Brian L. Kennedy

As to the idea the "customer is always right"; that raises the interesting issue that the Daodejing is a minor industry! Most of the yo-yos doing the "pseudo-translations" are simply picking up a copy of Legge or Wing Tsit Chans version and rewriting it with some New Age gibberish then finding a publisher for it. It is too bad because it really shows a disrespect for the classics. take care, Brian

As to whether he ever demonstrated the Great Bull Killing Caper, that I do not know. What would be the norm is that he made some vague innuendo to some of his disciples, then the disciples, not having the greatest reasoning skills on earth and hearing what they want to hear and hoping it is true, expand it into a fact. That is how most charlatans operate; stupidity + hope = 99% of the chi gong out there. And normally I have no bitch with any of it except when it comes to stealing from people who do not have much to begin with. durkhrod chogori, did you used to post on the Taiwan forum called Forumosa? The reason I ask is that there was a guy who was interesting in Chinese religion who did used to post there and he used the same prayer wheel logo. Take care, Brian

On the Kunlun Bliss website, in the section about Who is Max Christensen, it says: "Studying under Wudang Master Wu Xiao Deng of Hubei province, Max started on the path to realization in 1966 at the age of six. At this early age he began learning a wide range of lesser known esoteric and alchemical practices. These have included various forms of qi gung, or the absorption of heavenly energy into oneself, and nei gung, the power to transmit energy or qi from oneself to another." Am I to understand that when he was 6 years old, in 1966, Mr. Christensen, a white American, was in China studying with a Wudang master? Am I reading that correctly?. Let me be quick to add, I have no ax to grind, I am simply asking as a historian working on a book about modern Daoism. 1966 was an interesting year in modern Chinese history. The Red Guards were on their violent ascendancy and from a martial arts history perspective the years 1966 to 1968 were when many skilled Republican era martial artists were killed or crippled by the Red Guards. Take care, Brian

Thanks Freeform, I have not yet got a range on what interest people on this forum. About all I can really contribute is things related to either Taiwanese Daoism or martial arts related stuff. But I will find out which topics are of interest to the folks here and which are in the Forbidden Zone. I got a little dose of the Forbidden Zone in two other threads I took part in, but such is life on a new forum. take care, Brian

Yes, I have seen photos of that procedure being done by some of the really Old Skool chinese medicine guys here in Taiwan. It is an interesting practice. take care, Brian

Although we still have two weeks to go, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year. The New Year this year falls on February 7th and the holiday time, at least here in Taiwan will run from the 6th to the 11th. So all the Chinese New Years stuff is starting to be out in the stores. This card is actually extremely bright red, so bright I had to wear shades when I was scanning it in. take care, Brian

Thanks Oolong Rabbit, Hope you and your family have a great Year of the Rat, which is the animal for this year. take care Brian

Over the past year or so I have finally started to study Taiwanese Crane Boxing. Taiwan was well known for the quality and variety of its Crane Boxing. In modern times Taiwanese Crane Boxing has kind of fallen by the wayside but there still are some guys teaching. Crane Boxing uses a lot of imagery from Daoism. Any folks here study any of the Crane Boxing systems? take care, Brian

Hi Mal, Yeah, I am enjoying it quite a bit. Thanks much for the post about the history. And it comes as no surprise that that article caused some discomfort. To kind of add to what the article said, a friend of mine, a martial arts historian named Stan Henning, is starting to take the position that most "short armed" southern systems (i.e. Wing chun, Hung Gar, Crane boxing, Mok Gar and the rest) were all derived from martial arts systems brought to southern China by General Qi Ji Guang (戚繼光)(1528-1587) when he was in the delta region doing the pirate/brigand suppression. A lot of his troops were decommissioned in the south and they could have spread the northern forms they knew from their military training into the south. I am very much starting to agree with Stan Henning on that. take care, Brian

Ummm, I am fairly sure Charles Luk wrote his books in english, he was if I remember right a British citizen by way of Hong Kong (although I am not 100% sure of that)...in any event if you go from english to english it is not translation it is editing.....it is also intellectual property theft. If you want to write a book, that is grand...but don't fucking steal other peoples' books. I take this seriously as a professional writer. And "no" his books are not pubic domain, I am looking at the copyright page right now and I see the copyright to his written works is owned by "The Estate of Charles Luk" (which would be his family or some kind of trust fund he set up). And as a side issue, your knowledge of chinese to english translations is up to this task? My full time translator wife would laugh at that. She is pulling her hair out doing some of the translations for she and I's upcoming book on Daoism. I take all of this seriously because I have great respect for Daoism, Daoist practices and the Chinese Daoist way of life. And there is tons of nonsenese in english about Daoism and a fair percentage of the nonsense comes from half assed translations (e.g. Thomas Cleary, Eva Wong and others) and space hippies just deciding they are going to "fix" some writings about Daoism. Go out and buy legal, legit books...there are plenty of them out there. take care, Brian Daoist Authors Defense League

