The wisdom of the sages has been preserved through the many upheavals in Asian history and underlies all fabrics of Eastern life. This accumulated knowledge has been catalogued and codified over millennia, passed on through oral traditions and recorded through written traditions which have been handed down in the Classics. For many generations, the Classics have provided guidance to humanity and society.
An example of this is the WEN-TZU. Written more than two thousand years ago, the Wen-Tzu is one of the great source books of Daoism, and is an example of how the Classics can provide an important insight into reality.
According to translator Thomas Cleary, "Following the tradition of Lao-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu, and the Huainan Masters, the WEN-TZU covers a whole range of Classical Daoist thought and practice.”
From the Classics of Wen-Tzu, #62
“People in ancient times who sustained themselves took pleasure in virtue and did not mind lowliness, so reputation could not affect their will. They took pleasure in the Way and did not mind poverty, so profit could not move their minds. Therefore they were sober yet capable of enjoyment, quiet and able to be serene.
“To use a finite lifetime to worry and grieve over the chaos of the world is like weeping into a river to increase its water in fear of its drying up. Those who do not worry about the chaos of the world but enjoy order in their own bodies can be engaged in conversation about the Way.”
Filed under Philosophy in the
Dao Earth Traditions Collection
A Classic passed from Teacher to Student
The YELLOW EMPEROR's Inner Transmission of Acupuncture features a passionate and clinically relevant synthesis of Dr. Liu Lihong´s discipleship with Yang Zhenhai, one of the last remaining master practitioners of Daoist acupuncture in mainland China.
At the forefront of an international discourse on the definition and clinical significance of classical Chinese medicine, Yang and Liu promote yet another holistic medical system that radically contrasts the current penchant for symptom-oriented procedures. This English edition of their book lifts an important esoteric acupuncture lineage out of obscurity and presents it to us in complete and accessible form.
Historic Materia Medica from the Masters
The BEN CAO GANG MU -- Li Shizhen's 16th Century Encyclopedia of MATERIA MEDICA and NATURAL HISTORY. Translated and annotated by Paul Unschuld. Each volume sold separately.
The culmination of a sixteen-hundred-year history of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical literature, the encyclopedic BEN CAO GANG MU is considered the most important and comprehensive book ever written in the history of Chinese medicine and remains an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners.
Paul Unschuld's annotated translation of the BEN CAO GANG MU, presented here with the original Chinese text, opens a rare window into viewing the people and culture of China's past.
Modern Wisdom: Nigel Wiseman & Andrew Ellis
Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine, a ground-breaking translation of the Zhong Yi Ji Chu Xue which demonstrated that not only was it possible to meet scholarly expectations for the translations of TCM, but that the cooperation of living Chinese speaking clinicians could reveal nuances of practice. Beyond beginner's manuals, it gives English-speaking students of TCM a chance to appreciate the qualitative details available to their Chinese-speaking colleagues. It offers readers the rare opportunity to understand Chinese medicine, not as it is perceived by a Western writer, but as it is perceived and taught in China, because Chinese descriptions of TCM that confound Western expectations have not been expunged from the textual translation.