This book is an academic and historical background of Taoism and not, say, a practitioner's guide. The history and contextual understanding of Taoism might scare some people off, but as the author establishes, you can't truly appreciate Taoism without understanding where it came from and how it evolved.

For instance, in North America Taoism has this oriental mystique and balanced spirituality that many of the New Age Movement take an interest in. However, as this books clarifies, the Westernized Tao only remotely resembles the Chinese Tao. The alternative spirituality is something that Westerners added to the philosophy. Since very few of the thousands of canon Tao texts have been translated, Westerners have a limited view of the Chinese version, and few Chinese immigrants recruit.

The Chinese Tao is steeped in traditions that the American version ignores. Taoism serves as the Paganism of the Orient--the localized religion that is looked down upon as superstition by the dominant Confucianism and Buddhism. There are priests and temples. Many Chinese don't define themselves as Taoist the way Westerners want to define themselves by not just a label, but a single label. The Chinese culture has pragmatic, not-necessarily-spiritual traditions that overlap. Many that might be called a Taoist also observe some philosophies and traditions from Confucianism and Buddhism, perhaps according to local influences.

So the Western audience has developed something that is Taoish. Like the Chinese we have taken the concepts we wanted and ignored (or never learned) the rest. Not that adaptability is bad for Taoism, but the author advocates understanding Tao's _context_ above all else.

The back half of the book talks more about the philosophical values of Taoism, but I found the first half was what gave this book independence and worth.

Side note: the author also cautions that many "translations" of the most popular Taoist texts such as _Tao Te Ching_ are often written by people that don't know Chinese nor the history of Taoism and the writers take liberty with their interpretation. If you want to read something closer to the original work you should read a translation written by an academic. ( )