I looked around briefly and it seems the answer to the question of where did this come from is: Max's teacher was Andrew Lum whose teacher was the grand master of Mao Shan. His name was Lum Dai Young. He was famous in Hawaii for his siddhas. He started the Gee Yung school in Hawaii. That is interesting. Andrew Lum is a name I know as a Hawaiian taiji teacher. The guy I learned Bucksam Kong's hung gar from knew Andrew Lum back in Hawaii. Well, that makes it all less mysterious and more credible. Mr. Christensen learned from a Chinese-Hawaiian taiji teacher. take care, Brian

As Buddy pointed out, it does not say "in Hubei", it says "of Hubei"; I need to read a bit more carefully. And thanks for the lead to the other thread, I will go have a look. What I am actually trying to do is get familiar with the major Daoist teachers in North America, just to see what the state of North American "non Chinese" Daoism is. (when I say "non-Chinese Daoism" I mean teachers who are aiming at a non-Chinese audience). In any event thanks much, take care, Brian

I am getting close but not quite in the club yet. I turn 50 in June. But I have lived in Taiwan for 15 years. I am told that speeds up the aging process! take care, Brian

Hi Onebir and Oolong Rabbit, Glad you folks found the photos interesting and yeah, the Taiwanese folks can burn the hell money on and on and on and on...that is for sure. Oolong Rabbit, you mentioned using real money!! I would be interested in seeing that book you are talking about. I will p.m you. take care, Brian

My wife and I are doing a series of pieces on different aspects of Taiwanese street Daoism for Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine. The editor is a guy named Gene Ching and he has been super helpful in getting the series going. The Jan/Feb issue features a piece on the 8 Generals (八家將). What I have called the 8 Generals is probably more accurately translated as the 8 Retainers in the sense of staff officers working for a court official. And actually what they are quite close to, in a weird sense, is cops, police officers and detectives. Their job is to investigate, arrest and punish evil spirits, ghosts and other banes on the neighborhood. This kind of comes out with the photo. Several of the guys are carrying wooden handcuffs and badges (the kind of wooden fan thing in the guys hands). In real life the performers usually study some form of southern shaolin, and they almost are always major users of meth---as was evidenced by 73 of them getting busted down in Tai Chung about a week ago. Take care, Brian

Greetings From Taiwan, My wife and I are currently working on a book that will discuss Daoist training manuals from the Qing dynasty and Republican period in China. She and I have been slowly plugging away on it and in the meantime Gene Ching, the editor of Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine, is running sections of the book as articles both in the print version of the magazine and (for free!) in the e-zine. The first one we did talked about Daoist talismans. Here in Taiwan the most commonly visible aspect of Daoism is these talismans. Every taxi cab has them dangling from the rear view mirror and a fair number of toddlers have them dangling from their necks (to keep jealous gods from grabbing the kid) The ezine article is at: http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/arti...php?article=723 I thought the piece might be of some interest or amusement. Take care, Brian

Greetings from San Chung City on the beautiful Taoist island of Taiwan, I was interested in Daoism way back in my university days (and when I say "way back", I mean "waaaay back" circa late 1970s) and kind of stuck with it over the years. In the past few years I have gotten a lot more serious about it. I have lived here in Taiwan for the past 14 years and am married to a Taiwanese. I teach law here in Taiwan and have a strong interest in Taiwanese martial arts. I look forward to meeting you all. take care, Brian

I too was wondering if there were any Daoist print magazines that appear on a regular basis. Running through the list it seems to basically be: Empty Vessel Journal of Contemporary Taoism and Qi magazine Those two are it? Is Empty Vessel still publishing? Their website seems to have ended in 2003? Is the old Buddhist magazine Tricycle still around? Do they ever do Daoist related pieces? (these questions may seem odd, but I have been gone from America for 14 years now so it has been awhile since I saw an American newsstand!) What about on the scholarly side? I guess Philosophy East and West is still around. There was another journal called (I think) Daoist Resources but it died right? take care, Brian