Daoist Philosophy and Literati Writings in Late Imperial China: A Case Study of the Story of the Stone

This volume first explores the transformation of Chinese Daoism in late imperial period through the writings of prominent literati scholars of the period. In such a cultural context it then launches an in-depth investigation into the Daoist dimensions of the Chinese narrative masterpiece, The Story of the Stone: the inscriptions of Quanzhen Daoism in the infrastructure of its religious framework, the ideological ramifications of the Daoist concepts of chaos, purity, and the natural, as well as the Daoist images of the gourd, fish, and bird. The author demonstrates in an insightful manner the central position of Daoist philosophy both in the ideological structure of the Stone and the literati culture that spawns it.