Tantui: Theatrical-Religious Artifact or Moral Propaganda Tool

Tantui: Theatrical-Religious Artifact or Moral Propaganda Tool

Please head over to Ben Judkins' blog and read his piece "Judo and the Chinese Martial Arts: the View from 1928." In it he points out that the discourse around the history of Chinese martial arts was largely established by the 1930s and has not changed much (at least until Ben, and I, and a few others, started studying it). People often claim to be having a conversation about history when in fact they are arguing about the right way to practice today. 

Ben's piece is centered around this free translation by Brennan: BOXING ARTS FUNDAMENTALS – ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOK FOR TANTUI, from May, 1917. It is a fantastic document, but could use some contextualization. Rather than write my own piece, I'm just going to add some comments below.

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Wind Fire Wheels

Wind Fire Wheels

Wind Fire Wheels get an in depth discussion in my next book. They are almost exclusively a Baguazhang weapon. Here is a quick summary of the problem, feedback welcome, all weapons are pictured bellow:

  • The Angry Baby God Nezha's windfire wheels go on his feet

  • The wind fire wheels of Baguazhang go in the hands.

  • Two Baguazhang deer horn knives stuck together look like a wind fire wheel.

  • Nezha's Qiankun Yuan (hoop) is both a punching weapon and a boomerang (so he never throws it away).

  • These are all most likely theatrical-ritual weapons.

  • How are they all related? What is their real purpose?

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Science as a Political Religion

There are good definitions of science, but none that are used across numerous different sciences. Each science defines its own boundaries. The Karl Popper slogan is one of the more popular attempts to universalize science: "A theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can and should be scrutinized by decisive experiments." But how often do scientists live up to that ideal?

China has had a lot of difficulty with science. It did not develop organically in China, it was imported with a political agenda. More importantly it has been twisted together with Nationalism. Authoritarianism, Modernism, and Religion. That is true in other places too, to some extent, but in China it is a bit extreme. I am certain that there are superb scientists working in China. But I'm also certain that Chinese culture has a data falsification problem that holds it back. And then there is the massive problem of science as the religion of the state. To get a picture of this, read the short article linked below from Supchina (which is itself a weird site worth digging around in a bit):

Taoist Ceremony At A Nuclear Site Betrays The ‘Spirit Of Science’

"...The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the country’s most established scientific institution, apologized (in Chinese) on Monday, April 30, for hosting a Taoist ritual at the foundation ceremony for a nuclear power station in Wuwei, Gansu Province. CAS also announced the suspension of two employees who were in attendance but failed to terminate the religious ceremony..."

 

Appetite for Sleep

Appetite for Sleep

There are so many good moments in this Joe Rogen Interview with Matthew Walker about Sleep, listen to the whole thing. It is long, I listened to it over three days while I was preparing dinner. He uses the language construction of my Daoist teacher Liu Ming at one point, 'sleep is an appetite.' Liu Ming talked a lot about appetites, the four primary appetites are: sleep, rest, exercise, and food. Then there are things like sex, adventure, killing, and intellect.

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