Creativity and Taoism

”‘In Creativity and Taoism, Chang Chung-yuan makes the elusive principle of Tao available to the western mind with objectivity, warmth, and depth of insight. It is an important contribution to the task of making the Taoist wisdom accessible to the western intellect’ (Ira Progoff) ‘No one can read Chang’s book without experiencing a broadening of his mental horizons’ (John C. H. Wu, Philosophy East and West) ‘His interpretation of the Taoist roots of Ch’an has been presented with taste and learning that help to clear up many questions that must have occurred to anyone familiar with his subject. “The Spirit of the Valley” dwells in this quiet and gentle man who, as so rarely happens, actually embodies some of the philosophic traits of which he writes’ (Gerald Sykes) ‘If the end of reading is the enhancement of life, the enlargement of experience and understanding, then this book becomes an important step in that direction. Dr. Chang writes in a style both lucid and felicitous. He displays with becoming modesty a mastery of the field, its development and its ideas… There is hardly a page which does not give pleasure’ (Robert R. Kirsh, Los Angeles Times) ‘Professor Chang’s study, a brilliant exposition and analysis, is concerned with the relevance and applicability of the Taoist view in Chinese artistic and intellectual creativity. Few other works facilitate so sensitive an understanding of creative impulse and expression in Chinese culture’ (Hyman Kublin, Library Journal)”

Chung-yuan Chang was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He died in 1988, aged 84.