Kunst Und Religion in Indien, China Und Japan

Since the earliest literary sources of China yield no information about the religious concepts underlying the animal style on ancient Chinese bron- zes, an attempt is made in this paper to find an explanation by studying the idea of Tao. Although our knowledge of Tao stems mainly from writings of the 3rd century B. c., a pre-philosophical Tao - to use a phrase coined by Prof. Dr.