The secret of the golden flower.

[Moonbar]

Hello one & all,

 

Firstly i apologise if this has been bought up before.

 

I'm looking to buy a copy of 'The secret of the golden flower' & i see there are many translations - does any one translation come recommended over the others?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance.

[thelerner]

We've had some long and thought provoking threads about the Golden Flower. Here are a couple of them:

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/7795-secret-of-the-golden-flower/

http://thetaobums.com/topic/25786-on-the-secret-of-the-golden-flower-and-on-ancient-chinese-philosophy/?hl=%22golden+flower%22

http://thetaobums.com/topic/27044-golden-flower-study/?hl=%22golden+flower%22

 

There's a podcast (free at the Itunes Store) called 'The Golden Flower Podcast', by JJ Semple who's written a few books on the subject. They can be more anecdotal then meaty, but they're worthwhile to listen and you can't beat the price.

Edited January 13, 2014 by thelerner

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm aware of three of them:

 

1)the Cleary translation which is zen-oriented plus the alchemical mystery words. My favourite.

2)The Wilhelm version which includes a commentary and points more to the taoist energetics;

3) another excellent translation of a beautiful version of this treatise which is published in the Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu of Wang Li Ping. This is really the best one, imho.

 

To tell the truth, since those are basically three different versions of the treatise (not the same chinese text), they deserve good reading and study.

[Moonbar]

Thank you very much for your replies