Does one need push hands?

[Louis Swaim]

Greetings Yuri,

I know this is tangential, but it has come up, and you asked. The Guanzi is, as Jerry remarks, a compendium of various diverse texts. The texts titled Neiye (Inner Training) and Xinshu (Techniques of the Heart/Mind) share certain characteristics that reveal them to be what might best be term “early Daoist” in content. Some modern scholars like Harold Roth identify certain psycho-physiological practices (daoshu—techniques of the way) as the distinctive features that qualify these early documents as “early Daoist.” There has long been ambiguity in the term Daoist for a number of reasons, including a somewhat artificial distinction between daojia (school of dao) and daojiao (religion or teaching of dao). You may find interesting the essay by Nathan Sivin, “On the Term ‘Taoism’ as a Source of Perplexity,” linked below:

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~nsivin/perp.html

Sivin’s essay is already “old scholarship,” but I still think he states the issues lucidly.

Take care,
Louis

[Yuri Snisarenko]

Greetings Louis,

Thank you for the link. That work is a really good example of a detailed analysis and broad knowledge. I read a couple analogous works in Russian. But my understanding of orthodox daosism changed after a talk with a person who studied from a real teacher in daoist monastery. It also changed my understanding of taijiquan at some degree. Unfortunately without real adept of traditional daoist lineage and good knowledge of wenyan it's hard to gain some insight about, say, such classical text as Wu Zheng Pian. I haven't got these prerequisites, so I just enjoy any good understandable info on the matter in the net

Take care,

Yuri



[This message has been edited by Yuri Snisarenko (edited 11-04-2005).]