alchemical corpus.

Translated into Chinese by Han Jishao 韓吉紹 as Taiqing: Zhongguo zhonggu zaoqi de daojiao he liandanshu 太清－中国中古早期的道教和炼丹术 (Jinan: Qi Lu shushe, 2016)

Authors with CRIS profile

Fabrizio Pregadio Chair for Sinology with a focus on the Intellectual and Cultural History of China (Alexander von Humboldt-Professor)

How to cite

APA:

Pregadio, F. (2006). Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

MLA:

Pregadio, Fabrizio. Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.

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