Hello,
I would like to ask, do you know is there any English translation of this ancient doc on the Taoist Taichi’s Inner Path? I attach a photo of it.
My Mom would love to read it and unfortunately, I could not find the translation for her :(
It seems to be related to Taoist medical concepts
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It’s a maps of a rubbing from 白雲觀 in Beijing. I believe that I have it in a book at home - will look and post later if I do.
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Looks like a map of how the Taoists believe the inner body works.
It seems like a very late creation though. It is heavily infused with Buddhist terminologies, such as 番僧 (foreign monk).
我家耑種自家田，內有靈苗活萬年。 ← -î / -iân
花似黃金色不異，子如玉粒果皆圓。 ← -înn
栽培全賴中宮土，灌溉須憑上谷泉。 ← -uânn / -uân
功課一朝成大道，逍遙陸地作蓬仙。 ← -ian
Take this poem from the diagram for example, it does not rhyme. It doesn’t rhyme in Mandarin, not in Taigi, not in Cantonese. It comes pretty close though, so perhaps the author wasn’t really aiming for literary correctness, and just want to create the feeling of a rhyming 7 syllable poem.
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Thank you @tempogain for tagging me.
This is really complicated. You need to know Mandarin, Taoism, Chinese medicine, Chinese history and ancient stories to fully understand this photo.
Here’s a translation I found on the internet.
I haven’t read all of it, so I can’t tell if the translation is correct.
At least someone has done the hard work!
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