An Introduction to Daoist Literature and History

FAIN: FS-50252-10

Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80303-1058)
Terry Frederick Kleeman (Project Director: March 2010 to July 2015)
Steven R. Bokenkamp (Co Project Director: March 2010 to July 2015)

Funding details:
Original grant (2010) $122,841.00
Supplement (2011) $9,499.44

A three-week summer seminar for sixteen college and university faculty examining the religion of Daoism and its impact on Chinese civilization and society.

This three-week Summer Seminar for College Teachers focuses on the scriptures and other documents of Daoism, China's indigenous organized religion. After a general introduction to Daoism, the history of its study, and bibliographic resources, we will concentrate on the intensive reading of primary sources, providing advanced language instruction and enhancing understanding of a key element of Chinese culture. Sources will be chosen from all periods of Daoist history and from a variety of genres, including liturgies, spirit revelations, ordination documents, inspired poetry, demonologies, hagiographies, epigraphy, and sacred geographies. Our goal is to familiarize seminar participants with the wide variety of Daoist literature, and to give them the basic skills to read and evaluate Daoist documents. It is hoped that this will expand Daoism's presence in the curriculum and foster new studies of Daoism's significance to all aspects of Chinese civilization and society.