TY - BOOK ID - 67232585 TI - Daoism, meditation, and the wonders of serenity : From the latter Han Dynasty (25-220) to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) PY - 2016 SN - 9781438458229 1438458223 9781438458236 PB - Albany State University of New York Press DB - UniCat KW - S04/0520 KW - S04/0600 KW - S13A/0401 KW - China: History--Han: 206 B.C. - 220 A.D KW - China: History--Dynasties: 220 - 1840 KW - China: Religion--Popular religion: Taoism UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:67232585 AB - Stephen Eskildsen offers an overview of Daoist religious texts from the Latter Han (25-220) through Tang (618-907) periods, exploring passive meditation methods and their anticipated effects. These methods entailed observing the processes that unfold spontaneously within mind and body, rather than actively manipulating them by means common in medieval Daoist religion such as visualization, invocations, and the swallowing of breath or saliva. Through the resulting deep serenity, it was claimed, one could attain profound insights, experience visions, feel surges of vital force, overcome thirst and hunger, be cured of ailments, ascend the heavens, and gain eternal life.While the texts discussed follow the legacy of Warring States period Daoism such as the Laozi to a significant degree, they also draw upon medieval immortality methods and Buddhism. An understanding of the passive meditation literature provides important insights into the subsequent development of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy, meditation that emerged from the Song period onward. ER -