Taoist Texts

Yes excellent question. To start some definitions and background are in order. Definition: Neigong would be any exersise that is conducted within the bodymind with a view to get tangible benefits. Background: The Chinese word wu 巫 "spirit medium; shaman; shamaness; sorcerer; doctor; proper names" was first recorded during the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600-1046 BCE), when a wucould be either sex. During the late Zhou Dynasty (1045-256 BCE) wu was used to specify "female shaman; sorceress" as opposed to xi 覡 "male shaman; sorcerer" (which first appears in the 4th century BCE Guoyu). Other sex-differentiated shaman names include nanwu 男巫 for "male shaman; sorcerer; wizard"; and nüwu 女巫, wunü 巫女, wupo 巫婆, and wuyu 巫嫗 for "female shaman; sorceress; witch". Wu is used in compounds like wugu 巫蠱 "sorcery; cast harmful spells", wushen 巫神 or shenwu 神巫 (with shen "spirit; god") "wizard; sorcerer", and wuxian 巫仙 (with xian"immortal; alchemist") "immortal shaman". The first Chinese dictionary of characters, the (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi defines wu as zhu 祝 "sacrifice; prayer master; invoker; priest" (祝也 女能以舞降神者也 象从工 两人舞形, tr. Hopkins 1920:432) and analyzes the Seal graph, "An Invoker. A woman who can serve the Invisible, and by posturing bring down the spirits. Depicts a person with two sleeves posturing." The Oroqen shaman Chuonnasuan in July 1994. Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, 7th-century painting Note that both have a veil made of beads on their heads, especially in front of the eyes. Thats what the ancient neigong looks like.

whats a pure philosophy and why anyone ever would need either to write or to read it?

Its because the GD was organised differently. E.g. this chpt of GD is limited to neigong work. While the others are synthetic - the neigong paragraphs and the politics paragraphs were put in the same chapters based on common principles behind those both.

ahh thats the reason behind the war on xmas

Hi Daeluin its great that you are researching this. For a different angle of that story:

Hmmm, no;). Not that it matters but i completely disagree with you, especially on "murky, fuzzy" thing. From my perspective and judging by your accounts you have made great progress and now you have stalled because you dont know what the next step should be and whether there is a next step at all. You can PM me if you wish, but then again its your life and your reality. We all live in realities of our choosing.

《符言》 19 符言: 老子曰：道者直己而待命，時之至不可迎而反也，時之去不可足而援也，故聖人不進而求，不退而讓，隨時三年，時去我走，去時三年，時在我後，無去無就，中立其所。天道無親，唯德是與，福之至非己之所求，故不伐其功，禍之來非己之所生，故不悔其行，中心其恬，不累其德，狗吠不驚，自信其情，誠無非分，故通道者不惑，知命者不憂。帝王之崩藏骸於野，其祭也祀之於明堂，神貴於形也，故神制形則從，形勝神則窮，聰明雖用，必反諸神，謂之大通。 Lao-zi said: The implementation of Dao is straightforward, all there is to it is to wait for the mandate*. When it comes - you must not counter and resist it; when it is taken away - you must not stall and cling to it. That is why the sages do not advance to seek it, do not retreat to yield it, follow the times for the three years**, the time goes – I go, after the three years have passed – the timing is up to me, so I neither leave nor arrive, but occupy the proper centre. The Heavenly Dao is non-partisan, and (awards mandates) to only those with De, when good fortune arrives – it is not because I sought it specifically, so no point in bragging about the merit; when a misfortune arrives – it is not because I gave rise to it specifically, so no point in deploring the conduct. So be serene in your heart, do not wear out its De, do not be scared of barking dogs, trust your passions, do not divide your sincerity. It is like this， that those who have penetrated the implementation of Dao do not doubt, and those who understand the mandate do not regret. For when the emperor passes away his bones are hid in the wilderness, sacrifices are made to him in the Temple of Brightness, but it is his spirit that is the most valuable in his body, therefore when your spirit controls your body the body obeys, but when the body overcomes the spirit – the spirit depletes, although its intelligence is keen. You must return to the all bodily spirits which is called the Great Penetration. *to the kingdom **3 years of grieving for the previous king

