Appropriating the Dao
The Euro-American Esoteric Reception of China

Edited by Franz Winter,Lukas K. Pokorny

ISBN13: 9781350289604

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Published: 27/11/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Assembling original contributions, this book is a pioneering attempt to address the Euro-American esoteric reception and appropriation of China. Positioned between eighteenth-century’s mesmerism and intersections with the modern martial arts current, the contributions specifically centre on nineteenth and early twentieth-century occult appraisals and representations. This book opens up an under-explored area of research in the field of East–West interactions and the global history of religions.
List of Contributors China in the Euro-American Esoteric Imagination: Contouring a Lacuna, Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna, Austria) and Franz Winter (University of Graz, Austria) 1. Daoism and Kung Fu as Occult Sciences: Historical Comparisons between Chinese Practices and Mesmerism, Julian Strube (University of Vienna, Austria) 2. Looking Out for Magic in Ancient China: The Yijing, Its Trigrams, and the Figurist Tradition in Éliphas Lévi, Franz Winter (University of Graz, Austria) 3. The Theosophical Daodejing: The Beginnings, Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna, Austria) 4. The Daoist Who Wasn’t: Albert de Pouvourville, Matgioi, Nguyen Van Cang, and the Problem of Indochinese Masters in fin de siècle Occultism, Davide Marino (University of Vienna, Austria) 5. Turning Further East: C. H. A. Bjerregaard and the Esoteric Enthusiasm for Daoism, Johan Nilsson (Lund University, Sweden) 6. Do What Dao Wilt: The Integration of East Asian Concepts and Practices into Aleister Crowley’s Thelema, Gordan Djurdjevic (Independent Scholar, Canada) 7. An Exoticism of Rationality and Social Order? Examining the East-West Binary in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Esoteric Representations of China, Johan Nilsson (Lund University, Sweden) 8. The Archetypal Dao: A Look at C. G. Jung’s Reception of Chinese Thought, Karl Baier (University of Vienna, Austria) 9. Be Water My Friend: Esotericism, Martial Arts, and Entangled Histories, Tao Thykier Makeeff (University of Stavanger, Norway) Index
  • Religion: general
  • Taoism
  • Professional & Vocational
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