JDS 18 (2025)

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Articles
Woojin JungZhuangzi’s Self-Concept in the Context of Cognition
David ChaiJia Yi’s Rhapsody on an Owl: A Lesson in Daoist Self-Consolation
Wong Yoo-chongLi Bai’s Flight of the Great Peng Bird: The Banished Immortal’s Quest for Glory and Emptiness
Liu KangleCharting Internal Alchemy: The Xiuzhen tu from Qishan
Nada SekulicMagical Realms in Folktales: Comparing East and West
Georges FavraudThe Immortal Zhou Fuhai
Ronald Suleski & Jonghyun LeeCalling on the Perfect Warrior: An Emotional Plea for Help


Forum
Baolin Wu & Brent Christopher WulfOne Word to Stop Killing: Qiu Chuji’s Teachings to Genghis Khan
Jeffrey S. ReidThe Legacy of Wudang Master Guo Gaoyi
Michael RinaldiniXing and Ming: Innate Nature and Life-Destiny in Daoist Cultivation
Baolin Wu & Jessica EcksteinTransforming Perception: A New Understanding of Zhengyi Talisman Practice
Dawn LiQi Cultivation in Daoist Arts
Cristina ZaccariniFrom Self to Society: Teaching Mindfulness and Nonviolent Communication through History
Baolin Wu & Brent Christopher WulfOne Word to Stop Killing: Qiu Chuji’s Teachings to Genghis Khan

Woojin Jung Zhuangzi’s Self-Concept in the Context of Cognition

This study examines Zhuangzi’s concept of self in the context of cognition, elucidating that it stems from two distinct interactions with the world. Specifically, Zhuangzi discerns between engagement with the world via language (imbued with socio-cultural biases) and engagement with the world as it exists (through resonance). He then advocates for the latter as the mode by which an ideal being interacts with the world. These two types of interactions correspond to Zhuang-zi’s linguistic self and the resonant self. Thus, in the pivotal expression “I lost myself” in Chapter 2 of the Zhuangzi, “myself” aligns with the linguistic self, while “I” aligns with the resonant self.

David ChaiJia Yi’s Rhapsody on an Owl: A Lesson in Daoist Self-Consolation

Jia Yi’s Rhapsody on an Owl was written during his banishment to Changsha and is a beautiful example of Daoist self-consolation in a world of uncertainty and change. This paper argues the Rhapsody has three objectives: to disprove the Confucian linking of human fate and fortune, to explicate the Daoist philosophy of change, and to illustrate how the sage exemplifies the Daoist ideal of spiritual freedom. Despite the therapeutic words he imputes to the owl, Jia Yi’s suicide just a few years after penning the Rhapsody shows the difficulty of disassociating variations in one’s fate from life itself, a challenge we all face at one time or another.

Wong Yoo-chong Li Bai’s Flight of the Great Peng Bird: The Banished Immortal’s Quest for Glory and Emptiness

This paper tells the story of the life of the renowned Chinese poet, Li Bo (李白701-762) tracing his poetic artistry along with his Daoist spiritual quest in. It examines two of his thousand poems, both inspired by the Great Peng Bird from the ancient text of the Zhuangzi 莊子. The first is a long elaborate rhapsody written in his mid-twenties showing his boundless confidence about achieving greatness; the other is a six-line retrospect written on his deathbed lamenting his misfortune of not achieving what he had thought he would in his youth. However, both of these poems show Li’s failure to reach his spiritual goal of finding peace and quiescence. Holding on to his great literary gift, Li never could let go of his attachment to fame.

Liu Kangle Charting Internal Alchemy: The Xiuzhen tu from Qishan

I recently obtained a rubbing of the Complete Chart of Internal and External Fire Phasing for the Cultivation of Perfection (Xiuzhen neiwai huohou quantu 修真内外火候全圖), sponsored by Daoists of the Qinglong guan青龍觀 (Green Dragon Monastery) located at Luban qiao 魯班橋 in Qishan 岐山 county, Shaanxi. It was commissioned by the abbot Feng Zhixuan馮至玄in 1935 and represents a chart of internal alchemy not found elsewhere in quite this format. Based on other well-known charts, such as the Neijing tu 内經圖 (Chart of Internal Passageways;), Huohou tu 火候圖(Chart of Fire Phasing), and Xiuzhen tu修真圖 (Chart for the Cultivation of Perfection), it develops and integrates their various elements, making it the culmination of modern Daoist charts for the practice of internal alchemy. In recent years, it has spread among Daoist academics, however, they have failed to relate it to the Neidan koujue 内丹口訣(Oral Instructions on Internal Alchemy) by Zhou Yuanjue周圓覺 who, I believe, is also its designer. This article remedies this shortcoming, presenting and interpreting its contents in detail.

Nada Sekulic – Magical Realms in Folktales: Comparing East and West

This paper works from a comparative perspective. It presents the history of folklore studies and outlines terminological issues of distinctive categorization of the fairy tale genre in East and West. Moving on from there, it examines the cultural variability of ontological borders between magical realms and the real world, outlining differences in the geography of imagination, moral attitudes, story plots, and characteristics of heroes. It focuses on Chinese and Japanese tales as examples to show similarities and divergences between East and West. Reviewing key Eastern fairy tales, such as those featuring Urashima Tarō, Princess Kaguya, the White Snake, and more, it points out the specific characteristics of the magical realms in folktales of the Far East.

Georges Favraud The Immortal Zhou Fuhai

The Daoist Zhou Fuhai (d. ca. 1935) was a hermit, healer and master of internal alchemy who lived in eastern Hunan and, in the early 20th century, reconstituted the Pure Yang tradition (Chunyang). Today local communities of Daoist women venerate him as a divine immortal and the founding ancestor of their ritual genealogy. This article explores his journey as a Daoist healer and outlines the construction of his veneration and his identity as an immortal on the basis of field observations and oral testimonies as well as a ritual text and a short official hagiography. It takes a close ethnological look at community construction and the transmission of the Pure Yang tradition in eastern Hunan, a region where it particularly developed during the Song dynasty (960-1279).

Ronald Suleski & Jonghyun Lee Calling on the Perfect Warrior: An Emotional Plea for Help

This paper is about the story of one Chinese man’s petition to deal with the impending dangers he perceived, by using the spiritual power of the mighty Daoist deity Perfect Warrior. The petition was written with a brush on hand-made paper of a size usually used for official documents. The hand-writing of the petitioner and the lack of punctuation, combined with deterioration of the document made it hard to clearly read in some places. It was written at the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in 1967, when the Cultural Revolution was sweeping across China and into the province where the petitioner lived. The petitioner felt fear and danger that destabilized his emotional state. He wrote a heart-felt plea to the deity to be transformed into a god himself capable of destroying the “snakes and tigers” bringing danger into his community.