Book excerpt: Over two thousand years ago, the Chinese sage Confucius proposed that “learning, and putting persistent learning into practice, is a great joy or pleasure.” In Learning of the Way (Daoxue), Dr. John E. Young presents, from a Confucian perspective, the rationale for engaging in traditional Chinese arts and practices. Dr. Young relies on his experience as a Chinese martial arts expert and professor emeritus to share the results of his comprehensive examination of the concept of Confucian learning that explores self-cultivation, introduces the era of Neo-Confucianism, investigates the practices of jing and gewu, examines the Zhu Xi approach, applies Confucian and Neo-Confucian concepts specifically to the art and practice of wushu, and scrutinizes the traditional aspects of wushu as understood and practiced by Chinese grandmasters. Included is a description of the state of enlightenment that suggests this level of consciousness--guantong--is identical to integral consciousness and is urgently needed in today’s increasingly complex, interconnected environments. Learning of the Way (Daoxue) is a comprehensive guidebook that examines and teaches Westerners about traditional Chinese arts and practices.