The Background Of Tao Zang Jing Hua

Good evening everyone and it is my pleasure to talk with you again! Today I decide to discuss a little bit about the background of Tao Zang Jing Hua and why Xiao Tianshi decide to public this series of books.

Tai Ji Dan Jing

Based on the study of Taoist books, “Dan Jing” (丹經) is a treasure of each unique Taoist faction, needs permission from its owed master in each Taoist faction to be able to read and see. It is also known as “Only immortals are able to see”(不是神仙不許看). Although these books have great significant in Taoist history study, Taoist scholars still do not want to share these books with public because they believe these books contain big secrets and it is only readable for Taoists. Also because of the difficult of copy books in ancient China, it is so hard to keep a complete version of “Dan Jing” for a very long time.

Back in 1950 when Xiao Tianshi started to edit “Tao Zang Jing Hua,” one of his original purposes is to share these sealed treasures to public and prevent the loss of these priceless books. Xiao Tianshi had said: “Our Taoist books are unique treasures even around the world’s academia. These books have the power to correct people’s behavior for many generations.In order to keep these treasures complete and alive, I start to collect all those "Dan Jing"I will find all those unique treasures and begin editing and publishing and name these books “Tao Zang Jin Hua.”

Complete Version Of Tao Zang Jing Hua

There is also another special reason why Xiao Tianshi published so many unique and secret “Dan Jing.” Because the Nationalist lost the war in 1949, lots of Taoist scholars brought their unique collections of “Dan Jing” with them from mainland China to Taiwan. And most of these scholars have very strong relationship with Xiao Tianshi. Xiao Tianshi borrowed those collections and edit them all in “Tao Zang Jin Hua.” Like “Ma Bing Wen” from Jiang xi provided his hand sheets of “Tai Ji Chong Xuan Zhi Dao Xin De” to Xiao Tianshi and Xiao Tianshi edit the unique hand sheets into his “Tao Zang Jing Hua”.

After the publishing of “Tao Zan Jing Hua,” influence and acknowledge of “Dan Jing” spread enormously among Taiwan and start to get rid of its own mystique and religious. “Tao Zan Jing Hua” become a special intermediary connects Taoism with normal people. And thank Xiao Tianshi for all he remarkable work he did to Taoism！See you guys next weekend!

How to read "Tao Zang Jin Hua?"

Today is another Sunday night, and I am glad to meet to guys tonight once again! First of all, wish you all have a great Fall break this weekend! Although it is is a little bit chill, it is still not a bad idea to go outdoor and enjoy the sunshine before the crazy cold winter comes.

Tonight I wanna tell you guys a little bit about how should we read about "Tang Zang Jin Hua", the book edited by Xiao Tianshi during 1960s to 1980s. 

Back to 1980s, when Xiao Tianshi was publishing the series of "Tao Zang Jin Hua," he started to figure out the tiny difference between Western philosophers and Eastern philosophers.He thought use “Min Qi Jin Yan” to experience the main theory of Taoism, is the only way to truly understand the essence of Taoist books.

「大道常存文字外，真詮不在語言中。」

─《禪宗心法》〈禪宗要道入門〉

「學知超聖重為病，解悟通神亦是邪。

能超聖見方無累，盡捨名言使近真。」

─蕭天石《道德經聖解》第十九

“Western philosophers believe that knowledge is knowledge, truth is truth. Eastern philosophers believe that although knowledge is knowledge, truth is truth, but sometime knowledge is not knowledge, truth is not truth.”

“Western philosophers focus on logic and method. Eastern philosophers focus on intuition and realization. Eastern philosophers believe in the communication between souls and bodys. They also believe that is the highest level of Taoism. It is also well-known as “道不可道，名不可名。” The highest level of Buddhism is known as “不可說，不可說。” The Only way to find out the truth of those philosophies is use personal realization. It is also called the mysterious experience of hearts, the mysterious experiencer. ”

According to Xiao Tianshi's index of “Tao Zang Jin Hua,” only if people are still trying to practice and develop Taoist, that Taoism can survive and develop continuously. And this is also the goal of Xiao Tianshi’s work. The publishing of “Tao Zang Jin Hua” saves Taoism and lights the path for coming Taoist people.

Hope you will understand maybe a little bit more about how to study Taoist after reading this blog. ^^ Enjoy your great Fall break and see you next week!

Why is it called "Zi you"?

Hi friends! Nice to talk with you on the beautiful Sunday night again! Today is Chinese Moonlight festival also, so take a look at the wonderful moon and enjoy your night!

Remember we have talked about that Xiao Tianshi left mainland of China in 1949 and went to Taiwan with all his Taoist collection and later created the "Zi You"(自由) publishing house in 1952. Today I am wanna tell you a short story about why he brought all his collections and named the publishing house "Zi You"(Freedom).

