morning dew

These videos are awesome. I'm going to have to get myself one of those slippers.

Yikes! I'd love to see a video of this. Did your friend film it?

Thanks. Yes, this post was very helpful. I'm still going through all the links, but it seems to me Daoist magic is full of working with deities. Is there anything such as Daoist sorcery/witchcraft that doesn't involve religion? Or would that be more Chinese folk magic? Or something else?

What would you recommend instead?

Yeah, I don't really do any mix-and-match as far as I'm aware. Currently, each morning I'm doing Jwing-ming's Eight Pieces of Brocade, and BKF's Cloud Hands and Wu Tai Chi short form. I don't think it would be a great idea, for example, to skip one of the eight pieces (in baduanjin) and replace it with a yoga pose, just because it felt good or got me some (short-term) results. Partly, what I meant was I don't think there's any one right way to do Tai Chi: small frame (Wu) is the most I can manage at the moment, for example, and large frame Chen would cripple me lol. But partly, there was the issue of age. All I was saying is just because a development is new at the time, such as Yang style, it doesn't negate its value; something that breaks off from the traditional way, and isn't 'thousands' of years old, isn't necessarily bad – although, in this case, I guess it still follows on from Chen style to some degree. That said, I think you raise an interesting point about some of these arts not evolving. I guess there are only so many ways the body can move physically and energetically, etc, and we only evolve very slowly as humans. I'm not sure if there is scope for empirical testing and improvement on such arts; I just don't have enough experience about how exactly they were designed in the first place.

Yeah, that was what I was really driving at. I was curious if the benefits of yijinjing could be replicated by other practices such as Tai Chi or whether there was something special about yijinjing. Yeah, there seem to be various versions of the origins of yijinjing that Jwing-ming translated, but it's all kind of neither here nor there to me. I'm not that into tradition, so I don't really care either way as long as I'm getting the results I want out of a particular practice. I'm sure when Yang Luchang first started out, his style worked better for some people.

I can't think of anything worse than life having a fixed meaning/purpose and me having to follow it. I've seen people express a similar view to the OP but I don't really get it, personally. I guess I just like to do my own thing.

That poor guy in the first video. Eta: actually, the second one looks even worse lol.

Nope, but I do BKF's Wu short form, so I'm interested to hear more.

Yeah, that's a good point. I wonder why old ZZ didn't get the 'classic' title.

Yeah, I've only been at Tai Chi/qigong in a serious way for about a year, so I'm still bumbling around at the moment. It's fascinating to read your post. I shall sit down and look at the two videos again side-by-side.

That's fascinating. I had no idea it was also called that. This was interesting as well, I thought. I didn't realise your book had to be Confucian to be considered a classic:

Ah, I take it that it hasn't made it into the English language. 'The true book of the Southern Flowerland': that's an interesting title (if Google translate has made an accurate job).

Yeah, that's a fair point. I guess even if he were still alive and you had discussed it with him, it would still create havoc to change it in just one translation for such a book. Also, I didn't realise he had translated so many other books. I don't think I've come across his translation of the Zhuangzi.

Thanks. Yeah, at the moment I'm just doing readings of the day in the morning to try and get a sense of the 'current' for a particular day.

This was fascinating to read. It's quite an honour to be asked to be chief editor of the Dutch version. It was interesting to see the parallel/synchronicity with the swapped names of the symbols in the sixiang and the swapped trigrams on his grave. So you didn't swap the names back in the book? You just made a footnote? Has anyone swapped back the trigrams on his grave yet?

Fair enough. On a slightly more serious note, I should say that I don't really have any particular axe to grind when I start threads on here, so I'm quite happy for everyone to have their say and to hear all sorts of different perspectives.

Aha! Now this raises my next question. Your post looks very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share all that info. I'm still having a rummage around the links and will, no doubt, be back with more questions.

Well, no harm done. I thought it was quite amusing. In any case, I re-edited my comment to cut out your quote if you're still feeling guilty lol

Ah, I wasn't sure what you thought of it. Yeah, my question is a little bit vague as well. I'm kind of interested in criticisms about AH (and whether they are justified), but also whether people have actually found him useful in terms of an oracle/divination. Yeah, I'm beginning to notice he does mention what others have called the name of the sign as well. I find that quite helpful. Yes, I bought Stephen Karcher the other week on the cheap. It's quite interesting and that's another one I want to look at a bit more in depth when I get a chance. I'm sure he's a nice guy to chat with. Yeah, AH seems cool so far. I'm quite enjoying reading him. I've got various translations, but right now, as I'm still a bit of a bumbling newbie, I'm just going to focus on one translation and then spread out later on.

LMAO! Poor old Wilhelm. It's a bit harsh but fair, I would say. I do kind of agree with you on AH. He does have certain advantages over other translators, IMO. It's interesting to read your experiences with his version as well.

Thanks for the input. Yeah, it does say in the blurb somewhere AH wasn't happy with the existing translations and set out to do a better one. I can imagine he ruffled a few feathers with that approach. To be honest, I find Wilhelm quite dry and hard to follow. Yeah, I guess, as with all these books, it's best to get an 'average' over several translations.