道家修真理论(The Taoist Cultivation for the True Self)

[ChiDragon]

道家修真理论
基本理论(The fundamental principles)

 

道教中，学道修行，求得真我，去伪存真为“修真”。
In the Taoist religion, learning the Taoist cultivation is to find one's true-self by eliminating all the fallacies but stay with the truth. This is called the "cultivation for the truth" (any English error?).

修真者[1]，借假修真也。借此四大假合之肉身，修成吾金刚不坏之真身。古今天下，没有不死的肉身，只有永恒的法身。所谓：本来真性号金丹，四大为炉炼作团。

肉体者，四大假合矣，虽曰父母恩赐，然父精母血本为凡俗之物，数十年后焉能不坏？何为四大？地、水、风、火，是也。地构成骨胳肌肉和脏腑，水构成身中之血液，风构成呼吸系统，火则构成身中之恒常体温。

修真又分现实修真及小说修真。小说修真的名词和境界不具备任何可行性，仅为小说家言，供人娱乐。

通过烧炼金丹，服食来达到长生的外丹术已逐渐没落。现修真界主要以金丹大道的内丹学，即丹道为主流，讲究修炼神气。

老子道德经曾云道生一、一生二、二生三、三生万物。丹道即三返二、二返一、一合于道。其名词为炼气化神、炼神还虚(后又增添炼虚合道、虚空粉碎一说)即精气神的返还过程。又因人精气不足，又创出补足精气的练精化气，使人从后天补亏达到先天，以便开始修炼。

Notes: The Taoist text are indicated in red.

Ref: Cultivation for the Truth

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Marblehead]

Hey CD,

 

Can you do that in English? There only a few of you guys who read Chinese and there are about 1500 of us who do not.

 

I have no problem with the Chinese being posted as long as the English translation is included.

 

Or, if you are just doing it for yourself you could do it in your Personal Practice sub-forum.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Edit to add:

 

The one paragraph you did present in English reads very well. No grammatical errors.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Marblehead

[dawei]

I agree... we can't just spam Chinese text in any forum without explanation, translation, discussion, etc...

 

Otherwise it should go in the chinese language area or a personal section.

[ChiDragon]

MH...
Thanks for asking. The reason I didn't do the translation in the first place was because some English speakers will reject the original thoughts by attacking the English that was presented. Thus claiming that only Chinese think they know it better. Therefore, I thought I gave them the benefit of the doubt to read it first hand. However, it would be delightful for me to do the translation for you and those who are serious about it.

[Marblehead]

Thanks CD. I do read the Religious Taoist threads. I don't always agree. Sometimes I express my disagreements. I have no problem with the paragraph that you did translate above.

[dawei]

MB is the Steward of the sub-forum... he needs to keep people on topic and within the posting rules...

 

When he has to remind someone, that means they are not following the idea of the sub-forum...

 

He is good at gently reminding people...

[ChiDragon]

Before I begin the translation, I must indicate that I am not translating the ordinary Chinese but the philosophy of Taoist religion in esoteric terms. Since these terms are not ordinary and due the limitations of our languages, thus they may sound weird and strange to the native and non-native speakers. Whatsoever, we must not apply our normal understanding of the characters for their interpretations.

修真者[1]，借假修真也。借此四大假合之肉身，修成吾金刚不坏之真身。古今天下，没有不死的肉身，只有永恒的法身。所谓：本来真性号金丹，四大为炉炼作团。

The meaning of cultivating the "真" is by borrowing the falsehood of things to make them become "true". We borrow these four great falsehoods of things to integrate them into a flesh body. To cultivate myself to have a non-deteriorated metallic steel body. From the ancient to present, in the world, there isn't an imperishable body. However, there is only an eternal cultivated body. This is said to be: The original characteristic is called the golden elixir, the four greats were refined to a pill by baking them in a cauldron.


