Description
Book SynopsisIn this richly illustrated book, Shih-shan Susan Huang investigates the visual culture of Daoism, China’s primary indigenous religion, from the tenth through thirteenth centuries with references to earlier and later times. Huang shows how Daoist image-making goes beyond the usual dichotomy of text and image to incorporate writings in image design.
Trade ReviewPicturing the True Form undertakes a path-breaking and comprehensive treatment of a highly important topic in the study of Chinese religions: the nature and cultural import of Daoist art. With an unprecedented level of analysis and meticulous attention to detail, Susan Huang considers Daoist artworks from the perspective of cultural history and presents exciting new data on how Daoist art differed from that of Buddhism. The result is not only an assiduous investigation of Daoist visual culture, but a veritable history of Daoism itself. -- Paul Katz, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
Huang’s book is an enormously valuable and monumental undertaking, highly recommended, and will go far to spread awareness of the vast Daoist visual lexicon. -- Stephen Little, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The first of its kind,
Picturing the True Form is a comprehensive mapping of Daoist images found in various media—paintings, diagrams, drawings, and woodblock prints scattered throughout the Daoist canon. Not only is the sheer magnitude of such an undertaking remarkable, but the judicious discrimination the author brings to bear in sorting out the visual materials makes this book all the more commendable. A sturdy building block in laying out a new field in the study of Daoist images, it will easily become a go-to volume on the nature and use of Daoist images. -- Eugene Wang, Harvard University
