What do you think?
Rate this book
Tao: de levende religie van China
In Tao beschrijft Kristoffer Schipper in heldere taal de geschiedenis van de Chinese leer. Hij verdiept zich in de rituelen die erbij horen en de elementen waaruit de leer is opgebouwd, zoals de grote aandacht voor het menselijk lichaam en de kosmologie. Tao is zowel een uitstekende inleiding voor de buitenstaander als waardevol studiemateriaal voor wie meer vertrouwd is met de leer.
Daarnaast is het boek essentieel voor wie iets meer van China wil weten. Het land is voor de westerse beschouwer niet goed te begrijpen zonder kennis van deze eeuwenoude levensbeschouwing. In alles wat er de afgelopen eeuw in dit machtige rijk is voorgevallen, zowel onder het maoïsme als tijdens de gigantische industrialisatie, heeft de Tao bewust of onbewust doorgewerkt.
Tao is veel meer dan een godsdienst, het is een manier van kijken en een manier van in het leven staan. Een religie zonder gelovigen en zonder canonieke leerstellingen.
Daarnaast is het boek essentieel voor wie iets meer van China wil weten. Het land is voor de westerse beschouwer niet goed te begrijpen zonder kennis van deze eeuwenoude levensbeschouwing. In alles wat er de afgelopen eeuw in dit machtige rijk is voorgevallen, zowel onder het maoïsme als tijdens de gigantische industrialisatie, heeft de Tao bewust of onbewust doorgewerkt.
Tao is veel meer dan een godsdienst, het is een manier van kijken en een manier van in het leven staan. Een religie zonder gelovigen en zonder canonieke leerstellingen.
317 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
17 people are currently reading
288 people want to read
About the author
Kristofer Schipper
24 books11 followersKristofer Schipper was als hoogleraar verbonden aan de Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Parijs en de Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. Momenteel woont en werkt hij in Fuzhou, China. Hij is een groot kenner van het taoïsme. Eerder verscheen van hem de vertaling van De innerlijke geschriften. [Uitgeverij Augustus]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 21, 2014
The Taoist Body written by Kristofer Schipper was pretty unique when it came out in 1982. It was one of the first serious attempts by western scholarship to look at "religious Taoism" and treat it with respect and as the true descendant of the works of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi that had held the elevated position of "philosophical Taoism" considered to be worthwhile by the west. This dichotomy was largely the fault of the first western translators of Chinese texts, James Legge, a Christian missionary, saw the philosophical value of the classical texts but wanted to divorce them from any religious context and so the divide became known to western readers and stayed in most people's minds for almost a hundred years. It is now commonly accepted among scholars that there is no separate division between so called philosophical and religious Taoism but that they are the same thing. This is fairly recent and in large part due to the work of Kristofer Schipper.
What makes Kristofer Schipper even more interesting an author was that he was the first westerner who ever became an ordained Taoist priest. He originally went to Taiwan to study but disgusted with the attitudes he met there towards "superstitious" practices he left the university and went and lived in a small village in the south of Taiwan and experienced everything for himself. As he had been a trained singologist before he was amazed to see the texts he'd been studying being used as part of regular ritual. This makes for a very interesting perspective in his writing.
A lot of the book outlines specific Taoist rituals as they were practiced at the time in Taiwan. While the outline of rituals is familiar to anyone who has read any anthropological accounts of religious rituals in Taiwan, the fact that he understands the rituals from the standpoint of a participant makes for a greater understanding and a less stand offish perspective. It also means much less jargon and theory than a typical anthropological account.
Because what Schipper is describing is a living religion he doesn't follow the typical progress of an introductory book on Taoism, starting with the classical texts and how these influenced later thoughts. Rather he starts with the everyday religion as it's practiced, looking at who practices it, how they become Taoists, what the rituals and the festivals are. He then progresses to the ideas behind the rituals, looking at the concepts of gods and spiritual power and how these are represented in rituals. I found his look at medium-ship and spirit possession particularly interesting.
