I smile when I think of the Fang Shi.
The fusty and correct Confucian academic bureaucrats serving as officials at Court must have been aghast when yet another Fang Shi magi dazzled the Emperor with the baubles of Immortality. I imagine that not a few were scoundrels and chancers bedazzling the Emperor to send yet another expedition to find the Faery Lands. There must have been much shaking of heads at the foolishness of it all. And yet the officials could not deny that these men were the Whizz Kids, the Alchemists, the Masters of the Formulas. The Fang Shi knew life and its secrets outside the court. The Fang Shi were the scientists and researchers of their day. They were hands on. They knew plant lore, they were highly educated, they could read and write, they left behind records and manuscripts. They were mystics, healers and shamans. They were astrologers and could calculate the movements of the heavens and interpret the Feng Shui of the land. Each Fang Shi was a specialist in their chosen field. It is said that Lao Tsu was a Fang Shi. To them the Cosmos, the Spiritual and the Physical and the Other World were all as one. In time the Fang Shi were absorbed into the Taoist tradition and were the forerunners of the Tao Shi.
Chang Tao Ling (34-156 AD) was a Fang Shi and founded the Seven Bushels of Rice School which later evolved into School of The Celestial Masters. Like many other orders around the world, such as the Druids and possibly the Templars, the establishment saw them as a threat.
The Tao Shi Shamans were persecuted and hunted down by Buddhist rulers. Consequently
the 'Wandering Taoists' traveled discreetly and without drawing attention to themselves hence the Chinese saying that 'You cannot tell a sage by his clothes'.
The tradition of not becoming conspicuous is maintained down to this day.
They found safe havens by signs left by the householder outside the house
'There is an altar in the house.'
Before he left on his travels a journeyman healer-shaman would take a pinch of ash from the altar of his home temple and possibly an item of thigh bone as his energetic connection to the lineage.
The Red Guard communist revolution swept away and destroyed much of the historical traditions. As many Masters as could fled mainland China to Taiwan and Hong Kong but too many died. In time Chairman Mao and the Party saw the need to provide cheap and economical health care for the masses, particularly in the vast swathes of countryside and reintroduced the concept of the Barefoot Doctor. They were given basic instruction in a very restricted program of Traditional Chinese (sub-clinical emergency) Medicine. To this day TCM is taught in China without any reference to the great spiritual treasures that the Taoist masters possessed.
This secular teaching is not the 'Alchemy' of old.
History records Sir Isaac Newton as discovering gravity and founding mechanical physics. But this is doing him a great disservice. Newton was a Mystic. Newton was an Alchemist.
His passion was mysticism. He wrote more about and mysticism and God than he ever did about science. He was right at the forefront of the flow of spiritual and physical inquiry about the true nature of Alchemy. He would have been right at home with quantum physics and he would have been right at home with the Fang Shi.
There is a vast industry exporting Chinese trained Herbalist/Acupuncturists to the UK where there is a shop on every high street. When questioned very few of the practitioners know or do any Chi Kung. I used to use 'Barefoot Doctor' as my moniker. It was very apt because I traveled for 30 years taking my skills with me wherever I went. I had been inspired as a child by David Carradine playing a Shaolin monk called Kwai Chang Caine in the TV series and films Kung Fu.
Kung Fu means ‘One who knows’. He made videos of Tai Chi and Kung Fu workouts for self development. From these researches I realize that the modern version of the Barefoot Doctor bears little resemblance to the training, studies and nomadic life style of the Fang Shi, Tao Shi and the Wandering Taoists.
It's a little dream of mine to have all the TV series of 'The Highlander' on DVD. It dealt with the Fang Shi and Taoist preoccupation with immortality. The lead actor, an Englishman, Adrian Paul is an accomplished martial artist and practiced a wonderful form of Jo (stick) kata (training) which I would love to learn myself. I think that he would enjoy reading this book.
