At the End of My Internship...

Hello everyone! With the last Chinese translation I handed to professor Valussi, I just finished this semester's history internship! Thank you all for participate the whole process with me and hopefully everyone learned something a little bit more about Chinese culture, Taoism, or Xiao Tianshi. 

During this semester, we went over the history of Chinese Taoism and modern Taoist scholars like Xiao Tianshi and Fu Jinquan who contributed their life into preserve and transmit Taoist treasures. We also went over some materials I translated directly from Xiao Tianshi's books "Tao Zang Jiang Hua" and some basic concepts about Taoism like Tao, Ying-yang and alchemy.  After we went over all these materials,  I believe everybody now have a simple and clear concept about how people tried their best to protect old Chinese culture during the most senior chaos in Chinese history and because of their incredible work, old Chinese culture can be survived and reveal their amazing fascination into today people's eyes. 

For me, the process of translation is also a process of re-understanding. Although I am a native speaker of Chinese and I grew up under traditional Chinese family, I still found out how little I knew about Taoism and other old Chinese culture. The deeper I knew about Taoism and Xiao Tianshi, the deeper I understood the charm of Taoism and what made Xiao Tianshi so eager to preserve Taoist books from  Western culture's invasion. Xiao Tianshi's behavior also makes me believe how big impact could one little man do and how we should retain his desire and practice it into transmit Chinese culture to our next generation.

At last, I strongly believe Xiao Tianshi's work and spirit brought out a question for all living Chinese to consider. How should we judge and compare the value between Chinese and Western culture? Does the Western culture means advance and we should totally abandon our own old culture? For me, I don't believe some people said that only if we forget the entire Chinese culture so that China could start to modernize itself. I also don't believe Westernize is the only way to help Chinese become more civilize and stronger. What I believe is Chinese culture has deeply rooted into every single Chinese from thousands years ago, abolish Chinese culture will only create social confusion and cultural lost, and copy direct from Western culture may also cause localization problem. Save the good things; get rid of the bad things; find a way to merge two different culture together maybe the best solution for nowadays China. Extract from our own culture，import from other culture，create a new culture from the marrow of both culture shall lead China a new direction to modernization!

At the end of last, I wish everybody will survive all their finals and MERRY CHRISTMAS！

Thanksgiving is Over TAT

Hi guys! It is nice to meet with you guys after thanksgiving! Hope all of you had a great weekend with your family and enjoyed some delicious turkey dinner! For this week, I decided to do a picture time about Taoism to get you a visual understanding about Taosim. So let's start!

Sixty-Four Gua

This is the picture of Taiji of Taoism and it's like god of Christianity. The middle of this picture is called Taiji icon and the lines around the icon represent all the times and locations in this universe.

The Three Pure Ones

The Three Pure Ones are the highest Deities in Taoism and they are the avatar of Taoism.

The Jade Emperor

The Jade Emperor is the supreme ruler of Heavens. He is the highest ruler of Taoist world.

Lao Tsu

Lao Tsu was known as the first people invented Taoism. He lived a little bit around Confucius around 6 BC.

Qing Cheng Mountain

This is the mountain where Xiao Tianshi found his life goal and collected most of his Taoist collections. This is also the place where Fu Jinquan put all his collections during Ming and Qing dynasty.

Xiao Tianshi

The series of Tao Zang Jin Hua

That's much about today's picture time! Wish you have more Three-dimensional feeling about Taoism than before! And the finals are coming, so hope everyone stand strong and nail all their finals! Fighting!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all, I want to say happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Wish all of you have a great week coming and also don't forget there are lots of finals coming! >_<

As you known, I have started to translate English back to Chinese this week and I have to say this! It is great to feel like you are an expert in some another language rather than English! Haha~

Today I want to share a little story I heard from professor Valussi few days ago about an old Daoist scholar name Fu Jinquan and his interesting relationship with Xiao Tianshi.

We have already known when Xiao Tianshi worked for government in Sichuan provenience, he found lots of precious Taoist books in Qingchen mountain. And because of these books, he devoted the rest of his life in Taiwan to the publishing of Daoist books. Have you ever wondered why there are so many precious Taoist books there? And why Qingchen mountain became such an important place for Taoist people to practice? All of these things began from the Daoist scholar Fu Jinquan.

