In the Shadows of the Dao

Acknowledgments
Preface

1. Reading the Daodejing Synthetically

Orientations
Conventions
Shadows
On the Early Daoism Label

2. Modern Scholarship on the Daodejing

Religious and Philosophical Approaches to the Daodejing
Modern Western Approaches to the Daodejing
Modern Chinese Approaches to the Daodejing

3. Traditions of Reading the Daodejing

Daojia, Daojiao, and Early Daoism
The Role of Commentary in the Daodejing
The Heshang Gong Commentary
The Xiang'er Commentary
The Wang Bi Commentary
Three Commentaries in Comparison

4. The Daos of Laozi and Confucius

Records of the Interview
Glimpses into the Dao of Antiquity
The Fault Line
Two Disciplines of the Body
Laozi and Confucius Revisited

5. Early Daoism, Yangsheng, and the Daodejing

The Hiddenness of Early Daoism
A Separate History
Orality and the Daodejing
Early Daoism and Yangsheng
Two Master Traditions and a Third
Yangsheng and the Daodejing

6. The Sage and the World

Early Chinese Archetypes: the Sage, the King, and the General
The Benefits of the Sage
Qi: The Stuff of Life
De: Circulation Is Not Always Virtuous
De in Action

7. The Sage and the Project

The Death-World
Projects
The Great Project of the World
Salvation

8. The Sage and Bad Knowledge

A Confucian Study Break
Knowledge and Yangsheng Sequences
Brightness and Yangsheng Sequences
Knowledge Is a Sickness
The Question of Early Daoism Revisited

9. The Sage and Good Knowledge

The Second-Order Harmony
Yangsheng and the Knowledge of the Sage

Appendix: The Daodejing
Notes
Bibliography
Index