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.

Lukas K. Pokorny is Professor and Chair in Religious Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria.
Franz Winter is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Graz, Austria.

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 siècle 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