The Making of “Taoïsme” in 18th–19th Century French Scholarship
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20249509 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yu Zhang (0000-0002-0059-270X), Zhang Yu (0000-0002-0310-3705, Guangdong University of Education), Xiaolan Zhou (0000-0003-3245-0076, South China Normal University, corresponding author), Jingyi Liu (0000-0001-8432-507X, South China Normal University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages | 1546 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel16121546 |
| OpenAlex | W4417151398 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
This study examines how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French scholarship constructed the concept of “Taoïsme” and shaped the modern understanding of Daoism. Early European representations, influenced by missionaries and Enlightenment thinkers, emphasized Confucian rationalism while portraying Taoist thought as mystical or superstitious. In the nineteenth century, the rise in philological methods and historical contextualization allowed Taoist texts to be studied systematically, leading to clearer distinctions between philosophical Daojia and religious Daojiao. By the early twentieth century, ethnographic and textual approaches further grounded the study of Taoism in historical and cultural reality. The shift from Taoism to Daoism reflects both a terminological refinement and a broader epistemological transformation toward more rigorous, context-sensitive, and historically informed scholarship
Contextualization · Enlightenment · Historiography · Making-of · Mysticism · Philology · Rationalism · Scholarship · Taoism · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |