Interpreting the ancient codes shrouding the esoteric Chinese arts is one of the great challenges facing any serious student or teacher of Taoism.
Download the free paper now.
“Studying the classic Taoist texts is important for every serious student of Nei Dan. Our teachers transmit the methods of cultivating Ming (命) or Life, but it is up to us to cultivate our own Xing (性) or Nature. The classics not only connect us to our lineage, their richly layered imagery, symbolism, and seeming inherent contradictions assist us in cultivating both Xing and Ming. Through our efforts in personal transformation and diligent practice of the cultivation methods of our schools we transcend the mundane and progress ever closer to immortality (仙, Xian).”
Interpreting the Ancient Codes Back Cover
Interpreting the Ancient Codes
Exploring the Classics of Taoist Alchemy
An Introduction to the Zhou Yi Can Tong Qi
TCCII Publications 2012
Contents
1) Introduction
2) Interview with Fabrizio Pregadio
3) Book Review of the Can Tong Qi
4) Essay on Interpreting the Ancient Codes
5) Resources for Further Study
Interpreting the Ancient Codes paper is available as a free PDF download.
Fabrizio Pregadio, one of the foremost translators of Taoist Alchemy classics, answers several question about his work translating some of the most important texts of Nei Dan. Here is a selection of questions and his answers from the interview. The full interview can be found in the paper Interpreting the Ancient Codes available as a free download from TCCII.
Q: How did you become interested in Taoism and Taoist alchemy?
A: I was, and I still am, delighted by how Taoism represents the relation between the absolute principle (the Dao) and its manifestation in the world in which we live, and by how clearly it formulates several ways to realize the “return to the Dao.” The essential features of these teachings are found in the Dao De Jing and are elaborated on (with some differences in emphasis) in the Zhuang Zi. Taoist Internal Alchemy (Nei Dan) is the main tradition that applies those teachings to the human being and offers a way to comprehend and realize them at the individual level.
Q: What benefit can internal alchemy practitioners derive from studying the classic texts?
A: What you call “classical texts” are signposts in the history of a tradition. By studying those texts, one can study the history of a tradition and how it has been transmitted and adapted to different circumstances.
Texts, moreover, are often the only sources we have to reconstruct the history of a tradition, and this is especially important with regard to Nei Dan. We often think of Nei Dan as a “school” of Taoism, but this is by no means correct. Nei Dan is best described as a tradition with Taoism, with its own branches, schools (or rather, lineages), and individual representatives. There are often major differences among the different Nei Dan lineages. Studying texts is virtually the only way to identify those differences.
There’s one more important thing. I can hardly imagine a Chinese — or Indian, Japanese, Tibetan, Persian, etc. — adept of a tradition who does not know, study, and often memorize the main texts of his or her tradition. Knowledge of the written records of a tradition should also be important for a Western follower. Without that knowledge, a Western follower could easily end up twisting and distorting the tradition that he or she claims to belong to, according to his or her own particular perspective. Any Eastern tradition teaches exactly the opposite attitude: until one reaches a truly advanced stage, one should follow the tradition “as is,” with no attempt to reinterpret it or adapt it to any contingent circumstance. The re-adaptation (or rather, re-codification) of a teaching to different historical or social circumstances is a very important and interesting phenomenon in the history of any traditional teaching.
Q: Who is the intended audience of your translation of the Can Tong Qi?
A: The intended audience is, generally, everyone who is interested for any reason in the doctrines of the Way of the Golden Elixir, as they are presented by the main textual source of this tradition.
Q: You mention in your translation of the Can Tong Qi that you began your work on it back in 1990. Why is this text so interesting to you?
An Introduction to the classics of Taoist Alchemy. Available for free download from TCCII.
A: Why is the Can Tong Qi so interesting to me? Well, first of all because, in 1990, after I finished my dissertation on Wai Dan, I told myself, “I’d like to work on the main text in Taoist alchemy” and less than one second later I thought, “This means I should translate the Can Tong Qi.” Second, because this text is crucial to understand Taoist alchemy in virtually all of its aspects. One important point here is that the Can Tong Qi talks almost exclusively of doctrine, but we (in the 21st century) should not think that the “doctrine” of a traditional teaching is equivalent to a “theory” in the modern sense of the term. A theory is something that requires proof, and is subject to change in the course of time. A doctrine is something from which a whole tradition develops, and from which the practices are devised. The concepts of “theory” and “proof” are entirely alien to traditional thought; you have, instead, a doctrine that requires personal comprehension and verification. This is why the Can Tong Qi is so important: it has provided the basic doctrine for virtually the entirely history of Chinese alchemy, in all of its forms, with the only exception of the Wai Dan texts written before it was composed, and of some later Wai Dan texts that are not related to it. Download the full interview now.
