Nei Jing Tu

[Taoist81]

A few weeks back there was a discussion about this Qing period illustration. Spectrum said he was looking for an academic translation. Ever since, this image has been popping up. In an "embryonic breathing" qigong book I picked up. On a calendar at my school (TCM). All around the same time. So, Spectrum, or anyone else, do you know of an actual translation of the text on the chart? There was a Mantak Chia description, but he stated at the beginning that he was adding HT influences to it, and it wasn't a translation. It the book, which didn't cover much at all, the illustration was only included with a translation of another text. Any help would be great.

[Spectrum]

Yeah I've been studying sources for a few months on that one. There are various "translations" out there. In the meantime I have indeed found an academic translation referenced by a couple sources. I am in the process of aquiring it. I will post the name of the Academic Journal and author shortly. (gotta go find it again)

[Taoist81]

Thanks for the response Spectrum. I look forward to reading up on it. By the by, the other resources on the diagram, were they online or in book form? I wouldn't mind looking into "non-academic" sources as well.

[Spectrum]

The most academic reference I have found sp far in print is in an art journal.

 

Link to TTB forum for thread ref:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showto...;hl=nei+jing+tu

Edited January 13, 2007 by Spectrum

[Spectrum]

Okay. Sorry this took so long. I've been digging for these w/ a short shovel. The original thread has some translation in it posted by 'Voice'.

 

So far I have found three non-internet translations of the stele in question dated to 1886 currently housed in the White Cloud Monastery. According to Louis Komjathy of Boston University in a paper entitled "Daoist Texts in Translation", the textual components of the diagram include passages from the Huangting Jing (Scripture on the Yellow Court) and two poems attributes to Lu Dongbin (798 C.E.?)

 

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Translated by Catherine Despeux. Taoisme et corps humain: Le Xiushen tu. Paris: Guy Tredaniel Editeur, 1994

 

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Translated by David Teh-yu Wang "Nei Jing Tu, a Daoist Diagram of the Internal Circulation of Man"

The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery Volume 49/50 1991/92 (141-158)

 

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Translated by Louis Komjathy "Mapping the Daoist Body: The Nei Jing tu and the Daoist Internal Landscape" Forthcoming

 

 

 

Still climbing the ladder, down into the whole;

 

Spectrum

Edited January 8, 2007 by Spectrum

[Spectrum]

The specific translation in which I have obtained is Translated by David Teh-yu Wang "Nei Jing Tu, a Daoist Diagram of the Internal Circulation of Man" printed in The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery Volume 49/50 1991/92 (141-158)

 

The Article is divided into Six Parts:

----------

Intro

 

Origin of the Diagram

 

The Internal Elixir in Daoist Physiological Alchemy

 

Heavenly Vault: The Head

 

The Macro-Microcosmic Body: The Torso

 

Conclusion

 

----------

 

Excerpts on Origin :

 

pg142

 

"According to the inscription in the lower left-hand corner, by a certain Pure-Cloud Daoist Priest (Suyun daoren) Liu Chengyin, the painting was found in a temple at an unidentifiable Gaosong Mountain:

 

'This Painting has never had copies circulating anywhere in the world. Because the Dao of the true Gold Elixer (dan dao) is broad yet delicate in its principle, and those whos roots [of percieving the Dao] are blocked from learning [the essense of the Dao of Internal Elixir], this diagram is little known in the world. When I, by change, was browsing books and paintings in a studio at Gaosong Mountain, I noticed that this painting was hung on the wall. The painting is refined and minute in style. The notations of arteries, junctures of bones, and networks of bveins are clearly given, and each of them is accompanied by secret lore. I looked at this painting for long, and I began to comprehend that breathing out and breathing in (huxi), as well as exprelling out and taking in (tuna), are actually waxing and waning (yingxu) as well as the ebb and flow (xiaoxi) of the cosmos. If one understands this, one then grasps more then half of the main essentials of the true Gold Elixir. I dare not keep this [painting] to myself alone, and I therefore engrave it on a printing plate (zi) for popular circulation.

 

I, Pure-Cloud Daoist Priest Lui Chengyin engrave and inscribe [this] in reverence (Followed by two seals; one carries the character "Cheng" and the other "Yin")'

Edited January 13, 2007 by Spectrum

[Rootless Traveler]

There's now a free translation (PDF file). The download link is in this thread:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=8944&st=40