21 微明: 中黃子曰：天有五方，地有五行，聲有五音，物有五味，色有五章，人有五位，故天地之間有二十五人也。上五有神人、真人、道人、至人、聖人， 次五有德人、賢人、智人、善人、辯人， 中五有公人、忠人、信人、義人、禮人，次五有士人、工人、虞人、農人、商人，下五有眾人、奴人、愚人、肉人、小人，上五之與下五，猶人之與牛馬也。聖人者以目視，以耳聽，以口言，以足行。真人者，不視而明，不聽而聰，不行而從，不言而公。故聖人所以動天下者，真人未嘗過焉，賢人所以矯世俗者，聖人未嘗觀焉。所謂道者，無前無後，無左無右，萬物玄同，無是無非。 The Old Master of the Central Yellow once said: the Heaven has 5 sides, the Earth has 5 directions, music has 5 tones, things have 5 tastes, the spectrum has 5 colors, the humans have 5 positions; that is why there are 25 kinds of people between the Heaven and Earth. The highest five are the spirit people, the true people, the Dao people, the utter people, the sages; Next are the possessors of De, the worthies, the wise, the kind, the discerning; The middle ones are the fair, the loyal, the trustful, the dutiful, the ritualistic; The lower ones are officials, workers, overseers, peasants, peddlers; The lowest ones are the hoi-polloi, slaves, the stupid, the meat-lumps, the insignificant. The highest ones are to the lowest ones as what humans are to cattle. Of the highest ones: The sages look with eyes, listen with ears, speak with the mouth, walk on feet; but he true people do not look yet see, do not listen yet hear, do not walk yet go, do not speak yet are heard; That is why - the sages are the movers and the shakers of the Under Heaven, but the true people do not get involved in it; the worthies improve the mores of the commoners, but the sages do not see to it. This is what is called the Dao (of the sages and the true ones): to be nor behind nor in front, nor on the right nor on the left; letting all things to be in the Heavenly togetherness, without rights or wrongs.

Thats very true. However, it seems that there were at least 2 separate strands in proto-daoism - the polititcans, and the internal gods visualisers. The politicians were not interested in the internal gods and vice versa.

it is a questions that is easy to answer bcause the answer is provided in the texts. So we know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it, it is not easy to do thou.

Its because a great laugh is a meaningful formula in itself. As Dawei said its akin to Zen laugh. If Dao doesnt snap into elation the lowest rungs of society its useless, its impotent. Who needs such a feeble dao? all in all i feel good about this chapter. Great work everyone!

oor a its a funny misunderstanding and those were not scholars at all Samurai (侍?), usually referred to in Japanese as bushi (武士?, [bu͍ꜜ.ɕi̥]) or buke (武家?), were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany persons in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility", the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū (905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century.[1] By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.

hehe;) thats cool, plenty of other juicy chapters await us As you may notice from any folklore or even from Political Sc 101, the governemnt structure is mostly dual on the top: there is a king/president who commands and there is a prime minister who advises him as to what to do. But who advises the prime minister? In ancient China that would be Dao/Heaven, into which he alone can tune in, get the memo from the Heaven, and pass the Heavenly memo down the line Thats a fair question. My theory is that TTC was garbled in transmission, and we reconstruct it back using the few surviving clues like that. Also, the chpt clearly consists of 2 paragraphs, both hierarchical, one having to do with 'hearing' and the other one with perceiving the 'nameless Dao'. That should tell us something. Great. The details aside, i think thats how the ancient psyche differed from ours. There are quite a scholarly few works on historical psychology who demonstrate how the ancients were much more emotional in their body language. So great laughter is the indication that the memo hit home and will be carried out. 夙 sù 【动】 肃敬〖respect〗 http://xh.5156edu.com/html3/9960.html As we know Dao is not only a way but also a word. A word is a command. The next sentence 善始且善成 tells us that if this hierarchy is in place then that Dao-word takes place in a good beginning ' the nameless' on high; and ends well received as indicated by the great laughter (something clicked) at the bottom.

