Customer Reviews

The Shambhala Guide to Taoism (Shambhala Guides)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a marvellous book for those who want an insight into the nature and the mysteries of Taoism. I found this to be an enjoyable book from cover to cover. If you are new to the study of Taoism, or are a continuing student and wish to broaden your understanding in this discipline, then I recommend this book for you. By the time you have read this book you will have an understanding of the major branches of Taoism, the core philosophy and beliefs of those branches, as well as a good knowledge of the history, formation and development of Taoism from the days of the first shamans to the today. I would particularly recommend this book to college/university students who have been given assignments related to Taoism for the reasons just covered.

Those new to Taoism, or confused by it, will almost certainly find Eva Wong's book immensely helpful. It immediately addresses the problems most people experience when they first become interested in this tradition, i.e. "Why do there seem to be so many different versions of Taoism, some of them quite contradictory? What are the differences and similarities between these 'schools' and how did they arise? If someone is 'practicing Taoism' today, what does that actually mean?"

By dividing her book into three sections - History of Taoism, Systems of Taoism, and Taoist Practices - Wong clearly articulates the development and varieties of Taoist thought, its key figures, texts, beliefs, concepts, principles and practices. She does this in short, well-focused chapters, and uses a very clear and concise style. Each chapter ends with a "Further Readings" section offering what I've found to be very useful pointers into the immense body of Taoist literature, sometimes even referring to specific chapters of books and pointing out which ones are more general or more academic, and which translations she prefers. Wong also includes a detailed index, a solid bibliography, and two useful appendices containing a map of China and a chronology of the dynasties.

What you won't find here is the kind of nonsense that plagues so many books about ancient traditions that have recently become more popular - Wong gives you no detailed instruction on how to conduct ceremonies or create talismans or wield "magic". Rather, she respects Taoism as a serious and living tradition and recommends that if you are interested in learning the specifics of any particular Taoist sect then you must find a Taoist master and complete the necessary training. Wong refuses to treat Taoism as a New Age novelty. Moreover, her honesty about the limits and relativity of her work is admirable. As she notes at the outset, she is acting here as a guide: someone who offers knowledge arising out of personal experience; who offers a perspective, not necessarily rigorous objectivity; and who does not pretend that what she is saying can ever be complete. Having said that, I think Wong's book comes as close as you're likely to get to a comprehensive introductory text. It certainly answered all of my questions.

This book is an excellent overall introduction to Taoism. It covers the history, systems, and practices of Taoism in a very readable style and provides helpful suggestions for further reading. It is a great book for those new to the subject who want a knowledgable and well-written guide to the 'spiritual landscape' of Taoist thought and practices over the centuries. The sections on magical Taoism and meditation are particularly fascinating, as is the opening chapter that discusses its shamanic origins.

I was a little disappointed after reading this book because I was looking for a great deal more in the way of the philosophy of the Tao. What I got was an excellent history of, for the most part, religious Taoism. The book was concise and readable while proving to be an excellent resource for further study. The text is packed with references to books of Taoist masters and books of study. Since the author is a Taoist I expected to see a little more subjectivity in the writing style. Nevertheless I recommend this book to anyone wanting a objectively historical view of Taoism.

I don't know what Eva Wong was thinking when she wrote this. Although her style of writing was painful to read, I finished the entire book and by the end I realized it wasn't worth it. It's hard to follow her style of writing and she drops so many names and dates that you get lost in her sentences.
You will not get any insight into taoist philosophy and thought by reading this tiresome book.

I found Eva Wong's work to be a fine resource tool. A broad, objective, easy to digest primer for Westerner's interested in learning about the Taoist tradition. My contention lies in Two Bears review of this work...I applaud any effort to present clarity of subject matter...however, Two Bears review strikes me as a bit rash. The errors pointed out by the reviewer regarding Ms. Wong's presentation of Taoist internal alchemy are mistaken in most cases.

Ultimately it seems that Two Bears is simply looking to build a name and repuatation for him/herself by positing his/her own presentation of meridian theory as superior to a long time, well respected practitioner of Taoist studies/practices.

For a while, Shambhala filled a role by offering accessible works on Taoism (and other topics) to a general audience. But this role has been compromised by the disdain it shows for the ideas underlying serious academic work. Yes, academic studies can be boring and footnote are a drag, but the idea behind them is to empower the reader to make his or her own decisions by showing them clearly the source material--i.e. I made statement X and then tell you on the basis of what information I've just made that statement by listing it in a footnote. This is the fundament of the modern scientific method and it underlies all serious approaches to describing the world. There are clever, creative ways of getting around this (endnotes, or by writing the source into the material) but the overall principle is the same: readers can judge for themselves.