The Zhou Yi Can Tong Qi is one of the most important texts in the practice of Nei Dan, or Internal Alchemy. It correlates the three major classics of ancient China: The Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic), Yi Jing (I Ching or Book of Changes), and the Dao De Jing. This short text is richly layered with symbolic imagery which serves to conceal its meaning from the uninitiated. Fabrizio Pregadio presents a guide to deciphering this coded language in his The Seal of the Unity of Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong Qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir published by Golden Elixir Press (2011). He intends the work to be useful for anyone with an interest in the study of the Golden Elixir. This includes both specialists in the field of Taoist studies and non-specialist readers.
Zhouyi cantong qi zhujie 周易參同契注解 (Commentary and Explication of the Cantong qi), by Chen Zhixu 陳致虛 (1290-ca. 1368), composed in ca. 1330 — Jinling shufang 金陵書坊 edition, printed in 1484 — Exemplar kept at the Shanghai Library. Image courtesy of Fabrizio Pregadio. Used with permission.
Pregadio’s book consists of three major parts. The first part places the Can Tong Qi in its historical context, addresses issues of dating and authorship, and introduces concepts critical to understanding the coded language in the text. The second and most important part of the book renders a full translation of the classic text. The third part provides detailed commentary on the symbolic language and images used throughout the text. The book concludes with a few textual notes and series of useful tables and charts which summarize many of the key correspondences and symbols used in the text.
In the first part of the book, Pregadio challenges some of the long held views about composition and authorship of the text. This section of the book will be of interest to scholars and historians; however, anyone interested in the practice of Internal Alchemy would do well to read it. Readers will find that familiarity with the historical context of the classics aids greatly in understanding the text itself. He also offers a glimpse of the painstaking detective work required to produce a high quality translation. The first section concludes with an overview of the major themes and images found in the text. This section will be of special interest to those who read the text from the perspective of Internal Alchemy.
The complete book review can be found in the paper Interpreting the Ancient Codes available as a free download from TCCII.
Our new DVD Chen Tai Chi Chuan: Original Forms and Exercises includes detailed teaching commentary as well as demonstrations of the original style of Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan). This new video trailer shows a portion of the commentary on the elbow (Zhou, 肘) technique of Chen Tai Chi. Enjoy the video.
Our new Chen Tai Chi Chuan DVD is now available. We’ve worked hard to bring you a DVD that is usable for beginners and interesting for more advanced practitioners. This DVD contains eight complete Tai Chi practice sets based on the original style of Chen Tai Chi as taught to us by Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong, 19th Generation inheritor of Chen Taijiquan. Enjoy the video trailer for this DVD.
Real Chinese food is excellent. Here is a recipe for sweet Chinese rice cakes from TCCII friend Monica Yu. Monica is an excellent chef who uses organic ingredients to create delicious Chinese and western dishes. She even used food to cure her cat of diabetes! Enjoy her rice cake recipe.
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 Tsp of olive oil
5 Tsp of sugar
2 1/2 Cup of milk (1 or 2% milk fat)
1 tsp baking powder (optional)
1 box of Sweet Rice flour (1 lb) (I use the Blue Star brand – Mochiko)
1.5 cup of red bean paste (homemade is the best: boil the red bean with equal part of water till tender and partially broken, add sugar, aliquot and freeze)
Method
- Grease a 13″x9″ Pyrex glass pan with oil, sprinkle 1 Tsp of regular flour. Shake to evenly spread. Discard excess.
- Except the red bean paste, put all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well with a hand held electric mixer for 3-4 min, use a spatula to run around the side and bottom.
- Pour the contents into the 13″x9″ pan, use spatula to spread half of the batter over the pan. Reserve the rest.
- Prepare the red bean paste: Add ~1 tsp of olive oil, ~2 Tsp of the batter (from above), you may mash the red beans if desired, and mix well.
- Use a spoon to drop a small ball of red bean paste to the batter, six in a row, for a total of 4 rows. When finished, carefully scope the remaining batter and drop on the top of the visible red beans (be sure to cover the red bean paste without disturbing it).
- Place a total of 24 pecans or walnuts evenly (6×4) on the top of the ‘submerged’ red bean paste.
