I must say that, after a quick overview, I began The Shambala Guide to Taoism wondering if it was appropriately scholarly to fit my interests or needs. It grew on me from the first pages.

Wong has divided her expose into three parts: historical information, systems of Taoism, and Taoist practices. The historical section is, itself, subdivided, as it describes ancient shamanistic practices and traces their development into early Taoism. In this section on the classical period, Wong refers to the tremendous intellectual fecundity of the Warring States period, and then introduces Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Lieh Tzu as the important figures in the philosophy's development. She has a nice, clear explanation of how Taoist thought had transformed by the time of Chuang Tzu. Thereafter, Wong traces the development of Taoism as a religion: early shrine ceremonies, and the considerable influence of Chang Tao-ling, who divinized the "Old Master" and introduced the priestly class.

Subsequent chapters of this first section outline and describe the main characteristics of mystical Taoism and its rise (300 - 600 CE), alchemical Taoism (200-1200 CE), and then the great synthesis of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, which led to the religion as we tend to see it today.

In the second section of Wong's book the primary "systems" of Taoism are described: the spirit-filled world of magical Taoism, whose practitioners engage in many of the same practices "as the shamans and sorcerers did of old"; divinational Taoism (I-ching, feng-shui, etc.); ceremonial Taoism (Taoist deities and the "way of devotion"); internal achemical Taoism, which deals with the transformation and movement of energy for health and longevity; and "action and karma Taoism," which Wong reports as dating back to the 12th century, and is concerned with ethical issues of everyday life. This chapter is the shortest in the book, and probably the one I found least interesting; and yet it plays an important role in the total study, and pulls in thoughts from important texts, especially the T'ai-shang kan-ying p'ien, which the author calls "the foremost scripture of Action and Karma Taoism."

Section three, on Taoist Practices, is divided into three sections itself: Taoist meditation; techniques for cultivating the body; and the third, which deals with rites of purification, ceremony (how a Taoist altar is arranged), and talismanic magic.

As I said, my concerns were abated4 from early on. It is not deep; it is not erudite. But it is full of great, documented information that weaves a historical, philosophical, and religious context around Taoism, thus adding richly to what most Americans know only through selections from the Tao Te Ching and The Tao of Pooh. And the Bibliography of Further Readings (Appendix 3) adds the scholarship that was the concern of my early, unfounded hesitations.

review ©2000 David Streight and RSiSS

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