Taoist Temple

Back in 1944, when Xiao Tianshi was worked as magistrate of Guan county(灌县) in Sichuan provience, one of the local Taoist priests told him that one day Xiao Tianshi would chose the path as they did and publicized books about Taoism on one sea island and helped Taoism avoid one or two decades of chaos which would happened in mainland of China. Xiao Tianshi didn't believe any of that Taoist priest told him at that time, he strongly believed that Nationalist would win the civil war against Communist. Three years later, after Nationalist lost the war with Communist, Xiao Tianshi realize that everything that Taoist priest said was true and he also afraid that under Communist's dictatorship, all those collections of Taoism would gone forever. He followed the order from that Taoist priest and started to assemble all his collections and finally sent these books to Taiwan. 

After Xiao Tianshi settled down in Taiwan, he realized that religion and culture under high-level dictatorship will never develop correctly. He started to follow what that Taoist priest told him and began to establish the new publishing house called "Zi You"(freedom) to publish all the Taoist collections he brought. He named the publishing house "Zi You" to express his feeling about hoping mainland China will get freedom someday religious, cultural, and political. Also, Xiao Tianshi use the name freedom to show his wish about one day he can feel free to go back to his home, mainland China.

And this is why Xiao Tianshi brought all his collections with him and named the publishing house "Zi You." Hope everybody have a great coming week and enjoy your moonlight tonight!

Taoism In Xiao Tianshi's eyes

Hi guys! I am so happy to meet you guys this week! Today I will tell you guys some theory about how Xiao Tianshi's view of Taoism.

Old-time Taoist

We already know that Taoism is one special philosophy which believed in inner cultivation will help people prolong their life and achieve eternal life eventually. But Xiao Tianshi argued that Taoism should not just about living forever, Taoism should help people to expand their realm and help people live beyond live and death.

In order to escape the road of live and death, Xiao Tianshi believed that people should chase the original "Tao" spirit to sublimate their physical and mental. He thought Taoism is not a philosophy about how to achieve infinity but teach people how the universe works and how to escape from the cycle of live and death. He thought Confucianism teaches people how to be part of the society and how to work efficiency and friendly with other people and Buddhism teaches people how to escape from the world mental and achieve Buddha to live forever. He considered that Taoism teaches people how to live in and live out the world at the same time and achieve people's final realm to get immortal. 

道家做人重修炼。以虚无恬澹，守道明德，清静无为，柔弱无争，因应自然为条目；以炼心炼性为总纲；惟揉合阴阳，性命双修，返朴还淳，竊天地机缄，夺阴阳造化为大用；而以出神入化，还虚合道，羽化登真，超生死，超天地而驾神明，块然与宇宙精神独往来为最高境界。主超世间，合太虚一体，以成就一个我，完成一个人；最后并粉碎虚空，虚亦不立，期能了道入真为主旨。 

A modern people who is practicing Taoist.

This is a paragraph from one of Xiao Tianshi's book about how to practice Tao in the right way. In this paragraph, Xiao Tianshi insisted that people who practice Taoist should empty their body first both physically and mentally. Empty your body can get your body clean and help your body to experience the operation of universe. After that, Xiao Tianshi argued that people should start to study the discipline of universe and try to go back to pure nature to learn the secret of universe. Eventually, when people knows the law of universe, their will work and live like the universe and live as long as the universe works.

This is how Xiao Tianshi believed in Taoism and how he practice Taoism in his entire life. Hope this will gives you some inspiration! (^ ^) Next week I will translate some paragraph from Xiao Tianshi's book and hope you can get some idea of Xiao Tianshi's world of "Tao."

Who is Xiao Tianshi [part.2]

Hello guys! It is great to talk to guys again!

Last week we talk about Xiao Tianshi's childhood and how he started to set foot on Taoism.Today I am gonna introduce what was happened when Xiao Tianshi went to Taiwan and how he spread and developed Taoism in Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek

Taiwan

In year 1949, Xiao Tianshi was focused to go to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek（蒋介石） and his Chinese Nationalist Party（国民党）and finally he settled down in Taibei（台北) as his second hometown. Because Xiao Tianshi afraid Chinese Communist Party(共产党) would destroy all his collection about Taoism, he used all his human resources to help him carried several heavy boxes of his Taoism collection and classics to Taiwan before Communist Party came.

Dao Hai Xuan Wei

After Xiao Tianshi settled down in Taibei, he immediately began to concerted all his energy on research and spread Taoism. During that time, he wrote and published several important books about both Confucianism and Taoism. Dao Hai Xuan Wei(道海玄微) is one of the most important Taoist books he wrote at that period. Xiao Tianshi put his knowledge about what is Taoism, why is Taoism and how to be a Taoist all in Dao Hai Xuan Wei and made this book another masterpiece of modern Taoism.