After the look of communal Taoism he looks at the individual cultivation of the Tao. His book focuses on the idea that Taoism is something that one needs to feel in your body rather than understand intellectually in your mind. He looks at the imagery of the body being the inner landscape and the principles of Lao Zi and Keeping the one.
The chapter on the immortals was particularly interesting, while not as detailed or as analytical as later works such as Robert Ford Campany's it was a good overview and introduction and held together his ideas and themes well.
Schipper writes with an ease of explanation, though at times his frustration with people who have persecuted Taoism over the years comes through a bit too strongly. What he describes seems to just be the work of his own personal study until you start looking through the extensive footnotes in the back and the pages of Chinese texts that he has translated his ideas and stories from. His study goes far beyond just the standard works of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. When he finally does address those works in the last chapter. They are analyzed with the same ideas that have progressed through the rest of the book. Now the reader has the ideas of Taoism it is easy to see these ideas in the older texts, a much better progression I think than trying to initially explain the texts and then say how these fit in with the religious ideas.
The only problem with this book was that it was an English translation of a French book. There is always something a little disconcerting about reading someone else's translation of an author's translation of a religious text. A translation 2 times removed seems extra difficult for understanding the true meaning. Nonetheless this book was an interesting and refreshing look at Taoism and I'm sure is partly responsible for many of the later works in the field.
What makes Kristofer Schipper even more interesting an author was that he was the first westerner who ever became an ordained Taoist priest. He originally went to Taiwan to study but disgusted with the attitudes he met there towards "superstitious" practices he left the university and went and lived in a small village in the south of Taiwan and experienced everything for himself. As he had been a trained singologist before he was amazed to see the texts he'd been studying being used as part of regular ritual. This makes for a very interesting perspective in his writing.
A lot of the book outlines specific Taoist rituals as they were practiced at the time in Taiwan. While the outline of rituals is familiar to anyone who has read any anthropological accounts of religious rituals in Taiwan, the fact that he understands the rituals from the standpoint of a participant makes for a greater understanding and a less stand offish perspective. It also means much less jargon and theory than a typical anthropological account.
Because what Schipper is describing is a living religion he doesn't follow the typical progress of an introductory book on Taoism, starting with the classical texts and how these influenced later thoughts. Rather he starts with the everyday religion as it's practiced, looking at who practices it, how they become Taoists, what the rituals and the festivals are. He then progresses to the ideas behind the rituals, looking at the concepts of gods and spiritual power and how these are represented in rituals. I found his look at medium-ship and spirit possession particularly interesting.
After the look of communal Taoism he looks at the individual cultivation of the Tao. His book focuses on the idea that Taoism is something that one needs to feel in your body rather than understand intellectually in your mind. He looks at the imagery of the body being the inner landscape and the principles of Lao Zi and Keeping the one.
The chapter on the immortals was particularly interesting, while not as detailed or as analytical as later works such as Robert Ford Campany's it was a good overview and introduction and held together his ideas and themes well.
Schipper writes with an ease of explanation, though at times his frustration with people who have persecuted Taoism over the years comes through a bit too strongly. What he describes seems to just be the work of his own personal study until you start looking through the extensive footnotes in the back and the pages of Chinese texts that he has translated his ideas and stories from. His study goes far beyond just the standard works of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. When he finally does address those works in the last chapter. They are analyzed with the same ideas that have progressed through the rest of the book. Now the reader has the ideas of Taoism it is easy to see these ideas in the older texts, a much better progression I think than trying to initially explain the texts and then say how these fit in with the religious ideas.
The only problem with this book was that it was an English translation of a French book. There is always something a little disconcerting about reading someone else's translation of an author's translation of a religious text. A translation 2 times removed seems extra difficult for understanding the true meaning. Nonetheless this book was an interesting and refreshing look at Taoism and I'm sure is partly responsible for many of the later works in the field.
February 5, 2022
A very good reference on Taoist ritual practice and theory.