Note:
1. This the translation of the original Taoist Text.
2. The "four great" was referring to Earth, Water, Wing and Fire(地、水、风、火).

Edited December 9, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Marblehead]

Understood ChiDragon.

[ChiDragon]

This is the Chinese modern interpretation of the original Taoist text in Post #7.
肉体者，四大假合矣，虽曰父母恩赐，然父精母血本为凡俗之物，数十年后焉能不坏？何为四大？地、水、风、火，是也。地构成骨胳肌肉和脏腑，水构成身中之血液，风构成呼吸系统，火则构成身中之恒常体温。

修真又分现实修真及小说修真。小说修真的名词和境界不具备任何可行性，仅为小说家言，供人娱乐。

通过烧炼金丹，服食来达到长生的外丹术已逐渐没落。现修真界主要以金丹大道的内丹学，即丹道为主流，讲究修炼神气。

This is the English translation of the above.

The meaning of a flesh body, it was integrated by the four falsehood of things. Even though, they were given by the parents. The gene(精) was from the father and the blood from the mother; originally, there were ordinary substances. How can they not be deteriorated...??? What are the four greats...??? Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire, that is what they are. The Earth is the construction of the bones, flesh meat and the internal organs. The Water makes up the blood in the body. The Wind is the respiratory system. The Fire provides the normal heat for the body.

修真(Xiu4 Zhen1) has two categories; they are pragmatic and novelistic. The term and realm of the novelistic 修真(Xiu4 Zhen1) has no significant cultivatable value but only used by the novelists for amusement. The people had been taken the elixir under the external refine process which called the Waidan(外丹) is declining and outdated. Nowadays, the 修真(Xiu4 Zhen1) society is mainly cultivate the internal alchemy which know as Neidan(內丹). Neidan is emphasized in the cultivation of refining the Shen(神) and Chi(氣).

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

This is more of the translation for the Chinese modern interpretation for easy understanding.
老子道德经曾云道生一、一生二、二生三、三生万物。丹道即三返二、二返一、一合于道。其名词为炼气化神、炼神还虚(后又增添炼虚合道、虚空粉碎一说)即精气神的返还过程。又因人精气不足，又创出补足精气的练精化气，使人从后天补亏达到先天，以便开始修炼。

In Lao Tze's Tao Te Ching, it says:
Tao engenders One,
One engenders Two,
Two engender Three.

In alchemy(丹道), it says:
Three return to Two,
Two return to One,
One unites with Tao.

This reverse process is called as the refinement of Chi(氣) to Shen(神), refine Shen(神) to Void(虛)(Later, there was a saying that a new process was added to refine Void to be integrated with Tao; then the vacuous Void became shattered). This was know as the reverse process of 精气神(Jing, Chi, Shen). In the event when human has insufficient of 精气(Jing and Chi), then a supplemental procedure was invented to refine the Jing to Chi. This reverse procedure will allow the postnatal(houtian) reproduction of Jing and Chi(精气) to supplement the prenatal (xiantian) deficiency to initialize the body to begin to practice Neidan..

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Marblehead]

Question: When (in what year) was the original of this document you are translating written?

[baiqi]

To put an end to the "translation" debate, I'll just say this:

 

we are on a taoist forum, what we want here is share are (supposed) knowledge of taoism with others. It is not for professional translations, which would be another thing. "Incorrect" English is fine (for example, the ???? are incorrect, but who cares?), as long as we get the meaning, that could help us for practice.

 

So, as I said before, your translations are welcome.

 

Now, I just have one question:

 

 

The gene(精)

 

Do you consider that 精 is about genetics in the modern sense of the word? I mean, I believe it is more than that. Besides, as we all know, we share the genes of both our parents, not just our father's. If that's the meaning of the text, well, it's not correct from a scientific point of view.

[xor]

Ref: Cultivation for the Truth

 

Thank you for the translation effort ChiDragon, but is this where this text is from? It looks like a (mainland) Chinese wikipedia to me... I'm just learning Chinese not proficient so please be patient with my comment.

