#spring unending

[salmonpiffy]

WOE, stone tablet/paper be upon yee

[choccychip-exorcist]

I think that the easiest place to start with talking about how Spring Unending approaches Taoism is to start with its direct quotes from scripture. So this is going to be a quick list of citations for some of the things that Paper Heron and others are quoting throughout the story.

I'll be linking to the ctext.org pages for each of these texts wherever possible and elaborating on the texts that I'm most familiar with. This won't be hugely insightful but it's good way for us - as Sister Heron instructs Ren's students - to start with the foundations.

Speaking of Heron's lecture we'll start with that scene:

Is allegedly from 升玄经 - Most of the text is lost, with only one chapter preserved in the modern Orthodox Daoist Canon. This section is known from being referenced and quoted in other works.

Is from the outer chapters of 庄子Zhuangzi - Personally one of my favourite and also one of the few texts that we have in complete form as well as a number of solid English translations of. It is probably the text that most resembles what people in the west would expect from religious scripture, a collection of stories and parables. Notably, Heron drops the sentence that finishes off this quote. "Since death and life thus attend on each other, why should I account (either of) them an evil?". The Zhuangzi passage is just as much about accepting death as it is about embracing life, and this is something I am going to go into more detail about in a separate post.

Also from 升玄经 - Same situation as the earlier quote from the same source.

Chapter 4 of 至言经 - Also included in the modern Orthodox Daoist Canon, is another text specifically on cultivation, this one is more or less complete but as far as I know has not been translated into English.

Is 道德经DaoDeJing(DDJ) Verse 48 - The DDJ is the most widely available, translated, and commented on piece of Taoist writing, its mythical author Laozi is considered to be the founder which all Taoist sects trace their teachings back to. In any case this passage is the one which I find is most often totally lost in translation. Heron's clarification to Ren's students is a pretty good one.

I will forever nitpick the commonly accepted translation of "无为" as "non-action" though, as Sister Heron's definition here clarifies that it's really about purpose (and, failing that, it literally translates far more directly to "non-purpose"). With that in mind, then verse 48 might read more like "less and less is purposed, and when there are no purposes, no purposes are left unfulfilled". I personally like to understand it as "doing things for their own sake".

Despite the many different interpretations, wu-wei is one of the core principles of Taoism as a philosophy for life and as a religion. And that is totally, completely why the students' rejection of the idea (and their misinterpretation of it) was such a red flag to Heron. I will draw from my copy of D.C Lau's translation of the DDJ Verse 41 (still links to the more accessible ctext.org translation)

When the best student hears about the way He practises it assiduously; When the average student hears about the way It seems to him one moment there and gone the next When the worst student hears about the way He laughs out loud If he did not laugh It would be unworthy of being the way

The students' rejection of the passage is then both a red flag for how Ren has instructed them, but also an affirmation that the text and Heron clearly understands this to be the fundamental core of the religious philosophy of Taoism.

Next, the two lines quoted in this trailer:

Are each single lines from DDJ Verse 45 and DDJ Verse 34 respectively. Both snippets touch on the seemingly paradoxical nature of the Dao. This is another important thing to understand, as for the Dao to encompass and be the origin of all things, it must then include things that seem opposite, and if it does, opposites must also on some level be fundamentally the same.

Then, before I write way too much on the post that's supposed to be a simple intro, lets take a look at Paper Heron's Bottom of Insight:

I've already written a hasty analysis on this when 3.4 was first revealed on CN, but I want to take a different approach to this Zhuganzi passage this time. Specifically to introduce the concept of 自然 Ziran, most often translated as "nature" or "naturally". I would like to emphasize that though this does encompass the natural world, it is just as much about the individual nature of things than it is about overarching natural systems. Something which I hadn't gone over about in the previous analysis is that an empty boat is not controlled by any person's will, and so being as an empty boat also means not being controlled by other people's interests, forsaking loyalty to a state or ideal to simply be free. An empty boat is defined only by its nature, rather than allegiances or duty.

So altogether the story of Spring Unending is a solid introduction to a lot of the core ideas and principles of Taoism in spite of its wuxia genre trappings. In the essays to come, I might argue that it is in fact a critique of how the genre typically misunderstands or presents a reductive view of Taoism. But that's it for now, that will all be for another time.

Bonus Confucius

From 礼记 Liji (the Book of Rites) - A foundational text in Confucianism, it is essentially a manual of etiquette.

The choice to translate to "one of cunning" here when normally it is translated as "small" or "inferior" is particularly interesting. And I believe ties into Cheng Heguang's character arc which I'll be writing a separate post about - especially since he is reciting this before doing something that seems rash. It's more or less a warning against excess and reckless action.

[elvenmoe]

:D

[fledglingtanuki]

Great catch, chief!

[nogodahead]

Reverse 1999 3.4 LNY series garments

Noire - FREE

Horropedia - FREE

(ACTUALLY REAL!!!!!)

Tooth Fairy - Unique

I am willing to commit war crimes in your name, Bluepoch, thank you

Rubuska - advanced

Liang Yue - unique

The card #0 to #21 series garment

6 - #9 The hermit (Advanced)

Yearly bookmarks:

Willow - regular garment (roaring jukebox)

[choccychip-exorcist]

Finished reading Spring Unending. I'm really pleased with how much it sells itself as being "a wuxia thing", it actually does an excellent job of conveying some actual core Taoist philosophical and religious ideas.

Expect full essays soon.

[choccychip-exorcist]

And that's how you know she is a taoist

[nogodahead]

Reverse 1999 3.4 new characters

LNY limited character

Name: Paper Heron

Afflatus: Plant

Rarity: ★★★★★★

Name: Cheng Heguang

Afflatus: Star

Rarity: ★★★★★★

Name: Reed

Afflatus: Plant

Rarity: ★★★★

(I LOVE THEM! THEY ARE MADE OF PAPER AND THEY LOOK SO COOOL)