Assembling original contributions, this book is a pioneering attempt to address the Euro-American esoteric reception and appropriation of China.

Positioned between eighteenth-century's mesmerism and intersections with the modern martial arts current, the contributions specifically centre on nineteenth and early twentieth-century occult appraisals and representations. This book opens up an under-explored area of research in
the field of East-West interactions and the global history of religions.

Table of Contents:

List of Contributors

China in the Euro-American Esoteric Imagination: Contouring a Lacuna, Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna, Austria) and Franz Winter (University of Graz, Austria)

1. Daoism and Kung Fu as Occult Sciences: Historical Comparisons between Chinese Practices and Mesmerism, Julian Strube (University of Vienna, Austria)
2. Looking Out for Magic in Ancient China: The Yijing, Its Trigrams, and the Figurist Tradition in Éliphas Lévi, Franz Winter (University of Graz, Austria)
3. The Theosophical Daodejing: The Beginnings, Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna, Austria)
4. The Daoist Who Wasn't: Albert de Pouvourville, Matgioi, Nguyen Van Cang, and the Problem of Indochinese Masters in fin de si?cle Occultism, Davide Marino (University of Vienna, Austria)
5. Turning Further East: C. H. A. Bjerregaard and the Esoteric Enthusiasm for Daoism, Johan Nilsson (Lund University, Sweden)
6. Do What Dao Wilt: The Integration of East Asian Concepts and Practices into Aleister Crowley's Thelema, Gordan Djurdjevic (Independent Scholar, Canada)
7. An Exoticism of Rationality and Social Order? Examining the East-West Binary in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Esoteric Representations of China, Johan Nilsson (Lund University, Sweden)
8. The Archetypal Dao: A Look at C. G. Jung's Reception of Chinese Thought, Karl Baier (University of Vienna, Austria)
9. Be Water My Friend: Esotericism, Martial Arts, and Entangled Histories, Tao Thykier Makeeff (University of Stavanger, Norway)
Index