Way
back in the stone age ... well 2008 to be precise ... I was neck deep in a
Masters degree mini-thesis. The original idea for my thesis/project was to
compare and contrast the Chinese philosophies of Kong Fu Zi (Confucianism) and Lao
Zi (Daoism) with the Western philosophical concepts of Socrates (iknowthatiknownothingism
– sorry but couldn’t help myself … haha!!), Epicurus (Epicurianism), and Seneca
(Stoicism). I thought it was an excellent idea, as did my supervisor, but
unfortunately it was too large a topic for a 20 thousand word project, so it
was canned.
However
it took me a good six months to reach this conclusion, during which time I
collated and researched hundreds and hundreds of text books and websites. This
journey took me to all sorts of wonderful places, and since I can get waylaid
very easily (this is rarely a bad thing!!), I ended up learning about other
Chinese philosophers apart from Confucius and Lao Zi. These included, but were not limited to, Mencius
(Confucianism – Good Heart), Zhuang Zi
(Daoism), and Xun Zi (Confucianism –
Bad Heart). These variations on a theme then took me further away from my
central topic and I learnt about the philosophical schools of the Wu Xing (Five Elements) and the Yin Yang. Now I was starting to research
the origins of Chinese philosophy as well as the medicine; so even though I was
now miles and miles away from my planned research, I was finding some really
cool stuff. Stuff that wasn’t going to be used for my project, but stuff that I
decided to file away for further analysis at a later time.
That
future time ended up being in late 2013 when I was thinking of some new and
interesting topics to present at two 2014 conferences I was presenting at –
AACMA in Melbourne and WFAS in Houston. I was looking back through all my stuff
that I can accumulated over the years and found my old notes/research on the Wu Xing (Five Element) philosophical
school. As I read over my notes I was trying to find a topic within the Wu Xing that would make a catchy
presentation. For those that know me, I always look for the obscure or murky
realms of a known topic. I want to explore the regions that others don’t want
to go. This is what fascinates me!
And
so when I found a personality archetype system within the Wu Xing I knew I had found my prize. I hit the ground running and
researched everything I could get my hands on, and this is the end product. It
has had a number of edits and rewrites since 2013, and was also a topic I ended
up presenting at the Rothenburg congress in Germany in 2015. My latest edition
now includes the Wu Shen (Five
Spirits) which are the Hun
(Ethereal/Heavenly Soul), Shen
(Spirit), Yi (Thought/Intellect), Po (Corporeal/Grounded Soul), and the Zhi (Willpower).
I
truly hope you enjoy the read and please feel free to comment/provide feedback,
or ask any questions you might have.
Lastly
I will use the rest of this post to provide any additional comments on any of
the pages of the PDF document.
Page
3 – you will notice for the first time I have highlighted some of my notes in
orange. These were the areas I concentrated on in my presentations. It was
impossible to cover everything in the notes – you will notice the orange
highlighted parts continue throughout my notes.
Page
7 – there was a story/legend that I remember reading (didn’t reference the book
at the time though – doh!!) about an ancient Chinese emperor who was plunged in
thought (Yi/Earth Element). He was
over analysing and over thinking everything in his life. He was so pensive that
he stopped eating and refused to leave his chambers. After a few days his prime
minster and scholar elite started to get quite worried but no matter how hard
they tried, the emperor refused to eat. In desperation they put the call out to
the wider community for someone that could heal the emperor. That someone ended
up being a Chinese medicine physician whose name I have long forgotten, so we
will call him Bill. Anyway, Bill shows up at the emperors palace and declares
that he can heal the emperor, but only if the prime minister and scholarly
elite didn’t interrupt him under any circumstances. They were desperate so
reluctantly agreed. With that, Bill charged through the door and into the
emperors private chambers, without even knocking. He then told the emperor to
“Stop being a lazy fart/Pi and start
ruling his country (Bill might not have said the word fart)”. As you would
expect the emperor exploded with rage and anger. He roared at Bill and at his
prime minister:
“Take
this man away and have him executed at once … And bring me back something to
eat because I’m starving”.
As
you have possibly worked out, Bill understood that he needed to stimulate the
emperors Earth element by firing off his Wood element, using the Ko cycle for an acute and immediate
change. And the best way to do that was to make the emperor angry.
