The People's Publishing House has recently publishedThe General History of Taoism in China (five volumes), the chief editors of which are Mr. Xitai Qing and Mr. Shichuang Zhan. Both are distinguished professors of liberal arts at Sichuan University.
Consisting of five volumes,The General History of Taoism in China is a corpus covering the comprehensive history of Taoism with 3.5 million words. Employing the Marxist materialist dialectics as the guiding principle, this collection (of five volumes) objectively summarizes the historical laws of the occurrence, development and evolution of Taoism, studies and explores the development of Taoism itself as well as the relationship between Taoism and the politics, economy, culture, ideology and other aspects. It also summarizes and analyzes the basic characteristics of Taoism and its doctrines, rules and rituals, and cultivation techniques, and so on, creatively establishing a discipline system for the study of the history of Taoism in China. Taking the historical development of Taoism as the basic thread, this work proposes different historical stages of Taoism. In a word,The General History of Taoism in China provides a panoramic picture of the development of Taoism in China. It is not only a landmark achievement in the history of Taoism research, but also has great value in systematically grasping the rich connotation of the Chinese culture.
Being born in Santai County, Sichuan Province, Mr. Xitai Qing (1927-2017), was a distinguished professor of liberal arts and one of the founders of the Philosophy Department of Sichuan University. He was the founder and first president of theInstitute of Taoism and Religious Culture of Sichuan University. Besides, he is a well-known philosopher, theologian, and an important pioneer in the study of Chinese Taoism.
The History of Chinese Taoism (four volumes) andThe History of Chinese Taoist Thoughts (four volumes) edited by Mr. Xitai Qing are the landmark achievements in the field of Chinese Taoist research. He is the chief editor ofChinese Taoism (four volumes),Taoism and Chinese Traditional Culture, New Code of Taoist Culture, Doctoral Dissertation Series of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, andReligion, Philosophy and Social Research Series. His honors include six first prizes and six second prizes of the national, ministerial and provincial awards for outstanding scientific research achievements. In addition, Mr. Qing has written several books, such asThe History of Chinese Taoist Thoughts (Volume I and Volume II),The Continuation of the History of Chinese Taoist Thoughts, Churaoji (a collection of Chinese ancient works from Ming Dynasty), and theStudy of Taoist Culture and Modern Social Life. In 1991, the State Council awarded him the certificate of "Experts of Outstanding Contributions to Social Science Research".
Shichuang Zhan, born in 1954 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, is a distinguished professor of liberal arts. He is currently the president of Lao Tzu Research Institute of Sichuan University, chairman of the professor committee of the Institute of Taoism and Religious Culture, doctoral students’ advisor, and the deputy director of the academic committee of the Chinese Culture Institute of Sichuan University. He was also the chief expert for Chinese Compendium of Taoist Works (Zhonghua Xu Dao Cang), a major cultural project of the “13th five-year plan”. In addition, he serves as vice president of Lao Tzu Daoism Culture Research Association, the president of China Lao Tzu Research Association, vice president of China Lao Tzu Research Association. What is more, he has acted as the chief expert for "Centennial Taoist Research and Innovation Project"; the MOE key project on philosophy and social science, the “Centennial Taoist Compendium”; and the “Compendium of Centennial Taoism and Taoist Research Works".
His main works consist of more than 20 books, such asThe History of Taoist Literature, The Study of the Relationship Between Yi Studies and Taoist Thoughts, 15 Lectures on Taoist Culture, Taoism and Chinese Health Care Wisdom, andThe General Theory of Chinese Religious Thoughts,and so on. Moreover, he has led the compilation of grand academic series, such as the New Library of Chinese Learning. As a result, he has won three national outstanding achievement awards for humanities and social Sciences and 15 provincial and ministerial awards.
