Yang Sheng
The preservation of health, rather than simply the treatment of disease, is a major characteristic of Chinese medicine, strongly differentiating it from modern biomedicine. Related to this is the enhancement of the quality of life in all its breadth and depth, the cultivation of a practitioner’s ability to access the essence of this medical tradition for clinical inspiration, and the promotion of an integrated harmony of jing, qi and shen in both doctor and patient.
We will therefore have articles on therapeutic movement, breathwork, Daoist perspectives and techniques, martial arts and other approaches to self-cultivation, as well as cultural materials aimed at enriching life experience.
Theory
Nourishing life - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
To nourish life we must reduce the leakage of vital essence, energy and spirit. The Daoists, among others, very early on saw the way the scenario of depletion of inherited
Yang Sheng: The thing about jing - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
It is not only ejaculation that wastes jing/essence: anything that disturbs its quiet repose does so. Jing is potential. Once this source has been tapped, this activated energy cannot easily be transformed back into the potential it was.
Yum Cha as Life Training - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
Xiaoyao contemplates the secret Chinese training system in essential life skills.
Alchemy, Demonology and the Abbot - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
Our wandering pilgrim continues his journey of discovery in Daoist China.
The Pine Valley Daoist - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
I was wandering around some hidden parts of the monastery one day, poking into places where I had never been, when I found a secluded alcove, almost completely covered with a Polygonum vine.
Practice
A shower of warm fragrance - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
Several readers have taken me to task for, they said, being too negative. Surely health is not just avoidance? Surely what we do is more important than what we don't do? I can understand their point of view ...
Essays
The twin palaces of China - by Steve Clavey
The more one engages Chinese medicine, the more it reveals itself as a truly vast storehouse of treasures, each separate room an inexhaustible cornucopia of ways to improve the quality of living for oneself and others.
Walking the road home - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
“The aim is to live as fully as possible, recognising and encouraging the development of all one's faculties, and during the course of this, learning to access a deeper source of sustenance for this process.”
The Dao of cultivation - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
I turned and stared in shock. It was Cook ...
River Diagram in the Hermit's Cave - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
One afternoon I left the monastery later than usual and night caught me on the way down. Somehow I took a wrong turning and found myself wandering an unknown path in the darkness ...
Talks at a monastery - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
There was no sign, early that foggy morning, of the noisy crowds that later would mill around the base of the mountain and swarm towards the temple up the road, the one with the massive golden Buddha, exotic rock carvings and lines of knick-knack stalls lining the road to its gate ...
More talks at a monastery - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
Our wandering pilgrim continues his fascinating discussion with the fat monk with the razor-sharp mind and surprisingly agile body.
Talks on Dao Mountain - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
A wake meandered gently from the stern in the calm river water. The little waves gleamed rose and crimson, mirroring the fiery sky, itself inflamed by the lowering sun. A slight jolt and creaking wood marked each scull as the boatman propelled us forward ...
Feed a cold, starve a fever - by Wang Shi-Xiong (1808-1867)1
Kidneys are the constitutional basis, Spleen is the postnatal basis. If one has Stomach qi one lives, without Stomach qi one dies. So this issue of Spleen and Stomach is not inconsequential.
Working in the World - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
As I struggled through the bustling market beneath an old seven-storied pagoda, hunting for a pair of fake Dolce Gabbanas, my eye was caught by an island of calm: a stall completely unbesieged by bargain shoppers ...
The Dao of Strategy - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
Strategic planning is the pivot of survival and destruction. If consideration is not accurate, then judgment is not clear. If the timing is missed, the planning goes awry. Then intention is unreliable, it is empty and lacks substance ...
Pouncing Tiger, Soaring Dragon - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
The highest secrets of alchemy are three:
The essential water of vitality;
The fire of the spirit; and
The earth of attention.
In a Daoist Circle - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
When eyes do not see, hun returns to Liver. When ears do not hear, jing is in the Kidneys. When the tongue is still, shen is in the Heart. When there is no awareness of odour, po is in the Lungs ...
Emergence from the Hidden Treasury - by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
Reaching the extreme of emptiness, keeping utterly still, as the ten thousand things all move together, I watch them return. All these things, each returning to its root. That root is called stillness. – Lao Zi, Chapter 16
Two letters from Liu Yi-Ming - Translated by Xiaoyao Xingzhe
As far as the translator is aware, these letters have not been previously translated into English. They were included in the recently published book Qi Yun Bi Ji Ping Zhu (Notes from Perched in Clouds Mountain, Annotated) by Sun Yong-Le.