So
what ended up happening to Bill? Well there are two endings actually – classic
Chinese!! One ending was happy – the emperor is eating his food and realises
what Bill was doing. He ordered a stay of execution just in time and saved
Bill’s life. He also promoted Bill into one of his elite physicians in the
palace, and Bill lived happily, and richly, ever after. The other ending was
sad – by the time the emperor realised what Bill did for him he had already
been executed. We have to realise that Bill would have known the risks going
into the palace but he was also happy to give his life for the life of the
emperor. After all, Bill was just a man, but the emperor was the son of Heaven Tian Zi).
Page
11 – I hope that this makes sense. What I am essentially saying is what
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804CE) was trying to say, in his insanely difficult writing
style; that is, we are born with both free will/desires as well as no free
will/destiny. Basically we are born to live a particular life where we will
learn a series of important lessons, but these lessons can be learnt in a
number of different ways depending on the path we choose (free will/desires) in
life. However, the paths that are open to us will be limited to ensure we learn
the lessons we are supposed to learn (no free will/destiny).
Page
21 – this treatment option is structured exactly the same for all five of the
elements. Its only one type of treatment option amongst many available ones. To
summarise, the horary points will treat anything wrong with the organ,
regardless of whether it is Shi
(excess) or Xu (deficient).
Mother
and Child points are a specific five element treatment option. Mother points
will tonify (for Xu) and Child points
will sedate (for Shi).
Page
65 – Pre-Heaven Intellect is knowledge that you already know (without having
learnt it) and is passed onto you by your ancestors at conception. Post-Heaven
Intellect is knowledge that you acquire after you are born via the use of your
senses. Obviously Pre-Heaven Intellect is something that is a debatable topic,
so if I could use an example from the animal kingdom to explain myself further.
I have owned several Blue Heelers (Australian Cattle Dogs) over the years. I
always get them when they are only 8-12 weeks old and have not acquired much
knowledge. They always nip at my heels and herd me into the corner of the room
for several months until they learn from me not to do that anymore. But how do
they know to do that? Because it’s been bred into this dog breed for a long
time (that is – to nip at the backs of cow’s heels to get them to go where the
cattle driver wants them to go) and it’s become an inherent trait of the breed;
as in, they just simply know how to do it without ever having learnt to do it.
That’s what I mean by Pre-Heaven Intellect!
Page
99 – the single best comic joke I have ever seen. The dinosaurs becoming
extinct!!
That’s
it, apart from providing you with a scenario that will hopefully tie all of the
Wu Xing together in a nice little
example.
Picture
yourself going at a party/gathering; you arrive about an hour late and everyone
else is already there. You walk into a large room and take in everything that
you see/hear in front of you. The first thing you notice is a group to the left
with one particular person clearly the centre of attention. You can even hear
him – he is discussing his most recent exploit to the group. He is clearly very
proud of himself and letting everyone around him know it.
There
is another group to the right that also draws your attention because of the volume.
This group has a woman who is gesticulating wildly and who has the group
laughing hysterically at what she is saying. You turn further to the right and
notice three people sitting away from the others. There is a couple sitting on
one couch and there is another person sitting opposite them who is leaning in
and appears to be totally focused on the couple. She seems to be counselling
them and the three of them are completely oblivious to anyone else around them.
Spinning
back to the left you spot two people talking in what is very academic speak. One
person is definitely the peer and you can tell that the other person, whilst
clearly not overawed, is quite enthralled by what that person is saying. They look
like they are trying to find a solution to a very complex problem; perhaps
figuring out how to make a particular object better?
Lastly,
you spot two other people talking (tucked away in a dark corner – you didn’t see
them when you first arrived) in what is very philosophical language. They appear
to be attempting to solve the world’s problems. There is also another person
sitting close by listening in, but not contributing, to the conversation.
Have
you worked out who is who?
The
guy who is promoting himself is Wood; the lady gesticulating is Fire; the
single in the group of three is Earth; the two people attempting to make an
object better are Metal; and the philosophers (and person sitting on their own)
are Water.
So
now that I have done this post I will look to merge the Wu Xing archetypes with the Numerology Arrows of Pythagoras. This will
hopefully be done within the next couple of months.
My
next post, however, will actually be an in-depth discussion on the Song dynasty (960-1279CE), which is
something that the Jing Luo magazine
asked me to write for them. So please be on the lookout in the next week or so.
Love
and light to you all
David
Hartmann
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