"[...] In translating the Bible, the missionaries adopted the word 'shen' to mean "god", but this was a rather unfortunate translation. The Chinese "gods"—we shall see that it is really a question of patron saints—are not called simply shen but shen-ming, which literally means "radiance of the celestial soul," thus referring to a divine and supernatural force. For then means "soul," not in the Christian sense of the word, but as one of the many souls with which human beings are endowed. Chinese ontology recognizes several spiritual principles that together make up the human person: a human is a complex being, a composite of diverse essences. This notion is grounded in cosmology. [...] "
******************
"[...] In order to install the Taoist altar, some changes are necessary. The statues of the gods are taken out of the niches in the north wall, the noble side, opposite the entrance, and placed on the south, opposite their former position, on the most humble side. The community often protests this apparent demotion of the gods. (48)
(48). This example illustrates the basic misunderstanding between laymen and tao-shih. The supreme gods of the faithful are just half-gods or demons in the eyes of the Masters. The tao-shih keep this understanding, which is part of their initiation, secret and do not reveal it to the common people."
(tao-shih = Taoist priest)
*****************
"In recent years the world has seen the development of a kind of fictitious Taoism which is propagated in popular kung-fu movies. There also is nowadays a form of purely theoretical Taoism adhered to by intellectuals, therapists, acupuncturists, and public service officials (serving on the "National Association of Taoism") of the Chinese government. But true Taoism is not merely a cult, nor a system, nor a therapeutic technique. It is, above all, the liturgical structure of local communities; it therefore belongs to the daily life of the people."
"[...] In translating the Bible, the missionaries adopted the word 'shen' to mean "god", but this was a rather unfortunate translation. The Chinese "gods"—we shall see that it is really a question of patron saints—are not called simply shen but shen-ming, which literally means "radiance of the celestial soul," thus referring to a divine and supernatural force. For then means "soul," not in the Christian sense of the word, but as one of the many souls with which human beings are endowed. Chinese ontology recognizes several spiritual principles that together make up the human person: a human is a complex being, a composite of diverse essences. This notion is grounded in cosmology. [...] "
******************
"[...] In order to install the Taoist altar, some changes are necessary. The statues of the gods are taken out of the niches in the north wall, the noble side, opposite the entrance, and placed on the south, opposite their former position, on the most humble side. The community often protests this apparent demotion of the gods. (48)
(48). This example illustrates the basic misunderstanding between laymen and tao-shih. The supreme gods of the faithful are just half-gods or demons in the eyes of the Masters. The tao-shih keep this understanding, which is part of their initiation, secret and do not reveal it to the common people."
(tao-shih = Taoist priest)
*****************
"In recent years the world has seen the development of a kind of fictitious Taoism which is propagated in popular kung-fu movies. There also is nowadays a form of purely theoretical Taoism adhered to by intellectuals, therapists, acupuncturists, and public service officials (serving on the "National Association of Taoism") of the Chinese government. But true Taoism is not merely a cult, nor a system, nor a therapeutic technique. It is, above all, the liturgical structure of local communities; it therefore belongs to the daily life of the people."
July 5, 2019
This book is probably the most widely cited work on Religious Daoism in any language. With this book Schipper set the standard for the entire field of Daoist studies in both history and anthropology. It is fascinating reading based on the author's personal experiences of becoming a Daoist priest in Taiwan.
Read
November 30, 2020Skimmed. Seems like it was a highly notable work of its time, but it feels very exploratory to me compared to the books that built from this foundation.
May 28, 2017
Appointing anything short of five stars to this seminal work of Western scholarship on Chinese religiousity betrays a lack of familiarity with the subjects at hand on side of the reader. The author's groundbreaking work in organizing the Daoist canon as well as his vast first-hand experience with Celestial Master's Daoism in Taiwan makes him one of the leading figures in research on Daoism and "folk religion" alike, both in Chinese and foreign academia.
September 14, 2021
On the cover of this book, Taoism is called one of the great "world religions", but that surely is hyperbole. Taoism is restricted to China (just as Shinto is restricted to Japan), so I find it difficult to call it one of the great "world" religions. Moreover, it only survives on Taiwan and in Hong Kong, and seems mostly extinct in the PRC.
