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I got a very cheap copy of Jorkens Remembers Africa by Lord Dunsany last week. I haven't read any of Dunsany's Jorkens stories before. But I did find these quite enjoyable. They were all much longer than the short stories of A Dreamer's Tales and The Book of Wonder. They are in many ways simply "tall tales" but are well written and often a little surprising. I felt a little of Dunsany's style was lost in the first person narrative that the Jorkens stories were all bound by. Still there were some interesting stories, a nice story about a haunted house, tales of idols, gods and alchemy, there were even two science fiction stories which were quite entertaining, though a bit reminiscent of several other stories by different authors of the same time period. A nice entertaining read, I shall definitely have to try and track down more Jorkens books.
Immortal Sisters: Secrets of the Taoist Women by Thomas Cleary is published by Shambala which means normally I wouldn't have bought it. But it contained translations of writings by women Taoists so I thought I would give it a try. The introduction gave the view of Taoism as the religion of equality among women, how in all of China it viewed women as equal to men, and this was shown in the writings presented, a view which I question a little. Cleary was clearly writing from his own perspective rather than trying to be non-judgmental early on he describes the Shang dynasty as "A slave society notorious for materialism, cruelty and disregard of human life". Clearly he had been reading the Zhou propaganda a bit too closely. The Shang were one of the most egalitarian of all Chinese dynasties, women were able to own land, controlled cities, led armies into battle and practiced and led religious rites! But he didn't think fit to mention any of this in his brief introduction to the history of women in China.
The texts themselves were a little disappointing. There were a few poems with the bulk of the text being a commentary by a 20th century Taoist (gender unspecified so I'm assuming male). His commentary was fairly interesting in that it focused on spiritual alchemy and went line by line looking for the meaning in the poems. Part of me questioned though if it's meant to be esoteric and not something that should be explained how you could really benefit from such a commentary. But it made an interesting historical perspective, or modern perspective. I think it a little telling that my favorite poem, "Flying" about ascending to heaven in broad daylight, the best way to become a Taoist immortal the commentator had nothing to say because he knew of no one in the 20th century who had done such a thing.
The last part of the book is a translation of an 1899 Taoist text on inner alchemy. What makes this particularly interesting is that it was written by a woman explicitly for other women to read and learn from. Unfortunately Cleary does not say what the intended audience of the text was, how common this was, who were the literate Taoist women who were reading such texts and what impact this had, and where this tradition came from. Questions I find interesting and would love to learn the answers too. The text looks explicitly at how inner alchemy is different for women and how their bodies have different centers. This is something that Cleary picks up on and is quick to point out how in Japanese Zen Buddhism such practices are practiced incorrectly. But his criticism of Zen Buddhism is hardly surprising.
In addition to Cleary's book I also read Schaffer's article "A trip to the Moon". Originally given as a speech, and I think the basis for his book Pacing the Void which I now wish to order. Schaffer looks at Taoist voyages to the heavens, in particular beliefs about the moon. While paying little attention to the actual voyages and instead focusing on representations of the moon in Tang poetry he manages to write an interesting and informative article, that includes lots of references and contrasts with western beliefs, and modern references such as John Carter of Mars. (which made me happy). While still in the realm of Taoist existential beliefs I enjoyed this article much more than the inner alchemy writings. Perhaps because it felt more like mythology and looked at the heavens rather than the body, though I do understand the connection between the two.
One particularly interesting part to me was when he was talking of dream travel by the monk Kuan-hsiu in the 10th century. It all seemed a little Lovecraftian, a quote of which I'll end this with as I just loved it so much.
The texts themselves were a little disappointing. There were a few poems with the bulk of the text being a commentary by a 20th century Taoist (gender unspecified so I'm assuming male). His commentary was fairly interesting in that it focused on spiritual alchemy and went line by line looking for the meaning in the poems. Part of me questioned though if it's meant to be esoteric and not something that should be explained how you could really benefit from such a commentary. But it made an interesting historical perspective, or modern perspective. I think it a little telling that my favorite poem, "Flying" about ascending to heaven in broad daylight, the best way to become a Taoist immortal the commentator had nothing to say because he knew of no one in the 20th century who had done such a thing.
The last part of the book is a translation of an 1899 Taoist text on inner alchemy. What makes this particularly interesting is that it was written by a woman explicitly for other women to read and learn from. Unfortunately Cleary does not say what the intended audience of the text was, how common this was, who were the literate Taoist women who were reading such texts and what impact this had, and where this tradition came from. Questions I find interesting and would love to learn the answers too. The text looks explicitly at how inner alchemy is different for women and how their bodies have different centers. This is something that Cleary picks up on and is quick to point out how in Japanese Zen Buddhism such practices are practiced incorrectly. But his criticism of Zen Buddhism is hardly surprising.
In addition to Cleary's book I also read Schaffer's article "A trip to the Moon". Originally given as a speech, and I think the basis for his book Pacing the Void which I now wish to order. Schaffer looks at Taoist voyages to the heavens, in particular beliefs about the moon. While paying little attention to the actual voyages and instead focusing on representations of the moon in Tang poetry he manages to write an interesting and informative article, that includes lots of references and contrasts with western beliefs, and modern references such as John Carter of Mars. (which made me happy). While still in the realm of Taoist existential beliefs I enjoyed this article much more than the inner alchemy writings. Perhaps because it felt more like mythology and looked at the heavens rather than the body, though I do understand the connection between the two.
One particularly interesting part to me was when he was talking of dream travel by the monk Kuan-hsiu in the 10th century. It all seemed a little Lovecraftian, a quote of which I'll end this with as I just loved it so much.
For Kuan-hsiu however, what the soul saw and encountered in dreams were by no means everyday things, or even extensions of them, but imperfect shadows of the truly real-perfect entities that are concealed from us during out waking hours. For him, the inner eye sees, the the phantasmorgoria of dreams, only wavering segments of the ultimate vision
.