![\"Xiang-Er_WMC\"](\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Xiang-Er_WMC-300x225.jpg\")
Did you know that the first \u201creligious\u201d Daoist community came up with a list of nine principles that summarize the entire Dao De Jing?<\/p>\nDid you know that the first \u201creligious\u201d Daoist community came up with a list of nine principles that summarize the entire Dao De Jing?<\/p>\n
In the year 142 C.E., a certain Zhang Dao Ling had a vision of Laozi and subsequently established the Tianshi Daoist tradition \u2013 the Way of Celestial Mastery.\u00a0 Attributed to him is a text called the Xiang-Er (\u60f3\u723e), which I like to translate as \u201cmissing you\u201d.\u00a0 In addition to a commentary on DDJ chapters 3-37, as well as numerous rules for Tianshi adepts, the text includes 9 mandates that distill Laozi\u2019s key teaching points to guide adepts into Laozi\u2019s fruition.\u00a0 As such, they contain essential guidance for how to comport ourselves in formal meditation & qi-cultivation, as well as in informal conduct (daily life).<\/p>\n
According to orthodox Daoism, the mandates are guidelines for how we conduct ourselves when we are fully in touch with our nature.\u00a0 They are, importantly, not a list of moral rules or commandments that we impose upon ourselves \u2013 they are simply the way we actually are.\u00a0 If we find ourselves out of touch with our nature (\u201cmissing you\u201d), these mandates help to bring us back.<\/p>\n
My teacher said \u201cif this was all you had, it would be enough.\u201d\u00a0 In our school, we use these mandates as precepts and recite them in our daily ritual practice.\u00a0 We also have unpublished commentaries about what each of these mandates mean with regard to meditation & qi-cultivation.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not really enough just to read the mandates or a commentary \u2013 they are intended to trigger an exchange between teacher & disciple that in turn triggers a process within.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a little hesitant to post them without a personal discussion \u2013 these translations are provisional and need to be unpacked in the context of formal practice, but they are published in different translations anyway so here they are:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Extinguish effort (<\/em>w\u00faw\u00e9i, \u7121\u70ba)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Remain soft & weak (<\/em>r\u00f3uru\u00f2, \u67d4\u5f31)<\/em><\/p>\n Preserve the feminine, do not initiate activity (<\/em>sh\u01d2uc\u00ed w\u00f9xi\u0101nd\u00f2ng, \u5b88\u96cc\u52ff\u5148\u52a8)<\/em><\/p>\n Remain nameless (<\/em>w\u00fam\u00edng, \u7121\u540d)<\/em><\/p>\n Remain clear & calm (<\/em>q\u012bngj\u00ecng, \u6e05\u9759)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Function with competence & benevolence (<\/em>zh\u016bsh\u00e0n, \u8bf8\u5584)<\/em><\/p>\n Relinquish desire (<\/em>w\u00fay\u00f9, \u7121\u6b32)<\/em><\/p>\n Cease with sufficiency (<\/em>zh\u012bzh\u01d0 sh\u012br\u00e8nw\u00e9i, \u77e5\u6b62\u5e08\u8ba4\u4e3a)<\/em><\/p>\n Relax aggression (<\/em>tu\u012br\u00e0ng, \u63a8\u8ba9)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With gratitude to Zhang Dao Ling.\u00a0 Let\u2019s keep his teaching alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did you know that the first \u201creligious\u201d Daoist community came up with a list of nine principles that summarize the entire Dao De Jing? In the year 142 C.E., a certain Zhang Dao Ling had a vision of Laozi and subsequently established the Tianshi Daoist tradition \u2013 the Way of Celestial Mastery.\u00a0 Attributed to him … Continue reading “\u201cMissing You\u201d \u2013 The Nine Xiang-Er Mandates of Zhang Dao Ling”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}