The 太玄經 (Tai Xuan Jing) Contains 81 Chapters!
Good work, A!
What is important is the revolutionary impetus that drives-on the essence of your research. Be hardened to criticism (there are many liars out there) - but take that which is useful (be adaptive to the truth you discover). Bear in mind, although Chinese culture belongs to the Chinese people - most Chinee people are not "experts" in the minutiae of the reality that defines their DNA, phenotype, and culture, etc. Many Chinese people wonder "why we bother" - when it comes to researching "the very thing that they are" - and "the very thing that we value". When I was young, Richard Hunn was in and out of many different communities that comprise the "Chinese". He even met my Hakka Chinese grandmother in Sutton - who could not speak English - and he conversed with her in Hakka (this was around 2000 - and we both ended-up in Kingston attending an anti-racist meeting in the city-centre which involved a nunchaku demonstration - I think by accident as we were heading to the wonderful Borders bookshop now defunct)! Apparently, he had lived in Burma for a time in a community of Hakka and understood their (our) world-view. What I find interesting is "meaningful coincidences". For instance, why is it that the "Grand Mysterious Classic" (太玄經 - Tai Xuan Jing) contains "81 chapters" - the same number as that found in the Dao De Jing? Is it because the Dao De Jing a) already existed, and b) directly influenced the designed of the Tai Xuan Jing? Is it because there was a direct relationship between the Dao De Jing and the Confucian community? It could be something - it could be nothing. It was penned by the Confucian scholar - Yang Xiong [揚雄] (53 BCE – 18 CE) - born during the end of the Western Han, but who became prominent (intellectually) during the short-lived "Xin Dynasty" (9-23 CE) - that "New Dynasty" which bridged the Western (Earlier) and Eastern (Latter) Han Dynasty. Of course, the "Xin" contributed vigorously to the development of Chinese culture - and then was brutally wiped-out by the followers of the Han. Standard bread and butter for the historical development of Chinese culture. This habitual violence has generated some extraordinary martial arts. Fighting is a normal thing - spiritualised in both essence and practice. This is an important observation - as an ennobled violence is present within ALL the spiritual texts relating to ancient China. In my youth, I (briefly) came across the "Tai Xuan Jing" - but at the time found it difficult to ingest as it departed from the standard Yijing which I was only beginning to penetrate. I could not understand its purpose. My Chinese-side reacted (negatively) in support of the urge "not to change anything" - a huge contradiction to my life-path of embracing Revolutionary thinking. Perhaps it is the tension between the two that empowers my work and seeps-out into the work of others - for whatever that is worth. I think "81" is far to specific to be random - it just does not occur in nature for no reason. It is an awkward and irritating number. Sometimes, it is at the exact point of the greatest resistance that we make our greatest breakthroughs. Bear in mind that 8 + 1 = 9 - with "9" being a fully rounded and spiritualised number in Chinese thinking. Generally speaking, multiples of "3" permeate Chinese thinking in the sense of "good luck" and retaining social order (take the numerical designations applied to the six-lines of the Yijing).
Thanks
Adrian
What is important is the revolutionary impetus that drives-on the essence of your research. Be hardened to criticism (there are many liars out there) - but take that which is useful (be adaptive to the truth you discover). Bear in mind, although Chinese culture belongs to the Chinese people - most Chinee people are not "experts" in the minutiae of the reality that defines their DNA, phenotype, and culture, etc. Many Chinese people wonder "why we bother" - when it comes to researching "the very thing that they are" - and "the very thing that we value". When I was young, Richard Hunn was in and out of many different communities that comprise the "Chinese". He even met my Hakka Chinese grandmother in Sutton - who could not speak English - and he conversed with her in Hakka (this was around 2000 - and we both ended-up in Kingston attending an anti-racist meeting in the city-centre which involved a nunchaku demonstration - I think by accident as we were heading to the wonderful Borders bookshop now defunct)! Apparently, he had lived in Burma for a time in a community of Hakka and understood their (our) world-view. What I find interesting is "meaningful coincidences". For instance, why is it that the "Grand Mysterious Classic" (太玄經 - Tai Xuan Jing) contains "81 chapters" - the same number as that found in the Dao De Jing? Is it because the Dao De Jing a) already existed, and b) directly influenced the designed of the Tai Xuan Jing? Is it because there was a direct relationship between the Dao De Jing and the Confucian community? It could be something - it could be nothing. It was penned by the Confucian scholar - Yang Xiong [揚雄] (53 BCE – 18 CE) - born during the end of the Western Han, but who became prominent (intellectually) during the short-lived "Xin Dynasty" (9-23 CE) - that "New Dynasty" which bridged the Western (Earlier) and Eastern (Latter) Han Dynasty. Of course, the "Xin" contributed vigorously to the development of Chinese culture - and then was brutally wiped-out by the followers of the Han. Standard bread and butter for the historical development of Chinese culture. This habitual violence has generated some extraordinary martial arts. Fighting is a normal thing - spiritualised in both essence and practice. This is an important observation - as an ennobled violence is present within ALL the spiritual texts relating to ancient China. In my youth, I (briefly) came across the "Tai Xuan Jing" - but at the time found it difficult to ingest as it departed from the standard Yijing which I was only beginning to penetrate. I could not understand its purpose. My Chinese-side reacted (negatively) in support of the urge "not to change anything" - a huge contradiction to my life-path of embracing Revolutionary thinking. Perhaps it is the tension between the two that empowers my work and seeps-out into the work of others - for whatever that is worth. I think "81" is far to specific to be random - it just does not occur in nature for no reason. It is an awkward and irritating number. Sometimes, it is at the exact point of the greatest resistance that we make our greatest breakthroughs. Bear in mind that 8 + 1 = 9 - with "9" being a fully rounded and spiritualised number in Chinese thinking. Generally speaking, multiples of "3" permeate Chinese thinking in the sense of "good luck" and retaining social order (take the numerical designations applied to the six-lines of the Yijing).
Thanks
Adrian
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