Daoist Principles: Daoism, Taoism, and Alchemy (Revised Edition)

Author: Hu Fuchen, Lu Xichen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Reading one book can provide you with all the 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 Fuchen's book "General Introduction to Daoism—Daoism, Taoism, and Alchemy" can be said to be a pleasing outcome of his decades of research and is a book worth reading. This book specially includes a "Methods Chapter," which is highly meaningful. "Methods" hold a unique position in Chinese culture and are often associated with a certain mystique. How to understand the true value behind this mystique is a very challenging problem. Comrade Hu Fuchen, originally trained in chemistry, possesses strong scientific training, which allows him to systematically organize various "methods" realistically and discuss their modern significance, offering significant insights into this issue. While it is certainly meaningful to study and interpret an academic thought and its methods historically, further discussing their modern significance can make the advancement of knowledge and the benefit to humanity even more meaningful. The chapter "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 blind to many aspects of nature, especially to ourselves, or we may have some hypotheses that have yet to 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 and across different cultures from East to West, people in various periods and environments have raised many strange and bizarre questions, attempting to provide explanations for them. Although these explanations have later been proven incorrect in many cases, many of these strange questions indeed contain valuable "true" questions. Those seemingly meaningless, strange questions may very well be the treasure troves we should continuously explore, and studying them is the driving force behind human progress and the advancement of science. Therefore, I believe that while the conclusions of academic research may sometimes be wrong, the questions raised for discussion are extremely important.