From: Ron (Original Message) Sent: 7/9/2000 4:23 PM
There are actually two Bubishi (Chinese, Wubishi), but I suppose that the items listed for discussion are probably contained in both. These are from the "short" version, dealing with personal combat.

I think the discusssion is appropriate since Taoism is the basis for much of the practice in Haedong Kumdo. It may also add new emphasis to Kaeun Kikong.

Comments and discussion from the community are solicited.

The following is from Pat McCarthy's translation of the Bubishi. I have inserted my commentary in [ ], using the Tao Te Ching, Ellen Chen's translation, as a reference.
Article 13: The Eight Precepts of Quanfa 1. The human mind is one with heaven and earth. Tao Te Ching (TTC); Chapter 25; verse 3-4: Therefore Tao is great, Heaven is great, Earth is great, The king [The Stephen Mitchell translation Of TTC uses "man," in place of "king." Since heaven, earth and man are considered to be the three powers, I believe man is appropriate.] is also great. In the realm there are four greats, And the king [man] is one of them./Humans follow earth, Earth follows heaven, Heaven follows Tao, Tao follows self-becoming. [Heaven, earth and man are the three powers. The Tao is for man to follow the way of earth, which follows the way of heaven, which follows the Tao. The admonition to follow the Tao is the central message of the TTC.] TTC 22; 2: Therefore the sage embraces the One. He becomes the model of the world. [He imitates the way of heaven and earth. When facing an opponent, pay attention to heaven and earth, which affect the human mind. Use them to their full psychological advantage.] 2. Our blood circulation parallels the solar and lunar cycles of each day. [This reference is the same as the first. Man is a microcosm of the macrocosm.] TTC; 28; 1-2: To know the male [yang, sun], But to abide by the female [yin, moon], Is to be the valley of the world [receptacle of the benefits of balanced harmony]. Being the valley of the world, And departing not from the everlasting power, One again returns to the infant [who grows, rather than degenerates]./To know the white [yang], But to abide by the black [yin], is to be the model of the world. Being the model of the world, And deviating not from the everlasting power, One again returns to the unlimited. [Man is naturally yang, thus he burns himself into eventual extinction. The Taoist seeks to cool the fire, lii, by fostering the water, kan, and prolong life. The infant is yin. His body is full of kan, and he grows, rather than decays. All of the practical techniques in the TTC are designed to achieve this state of equilibrium. Equilibrium is achieved by a constant balancing of yin and yang, through manipulating the kan and lii.] TTC 77; 1,2: The way of heaven, Is it not like stretching a bow? What is high up is pressed down, What is low down is lifted up; What has surplus is reduced, What is deficient is supplemented./The way of heaven, It reduces those who have surpluses, To supplement those who are deficient. The human way is just not so. [When fire builds in the upper tanden, and the body becomes too yang, the ki must be pressed down to the lower tanden and the body balanced with water, thereby supplementing deficient yin. The way of heaven is to follow the Tao and balance surpluses and deficiencies. Thus we have squalls and storms, i.e., heaven ki, TTC 23, 24.] TTC, 45; 2: When agitation wins, the cold arrives, When tranquility wins, the hot arrives. Clear and tranquil the world is in the right mode. [Breathing - Long-in: Short-out = cold (increase the kan, yin) When agitated, the breathing is irregular with long-in, short out. This causes the body to cool; When tranquil, the breathing is Short-in: Long-out = hot (increase the lii, yang).] TTC 76; 1,2: At birth a person is soft and yielding, At death hard and unyielding. All beings, grass and trees, when alive, are soft and bending, When dead they are dry and brittle. Therefore the hard and unyielding are companions of death, The soft and yielding are companions of life./Hence an unyielding army is destroyed. An unyielding tree breaks. The unyielding and great takes its place below, The soft and yielding takes its place above. TTC 26; 1: The heavy is root to the light; The tranquil is master to the agitated. [Tranquility is heavy, and sinks to the lower tanden. Agitation is light and causes the ki to rise to the upper tanden. Blood carries ki, and the cycle of ki corresponds to the solar and lunar cycles. This is useful information when determining where to strike an opponent.
3. Inhaling represents softness while exhaling characterizes hardness. [This is where we get the name - Goju.] TTC 42; 1-2: Tao gives birth to one, One gives birth to two, Two gives birth to three, Three gives birth to ten thousand [all] beings. Ten thousand beings carry yin on their backs and embrace yang in their front, Blending these two vital breaths to attain harmony [Harmonize the hard and soft through the way of breathing. The way to do this is to breathe in down the back, yin, and breathe out up the front, yang. Breathing is a strategy to achieve harmony with the Tao.] TTC 55; 3: To use mind to direct the life breath (ch'i) is called the strong. [Yi-li-ch'i: The mind commands, strength goes along and ki follows. The mind leads the ki.] TTC 20; 6: The multitudes all have their use; I alone am untamable like lowly material. I alone am different from others. For I treasure feeding on the Mother. [As a child sucking milk from its mother's teat, so one who follows the Tao feeds on the Great Mother. He sucks the essence from the Great Vacuity, i.e., performs breathing exercises to build his ki.]