Eva Wong's book largely disregards this. She rarely tells her readers where her material came from or acknowledge the fact that her views conflict with other scholars' views. She writes on topics like Inner Alchemy (Neidan) as if she had been conferred the Truth and that other reputatble people's differing takes are not worth considering. It's basically a very simple and simplistic version of Taoism.

Another, more basic issue is the book is dated because it doesn't reflect huge advances we have in understanding the great body of Taoist teachings, the Taoist Canon, which Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen have described. She also seems completely unaware of the huge growth of Taoist studies in mainland China.

For those interested in learning about Taoism, I'd suggest James Miller's Daoism: A Beginner's Guide. It's not perfect but has many fewer flaws. Another book that describes Taoism from a practitioner's point of view is Kristofer Schipper's "The Taoist Body". Schipper is one of the deans of Taoism studies but also an ordained Taoist priest and he describes how Taoist priests operate in one Taiwanese community. For a short one-volume history, Isabelle Robinet's "Taoism: Growth of a Religion" is excellent and easy to read. It only goes to the year 1500 but covers most of the main movements.

Enough of the abuse of this book!

The extensive recommended reading list in the back of this book is worth the price of the whole thing.

Whatever Wong's vagaries, the extended explanations for further readings at the end of the various sections of the text itself, make this still a useful volume.

However, if you are going after Wong, and Taoist Health and Longevity issues, you may prefer to start with 'Cultivating Stillness,' 'The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality,' and/or 'Cultivating the Energy of Life,'her translation of the 'Secret of the Golden Flower' ( for discussion of the usefulness of comparing the translations of which, see this 'Shamabala Guide to Taoism.')

But see my recent reviews (note dates) for Wong's 'Tao of Health, etc.' and Thomas Cleary's 'Taoist Meditation' for further amplification of these issues, particularly with regard to health.

Many volumes, in spite of vagaries, generalities, and such, are still incredibly useful for their recommended reading suggestions and guides. Wong's worthy volume is one such. In addition to her volumes suggested above, I would highly recommend it for further research. It's handy as a guide to Kohn's, Robinet's, Charles Luk's, Cleary's, Olson's, and other writers/translators on these subjects. Go for it.

Author Eva Wong notes in the Introduction to her survey of Taoism that by design guides are not complete. Once you've dipped into this volume, you'll quickly find exactly what's missing.

Ms Wong appears well read on Taoism and provides a fine bibliography, from which nearly any selection is bound to be more lively than this cadaverous, book-length encyclopedia entry. Here Ms Wong has taken one of the world's great philosophical and religious traditions and turned it into a parched prose recitation of lists - historical periods, great thinkers and leaders, philosophies, practices. A typical example from page 130 reads like this:

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The Nine Palaces is the pa-k'ua set in motion. With the Nine Palaces, the trigrams of the pa-k'ua are no longer tied to a direction. Their positions will move according to the cycles of the year, month, day and season. The Nine Palaces are the eight directions and the center. Each palace is designated by a pair of number and color. They are one-white, two-black, three-jade, four-green, five-yellow, six-white, seven-red, eight-white, and nine-purple. Each number-color combination is called a star, and each star is associated with a trigram in the pa-k'ua. Thus, one-white is k'an (water), two-black is k'un (earth), three-jade is chen (thunder), four-green is sun (wind), five-yellow is the center (chung-kung), six-white is ch'ien (sky), seven-red is tui (lake), eight-white is ken (mountain), and nine-purple is li (fire) The numbers in the following grid illustrate the "root structure" of the Nine Palaces:

4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6

The root arrangement is also known as the Magic Circle, because the numbers are so arranged that the rows, columns, and diagonals all add up to fifteen. In the root structure of the Nine Palaces, five is always located in the center. The root structure of the Nine Palaces is also the Later Heaven pa-k'ua.
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There's not a spark of life in this text, no hint that Ms Wong is fascinated by the Tao, that she shares any of the awe and wonder that inspire and inspired the subjects over which she labors. In her Introduction she notes that a good guide provokes interest and inspires further research. This guide makes you wish you hadn't taken the trip.

For a more interesting and enlightening introduction to the subject, try Alan Watts' What Is Tao?

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Eva Wong is quite generic in her approach to Taoism and the book reads like something written to make money. There is a lot of Chinese people out there seeking to cash in on the Western interest in Taoism. Due to the "Cultural Revolution", being of Chinese nationally is no longer a guarantee of knowledge of Chinese Culture, as most modern Chinese know little of Ancient Culture because the Communists where so effective in wiping it out. Her book covers an extremely broad overview of Taoism with almost no citations. I cannot know how many errors and assumtions she makes in her book, but as far has her information on Ba kua zhang and internal martial arts in general, I would not trust a word she has to say. I suspect that she is coming from a Post-Communist "Wu shu" perpective that has very little creditality with tradional Chinese martial artists. If you want to get a general overview of Taoism you would be far better off reading Liva Kohn's works on the subject.