- Bake at 325 C for 50-60 min, until it is light golden brown. (Temperature and time may vary by oven). Check after 50 min.
- Remove from oven. Let cool, cut into 24 pieces, each will house a yummy red bean paste
Note: you can replace the red bean paste with chestnut paste, coconut….etc.
Chen Xili, Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong’s son, joined us at the hotel for an early morning class. Students reviewed the Eight Directions (Energies) of Tai Chi and he answered their questions. Afterwards, we loaded up our bus and headed to Wudang Shan. It is only about three hours from Xian to Wudang on the new highway, but our driver wanted to allow 5-6 hours in case something happened. He was right. En route, we had to stop at one of the major tunnel while they cleared a wreck. A large cargo truck was overloaded and the rear tires blew out, crunching the rims. The car behind him was traveling too close and rammed into it.
We had about an hour wait, so we filed off the bus and started doing Tai Chi and the Eight Brocades, creating much excitement among the local Chinese. They got out of their cars to watch and take pictures with the group Americans. Since highway-closing wrecks are not uncommon in the tunnel a few enterprising locals have developed an impromptu market. They showed up with baskets of fruit and vegetables for sale. A few even brought cigarettes and Bai Jiao for the stranded travelers! We hope the drivers of the other cars aren’t drinking the rocket fuel, but it probably helps the passengers. Once the road was open we headed to Wudang without incident.
Wudang Shan is a protected sanctuary. The natural beauty of the place is evident even at the base. Mountain peaks ascend into the mist like an ancient Chinese painting, while clear mountain streams cascade down the sides. The Feng Shui of the place is sublime; drawing many Taoist hermits over the centuries looking to complete their immortality training and ascend to the celestial realms. But first they had to get up the mountain. In the old days it was a long slow hike, almost a test of the sincerity of the aspirant. Modern roads and tourist associations have made the climb less physically challenging, but there is a test of a different sort!
A view from the edge of the mountain road in Wudang Shan
We had to leave our tour bus and transfer to the mountain’s small buses. They only allow their trained drivers on the roads since they are narrow and winding, clinging to the cliff with a small rail between you and a shear drop to oblivion. Of course, it doesn’t stop the driver from driving like a bat out of hell. Any mishap is likely to result in the entire bus plummeting thousands of feet down the side of the mountain. They zoom with many near misses but, thankfully, no real hits. They have some unbelievable bus driving Kung Fu! One interesting feature is that the front section of the bus has the seats facing each other. This means that as they whip around the curves, you will be thrown across the bus unless you grab the hand rail above your head for the duration of the 40 minute ride. You would be forgiven for thinking that this was part of the monks’ Eagle Claw training. That is, until you notice that the locals have better sense than to sit in those seats. They graciously leave them for the Lao Wei.
Our hotel is in the mountain, just a five minute walk from the Purple Cloud temple. You would have to be a Taoist priest to live closer than this! The teacher we selected for the group joined us for dinner after we checked into the hotel. Master Wang, a disciple of Master You Xuan De, learned both the Xuan Wu and Zhang Sang Feng school martial lineages. A very personable and open teacher, he has vast knowledge of Taoist cultivation practices as well. Already a master become becoming a Taoist priest, he is a lineage inheritor of the original form of Xing Yi, called Xin Yi, which was passed down to him directly from the Dai (Tai) Family. The Dai family is credited with combining martial arts with Taoist practices to create this awesome internal art.
Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong (陈全忠) is my Chen Tai Chi (陈氏太极) teacher. Today our students had the chance to meet him in person for the first time. At nearly 90 years old, he is the senior most Chen Tai Chi Grandmaster in China and has practiced the art his entire life.
Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong with TCCII Students in August 2011
He greeted our students and gave them a demonstration of his version of the Chen Tai Chi form. Grandmaster Chen learned from his father and several other teachers. He is the only living master to have learned directly from a 16th generation master.* Because of this it is believed that his version of Chen Tai Chi is the oldest one in existence.
The Tang Dynasty style courtyard of our hotel in Xian.
That afternoon our students enjoyed climbing the Xian city wall. There is nothing quite like doing stairs after several hours of horse stance training, so we took our students to climb the Xian city wall after lunch. Since that wasn’t enough for the hardest core group, they finished off the day with a visit to the Wild Goose Pagoda and shopping at the nearby marketplaces. When the day was done, we enjoyed the peaceful courtyard of our Tang dynasty style hotel.
