dawei

Here you go... Shen Earlier character:

Please let us know if their vicious hate messages will be stopped or not. It is really bad for the spiritual development. It is otherwise impossible to entertain an idea of their return here. The last bird which flew in yesterday lasted a day. Good luck... and welcome.

That is the symbol of the spirit... pure interweaving of Yin and Yang...

Bingo !

I researched the most ancient reference to nine that I could find... The oracle bones mention the 'nine Wu' , nine shamans of the ritual dance... the nine dogs sacrificed... It would seem this is for the nine districts of Yu. So the importance of 'nine' is not just a semi-modern idea... It does make sense that the root is 3: A tripod. In neolithic times, the favored clay pot was a tripod. A family is three. These are all but physical ideas... If one considers "3", there is Heaven, Earth, Man. And the three dan tians... they are a spiritual microcosm idea...

~~~ ADMIN COMMENT ~~~ I cleaned up the thread and moved some to the PIT Let's keep to the topic and reasonable counter comments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, nine holds lots of meaning. The sound, Jiu, is same as ever-lasting (Jiu)... Also the Ba Guo (Eight Diagrams) surrounds the nine area of the divine center. Yu the Great separated the nine streams and created nine cauldrons to represent the nine districts he created. Shennong had nine wells spring up around him at birth. The Jiulong mountains contain nine ranges (Dragons). Then there are the nine dragons. In the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens taught the Yellow Emperor to compound and ingest the elixirs and become a divine immortal. ---- What are the nine teachings of Daoism?

I don't want to play games. You keep telling others you won't discuss this or that. This was an simple question as part of your introduction. Thanks anyways for not answering.

I live in FL... so I am kind of on an island to swim whenever I want. Where are you living?

I tend towards this point of view. That the dan tian (regardless of which one of the three) are locations for energy; I sometimes prefer the idea of a 'container'. It is not physical but energetic, so there is not an exact organ to equate to (which is ok as there is no requirement that it needs to). So for me, this holds true of the chakras as well... energy containers in certain locations. If one has ever scanned another body, it is very clear where energy stores and how it feels. I would be interested to hear how you explain this.

Here is a PDF version: http://people.duke.edu/~myhan/kaf0910.pdf

Chinese astronomy differs from the ecliptic-based Chaldeo-Greek tradition by its equatorial character, due to the central role of the polar star This comment is so deep in chinese lore and myth and leads one to Tai Yi (Great One), and origin of characters like Dragon (Long) and God or Ruler of Heaven (Di).

Very interesting. I was just reading something about this yesterday. I had previously found one of those maps but have never seen such a detailed discussion. Nice.

Do you live in the past or future? Some do... some don't... It is really that simple... for me...

I've been hazed by the mods... so I might as well get hazed by the admins now... A fish is best when fried on both sides Looking forward to being covered with ginger and soy sauce

I checked the default settings for Manitou and they are as expected; any thread or forum followed is to be notified via email. I can only recommend if you see "Follow this thread" or "Unfollow this thread" in the upper right. If you see "Unfollow this thread", there you should get email notice. Maybe the email is not correct but we can easily send you an email as a test.

or we are the rabbit hole...

Shaughnessy wrote "unlike previous discoveries of bamboo strips in the area, these bore philosophical texts" Not that this provides any substantial weight for the idea of a tutor but it seems finding books buried was not common... Rewriting Early Chinese Text http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic895893.files/Shaughnessy%20Rewriting%20Early%20Chinese%20Texts%201%202%205.pdf

First off... you make so many great points that it may not be possible to really discuss them all and it may not matter as there are ultimately no final answers... My gut would only say that the original Dartmouth conference and papers dealt with it all and everything after it is but a footnote... what is there possibly more to discover? But more questions... I have yet to see someone explain how these texts were in Chu... to me, it is bizzarre to find them in Chu... one idea is that Qu Yuan went to Qi and brought them back to Chu.... By guessing this? I am deeply curious how a Confucian infused burial is in Chu (home of Laozi)... I should go back and read the Confucian links I provided This seems the way of archaeology for dating. They find items relating to a certain prince, can date script, etc. Also, this was all written in Chu Script which means these texts were copied by someone... Yes. It is atypical in Chu... So it is a combination of questions which arise about all this... Burial items tend to have two meanings: 1. value in of themself 2. value to the buried This burial seems to be #2... and seemingly of no value in general... amazing, if true. If the one buried was the one who copied them, they would reflect his skill and as his possession get buried with him... Just more conjecture but items are buried for a reason. I think once the tutor idea arose, in the very first paper, it caught on like wild fire. Given the absence of books, they would look at all the other artifacts. But a prince having a tutor in Chu was common and this person would be versed in philosophies and leadership issues. Researchers may be forcing the issue and making connections which are not really there but I think you are right: They just can't resist it!

Yes, you described this in another topic on DDJ Themes... you mentioned this as the 'female principle'. I most often hear people try to connect DDJ chapter 42 cosmology sequence to originating with the Book of Change (Yi Ching), but I don't agree. I did find a text which describes stage sequences more in line like you share. I wrote my idea here: http://thetaobums.com/topic/32324-cosmology-in-ancient-chinese-text/?p=489970

I don't completely disagree with your points. But to some degree, the burial objects speak. A general is typically not buried with books, nor a peasant. And why are books of Confucius and Daoism even among the findings? Although kings, nobles and educated/teachers/tutors have been. Although Laozi is from Chu, how would these particular texts have gotten there; Chu was viewed as a barbarian state by the northern city-states. And there are more confucian texts and most consider that if this was a tutor or scholar (Ru=scholar, often translated as Confucian), they were Confucian. Lu Xueqin was among the original reviewers of the excavators and is preeminent in ancient texts... I think he first suggested the idea of a tutor. It seems reasonable but there is so much conjecture and opinion without much evidence or most if not all is simply circumstantial... definitely more unanswered questions than there are answers. Sarah Allen stated: http://www.investigacioneshistoricaseuroasiaticas-ihea.com/files/thegreatonewaterandthelaozinew.pdf The deceased appears to have been an old man, possibly the tutor of a Chu prince. The evidence for any particular identification is weak. Nevertheless, the slip-texts found in the tomb are all philosophical writings: regardless of whether or not the deceased was the tutor to the Crown Prince of Chu, these are not standard mortuary items; both their form and content suggest that they were some sort of personal library that belonged to the deceased in his lifetime.

"constant" is from CHANG... this later was used to mean many other more modern things than its original use... Dao is not constant... maybe in its regularity and it's tenacity... but for Dao neither exists... http://thetaobums.com/topic/31896-chang-original-use-in-ancient-times/

Did you agree though...

I once said: From the ONE came Dao... and the rest is history...

I highly recommend tonics for the kidney. You will find a difference... http://www.chinesenaturalherbs.com/herb_pages/gejie.asp I can't find the actual Ginseng pills I would recommend but these are close... if you don't just buy some roots online and soak them for tea.... http://www.chinesenaturalherbs.com/herb_pages/panginsengcaps_30.asp http://www.chinesenaturalherbs.com/herb_pages/ginscaps_red.asp