Description: Newly discovered documents have dramatically changed current scholarship on ancient Chinese thought, particularly the origins of Taoist philosophy and religion. Roth (religious studies and East Asian studies, Brown U.) presents a translation and commentary to one of these documents, the oldest known extant Taoist text, Inward Training (Nei-yeh), which is composed of short poetic verses devoted to the practice of breath meditation and its resultant insights about human nature and the cosmos. Roth argues that Inward Training is the basis of early Taoism, and suggests that there may be more continuity between early philosophical Taoism and later Taoist religion than scholars have thought.

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