num_pages: 128
description: Taoist graphic art is first and foremost a practical magic. It is designed to protect, to heal, to bring success in everyday undertakings, and to ensure long life, healthy and happiness.Since earliest times, magic diagrams and scripts have been made and used in China by a wide range of artists including hermit scholars, recluses and illiterate villagers as well as priests, sorcerers and faith-healers. On a deeper philosophical level, the graphics express the Taoist vision of a universe of ceaseless change and all-pervasive vital energy.They exist to help us to harmonize the yin and yang, the sexual polarities within ourselves, and allow us to place ourselves in harmony with the turbulent energies that act continually both on our lives and on the universe.Artistically, they represent an aspect of the Chinese genius still scarcely known in the West, though no less vital than the celebrated bronzes and jades, ceramics and academic paintings.
language: English
title: Tao Magic: The Secret Language of Diagrams and Calligraphy
publisher: Thames & Hudson