Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China by Shih-Shan Susan Huang (review)

literature changed to emphasize purity of the body in Chinese vinaya commentarial works? As noted above, the authors claim that in China there was a shift in bathing practices from public to private, from communal to individual, where nakedness and bodily contact were banned. What implications does this have on attitudes towards the ‘‘body’’ and its Chinese cultural configuration? There is also scant discussion on female (bhiks .un .  ı) bodies and the way those bodies lived and were given meaning. Granted, sources on them are rare. But, given the sources available, is it possible to reflect on whether or not there is a neutral ‘‘body’’ (in the singular) to return to, a genderless body one could gain access to, beneath the veil of these normative monastic guidelines written by men? Lurking behind the implicit aims of this monograph also is the question of the ‘‘Buddhist impact on China’’ that needs to be brought to the fore. The authors may not have intended to tackle this issue, but throughout the monograph, in their examination of the indigenous Chinese bodily utensils and practices prior to, during, and after Buddhism’s introduction, the authors appear to be implicitly questioning what differences emerged when Buddhism was transmitted from India to China. The authors rightfully suggest a more nuanced model of negotiation— avoiding the old models of ‘‘conquest’’ or ‘‘Sinification.’’ Explicitly exploring these larger questions could have made this work even stronger. There are other minor issues, such as the way the authors sometimes blur the boundary between prescriptive claims and descriptive realities when they make such generalizations as ‘‘monks and nuns identify and present themselves through their bodies [. . . ] prefer to exercise strict control over their bodies and are rather reluctant to relax their grip’’ (p. 167). Vinaya and other prescriptive texts are literary products that reveal normative guidelines. Ultimately we do not know if they controlled their bodies or not. Despite these issues, this monograph is the first sustained study of bodily care in Buddhist monastic literature and Chinese response to bodily care. A wealth of nonBuddhist primary sources is also used—many that would be overlooked by typical Buddhist scholars—to historicize this process. Readers will surely benefit from the knowledge presented. For these reasons, it is a welcome addition to Buddhist studies and Chinese history. JIMMY YU Florida State University SHIH-SHAN SUSAN HUANG, Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China. Harvard East Asian Monographs 342. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2012. xxiv, 497 pp. US$69.95/£51.95/J63.00 (hb). ISBN 978-0-674-06573-4 Lavishly illustrated with reproductions of many of the most important images of Daoist visual culture and explained in well-researched descriptions, Picturing the True Form is a virtual exhibition tour through time. Geared to the general reader 154 BOOK REVIEWS interested in the material aspects of Daoist ritual in all its important aspects, the book provides an excellent introduction and summary of the latest state of the art of Daoist visual culture. The overarching theme, the author Susan Huang argues, is the medieval Daoist concept of the True Form (zhenxing 真形), which in her words: ‘‘denotes the original shape something has as part of Dao, the inner, invisible, and formless quality of an entity, in contrast to its outer, visible, and concrete attributes’’ (p. 135), which entails ‘‘an active journey of seeing underlying and secret phenomena through a series of metamorphoses’’ (p. 8), and ‘‘multiplies itself in myriad forms, media, time and space, from mental images, visualization pictures, bodily and cosmic charts, to ritual materials, ritual space and performance’’; transforming ‘‘like the Dao, which entails two-way movement between simplicity and multiplicity’’ (p. 342). In this sense, the True Form is both the original shape of things and one of its multiple manifestations. Through Daoist ritual practices, the viewer is offered ‘‘concrete methods of cultivation for achieving ‘Daoist seeing’’’ (p. 8) of the True Forms, and the book places great emphasis on the ritual practices related to objects. In fact, images not found in this ritual context of either the Daoist Canon or the sacred space of the ritual area do not belong in the domain of Daoist visual culture as...