Acknowledgments Preface 1. Reading the Daodejing Synthetically Orientations Conventions Shadows On the Early Daoism Label 2. Modern Scholarship on the Daodejing Religious and Philosophical Approaches to the Daodejing Modern Western Approaches to the Daodejing Modern Chinese Approaches to the Daodejing 3. Traditions of Reading the Daodejing Daojia , Daojiao , and Early Daoism The Role of Commentary in the Daodejing The Heshang Gong Commentary The Xiang ' er Commentary The Wang Bi Commentary Three Commentaries in Comparison 4. The Daos of Laozi and Confucius Records of the Interview Glimpses into the Dao of Antiquity The Fault Line Two Disciplines of the Body Laozi and Confucius Revisited 5. Early Daoism, Yangsheng , and the Daodejing The Hiddenness of Early Daoism A Separate History Orality and the Daodejing Early Daoism and Yangsheng Two Master Traditions and a Third Yangsheng and the Daodejing 6. The Sage and the World Early Chinese Archetypes: the Sage, the King, and the General The Benefits of the Sage Qi : The Stuff of Life De : Circulation Is Not Always Virtuous De in Action 7. The Sage and the Project The Death-World Projects The Great Project of the World Salvation 8.

The Sage and Bad Knowledge A Confucian Study Break Knowledge and Yangsheng Sequences Brightness and Yangsheng Sequences Knowledge Is a Sickness The Question of Early Daoism Revisited 9. The Sage and Good Knowledge The Second-Order Harmony Yangsheng and the Knowledge of the Sage Appendix: The Daodejing Notes Bibliography Index.