 

小说家 I also think here means something different than novelist? Maybe this 小說家 (諸子百家) / "School" of Minor-Talks.

[ChiDragon]

Do you consider that 精 is about genetics in the modern sense of the word? I mean, I believe it is more than that. Besides, as we all know, we share the genes of both our parents, not just our father's. If that's the meaning of the text, well, it's not correct from a scientific point of view.

 

Thank you for your generosity. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

FYI The Taoist had been using the term 精, all the time, in their documents but I haven't seen any good description or definition of what it is. So, your guess is as good as mine. The term has several meanings. Thus it can be very inclusive. Perhaps it would be interesting to investigate it separately.

 

You are correct about the modern scientific point of view. However, the ancient Taoist did not have the scientific knowledge as we have now. Their concepts might not be the exact science. Fortunately, we, the modern people which have the knowledge are trying to relate their concepts with some scientific explanation.

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon

[dawei]

"Incorrect" English is fine (for example, the ???? are incorrect, but who cares?), as long as we get the meaning, that could help us for practice.

 

Your at least the third person to attempt to show him this is incorrect english. One female member said it felt confrontative... but he simply wants to continue it instead of correcting it. So yes, we should accept such language games if we can at least understand the meaning.

 

And we'll have to get used to introductory paragraph explaining how westerners don't understand chinese and are not capable of doing any proper translations to english... yes, we are accepting it... and translations of chinese wiki...

 

About 精... I think your right. Wrong meaning ends up with wrong english word. What do you recommend for the male essence?

[ChiDragon]

Question: When (in what year) was the original of this document you are translating written?

 

This document is on a Chinese site, it has been updated constantly. I wouldn't judge its content by the date it was written but its value of the logical meaning.

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

Thank you for the translation effort ChiDragon, but is this where this text is from? It looks like a (mainland) Chinese wikipedia to me... I'm just learning Chinese not proficient so please be patient with my comment.

 

小说家 I also think here means something different than novelist? Maybe this 小說家 (諸子百家) / "School" of Minor-Talks.

 

Thank you. You are correct about the mainland website. 小说家 has two meanings; one is the people who write stories which are more fictional. The second has a more scholarly flavor as you have indicated. This 小說家 (諸子百家) applies to the speeches of the philosophers which are more factual.

 

 

BTW The reason 小说家 was mentioned in this document is because there were many fiction stories written by some authors which had been brain washed many people about Taoism and Buddhism.

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

Before I begin the translation, I must indicate that I am not translating the ordinary Chinese but the philosophy of Taoist religion in esoteric terms. Since these terms are not ordinary and due the limitations of our languages, thus they may sound weird and strange to the native and non-native speakers. Whatsoever, we must not apply our normal understanding of the characters for their interpretations.

 

It is better for someone who reads Chinese to read the actual document and get some meaning out of it.

[Marblehead]

 

This document is on a Chinese site, it has been updated constantly. I wouldn't judge its content by the date it was written but its value of the logical meaning.

The reason I asked was because it seemed to be speaking from current (present day) times and I just wanted to adjust my time line if necessary. I now see no reason to do that now. Thanks.

 

(Yes, I am reading it for content. Hehehe.)

[xor]

BTW The reason 小说家 was mentioned in this document is because there were many fiction stories written by some authors which had been brain washed many people about Taoism and Buddhism.

 

So this is an online encyclopedia article about what today people think about taoist cultivation in China mainland and not a taoist text.

Edited November 23, 2013 by xor

[ChiDragon]

So this is an online encyclopedia article about what today people think about taoist cultivation in China mainland and not a taoist text.

 

Yes, this is not a Taoist text, but it is interpreting the Taoist text with the classic statements listed. For clarity, I will go back to the OP and color them in red to distinguish them as the Taoist text.

Edited November 23, 2013 by ChiDragon