Here is a three part video series based on the question and answer session Grandmaster Chen had with our students.
* Note: Although Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong learned from a 16th generation master and would ordinarily be considered 17th generation he is called 19th generation because Chen family blood descendants keep their family’s genealogy generation number. He is significantly older than the other 19th generation Chen masters such as Chen Zhengli and Chen Xiaowang.
The Terra Cotta Warriors of Emperor Qin were intended to protect him in the afterlife.
Emperor Qin (秦始皇) is legendary for uniting China, burning the books, burying the scholars, and building the most impressive tomb for himself in the known world. Our students got to check out a little of his handiwork at the museum for his terra cotta warrior (兵马俑) army in Xian (西安). His tomb is close by, but it has not been excavated yet. When asked about it, the official answer is that it is so large and deep, there are too many technical barriers to excavation. But unofficially it is rumored to be well protected with traps and curses. No one seems willing to find out if this is true or not.
After a trip back in time to see the relics of a dead empire, we went to study one of China’s most important intangible cultural heritages. My teacher, Grandmaster Chen Quanzhong (陈全忠), welcomed our group to study Chen Tai Chi (陈氏太极) at his school. His son Chen Xili and his grandson, Chen Bin, performed demonstrations of Chen Tai for our students. Afterwards they held a special private seminar for them.
Enjoy this video of Master Chen Xili demonstrating a combination of old frame (Lao Jia, 老架) and new frame (Xin Jia, 新架) Taijiquan form movements.
Bai Yun Guan, or White Cloud Temple (白云观) is one of the most important Taoist temples in China. This temple is the seat of the Long Men sect of Daoism. Our teacher, Chen Yang guided the group through the temple providing details on history and Taoism. The group was very interested in the philosophy and approach of Taoist cultivation, particularly the concept of Taoist Immortality (仙). Dr. Chen joined us on the way to the airport for an interesting Q&A session which compared Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity.
Our flight to Xian was uneventful, except that four of our party received a complimentary upgrade to first class. This is the first time I’ve travelled on a first class flight in China. It was a fascinating look at the seams of two cultures influencing each other. Unfortunately, Chinese aviation is modeled on the US. However, the service is definitively Asian in standard – by that I mean good. The stewardesses were quite nice – in stark contrast to many American flight attendants. The food was surprisingly good. We had a choice of three menus – all served in porcelain dishes with real silver ware. I choose the beef, which turned out to be a reasonably good filet mingon! They offered a Chilean red wine – a nod to the fact that even Chilean wine is better than most of the Chinese red wine production. Although it was interesting that they poured it into a tiny little snifter – obviously intended for their Bei Jiao (White liquor, aka Rocket Fuel). It took about four pours to equal one class of wine. The stewardess did not mind at all. In fact, they seemed to actually enjoy their job. After dinner they offered tea. While one was offering me a choice of Dragon Well (Long Jing, Long Ching) or Iron Buddha (Tie Guan Yin, Ti Kuan Yin) another decided I should have both!
The plane was brand new and had three rows of two seats. On my far left sat a westerner (Lao Wai, 老外) who spoke fluent Chinese. He spent the entire flight reading his Chinese book and skipped the meal. On my far right was a Chinese businessman. He was quite puzzled at what to do with the butter. Instead of putting it on the fresh baked garlic bread they served with the meal, he thought maybe it should go on the cheesecake desert. (Note: the Chinese do not traditionally have a concept of desert like we do in the West so this guy really didn’t know what to do with the cheesecake or the butter.)
Our bus driver in Xian was a very nice and skillful driver. The further you are from the central government, the more chaotic things seem to be in China. Traffic in Xian followed this pattern, so our driver earned his skill the hard way. He dropped us at the largest mosque in China, located in the Muslim market section of the city (or rather, the market grew up around the Mosque.) We had to wind our way through its narrow rows of merchants to get to the mosque. In what was perhaps a nod to religious respect, the merchants were not aggressive on the way into the temple. Even as we left they were persistent without being rude, a rare experience in most marketplaces in China.
Stone dragon carvings at the Islamic Mosque in Xian
This mosque is interesting because it is the only one built in the style of a traditional Chinese temple. Unlike most Islamic temples, which avoid depictions of people or animals for religious reasons, this one contains a few images of Dragons. Traditionally a temple in China will feature dragon motifs prominently in the art and architecture. Although the Dragons were hidden in comparison to the way they are featured in a Taoist or Buddhist temple, they were still there.
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