Yi Jin Jing

[Tainan Mantis]

Thanks for sharing that article, good stuff. I have the 1624 version in Chinese, would like to see a good translation of that.

The book mentions Weituo and shows him in a posture. Any thoughts on his relation to Narayana?

I wrote an article on Weituo, but left out the information on his Indian and possibly Greek connections.

Weituo offers his Vajra

[mickey]

Greetings,

Tainan Mantis

That drawing above, is it a part of a set of drawings?


mickey

[Tainan Mantis]

Hi Mickey,
Yes, a series of different exercises. They also use the name Ba Duan Jin 八段锦 for some of the pictures.

You can search google with the term Yi Jin Jing 易筋經 and come up with many pictures.
(careful if you search with Chinese characters, there are a lot of viruses on Chinese web sights)

Here is a sample.
http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.c...oscope623.html

[Vajramusti]

Thanks for sharing that article, good stuff. I have the 1624 version in Chinese, would like to see a good translation of that.

The book mentions Weituo and shows him in a posture. Any thoughts on his relation to Narayana?

I wrote an article on Weituo, but left out the information on his Indian and possibly Greek connections.

Weituo offers his Vajra

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Post Damo-there were lots of Indian monks travelling to China and there were Chinese monks that came to India folks are not always aware of the historic Sino-Indian connections via Buddhism in philosophy, astronomy, pranayama, architecture and some other areas. The rise of Chinese nationalism with Chiang kai shek and Mao in different ways-began to obscure the sino-Indian connections.

[Tainan Mantis]

...folks are not always aware of the historic Sino-Indian connections via Buddhism in philosophy...

Yes, I agree Vajramusti. Can you, or anyone else, point me to Qing or pre-Qing source material on the significance of Weituo (Skanda) in Chinese Buddhism?

I have an especial interest in late Ming early Qingera.
I am looking for Chinese sources, but English is a good start.

Some online info Wei Tuo Pú sà (Bodhisattva Skanda)

Kevin

[ghostexorcist]

Thanks for sharing that article, good stuff. I have the 1624 version in Chinese, would like to see a good translation of that.

The book mentions Weituo and shows him in a posture. Any thoughts on his relation to Narayana?

I wrote an article on Weituo, but left out the information on his Indian and possibly Greek connections.

[...]

Skanda and his brother Ganesh, the sons of Shiva, were mentioned in early Buddhist sutras as Hindu gods, but they were split up and downgraded to Buddhist protector deities sometime later. Starting in the 5th-century, Chinese records include him, under the name Jiantuo, in a list of guardian deities / yakshas next to Vajrapani (a.k.a. Narayana). His original Chinese name was changed via a transcription error to Weituo during the Tang dynasty (the source says this is because the two characters look almost identical). The Chinese monk Daoxuan made Weituo a famous deity because he wrote about him in 667. He was portrayed as a great general that protects Buddhism in three of the four directions. It was during this time that Weituo was finally identified with Vajrapani, hence the connection (Bonnefoy, Asian Mythologies, pp. 125-126).

Weituo’s posture in the manual illustration is a play on older representations of Vajrapani. Vajrapani is usually seen wielding the Vajra, Weituo simply holds it in his arms as a reminder that he can quickly jump into action like his more hot-headed counterpart. I believe the reason that the pose is associated with power is because the weapon is associated with power, more specifically the element of lightning. Vajrapani is believed to be an emanation of Indra, the Hindu god of thunder and lightning. (One story has the Buddha snatching Indra's lightning-producing weapon and closing the end prongs together, taking away its power. This object is commonly referred to as a Dorje in Tibetan Buddhism.) Therefore, anyone who is capable of holding the weapon in such a way must be powerful.

[mawali]

I would guess that 9th or 10th century would be an excellent starting place then work backward from then. People probably starting writing about the Yijinjing in late 17th century as evidenced by the 1628 date and it probably had a folk origin, not put to the pen as of yet.

