Taoist Master Chuang

Michael Saso

317 Blz., ISBN 0 9677948 0 3     
Sacred Mountain Press, 2000     


The Secret Teachings of a Taoist Master Revealed!

Until his death in 1976 Master Chuang, a descendant of 35 generations of Taoist Priests, carried out his ancient rituals for the benefit of a small band of believers in Taiwan. His family, who claimed to have come from Hua Shan, the Taoist mountain in western China, followed the observances of the Dragon-Tiger Mountain sect in southeastern China. Although there are many conflicting Taoist schools, the antiquity and authenticity of Master Chuang´s traditions cannot be doubted.

Michael Saso, a Western disciple of Master Chuang, recounts the teachings of Master Chuang, including Taoist history as Master Chuang understood it, the role of Taoist Priests in modern Chinese society, and Master Chuang´s rituals of Taoist black magic, meditation, and rarely discussed exorcistic thunder magic.

"Taoist Master Chuang presents a rare view of Taoist history, philosophy, religion, and ritual, spiced with lively anecdotes of saints and sorcerers. This is not dry scholarship, but the living Taoist tradition and previously secret oral teachings interpreted by Taoist Master Chuang. Saso´s ´participant-observer´ status makes Taoist Master Chuang breathe and, reading it, we feel perhaps a step closer to the ineffable mystery from which we have never truly departed."
Professor Kenneth S. Cohen - author of: Taoism: Essential Teachings of the Way and Its Power;
& The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing.

"Taoist Master Chuang is a must-read for anyone who aspires to a greater understanding of modern, living Taoism. In sharing his own training with the reader, Saso make available previously secret ritual and magic practices of Dragon-Tiger Mountain Sect Taoism, and does so in a wonderfully entertaining fashion. The Western Taoist community owes him a great debt of gratitude!"
Brock Silvers - President, The Taoist Restoration Society (www.taorestore.org).

"Michael Saso´s Taoist Master Chuang is a clasic of modern Taoist studies, providing a rare first-person account of the daily life of a Taoist practitioner in Hsinchu, a small town in central Taiwan. Through the eyes of Master Chuang, we see how the Taoist tradition is kept alive and its role in a rapidly modernizing society. The depth of Chuang´s knowledge and his continued relevance in the industrial town where he practices is a hopeful sign that Taoism can maintain its position in Chinese society."
Ian Johnson - Beijing Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal/The Asian Wall Street Journal.

Michael Saso, Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, has researched and written about Taoism for thirty years. An initiated Taoist Zhengyi Sect Priest, he is one of the world´s best known Taoism teachers and lectures. Professor Saso has authored fourteen books and countless articles on a variety of Taoist topics.


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