Seventy-Five Paintings from 1590

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Seventy-Five Paintings from 1590

Check out these amazing paintings from around 1590 in the Boxer Codex.  They are in the public domain so let's share them a lot. I've been studying this period and the commercial, smuggling, and pirate culture of the South China Sea for my forthcoming book on Tai Chi.  Douglas Wile in his book The Lost Tai Chi Classics, pointed to the literati (shi) influence of that era, but the merchant influence appears to be equally important. The combination of these two groups shaped the way theater, and thus martial arts, was produced and disseminated.  The 1590s saw an explosion in travel related books

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Guan Dao Hui

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Here is some amazing fieldwork by Steven Frost, who hopefully will be presenting the whole film at this year's International Daoist Studies Conference in Paris (May 17-19, 2017).  His website has a few articles and some images too.  http://stevenqfrost.net/main.html

A documentary film about the survival of religious traditions in a rural area of central Guizhou Province. Directed by Steven Frost.

Intimate Portrait Shanxi Daoist Family

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This intimate 80-minute portrait film explores the life of eighth-generation household Daoist Li Manshan (b.1946), leader of a group of ritual specialists in the poor countryside of Yanggao county in north Shanxi, China.

A film by Stephen Jones; edited by Michele Banal, with funding from the ANR Shifu project (Paris Nanterre). 
The film complements Stephen Jones' new book "Daoist priests of the Li family: ritual life in village China" (Three Pines, 2016).

Obviously they don't allow embedding, perhaps that is so that they can monitor comments. But you can click the link to watch it on Vimeo.  Very cool, neat music, can't wait to read the book and meet the author in Paris at the next Daoist Studies International Conference. 

Got a Nice Review

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Got a Nice Review

I just got a nice review of my book Possible Origins. It was done by Edward Hines over at i-Bagua, check it out!  And then, of course, buy the book and write your own review...

If martial arts is defined broadly as "combat skill," it goes back to single celled organisms. If it is defined by written discourse about hunting or battle, it is one of the first things ever written down. If it is written stories about sword dueling masters in China, it is about 2300 year old. If it is court documents about wrestlers, acrobats, or martial rituals done by people wearing animal masks, it is about 2100 years old. If it is written documents describing martial displays of acrobatic skill by the military, or plays with fighting scenes, it is somewhere around 1300 to 1000 years old. If it is written descriptions of forms (taolu) at Shaolin Temple it is five, maybe six hundred years old. If it is written discussion about lineage transmissions it is even more recent.

 

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News and Events

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News and Events

I want to let people in California know that my friend Alex Boyd from the UK is teaching in Oakland and Los Angeles. His partner work is definitely worth experiencing, lots of practices that improve spatial perception in games, and a unique Daoist lineage.   

DAVIS  www.lishi.org/davis 4th - 6th Nov
OAKLAND  www.lishi.org/oakland 5th Nov
LOS ANGELES contact alex@lishi.org 9th - 12th Nov
CALGARY  www.lishi.org/calgary - 13th-15th Nov

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How Was Baguazhang Originally Taught?

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How Was Baguazhang Originally Taught?

Everyone who practices Baguazhang has heard that it was created or revealed by one famous master named Dong Haichuan. Almost everyone agrees on the mythology that Dong taught each of his students differently based on what skills and experiences they already had.

That is pretty extraordinary. That means there wasn't a curriculum. It was improvisational.

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