Daoist Studies: Taoism, Taoism, and Alchemy (Revised Edition)

Author: Hu Fuchun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Reading one book can give you the full professional knowledge of a discipline! Reading one book can develop wisdom and gain methods for fitness and health preservation! Reading one book can open up a new frontier in Daoist culture! Comrade Hu Fuchun's book, General Theory of Daoism—Daoism, Taoism, and Alchemy, can be said to be a pleasing outcome of his two or three decades of research and is a book worth reading. In this book, a special section titled "Methods and Practices" is highly meaningful. "Methods and Practices" holds a unique position in Chinese culture and is often associated with a certain mystique. How to understand the true value behind its mystique is a very challenging problem. Comrade Hu Fuchun, originally trained in chemistry, possesses a strong scientific background, which enables him to systematically organize various "methods and practices" realistically and discuss their modern significance, offering significant insights into this issue.
If an academic thought and its methods are merely studied and interpreted historically, it is certainly meaningful. However, if we can further discuss their modern significance, it can make the deepening of knowledge and the benefit to humanity even more meaningful. The chapter on "The Modern Significance of Daoist Culture" discusses the relevance of "Daoist culture" to contemporary human society in terms of science, philosophy, religion, and other aspects, and it can be said to have a certain pioneering nature.
Modern science has advanced by leaps and bounds, and many phenomena that were once unknown can now be explained by science or confirmed through experiments. However, so far, humanity remains largely ignorant of many aspects of nature, especially of itself, or has only some hypotheses that cannot yet be proven. If there is anything that distinguishes humans from other animals, I believe it is the ability to propose countless strange, unanswered questions and a fondness for exploring the "unknown." Throughout history, from east to west and across different cultures, people have raised many strange and bizarre questions and attempted to provide explanations for them. Although some of these explanations have later been proven incorrect, many of these strange questions indeed contain valuable "true" questions. Those seemingly meaningless, bizarre questions may be the treasure trove we should continuously explore, and studying them is the driving force behind human progress and scientific development.
Therefore, I believe that while conclusions drawn from academic research may sometimes be wrong, the questions raised for discussion are extremely important.