Kirkland points out that Daoism is not to be equated with popular religion
or with Chinese millenarianism, while also rejecting ‘Confucian falsehoods’
about rulers who supported Daoism being ‘befuddled or gullible’ (145). Justified
as it is, Kirkland’s emphasis on the legitimizing functions of Daoism seems to
imply that scholars have paid undue attention to the popular and, a fortiori,
the utopian aspects of this tradition; if taken too far, this position would be
similar to that of a historian of Christendom, who, aware of the intimate
connections between Christianity and royal power from the days of Constantine
to the French Revolution—not to mention the contemporary United States—
were to advise against paying attention to the movements, generally labeled
as heretical, that sought to return to what these supposed heretics understood
to be the message of the gospels.
Despite the awareness that the Daodejingdoes not stand for the whole
Daoist tradition, the work attributed to Laozi continues to be translated into
English; some of these are translations of the Mawangdui silk manuscripts
discovered in 1973—Robert Henricks (1989), Victor Mair (1990)—and of the
Guodian bamboo slip manuscripts found in 1993, which contains only thirty-
one chapters—Henricks (2000). The text also continues to be the subject of
radically different interpretations. A recent example of this can be found in
the contributions of Mark Csiskzentmihalyi and Harold Roth to the volume
edited by the former and Philip Ivanhoe, Religious and Philosophical Aspects
of the Laozi(1999). A defender of a mystical interpretation of the Daodejing,
Roth has rendered into English the ‘Neiye’ chapter of the Guanzi—Original
Tao(1999)—a translation that like those undertaken by Kohn, The Taoist
Experience(1993), and Stephen Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures(1997),
helps to enrich one’s understanding of this tradition. It may be added that
after the publication of Griet Vankeerberghen’s The Huainanziand Liu An’s
Claim to Moral Authority(2001), perhaps a group of English-speaking
Sinologists may wish to follow the French example and translate the Huainanzi,
available in its entirety in French in a Pléiadevolume since 2003 but only
partially available in English.
Christianity. A proper consideration of work on Christianity would require
discussing, in addition to work on this religion, the scholarship on the religious
aspects of the world within which Christianity emerged; the process of
conversion, then and now; and Gnosticism, a trend that is sometimes considered
as an aspect of Christianity and sometimes as an independent religion. On the
first issue reference must be made to Ramsay MacMullen’s work, which for
decades has contributed to our understanding of the Roman world and of the
Christianization of that world: Paganism in the Roman Empire(1981),
Christianizing the Roman Empire(1984), and Christianity and Paganism in
the Fourth to Eighth Centuries(1997)—books which, besides the expected
primary sources as well as philological and historical studies, contain a wealth
of references to epigraphic and archaeological studies, sources similar to those264
GUSTAVO BENAVIDES