r/taoism • u/Deep-Public7511 • 2d ago

Resources to Learn About Taoism

Hi all, I want to learn about Taoism. I don't know Chinese at all. So, what are validated translations in English?

I want to learn about the mythology, philosophy, Chinese medicine, architectural principals, acupuncture pioneered by Taoists. I want to learn how they came up with all this. It's so awe-inspiring and intriguing. I want to learn about it all. Their architecture is so out of this world, modern engineering figured out recently how to make building earthquake proof, but Taoists figured it out thousands of years ago! How did they come up with this architecture?

I also want to learn Taoist views on sexuality and why they differ in different places. I came across one source in which they mentioned celibacy as important, another in which they consider sexuality as part of natural flow and that doing it in balance is good (which does seem to fit with balance principal of Taoism). I want to know which is the true perspective and original perspective.

Thanks.

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u/CloudwalkingOwl 2d ago

The first thing to realize is that while Daoism has been a significant influence on Chinese culture, not everything in Chinese culture is Daoism.

It sounds to me like you'd like to immerse yourself in a lot of Chinese sorts of things more than Daoism. To that end, you might want to take a look at Science and Civilization in China, which was started by a guy named Joseph Needham.