Fu Jinquan, also known as Ji Yi Zi, was bron in Xishan City, Jiangxi provenience. His biography was like a total mystery, and people cannot find enough information about him life. But what we have known is that he traveled to Sichuan provenience in the year 1817 and he stayed in Sichuan for 40 years. Fu Jinquan was a outstanding Taoist scholar at his time and he was an expert at practice Neidan and Yin-yang. During his 40 years in Sichuan, Fu Jinquan wrote down countless Taoist books including Ding Qi Song, Cai Jin Song, Xin Xue, Xin Ke Tao Shu Wu Pian Zhu, etc. The reason why Fu Jinquan wrote so many books at that time was because Fu deeply wanted to separate his knowledge about Taoism with other people and extremely hoped Taoism would not disappeared in the history of mankind. He built a Taoist temple in Qingchen mountian and started to store all the Taoist books he could collected. And all those collections finally went to Xiao Tianshi's hands after a hundreds year later and Xiao Tianshi trully finished Fu Jinquan's will to separate Taoist knowledge among world. 

Two people lived in two different era, depended on their dedication of Taoism, cross the barrier of time and space to completed their destiny of Taoism. What a wonderful story! ^^

Finished My translation!

Hi guys! It is my pleasure to talk with all of you on this loving Sunday night! First of all, I want to introduce you guys a great movie name Argo! I believe this is the best movie I have ever seen this year and you should definitely see it in a cinema if you haven't!

Also, I have finished all my Chinese translation on last Thursday night and I will start to translate some English back to Chinese next week! I feel so exciting about translate something into my first language and I hope I may do a better job than my English translation! XD So this is gonna be the last week I posts some my English translations, and I will begin to tell you some funny story about my Chinese translation next week! At last, Hope all of you enjoy the last translations I did and have a awesome coming week!

第十三集之三 太乙金華宗旨 呂祖指玄篇秘註 合刊
一 414 太乙金華宗旨一卷 呂洞賓乩筆 民國三年廣州文魁閣刊本
Xiao said in 金華宗旨與指玄篇秘註合刊序：
Those secrets this book has shown is all from practical experience from our ancestors. It is our duty to learn and pursue the truth throughout our life. All these cannot be done in one step and be obtained in a short period. If so, we can only get partial understanding of those truths. Also we should know the connections between truths. Otherwise we cannot study other providing with those truths in hand. I link my mind with gods and follow my heart. Get to know gods and words. I appreciate gods’ grant and what they have taught me. I treated gods’ words as truth. After I have read through the book, even simple words have further meanings beneath. The words are also clearly presented. People with diverse background or from different area can finally get together and find the place called “truth”. Just a glimpse of truth, you will get eternal truth. The path is easy and can be followed by any common people. This book is written by Weixin Zhou living in Shu who learned from a Taoist priest named Liaoxu. It was published in the East and read by a large population and save them. His offspring reprinted this book during Qing dynasty in Chengdu. Hereby to certify.

二 247 悟真篇三注 四注悟真篇三卷 宋張伯端撰 宋薛氏註 宋陸墅註 元陳致虛註 清傅金銓頂批圈點 掃葉山房石印本

Xiao said: the book called ‘Wuzhenpian Sanzhu’ is the edition of Saoyeshan Fangcang. It is originally named ‘Sizhu Wuzhenpian’. It contains annotations from people in three genres. Their name is Zixian Xue, Ziye Lu and Zhixu Chen. But only another annotation written by Jinquan Fu as footnotes directly pointed out the crucial ideas. All those four consist of the ‘Sizhu’. Since the main material is from ‘Wuzhenpian Sanzhu’, it is named after this. ‘Zixian Zhizhu’ is actually ‘Baoguang Zhizhu’. This book was researched just like the ‘Siku Quanshu’. All those three books were annotated by Mr. Qiu. Only small portion of the material were deleted. In order to inherit our ancestors’ thoughts and ideas, it was permitted to be published. Hopefully it will become a good reference and proof of the idea of the Taoism. And it is not a short trip to foster and enhance the Taoism. I hope this book can let the reader get an overall idea about the Taoism. It is a little bit regret for having lost some materials as the result of the annotations.

It Is Good To Be Back!

