Kung Fu watching : comments [laramie]

No; Zen is Japanese. This is Chinese, set in the latter part of the 1800s, starting at a Shaolin temple. Definitely Taoist. I was so into this when I was in college that I went out and read the Tao te Ching and everything else I could find on the topic, became a vegetarian for a couple years, and bought all the novels-based-on-the-series. (It's actually surprising I didn't learn Chinese; but I did buy books on Kung Fu and learned some basics that didn't require actual disciplied practice.)

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Actually, "Zen" is the Japanese version/outgrowth of Chan 禪, which started in China. I was using Zen as a shorthand for Chan, because people usually have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention it. Sorry if you already knew that.

Shaolin Temple 少林寺 is a Buddhist temple, and I think also of the Chan lineage. It's most definitely not Daoist. There's a lot of Daoism in Zen (and Chan), though, so it wouldn't be surprising if there were some legitimate crossovers.

I have an MA in the History of Asian Religions, specializing in Neo-Confucianism, but my real passion was always Zhuangzi. Wanna talk about him/the book? :)

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The Shaolins in the tv series are presented as Taoist; it's been a long time since I read up on this stuff, but I thought they were an actual school for Kung Fu fighters. It wouldn't surprise me if TV got it wrong, though.

I didn't know (or forgot) about Zen deriving from Chan. Zhaungzi = Chuang Tzu? (The second spelling is what I'm familiar with, though it's been a long time since I was reading this stuff - and only in translation. I learned from Taoism, and am interested, but have since been interested in Sufism, pagan traditions, Buddhism and general comparative religious philosophy, too. (Not that I'm big on talking about it; if I learned anything it's that the Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.
;)

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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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You can borrow my DVDs and tell me what you think of the philosophy then. It's presented as Taoist, but who knows what they've thrown in?

I read the complete Chuang Tzu in translation, but that was back in the late 70s! I've probably still got the book around here. You could probably tell me what you think of the translation compared to the bits you've seen in the original language.

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laramie

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