tradition
Chinese tradition
A convenience name for texts and crafts of the Chinese-speaking world that are not identical with Daoism: jade working, imperial color, and dragon imagery among them.
Also known as China
Meetings with this tradition
Chinese tradition is used in Jade.
Jade working is a Chinese craft-history. Laufer’s book is one named survey.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Eight is associated with Chinese tradition.
Bagua diagrams belong to Chinese correlative schemes. Luck-eight in later popular talk is not the classic’s only job.
from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950
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Five is associated with Chinese tradition.
Five phases and five directions appear in Chinese correlative thought. They are not a pentagram of later European magic.
from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Jade is used in Chinese tradition.
Chinese yu is a worked stone of ritual, burial, and court. Laufer’s study is archaeological and dated; it is still about China, not Maya jadeite.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Chinese dragon belongs to Chinese tradition.
Lóng belongs to Chinese rain, river, and imperial sign. Not a hoard-wyrm.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Rice appears in Chinese tradition.
Rice agriculture is also a Chinese fact. Do not fold it into Inari or into a generic “Asian harvest.”
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Tian appears in Chinese tradition.
Wilhelm’s Yijing attests Heaven (Qián / Tian) as sky, order, and moral overhead in the Classic of Changes. Chinese cosmological speech, not every sky-father and not Christian Heaven.
from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950
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Bi appears in Chinese tradition.
Laufer’s Jade treats the bi as a named perforated disc of early Chinese jade. A named form in that archaeological survey, not He Shi Bi the treasure-gem and not generic jade.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
appears in · sourced · culturally specific
Cong appears in Chinese tradition.
Laufer’s Jade treats the cong as a named squared jade tube of early Chinese rite. A named form in that survey, not the bi disc and not generic jade.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
appears in · sourced · culturally specific
Gui appears in Chinese tradition.
Laufer’s Jade treats the gui as a named pointed jade tablet of early Chinese rank. A named insignia-form in that survey, not the bi disc, not the cong, and not an ofuda dump.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Huang jade appears in Chinese tradition.
Laufer’s Jade treats the huang as a named arc-shaped jade of early Chinese sets. A named form in that archaeological survey, not the bi disc, not the cong, and not generic jade.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Zhang tablet appears in Chinese tradition.
Laufer’s Jade treats the zhang as a named forked jade blade of early Chinese burial sets. A named insignia-form in that survey, not the gui tablet, not the bi disc, and not huang-jade.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
appears in · sourced · culturally specific
Heshi bi appears in Chinese tradition.
Laufer’s Jade treats the Heshi bi as the named circular jade of Chinese story, the Ho-shih treasure. A named disc in that handbook, not jade as a material, and not every later bi-disc of archaeology.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
appears in · sourced · culturally specific
Meetings in this tradition's context
Cinnabar transforms into Mercury (metal).
Cinnabar is mercury sulfide. Heating it is a way to the metal; Ge Hong’s inner chapters treat cinnabar as a working red, not as a planet.
from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE
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The Baopuzi discusses cinnabar in the craft of elixirs. That is Ge Hong’s China, not the Emerald Tablet’s Latin sentences.
from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE
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Chinese dragon resembles European dragon.
Both are large reptilian beings in art. Rain-and-river lóng and the hoarding wyrm are not one dragon theology.
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The eight trigrams are the Yijing’s elementary figures. Wilhelm’s English made them a Western divinatory furniture; the classic is older and wider than that.
from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950
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Chinese dragon is associated with Water.
Chinese dragons are creatures of rain and watercourses in art and text. Not fire-breath as a European default.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Cinnabar is associated with Red.
Cinnabar is a red ore. Vermilion is a color of that mineral, not a slogan.
from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE
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Cinnabar is associated with Stone.
An ore is a stone before it is an elixir. Ge Hong’s methods start from material.
from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE
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Chinese dragon is associated with Jade.
Imperial and burial jades may carry dragon imagery. A Chinese pairing of creature and stone, not a Mesoamerican jadeite cosmology.
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
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Correlative fives and the Change classic share a Chinese world of schemes. They are neighboring tools, not one diagram.
from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950
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Ware’s Nei P’ien instructs compounding Potable Gold with one pound of gold by the old scale: metallic gold is a working material in Ge Hong’s elixir craft. That is Ge Hong’s China, not the Emerald Tablet’s gold-as-goal.
from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE
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Chinese burial practice, as Laufer treats it, places jade on and in the corpse (mouth pieces, plugs, tomb jades). A Chinese mortuary craft, not Classic Maya funerary jadeite and not “jade energy.”
from Berthold Laufer · Jade, 1912
used in · sourced · culturally specific
sources
- Jade · Berthold Laufer
Berthold Laufer, Jade: A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion.
- I Ching (Yijing) · Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation)
The I Ching or Book of Changes, trans. Richard Wilhelm, English Cary F. Baynes.
- The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung · Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation)
James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320 (Baopuzi inner chapters).