The Primordial Tradition of Ancient China

The first English translation of Taoist occultist Matgioi's seminal work

First published in French in 1905, and now translated into English for the first time, Matgioi's book became the metaphysical core of the Traditionalist movement established by French occultist René Guénon, Julius Evola, and Ananda Coomaraswamy.

Translator Joscelyn Godwin tells how Matgioi was initiated into a Taoist secret society and was given rare access to the perennial wisdom of that tradition. His work reveals the great antiquity of Emperor Fohi, who set down the cosmogonic principles upon which the I Ching is based and lived more than 2,000 years before Moses. Matgioi regarded Fohi as representing a school of sages unbound to any century since their wisdom is as old as humanity itself.