Resurrecting Chen style taijiquan with references to Buddha's warrior pounding fist, or references to vajra, etc around 1500's back to Li Family history. Previos fabrication have little veracity though I have seen dates of 425 and forward so it relies on who has the best and most document evidence despite the inaccuracies.

[Vajramusti]

[QUOTE=ghostexorcist;1180365]Skanda and his brother Ganesh, the sons of Shiva, were mentioned in early Buddhist sutras as Hindu gods, but they were split up and downgraded to Buddhist protector deities sometime later.
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Buddhism took over many Hindu concepts and symbols and icons and converted them to fit their own metaphysics. And then in China they were further absorbed into Chinese culture- beautiful transmissions.Avalokiteswara was transformed into Quan Yin.

In the Hindu pantheon Shiva's oldest son Ganesh was a bridge to nature, the younger son Kartikeyya
was the martial hero.... later transformed into Skanda in China.
The plural skandhas refers to five aggregates of existence.

[Tainan Mantis]

It was during this time that Weituo was finally identified with Vajrapani, hence the connection (Bonnefoy, Asian Mythologies, pp. 125-126).

Thanks, I just ordered this book.
His fame comes from Daoxun in a book from 667. I would like to know more about that book.
DO you happen to know the name of it?

[Scott R. Brown]

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Post Damo-there were lots of Indian monks travelling to China and there were Chinese monks that came to India folks are not always aware of the historic Sino-Indian connections via Buddhism in philosophy, astronomy, pranayama, architecture and some other areas. The rise of Chinese nationalism with Chiang kai shek and Mao in different ways-began to obscure the sino-Indian connections.

Don't forget to add the Tibetans in there too!

[ghostexorcist]

Thanks, I just ordered this book.
His fame comes from Daoxun in a book from 667. I would like to know more about that book.
DO you happen to know the name of it?

Several of my sources that refer to Daoxuan and his writings do not mention the title by name because it is not among his more notable works. I did some checking with various scholars, and Prof. Koichi Shinohara of Yale tells me that it is mentioned in:

Daoxuan, 道宣律師感通錄 (Vinaya Master Daoxuan’s Record of Miraculous Responses), T. 2106

Empty Cup contacted me earlier about him wanting to research the history of his particular Shaolin style. He asked what tools I used in the course of my own projects. I directed him to Prof. Meir Shahar’s book for a broad overview of Shaolin history. However, the best advice that I can give to him and other like-minded people is this: never be afraid to contact professional scholars. I have found that they are more than willing to provide help to budding scholars. I have never met Prof. Shinohara before, but he was gracious enough to take time from his research in India to lend a hand. He is one of many scholars that I have contacted over the years.

Just in case anyone else is interested, I stumbled upon a free pdf of Prof. Shahar’s book on Shaolin. It loads slowly, but it is good to have on a computer if you don’t have access to the physical book:

http://korat.ibc.ac.th/files/private...ial%20Arts.pdf

[ghostexorcist]

Here is 《道宣律師感通錄》. He is called 韋將 (General Wei).

http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T52/2107_001.htm

[5_fists]

was wondering if anyone could recommend a good complete book on yijin jing self study? im looking to get into shape a bit and this seems interesting enough to keep me interested.

seems pretty well known, so i was surprised after doing some googling, that there arent too many complete printed manuals on the subject, it seems though to be a very solid/complete exercise set.

i do have a few books by Dr Ming Yang, but they seem more to touch on the exercises rather than teach them in entirety

thanks ahead

[5thBrother]

try youtube

[GeneChing]

The Muscle-Tendon Change Classic (Yijinjing) instruction manual is a straight forward treatise on the subject and it comes with a DVD. This is the CHQA version, which is a good starting point. We also published another rendition of the CHQA version in our Shaolin Special 2010 in The Muscle Tendon Change Classic: Yijinjing By William Oh.

Also, for good measure, there's this DVD: Shaolin Muscle-Tendon Change Classic