SOURCE: "What Is Taoism?," in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 76, No. 3, July-September, 1956, pp. 139-43, 150-52.

In the following excerpt, Creel argues for a distinction between philosophical Taoism, exemplified by the ideas of Lieh Tzu, and Hsien Taoism, a doctrine oriented toward achieving physical immortality.

If anyone is apprehensive that I am going to give an answer to the question posed by the title of this paper, let me reassure him at once. I shall not be so foolish as to try to propound a single, sovereign definition of what Taoism is. In fact, the more one studies Taoism, the clearer it becomes that this term does not denote a school, but a whole congeries of doctrines.

Nevertheless, if one is to discuss Taoism, he must at least have a reasonably clear conception of what it is. This is made extremely difficult by the nature of the...