Mark Csikszentmihalyi is Assistant Professor of Religion at Davidson College and a former Fellow at the National Humanities Center. He also serves as editor of the American Academy of Religion's Texts and Translations book series. Philip J. Ivanhoe is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author of several books, including Ethics in the Confucian Tradition: The Thought of Mencius and Wang Yang-Ming and Confucian Moral Self Cultivation. Most recently he has coedited, with Paul Kjellberg, Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, published by SUNY Press.

"If I could put one book about the Laozi in the hands of someone who genuinely wants to experience the brilliance, profundity, and complexity of the work based on the best modern scholarship, I would recommend this book. The essays can be read by a general audience and yet they offer the very best contemporary scholarship on one of the most important classics in the world today." — John Berthrong, author of All Under Heaven: Transforming Paradigms in Confucian-Christian Dialogue"This is a collection of new and insightful essays by a group of impressive scholars on one of the most important, difficult, and influential books from early China. The religious and philosophical issues dealt with are not only important to the Laozi but also central to the field of early Chinese religion and philosophy, especially that of Daoism. It will be useful to both students of Chinese literature, philosophy, and religion, and people who are interested in philosophy and mysticism." — Shuen-fu Lin, University of Michigan

• Romanization Conversion TableIntroduction1. Mysticism and Apophatic Discourse in the LaoziMark Csikszentmihalyi2. The Laozi in the Context of Early Daoist Mystical PraxisHarold D. Roth3. Qian Zhongshu on Philosophical and Mystical Paradoxes in the LaoziZhang Longxi4. The Diverse Interpretations of the LaoziIsabelle Robinet5. Re-exploring the Analogy of the Dao and the FieldRobert G. Henricks6. A Philosophical Analysis of the Laozi from an Ontological PerspectiveTateno Masami7. Method in the Madness of the LaoziBryan W. Van Norden8. An Inquiry into the Core Value of Laozi's Philosophy Liu Xiaogan9. The Concept of de ("Virtue") in the LaoziPhilip J. IvanhoeNotes on ContributorsIndex to Laozi passagesName IndexSubject Index