Interesting about the TV series... I got the impression that it was pretty Buddhist, or at least attempting to appear that way, but I don't remember much of the dialogue, just images.
Shaolin Temple is first and foremost a temple and monastery. The monks there invented Gongfu, aka Kung Fu, as a form of self-protection. (Actually, they'd say the secrets of self-protection were passed on from Siddhartha Gautama himself, but I don't think there's much evidence that the idea came from India.)
Yes, Zhuangzi is Chuang Tzu. (The former is Hanyu Pinyin romanization; the latter is Wade-Giles.) It's true that it's not the true Dao if you can talk about it, but it can be fun to talk about it anyway... :)
I haven't read more than a few passages of the Zhuangzi in the original. I really should read the whole thing sometime, but the author is so playful with language that I'd be spending 90% of the time checking the dictionary and trying to cross-reference meanings.
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Shaolin Temple is first and foremost a temple and monastery. The monks there invented Gongfu, aka Kung Fu, as a form of self-protection. (Actually, they'd say the secrets of self-protection were passed on from Siddhartha Gautama himself, but I don't think there's much evidence that the idea came from India.)
Yes, Zhuangzi is Chuang Tzu. (The former is Hanyu Pinyin romanization; the latter is Wade-Giles.) It's true that it's not the true Dao if you can talk about it, but it can be fun to talk about it anyway... :)
I haven't read more than a few passages of the Zhuangzi in the original. I really should read the whole thing sometime, but the author is so playful with language that I'd be spending 90% of the time checking the dictionary and trying to cross-reference meanings.