Facets of Taoism – Essays in Chinese Religion by Holmes and Anna Seidel (Eds.) Welch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Google Books Site

This is a collection of nine scholarly essays written for a conference. As such, it won’t be of interest to most readers because it gets deep in the weeds. For readers unfamiliar with this type of book, the problems for a general reader are numerous. First, the book was assembled with a readership of experts in mind, and — therefore — assumes a fairly in-depth understanding of all aspects of Taoism. Second, the contributors are “inch wide & mile deep” specialists and often focus on topics that will only be of interest to a niche readership (topics like, “how the Taoist canon is organized”) and there is no attempt at systematic coverage to achieve a complete overview of the subject — i.e. it’s siloed. Finally, at times one feels as though one is reading as much footnote as text — i.e. it’s not organized for smooth intake.

That said, as scholarly books go, the readability is reasonably high. Also, it does have the advantages of a scholarly book (e.g. every source is clearly cited.)

If you have some depth of understanding of Taoism and are seeking niche insights, you may find this book is for you. If you don’t, it will probably give you headaches.

View all my reviews