Stephen R. Bokenkamp柏夷

Style & Daoist names

Stephen Bokenkamp

Period

Contemporary

Dates

1949 — ?

Role

SinologistDaoist Scholars

Birthplace

United States

Life

Stephen R. Bokenkamp, an American sinologist and professor at Arizona State University (previously a longtime member of the faculty at Indiana University), is a leading figure in American Daoist studies, having studied under Edward Schafer and Kristofer Schipper. His representative work, Early Daoist Scriptures (1997), provides an annotated English translation of six early Daoist texts — including the Xiang'er Commentary on the Laozi, the Dadao jia lingjie, the Ziyang zhenren neizhuan, and Lingbao scriptures — and has become a basic reader for the study of early Daoism in the English-speaking world. Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China (2007) studies the relationship between the Lingbao scriptures and the Buddhist conception of rebirth. In recent years he has devoted himself to a complete translation of Tao Hongjing's Zhengao, publishing A Fourth-Century Daoist Family (2021), among other works. He has served as president of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions and has trained a number of American Daoist scholars. The above is based on publicly available academic information.

Contributions & Influence

• Produced an annotated English translation of early Daoist scriptures in Early Daoist Scriptures
• Studied the relationship between the Lingbao scriptures and Buddhism
• Translated the Zhengao, advancing the study of Shangqing Daoism

Works

• Early Daoist Scriptures
• Ancestors and Anxiety: Daoism and the Birth of Rebirth in China
• A Fourth-Century Daoist Family: The Zhen'gao