As China is rapidly reemerging as the world's dominant economic powerhouse that it had been until the mid-eighteenth century, interest in its religions and philosophies is on the rise. Just as the history and culture of Western civilizations can hardly be grasped without a measure of knowledge about Christianity, an understanding of Chinese civilization and its history seems impossible without some comprehension of Daoism.

Though it has long been clear that modern Daoism has its roots in Daoist movements of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), research on premodern Daoism had been largely neglected. Published in six languages (Italian, French, English, German, Chinese, and Japanese), the pioneering studies by Monica Esposito (1962-2011) on Qing Daoism have been instrumental in kindling keen scholarly interest both in the West and in China and Japan.

This book presents corrected and augmented versions of three of Dr Esposito's seminal articles that had originally been published in English ("Daoism in the Qing," "The Longmen School and its Controversial History," and "Longmen Daoism in Qing China: Doctrinal Ideal and Local Reality") along with English versions of two articles that had hitherto only been available in Japanese and Chinese: "Beheading the Red Dragon: The Heart of Feminine Alchemy" and "An Example of Daoist and Tantric Interaction during the Qing Dynasty: The Longmen xinzong." In addition, this volume contains a bibliography of all her publications and a detailed index.