Taoism and Self Knowledge

Catherine Despeux's book Taoism and Self Knowledge is a study of the Internal Alchemical text "e;Chart for the Cultivation of Perfection."e; It begins with an analysis of pictographic and symbolic representation of the body in early Taoism after which the author examines different extant versions of the "e;Chart"e; as it was transmitted among Quanzhen groups in the Qing dynasty. The book is comprised of four main parts: the principal parts of the body and their nomenclature in Internal Alchemy, the spirits in the human body, and the alchemical processes and procedures used in thunder rituals and self-cultivation. This is a revised, expanded edition of the original French edition Taoisme et connaissance de soi. La carte de la culture de la perfection (Xiuzhen tu) Paris, 2012.