Ilia Mozias is a researcher of Daoism and Chinese religion. He earned his MA and Ph.D. degrees from the Hebrew University. His research focuses on the history of Daoism, internal alchemy, and spirit writing in late imperial and modern China. His dissertation was dedicated to one of the foundational figures in the history of internal alchemy, Lu Xixing 陸西星 (1520-1601 or 1606).
Currently, he is working on several projects related to the development of internal alchemy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: The history of one of the central modern schools of internal alchemy, the Western school (xipai 西派), and the connection between esoteric alchemical practice and modernist thinking of social reformers
such as renowned political thinker and alchemist Zheng Guanying 鄭觀應 (1842-1921).
These projects aim to explore the impact of the modernization of Chinese society on the country’s religious thinking and practices. His publications include the article "Immortals and Alchemists: Spirit-Writing and Self-Cultivation in Ming Daoism" (Journal of Daoist Studies 11. 2018), and the monograph The Literati Path to Immortality: The Alchemical Teachings of Lu Xixing (Dunedin, FL: Three Pines Press, 2020)
Affiliate Temporary Member, 2023-2024