The Myth Of Wu Tao Tzu

'During the Tang dynasty, the Chinese artist Wu Tao-tzu was one day standing looking at a mural he had just completed. Suddenly, he clapped his hands and the temple gate opened. He went into his work and the gates closed behind him.' Thus begins Sven Lindqvist's profound meditation on art and its relationship with life, first published in 1967, and a classic in his home country - it has never been out of print. As a young man, Sven Lindqvist was fascinated by the myth of Wu Tao-tzu, and by the possibility of entering a work of art and making it a way of life. He was drawn to artists and writers who shared this vision, especially Hermann Hesse, in his novel Glass Bead Game. Partly inspired by Hesse's work, Lindqvist lived in China for two years, learning classical calligraphy from a master teacher. There he was drawn deeper into the idea of a life of artistic perfectionism and retreat from the world. But when he left China for India and then Afghanistan, and saw the grotesque effects of poverty and extreme inequality, Lindqvist suffered a crisis of confidence and started to question his ideas about complete immersion in art at the expense of a proper engagement with life. The Myth of Wu Tao-tzu takes us on a fascinating journey through a young man's moral awakening and his grappling with profound questions of aesthetics. It contains the bracing moral anger, and poetic, intensely atmospheric travel writing Lindqvist's readers have come to love.

Modern Swedish Prose in Translation was first published in 1979. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. These excerpts from Swedish prose works - mostly novels - reflect major shifts in mood and style in the 25 years since 1950. Editor Karl Erik Lagerlof traces cultural and political developments in Sweden from the post-World War II era, when writers felt themselves in a world devoid of political meaning and rejected realism as a literary mode, down to the intensely political years of the Vietnam era. The selections in this anthology range from the anti-ideological works of the postwar years to recent documentary methods influenced by Marxism, structuralism, and a renewed political consciousness.

Ming porcelain is widely regarded among the world's finest cultural treasures. From ordinary household items patiently refined for imperial use, porcelain became a dynamic force in domestic consumption in China and a valuable commodity in export trade. In the modern era, it has reached unprecedented heights in art auctions and other avenues of global commerce. This book examines the impact of consumption on the evolution of porcelain and its transformation into a foreign cultural icon. The book begins with an examination of ways in which porcelain was appreciated in Ming China, followed by a discussion of encounters with Ming porcelain in several global regions including Europe and the Americas. The book also looks at the invention of the phrase and concept of 'the Ming vase' in English-speaking cultures and concludes with a history of the transformation of Ming porcelain into works of art.

In this clarion translation of Laotzu's Tao Te Ching, first published in 1919, Goddard brings the complexity and depth of the ancient philosopher's poetry into the English language, his great love for the topic overcoming the necessary shortcomings of translation. There are three concepts that are essential to the Tao Te Ching-Tao, Te, and Wu Wei-- that all have complex meanings that cannot be directly translated, but spiritual seekers and those with an interest in philosophy and religion will find Goddard's treatment of Laotzu lyrical and deeply meaningful. American writer DWIGHT GODDARD (1861-1939) studied at a monastery in Kyoto, Japan, for a year and was among the first Westerners to bring Zen Buddhism to the United States. His most famous book is The Buddhist Bible (1938).

Roman met een kritische visie op westerse, in het bijzonder Zweedse waarden en normen; geïnspireerd door oosterse filosofiën.

Myth and Meaning in Early Daoism examines some of the earliest texts associated with the Daoist tradition (primarily the Daode jing, Zhuangzi, and Huainanzi) from the outlook of the comparative history of religions and finds a kind of thematic and soteriological unity rooted in the mythological symbolism of hundun, the primal chaos being and principle that is foundational for the philosophy and practice of the Dao as creatio continua in cosmic, social, and individual life. Dedicated to the proposition that ancient Chinese texts and traditions are often best understood from a broad interdisciplinary and interpretive perspective, this work when it was written challenged many prevailing conceptions of the Daode jing and Zhuangzi as primarily philosophical texts without any religious significance or affinity with the later sectarian traditions. While controversial and at times playfully provocative, the methodology and findings of this book are still important for the ongoing scholarship about Daoism in China and the world.

Documentary literature became an international phenomenon on the cultural and political scene in the 1960s and 1970s. From the American "New Journalism" in works by such writers as Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe to the German "Industriereportagen" by Gunther Wallraff and others, documentarism presented a variety of controversial interplays between facts and fiction labeled as faction, ' fables of fact' or the like. Scandinavian literature made important and unique contributions to this international movement, and "Documentarism in Scandinavian Literature" is the first comprehensive volume ever published on the historical significance and future implications of these Nordic dimensions of documentarism and their international context. The volume is centered on Swedish documentary literature in the 1960s and 1970s and on such major writers as Per Olov Enquist, Sven Lindqvist, Sara Lidman, and Per Olov Sundman but the powerful voices of Danish writer Thorkild Hansen and Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad are also heard in its critical concert. The diversity of "Documentarism in Scandinavian Literature" is further enhanced by surveys and analyses of the historical background for more recent works and activities, and by theoretical inquiries into the epistemological status of documentarism, its theoretical, narrative, and theatrical devices, its predominant genres and links to other modes of mass communication, and its political affiliations and implications. For readers already familiar with its subject matter "Documentarism in Scandinavian Literature" offers an opportunity to revisit and recontextualize a crucial moment in their recent cultural past. For readers who have yet to be exposed to documentary works of fiction, the volume presents a timely theoretical, historical, and critical introduction to the key problematics and potentials of their novel field of interest. Whether viewed as part of the past or part of the present, documentarism remains an intellectual challenge, which this volume is aimed at addressing. "Documentarism in Scandinavian Literature" is edited by two Scandinavian scholars living abroad, and its essays are written by senior and junior scholars and critics from Scandinavia, Europe, and America; an interview with Per Olov Enquist and an autobio-graphical piece by Sven Lindqvist complete the volume."