REVIEW OF THE BOOK “THE TEACHINGS OF THE PRIMORDIAL LADY SUN BUER: TAOIST TEACHING FOR WOMEN” BY I.V. BELAYA

In the monograph “The Teachings of the Primordial Lady Sun Buer: Taoist Teaching for Women” (Moscow: Ganga, 2020, 352 pp.), I.V. Belaya considers the Taoist female practices of the Quanzhen school, a topic that has not been studied at all in Russian science. Sun Buer is presented both as a historical person and as an object of religious worship. Also, the monograph provides an overview of Taoist writings, one way or another connected with the name of the mentor Sun Buer. An especially valuable part of the book is a complete translation from the classical Chinese written language of the collection of poetic works “Teachings of the Primordial Lady Sun Buer”. It includes “The Feminine Mastery of Inner Alchemy” ( Nü gong nei dan ) and “The Sequence of Mastering the Skill of Female Tao Path” ( Kun dao gong fu ci di ). I.V. Belaya's monograph contains a number of important theoretical provisions related to the study of Taoist “internal alchemy”, in particular, “female alchemy” ( nü dan ) and acquaints the domestic reader with the original Chinese texts on “female alchemy”.