FOOTNOTES

TAOIST LONGEVITY PRACTICES

1. The Book of History is a Confucian classic written by Ssu Ma-hsien during the Chou dynasty (1122 B.C. to 255 B.C.) that provides a record of famous personages of Chinese history from that period and preceding periods.

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION TO THE EIGHT BROCADES

1. Note: The “Ching dynasty” and the “Manchu dynasty” are two different names for the same time period.

2. There are two primary ways in which to stimulate the qi in the body, the external and the internal. External stimulation consists of actual physical methods (such as patting), while internal stimulation is mental (meditation). This distinction gives rise to the Taoist concepts of Wai Dan (the external methods for producing the elixir of immortality) and Nei Dan (the internal methods).

LI CHING-YUN’S INTRODUCTION TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE EIGHT BROCADES

1. The Five Activities, which are sometimes referred to as the Five Elements or Attributes (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), is a central theory in Chinese philosophy that codifies how all phenomena act and behave. The reason I choose the term “The Five Activities” is that it is not so much the element itself that is important, but the element’s associated activity. For example, fire is not only heat producing; it also creates light, and it can cause changes in the other four elements as well. So it is the phenomenon of one element’s effect upon the others that creates the idea of “activity.” Also, the Chinese term wu hsing literally means “five activities.” The term “Elements” is really a contrived term here; at best this theory could be called the “Five Element Activities” or “Activities of the Five Elements.”

2. There is another important point here. There have been persons within the martial art world who have claimed that Li Ching-yun trained in the martial art of Pa Kua Chang (Eight Diagram Palms). But nothing in his lectures or life points to him having known any martial art technique. It may be that persons have misconstrued his practice of Eight Diagram Active Kung (Eight Brocades) with that of Eight Diagram Palms.