Hi guys! It is great to be back! I finally finished all my midterms and have no more exams next week! Hope I may have a nice week coming! Also wish you guys just had an amazing and awesome Halloween!

As usual, I will post onel translations from Tao Zan Jing Hua to let you have deeper understanding about Taoism. This translation is basically about why Xiao Tianshi put this article into his Tao Zang Jing Hua and why this article is such so important for readers to study and learn.

Finally,  hope everyone enjoys this as usual! ^^

第三集之七 南北合參法要
Xiao said on the preface of Nan Bei He Can Fa Ya:
First, this book uses different chapters from Tong Yi Qi Si Zhong. The book has four chapters and was original published by Zun De Tang in Kui Mo year during Guang Xu period. The first chapter is about basic  theory of three major philosophies in ancient China. The second chapter is about the difference between South and North faction of Taoism. The third chapter includes ten poems which express the goods inside Taoism. The Fourth chapter has several unorganized Taoist articles and poems. The book has a hundred thousand words and it talks about the integration of South and North faction of Taoism.

Second, the original writer of the book is Fang Nei San Ren from Nan Chang. He integrated not only Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism together, but also South and North faction of Taoism. He tried his entire life to research Taoism from details to details and tried to exclude cult parts from Taoism. Mr Fang Nei was weak and sick when he was very young. But he kept study Taoism continuously. He studied Taoism ten years like the first day he started, and he also was an expert in Zhou Yi Lian Luo Guan Chong and Fu Nei Dian dan Jing. After he finished his research, he started to search classic copy of Taoism and he found Xiong Zhan An‘s Zhen Chuan Mi Lu. He became a true expert in North faction of Taoism after that. Based on Mr Fang Nei’s true intelligent and hardworking and a little bit luck, he meets oen of the masters of Taoism and became an expert in South faction of Taoism at last. After he learned from both South and North faction of Taoism, he continuously worked hard and became well-known among Taoist academia. And that’s why all the words from the book is come from some experts’ Zhen Jue and reader should not ignore those parts.

Third, this book use fundamental theories from all Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Although all three philosophies have different theories, they all came from the same sources. People, who only see the difference of three philosophies, are always stupid and trouble markers. And that’s why we delete and re-organized several chapters and renames chapter two to help readers understand the importance of this part.

Forth, although this book has another name called Tong Yi Qi Si Zhong, the only importance in this book is  only about the South and North faction of Taoism. All four chapters practice this theory, and these chapters all have excellent inference and logistic. And that is why we use the name Nan Bei He Can Fa Ya insted of Tong Yi Qi Si Zhong and put it at beginning of the book.

Fifth, the original copy of this book has a chapter about ten poems in Taoism, and we delete that chapter from this edition. People who want to see the complete version of this book may wait for another day when we re-publish this book.

Sixth, the original chapter four contains several unorganized Taoist articles. And the essence of this part cannot be described either by writer or editor or teachers, we hope readers could read it carefully and patiently.

Seventh, the original copy of the book also has a chapter about how to do ceremony in Taoism, and we thought it is not related with the book. We deleted this chapter and hope one day we will publish this chapter as an individual book.

Eighth, there is chapter called You Kun Xiu Yu, and we already put this chapter into the book “Nv Gong Zhen Fa Ji Yao.” Other parts of the book we do not included will no longer discuss here and hope reader could understand ours’ decision!

Sorry For Being Late!

Hi fellows! Good evening! Sorry for being late to post my blog tonight. I totally forget this blog thing until 10 minutes early. I have a super busy week coming and I will have four big mid-term exams in three days! Hope I will get luck and survive under all those exams. Anyway, since I still in the middle of translate Tao Zan Jing Hua, I will post 3 more articles about it and hope you enjoy my translations! ^^

6. 046 復命篇一卷 宋薛式撰清董德寧注 道藏精華錄本

The summary said: 紫賢真人薛氏道光wrote this book. The first part of this book is sixteen five characters poetries, and these poems represent the weight of 1 gram. The second part of the book is thirty seven characters poems, and these poems represent the biggest merit of 30 days. Then he added nine poems called Xi Jiang Yue to represent the spell of nine turns. It contains the smartest method about how to indefinite herbs, how to live and die among five elements, the relationship between host and guests, the operation of punishment  and reward, the way of delete and add things, and control fire and weight. People who really understand this book will easily find the true order about live and death!