Roy Mulholland, Founder of Satoro
The fusty and correct Confucian academic bureaucrats serving as officials at Court must have been aghast when yet another Fang Shi magi dazzled the Emperor with the baubles of Immortality. I imagine that not a few were scoundrels and chancers bedazzling the Emperor to send yet another expedition to find the Faery Lands. There must have been much shaking of heads at the foolishness of it all. And yet the officials could not deny that these men were the Whizz Kids, the Alchemists, the Masters of the Formulas. The Fang Shi knew life and its secrets outside the court. The Fang Shi were the scientists and researchers of their day. They were hands on. They knew plant lore, they were highly educated, they could read and write, they left behind records and manuscripts. They were mystics, healers and shamans. They were astrologers and could calculate the movements of the heavens and interpret the Feng Shui of the land. Each Fang Shi was a specialist in their chosen field. It is said that Lao Tsu was a Fang Shi. To them the Cosmos, the Spiritual and the Physical and the Other World were all as one. In time the Fang Shi were absorbed into the Taoist tradition and were the forerunners of the Tao Shi.
Chang Tao Ling (34-156 AD) was a Fang Shi and founded the Seven Bushels of Rice School which later evolved into School of The Celestial Masters. Like many other orders around the world, such as the Druids and possibly the Templars, the establishment saw them as a threat.
The Tao Shi Shamans were persecuted and hunted down by Buddhist rulers. Consequently
the 'Wandering Taoists' traveled discreetly and without drawing attention to themselves hence the Chinese saying that 'You cannot tell a sage by his clothes'.
The tradition of not becoming conspicuous is maintained down to this day.
They found safe havens by signs left by the householder outside the house
'There is an altar in the house.'
Before he left on his travels a journeyman healer-shaman would take a pinch of ash from the altar of his home temple and possibly an item of thigh bone as his energetic connection to the lineage.
The Red Guard communist revolution swept away and destroyed much of the historical traditions. As many Masters as could fled mainland China to Taiwan and Hong Kong but too many died. In time Chairman Mao and the Party saw the need to provide cheap and economical health care for the masses, particularly in the vast swathes of countryside and reintroduced the concept of the Barefoot Doctor. They were given basic instruction in a very restricted program of Traditional Chinese (sub-clinical emergency) Medicine. To this day TCM is taught in China without any reference to the great spiritual treasures that the Taoist masters possessed.
This secular teaching is not the 'Alchemy' of old.
History records Sir Isaac Newton as discovering gravity and founding mechanical physics. But this is doing him a great disservice. Newton was a Mystic. Newton was an Alchemist.
His passion was mysticism. He wrote more about and mysticism and God than he ever did about science. He was right at the forefront of the flow of spiritual and physical inquiry about the true nature of Alchemy. He would have been right at home with quantum physics and he would have been right at home with the Fang Shi.
There is a vast industry exporting Chinese trained Herbalist/Acupuncturists to the UK where there is a shop on every high street. When questioned very few of the practitioners know or do any Chi Kung. I used to use 'Barefoot Doctor' as my moniker. It was very apt because I traveled for 30 years taking my skills with me wherever I went. I had been inspired as a child by David Carradine playing a Shaolin monk called Kwai Chang Caine in the TV series and films Kung Fu.
Kung Fu means ‘One who knows’. He made videos of Tai Chi and Kung Fu workouts for self development. From these researches I realize that the modern version of the Barefoot Doctor bears little resemblance to the training, studies and nomadic life style of the Fang Shi, Tao Shi and the Wandering Taoists.
It's a little dream of mine to have all the TV series of 'The Highlander' on DVD. It dealt with the Fang Shi and Taoist preoccupation with immortality. The lead actor, an Englishman, Adrian Paul is an accomplished martial artist and practiced a wonderful form of Jo (stick) kata (training) which I would love to learn myself. I think that he would enjoy reading this book.
Roy Mulholland, Founder of Satoro