'cultural colonialism' + 'wishful thinking'= 'fantasy of entitlement'

Speak Now or Shut Up Forever! All righty so this chpt. is about the chain of command. It is a bit garbled and overburdened with redundancies but its general idea shines through it all. 《道德經》: 41 上士聞道，勤能行於其中； The upper level officials hear the command of Dao and propagate it to the middle level officials; 中士聞道，若存若亡； The middle level officials receive that command and implement it inexplicitly (1); 下士聞道，大笑之。The lowest level officials receive that command from the middle level officials and react with great laughter of awe (2). 不笑不足以為道。 If there would not be any great laughter then it would indicate that Dao has not been propagated sufficiently (to reach the lowest level of management). 故建言有之：therefore this is the progression of Dao being put into words (to reach the upper level): 明道若昧；進道若退；夷道若纇；上德若谷； 太白若辱；廣德若不足；建德若偷；質真若渝； 大方無隅；大器晚成；大音希聲；大象無形；道隱無名。 The bright Dao without attributes <- the great tone without a sound <- the hidden Dao within the Nameless. 夫唯道，善始且善成。 In such a hierarchy of command – the goodness of the beginning will be passed through to the good end. (1) 上天蒼蒼，若存若亡。《二十三年》 The great Heaven on high green and blue, both is and is not there. 聖人之道，若存若亡。《心術下 - Xin Shu II》 The Dao of sages, both is and is not there. (2) 諸侯悉至，至而無寇，褒姒乃大笑。《周本紀》 The all officials-hou received this, … praised with great laughter. 望見簡子大笑；簡子曰：「子何笑？」對曰：「臣有夙笑。」《正諫》 …he looked at Jian-zi with great laughter; Jian-zi asked: why are you laughing? Answered: your servant laughs with a laughter of awe.

thats a good question , also a very easy one. That something would be your human heart.

What about a meritocracy? R u cool with it?

孟子曰：「其詳不可得聞也。諸侯惡其害己也，而皆去其籍。然而軻也，嘗聞其略也。天子一位，公一位，侯一位，伯一位，子、男同一位，凡五等也。君一位，卿一位，大夫一位，上士一位，中士一位，下士一位，凡六等。 Mencius replied, 'The particulars of that arrangement cannot be learned, for the princes, disliking them as injurious to themselves, have all made away with the records of them. Still I have learned the general outline of them. The Son of Heaven constituted one dignity; the Gong one; the Hou one; the Bai one; and the Zi and the Nan each one of equal rank - altogether making five degrees of rank. The Ruler again constituted one dignity; the Chief Minister one; the Great Officers one; the Scholars of the First Class one; those of the Middle Class one; and those of the Lowest Class one - altogether making six degrees of dignity.

i donno. but i was in many a class where a tier of students could not cope with the subject. Like crystallography оr tax accounting. Some guys would go blank in the eyes, some would curse and hiss, some would denigrate the usefullness of the subject. Never ever would anybody laugh. So i donno what so funny here.

Dusty says its a student being facetious. a C minus student obviously.

So, about that laugh. Is it a laugh of derision at Dao or a laugh of joy with Dao?

道德經: 上士聞道，勤而行之；中士聞道，若存若亡；下士聞道，大笑之。Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Dao, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it.

What about high and low De, or 3 types of 士 in TTC？Is not it the same idea?

I would say it is either LZ himself or a LZ's superior deity. He is not mentioned anywhere in ctexts besides this one mention. Otherwise, he is supposed to be One of the 5 Old Masters of Sky Opening, who are the avatars of the Three Pure Ones; the other 4 being 三清,再化五老:东华木公、西华金母、南华火精、北华水精、中华黄老; Eastern Duke Wood, Western Golden Dame, Southern Pure Fire, Northern Pure Water.

yes Dawei and CD zeroed on it precisely it is 室中玄机 that is very unlikely given that its not on the chinese internet. There is only 1 jap. page that contains this quote 室中玄机曰。有时侍达磨大师登少室峰。达磨问。道向何方去。师曰请进前是。达磨曰。若进不得移一步。师闻契悟。 http://www2.fodian.net/baoku/FoJingWenInfo.aspx?ID=T2585 no;)