Dao Zang Jing Hua

Besides wrote books about Taoism, Xiao Tianshi also established another new publishing house in Taibei called Ziyou(自由) in 1953. The Ziyou publishing house basically re-published all the books Xiao Tianshi brought from mainland of China and integrated all these books into one series, Dao Zang Jing Hua(道藏精华). Dao Zang Jing Hua includes tons of cherished books about Taoism especially Dao Zang(道藏) from Ming Dynasty and modern Taoist scholars' articles like Xiao Tianshi himself. When Chiang Kai-shek went to Taiwan with his army, there wasn't any authoritative work about Taoism, and Xiao Tianshi's Dao Zang Jing Hua really help Taoist people in Taiwan to research and heritage Taoism.

Xiao Tianshi put most of his energy in Ziyou publishing house in the rest of his life and after he died in 1986, his son took over Ziyou publishing house and continuously publishing books about Taoism until today.

Let look at this great Taoist master one more time and next time I am gonna to introduce some Xiao Tianshi's Theory about Taoism! See you!

Who is Xiao Tianshi? [Part 1.]

Greetings! My friends!

Hope everybody just had a great weekend! Today is the last day of the second week and it is also the time I am posting my second blog! 

 Xiao Tianshi（蕭天石）

In my first blog, I simply introduce what is the goal of this internship and what is Taoism exactly. Today I am gonna tell you about the people I will study for this semester, Xiao Tianshi.(蕭天石)

Xiao Tianshi is a famous Taoist scholar who was early born in Shaoyang county(邵陽縣) in Hunan Province（湖南省) in 1909 and died in Taibei(台北) in 1986. Xiao Tianshi is a modern expert in Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and he also created indelible impact on the fusion of these three most important philosophy of modern China. 

Shi Jie Wei Ren Cheng Gong Mi Jue Fen Xi.
(世界偉人成功秘訣分析)

When Xiao Tianshi was very young, He already showed great interests in reading and learning. He started to read classics with his father in Buddhism and Confucianism when he was just five. 

In 1930, he was graduated from Wuchang Zhongshan University(武昌中山大學), and lately in 1936, he published his first well-known book, Shi Jie Wei Ren Cheng Gong Mi Jue Fen Xi.(世界偉人成功秘訣分析). This book is a literary work in life accomplishment including self-cultivation, leadership, stratagem, and enforcement.

Qingcheng Mountain(青城山)

Between 1937 to 1938, Xiao Tianshi established XinHua daily newspaper(興華日報) and Dajiang publishing house（大江出版社） in Nanjing and Chengdu. During this period, Xiao Tianshi published several books in both military science and Confucianism which created deep influence later.

In 1944, Xiao Tianshi served as magistrate of Guan county(灌县) in Sichuan

province（四川省）. During that time, Qingcheng Mountain(青城山) as a holy land of Taoist was under Xiao Tianshi's control. Xiao Tianshi saw this as an unique opportunity to research and re-discover Taosim. He started to talk with those Taoist expert in temple and collect classics of Taoism from temples including Dao Hai Xuan Wei(道海玄微). After that period, Xiao Tianshi finally recognized the direction of his life and embarked on the road of Taoism.

So this is my second blog! Next time I am gonna tell you the story about when Xiao Tianshi had to leave China and went to Taiwan and how he publicize Taoism in Taiwan. See u~

Hello! World!

Hello World!

My name is Qihan and this is a brand new blog for my history internship this semester. I am gonna be a research assistant for professor Valussi and help her find out the current influence of an old Chinese philosophy, Taoism. My job is basically about translate old Chinese books into English and help professor Valussi interpret the essence of Taoism by using Chinese logic. Also, I am gonna help professor Valussi to present a presentation in Chinese later  in Hong Kong. Hope we will have a great semester!!! ~O(∩_∩)O~

Since this is my first blog, let me introduce a little bit about what is Taoism.

Laozi

Taoism is an old philosophy that is original from ancient China in 6 century BC. The founder of Taoism is Laozi, one of the greatest philosopher of ancient China. The highest achievement of Laozi is the book , Tao Te Ching. Tao Te Ching is an authoritative writing of Taoism and became the keystone work of literature of Taoism later.

The emphasis of Taoism is about how to live in harmony with the Tao. The Tao is an religious term in ancient Chinese means "way", "path" or "principle." The Tao denotes something that is both the source and the driving force behind everything that exists. In Taoism, it is widely believe that if you follow the Tao in the right way, you will get an eternal life and become immortal.

Yin-Yang

The world-famous symbol Yin-Yang is also original from Taoism. In Taoism, the Yin-Yang describes two force, light and shadow are interconnected and interdependent in our universe. People who believe in Taoism think the Yin-Yang symbol contains all the secrets and mysteries of our world.

That is pretty much for my first blog. Hope to see you guys soon!