3． 091龍門秘旨一卷清高仁峒編輯 光緒二十八年上海異化善堂刊本 精華題[玄宗正旨]之一

Xiao said: the book of 北派龍門秘旨, is published by Yi Hua Shan Tang from Shanghai. The seven chapters’ book is about Dan Jing and it is secretly inherited from 邱長春祖師.  鶴山人鄭觀應 from Qing Dynasty thought that Xiao Zhou Tian Huo Hou Kou Jue is the best part of these seven chapters. The Xiao Zhou Tian Huo Hou Kou Jue have serious consideration on every words and it goes straight to the truth of our universe. And the rest six chapters have suspicious that is not created by 邱祖. But it still contains some secrets formulas is rare in this world. People from 宗北派consider this book as a big treasure. 

4. 092道門語要一卷 清黃裳撰 排印本 精華題[玄宗正旨]之一

Xiao said: 道門語要, is published by Zhen De company form Hong Kong. It is also a very important teaching material of Taoism for Huang Yuan Ji. Compared with Le Yu Tang Yu Lu, this book is more accurate and briefness. This is a very precious book which has the truth spirits among Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Yuan Ji use Confucianism to explain Taoism, and have high reputation not only among Taoist scholars, but scholars among whole academia. His study doesn't limit in Taoism, and his research also uses Taoism as the body, use Confucianism as the soul and use Buddhism as the aid.  This is why Yuan Ji is the example for people who try to practice Taoism. 

Wish Me Good Luck For All My Mid-Terms!

Fragment!

Greetings! My friends! In the last couples of weeks, We have been talked about several backgrounds and fun facts about Xiao Tianshi and his Taoism. After told you guys all I have known about Taoism, I started to wonder what else could I possibly share with you guys. Finally, I came up with a new idea! I decide to show you some of my translations of Tao Zang Jing Hua.

I have already translated several fragments from the original copy of Tao Zang Jing Hua, and it do help me to understand what Xiao Tianshi want us to get from Taoist books and I hope you guys will find out the same thing as I do.

Today I am gonna show you guys my first translation. It is basically a index of one article in Tao Zang Jing Hua. Hope you like it! ^0^

The summary said: Bo Yang from Han and Wei Dynasty wrote this book first. Then people add Hou Han Yi Wen Zhi into this book later. Hou Tang Shu Jing Ji Zhi and Song Shi Yi Wen Zhi all have recorded this book in their books. Xu Li Chun from Qing Dynasty wrote this in preface of his book: Thousands and hundreds of scrolls of Dan Jing, all come from the same resource. And people come from thousands and hundreds factions of Taoist, all believe this book is the origin. The words from this book are esoteric, inclusive and contain both big secrets and small secrets. When people use words to explain this book, words are changing from ying to yan, and the whole universe are giving breed at the same time. People use words to explain this book, words act like fire baking drugs, and they take care of everything in our life. This book is truly contain all the secrets from Confucianism and Taoism. It is the directly order from gods. 

This book is useless if you try to govern a country, but it is a treasure if you try to cultivate yourself. This book will last forever like other Jing Shu from Confucianism. Sometime the world forgets this book, and people always think they find out the truth when they only understand the surface of the book. This is a big mistake! 

Great Confucian Zhu Zi uses all his entire life research and translates this book and called this book as Yi Zhong Xian Tian Zhi Xue. He once had said: Shao Zi get this book from nonentity and nonentity is from Zi Can Tong Qi. He also had said: I can see countless truth from this book, but I have no idea what should I write down. 

Once upon a time, Zhu Zi arranged a seminar with Mr.Cai from South Mountain, and they couldn’t go to sleep and continuously discuss their research about the book until sunrise. The book contains countless value that we cannot image! Among all the researcher of this book, Yu Tan, Zhu Yun Yang and Yuan Zhen from Si Feng Shan had the best understanding of this book. Yuan Zhen built his research on each chapters and find justice from the whole book. People who have true-fire inside their body all understand this book perfectly and find out all secrets of the world. After they find out the truth, they will look like suns and stars upon the sky. If reader have enough patience to research this book for a very long time, one day you will see the truth behind this book and you will rise as a god, knowing all the secrets of our lives.