Taoism was important in the whole of China in the past centuries, but it strikes me more as a collection of folkloric beliefs of China's local communities, than an organized religion. With its stress on shamanistic mediums, exorcization and trance - where believers torture their own bodies - it is also a rather extremist and unpleasant religion. Positive elements are the care for the human body - the body is seen as the model of the world, and Taoists say "my fate is here in my body and not in heaven" - typical Chinese this-worldliness.
The most interesting thing about this book is that Kristofer Schipper (1934-2021) does not repeat old texts, but writes from the living tradition. He was a Sinologist and professor in Paris and Leiden, who in 1962 went to Taiwan, where he discovered ‘living’ Taoism. He became a disciple of Taoist masters and studied the rituals as practiced on Taiwan, and in 1967 was himself ordained as Taoist Master by the 63rd Generation Celestial Master Zhang Enpu.
Schipper also asserts that our making a difference between philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism is wrong - he says there is only one Taoism, the religious type. After reading his book, I beg to differ - or at least, I should say that I much prefer the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings as great wisdom books and literary works - I don't need religious Taoism which strikes me as a rather weird religion (but there is of course nothing wrong to study it from an academic point of view).
Taoism was important in the whole of China in the past centuries, but it strikes me more as a collection of folkloric beliefs of China's local communities, than an organized religion. With its stress on shamanistic mediums, exorcization and trance - where believers torture their own bodies - it is also a rather extremist and unpleasant religion. Positive elements are the care for the human body - the body is seen as the model of the world, and Taoists say "my fate is here in my body and not in heaven" - typical Chinese this-worldliness.
The most interesting thing about this book is that Kristofer Schipper (1934-2021) does not repeat old texts, but writes from the living tradition. He was a Sinologist and professor in Paris and Leiden, who in 1962 went to Taiwan, where he discovered ‘living’ Taoism. He became a disciple of Taoist masters and studied the rituals as practiced on Taiwan, and in 1967 was himself ordained as Taoist Master by the 63rd Generation Celestial Master Zhang Enpu.
Schipper also asserts that our making a difference between philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism is wrong - he says there is only one Taoism, the religious type. After reading his book, I beg to differ - or at least, I should say that I much prefer the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings as great wisdom books and literary works - I don't need religious Taoism which strikes me as a rather weird religion (but there is of course nothing wrong to study it from an academic point of view).
February 8, 2022
An incredible introduction to the religious aspects of daoism that are criminally understudied among western scholars. Covered here are many often forgotten aspects of daoism, the ignorance of which has led to many partial knowledges among western readers of Chinese philosophy. A must-read for anyone interested in Chinese philosophy and religion.
November 24, 2020
Schipper's The Taoist Body is seminal as an introductory tome about Daoism and Chinese folk religion. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in trying to get an understanding of Chinese religion.
July 10, 2025
Diepgaand overzicht van de complexe geschiedenis en interpretatie. Sterke focus op rituelen en de beschrijving ervan in sommige hoofdstukken. In de recente digitale editie (e-book) die ik las stonden best veel taal- en spellingsfouten.
March 10, 2017
A theological-anthropology of Religious Taoism. Of course a must-read masterpiece.....
July 30, 2018
An absolutely essential read.
September 20, 2021
Excellent description of Schipper's experiences as a student of village Taoism. He draws the distinction between the academic vision of Taoism and the practical experiences of being a Taoist priest.
Read
May 28, 2025I don't think I really understood this book.
December 29, 2013
This was assigned for a class on Gender, Body, and Religion in China and I thought it was a good introduction to Taoism. There are some issues with it, such as generalizations made about the whole of Taoism even though Schipper only had experiences in Taiwan. I'm sure an expert in Taoism would have more to say about it, but overall, I thought it a very useful text.
May 31, 2008
Excellent introduction to Taoism. However, has a specific later viewpoint from the celestial masters. Classic in Taoism studies.
August 14, 2024
very informative? i guess 5 stars for book 4 stars for taoism? want more pictures :/
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews