Sakai Tadao酒井忠夫

Style & Daoist names

Sakai Tadao

Period

Modern

Dates

1912 — 2010

Role

HistorianScholar of morality books and popular religion

Birthplace

Japan

Life

Sakai Tadao was a Japanese historian, professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, and president of the Japanese Society of Taoist Studies. He is known for his research on Ming–Qing Morality Books; his Studies on Chinese Morality Books (1960; expanded edition 1999–2000) systematically examines the formation and spread of Morality Books such as the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response, the Tract on Hidden Merit of Lord Wenchang, and the Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, and their relation to the syncretism of the Three Teachings and popular ethics; it is the pioneering classic of the field, and its Chinese translation has had great influence. He also studied Chinese popular religious associations, Taiwanese folk belief, and Daoist influence in Japan, edited A Comprehensive Study of Daoism and Religion and Chinese Culture in Taiwan among other volumes, and co-edited the three-volume Daoism with Fukui Kōjun and others.

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote Studies on Chinese Morality Books, founding the field of Morality Book studies
• Studied popular religious associations and the syncretism of the Three Teachings
• Co-edited the three-volume Daoism

Works

• Chūgoku Zensho no Kenkyū (Studies on Chinese Morality Books)
• Dōkyō no Sōgōteki Kenkyū (Comprehensive Studies on Daoism, editor)
• Taiwan no Shūkyō to Chūgoku Bunka (Religion in Taiwan and Chinese Culture, editor)