Chinese Magical Medicine (Asian Religions and Cultures) » (1)

The late Michel Strickmann was Professor of Chinese Religions at the University of California, Berkeley (1978-91). Bernard Faure is Professor of Asian Religions at Stanford University. He is the author of The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism (Stanford, 1997).

This book argues that the most profound and far-reaching effects of Buddhism on Chinese culture occurred at the level of practice, specifically in religious rituals designed to cure people of disease, demonic possession, and bad luck. This practice would leave its most lasting imprint on the liturgical tradition of Taoism. In focusing on religious practice, the book provides a corrective to traditional studies of Chinese religion, which overemphasize metaphysics and spirituality.

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This study of healing in the Taoist tradition examines how misdeeds and demonology cause illness per classic proto-Tantric and Buddhist texts. In completing this work of a late U. of California-Berkeley professor of Chinese religions, Faure (Asian religions, Stanford U.) added extensive reference materials. Illustrations include disease- curing seals. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR