Taoism Paperstore > Page 1
Welcome to the Taoism Paperstore!
Most of the topics treated of on this site are further developed in papers and articles for sale. You may order them through PayPal. Just click PayPal button next to the desired paper and follow the instruction. Our papers are edited in PDF format - so you may need Adobe Reader
application installed on your PC in order to open and read them. You may download this application for free from the official site of Adobe by clicking this link: The available papers are listed below. We provide a short presentation of each of
them together with an abstract.
List of Available Papers
Chuang-tzu and Formal Thinking US$ 10 Discusses about Chuang-tzu's approach of the formal thinking. Another passage from Chuang-tzu that put Sinologists to a lot of trouble, is the one concerning Master's odd behavior on the day of his wife's funeral. This
passage belongs to Book XVIII, paragraph 2: "Perfect Enjoyment".
[Paper by Jhian Yang, word count: 1054, PDF, download]
The Sage Walks on Tao US$ 15 Discusses a fragment from Tao-te ching in the light of Christian and Taoist ethics.
What I am trying to show here is that the translation follows the basic Christian
principles: "The one in need will be satiated" - this one can be found in the "Sermon on the Mount", Mt.: 5.
Or: "He has no pride thus he shines". If you visit Christian Orthodox monasteries, you will have the opportunity to see modesty and humiliation being (hypocritically) put into practice.
Does it follow from here that Lao-tzu had been a forerunner of Christianity or rather, that Christian God and his Commandments are everywhere valid? Or, that
the "Bible" - the "New Testament" in particular - is universal? These are all appealing ideas and we cannot but feel some inner satisfaction at the thought that the principles of our religion have found a home all over the world!
[Paper by Jhian Yang, word count: 814, PDF, download]
Taoist Medicine and Modern Mentality US$ 15 The paper treats of a short story about master Yang and his approach of classical Taoist medicine. The story comes from book Lieh-tzu. The opinion of classical Taoist thinkers on the practice and
efficiency of medicine is entirely surprising in view of what we know about classical Chinese medicine today. Although we are used to trusting the therapeutic effects of acupuncture, for example, and in spite of our belief that it characterized ancient China, Taoist ancient text are completely different in their perspective. We shall further illustrate that attitude with a short tale of master Yang-tzu and one of his friends, who had fallen ill. The latter was making painful
efforts to convince his family that his illness had to be addressed otherwise than the (even nowadays') customary appeal to a doctor's services.
[Paper by Jhian Yang, word count: 1088, PDF, download]
The Philosophy of Naturalness in I-ching US$ 10 The philosophy of I-ching is focused on the idea of change. Change is eternal - both for the cosmical and the human world - and therefore it is necessary to know in due time how to adapt to it.
We can see here the
oracular function of I-ching, namely that of connecting our activity to the temporary conditions and to correct those tendencies that couldn't be successful in a given social or cosmical context.
On the other hand, there are some key themes of "I-ching" philosophy, which we also find in the Taoist philosophy.
[Paper by Jhian Yang, word count: 735, PDF, download]
Yin and Yang in Real Life US$ 15
This paper treats of yin and yang and their connection to the real life. There have been many more or less successful attempts at translating into facts of real life
the main principles of Taoism. Curios enough, although these terms are very well known, when it comes to finding out the way they are used in fact, one meets up insurmountable difficulties.
Most people act as if these terms had no relevance for everyday life. They are dealt with as abstract notions of a dialectical philosophical system with no expression whatsoever in the real life. It is the modern Western philosophies that taught us to think this way.
While we do
believe it likely that yin and yang should define actual forces and realities, still we don't see what these realities are - beside endless listings with characteristics of things and beings.
[Paper by Jhian Yang, word count: 835, PDF, download]
Lao-tzu and Emptiness US$ 15
A fragment of Tao-te ching construed in terms of mental emptiness practice. Somewhere in "Tao-te ching" we can find an excerpt translated as follows: "The sage empties
their minds and fills their bellies."
I know you'll smile and say that this piece of advice is very present-day: crowds need food, not intellectual nourishment.
Still, Taoist interpreters, and many others apart from them, have noticed here references to long-life practices, where the emphasis is placed upon abdominal breathing exercises and meditation...
[Paper by Jhian Yang, word count: 594, PDF, delivered by email]
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