Taoism Shangqing In Japan

Based on the worldwide Taoism studies in the last century, as well as comparing the Taoism studies in China with those abroad, this thesis aimed to explore the deficiency of studies about the Shangqing School in Taoist history, especially in the Six Dynasties. Meanwhile, it was tremendous achievements, received by scholars both in France and Japan, due to investigating on this particulate period. The introduction focused on classifying the international studies on early Shangqing School.Not only geographically, but also time-accumulated, the Chinese cultural studies in Japan occupied a position of prominence, particularly on the historical records which are extremely difficult to compile in modern China, but propagated in ancient Japan centuries ago and well-preserved. As a result, these studies in Japan deserved to be learned by domestic scholars. Introducing Taoism studies in Japan as the particular subjects, this thesis elementally investigated and analyzed the Shangqing School studies in Japan. Mugitani Kunio, one of the most famous Taoist scholars in Japan, achieved specific intellectual influence all over the world. In his early studies, abundant discussions appeared with his unique interest. This thesis tried to expound his studies about the Shangqing Dadong zhenjing, the Medicine of Tao Hongjing, the translation and commentary of the Zhen Gao, etc. Thus, it would be manifested that Mugitani Kunio academically concentrated on the Taoism-centered Chinese cultural studies and delved the faith on Taoist immortals as well as the Taoist elements in Japanese culture. At last, this thesis differentiated the academic results both in China and Japan, with the foundation of anterior research, possibly to enlighten the domestic academic studies in this field.