In Search of Personal Welfare

Download or read book In Search of Personal Welfare written by Mu-chou Poo and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1998-01-29 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first major reassessment of ancient Chinese religion to appear in recent years. It provides a historical investigation of broadly shared religious beliefs and goals in ancient China from the earliest period to the end of the Han Dynasty. The author makes use of recently acquired archeological data, traditional texts, and modern scholarly work from China, Japan, and the West. The overall concern of this book is to try to reach the religious mentality of the ancient Chinese in the context of personal and daily experiences. Poo deals with such problems as the definition of religion, the popular/elite controversy in methodology, and the use of "elite" documents in the study of ordinary life.