The Taoist Tradition is a concise, balanced, and reliable overview of this fascinating tradition, written by one of the world’s leading Taoist scholars and drawing upon the most recent scholarship on the topics presented. It traces the major persons and events that have shaped Taoism during its history, identifies its central ideas, and discusses the various sub-traditions of Taoism and how they can be compared and distinguished. Pregadio not only examines history and doctrine but also practice, surveying the main individual and communal forms of practice. These include ritual, meditation and alchemy, with particular regard to the ideas upon which these practices are based and the world-views that the practices reinforce.

This authoritative introduction is unique in discussing how Taoists have formulated their own concepts and beliefs, rather than focusing on how Taoism relates to modern Western preoccupations.