4. Adapt to changing conditions. [This is the Tao Te Ching.]

5. Response must result without conscious thought. [This is to act from mu (Chinese, wu), nothingness, the great whirling emptiness which gives birth to all things and back into which all things flow. See TTC 42, above.] TTC 40; 2: Ten thousand things under heaven are born of being. Being is born of non-being (wu). [The one, the Supreme Ultimate (T'ai-chi), arises from non-being, mu, to separate into heaven and earth, which interacts to produce yin and yang. Yin and yang are the cosmic ch'i. Being one with heaven and earth, any opening in an opponent's ki will be immediately filled by your own ki (since it abides in mu). This can occur only when there is mushin and munen, no mind and no thought. Action occurs without being filtered through the conscious mind, which acts only as a restraint. See Takuan's advice to Yagyu Munenori and Yagyu Munenori's own writings on this subject (D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture). Takuan was a Zen priest, but it is quite obvious that he was well grounded in the Tao Te Ching (as were/are many Buddhists). Munenori's allusion to the moon on the water may be comprehended in this light.] TTC 43; 1: The softest in the world, gallops in the hardest in the world. That which is not penetrates that which has no crevice.

6. Distancing and posture dictates the outcome of the meeting. TTC 51; 1: Tao gives birth, Te rears, Things shape, Circumstances complete. [Enlightened mind is the cause. Great compassion is the root. Skillful means are the ultimate. Advancing and retreating, expanding and contracting, everything is done which is required to be done. Skillful means are employed to achieve the goal.] TTC 69; 1-4: In engaging in warfare it is said: I dare not be the host but be the guest [There is no advantage in the first attack.], I dare not advance an inch but retreat a foot [The best strategy is not to be where you are expected.]./This is called to march without advancing [Your opponent comes to you.], To roll up one's sleeves without baring one's arms [To take no action is an action], To throw a rope without an enemy [The enemy entraps himself], To carry without a weapon./Of all calamities, None is greater than underestimating one's enemy. In underestimating my enemy, I risk losing my treasure./Therefore when opposing armies are engaged in battle, The sorrowful party will win.

7. See what is unseeable. TTC 41; 2: Therefore, established sayings have it this way: "The illuminating Tao appears dark, The advancing Tao appears retreating, The level Tao appears knotty." TTC 63; 1: Do when there is nothing to do, Manage affairs when there are none to manage, Know by not knowing, Regard the small as great, the much as little. Repay injury with te. [Refer to TTC 43.]

8. Expect what is unexpected. [To see what is unseeable, to expect what is unexpected, this is the virtue of being one with the Tao. Being one with the Tao, nothing is unseen, nothing is unknown. Act from mu. This is the Grand Ultimate. Refer to TTC 43.] TTC 63; 1: Do when there is nothing to do, Manage affairs when there are none to manage, Know by not knowing, Regard the small as great, the much as little. Repay injury with te.

For further consideration:

TTC 21; 1: The features of the vast (k'ung) [The character for k'ung is the same as the character for kara] Te, Follows entirely from Tao [Do]. [There is no doubt in my mind that Funakoshi was thinking of this line when he embraced the change from toudi jutsu to karate do. The features of the Kara Te flow entirely from the Do.]

TTC 10; 2-4: In concentrating your breath to attain softness, Can you be like an infant? [Breathe from the abdomen, like a child.]/In cleansing your mirror of the dark, Can you make it spotless? [The meditative technique is to visualize a pond, as smooth as a mirror, in your mind and to make it calm and spotless. TTC 8; 2: (Such a person's) dwelling is the good earth, His mind is the good deep water.]/In opening and closing heaven's gate, Can you be female? [I'm unsure of the exact meaning of this. It obviously contains advice to concentrate on the low, yin, even when the ki is raised. But I don't know to what "heaven's gate" refers. It could be the baihui cavity on the crown of the head (on which the Buddhists concentrate to achieve enlightenment. Hence the Buddha is always depicted with a pointy head. I thought this was just a funky hairdo until I went to Korea and was otherwise informed. The spirit leaves the body through this area. Since the goal of Taoist practice was to create an independent spirit which was strong enough to survive apart from the body, this may be the "gate" to heaven (external). It may also refer to the fengfu area at the base of the skull, which is considered one of the three gates in circulating the ki. The lingtai, behind the heart, and the changqiang, at the tailbone, are the other two gates. Perhaps it is an admonition to be sure to keep all three gates open for the smooth circulation of ki between the upper tanden (internal heaven) and the lower tanden (internal earth). The ki may be easily blocked at these areas, hence they are "gates."). This may also make sense of TTC 6 and Ho-shang Kung's commentary, below.]

TTC 5; 2-3: Between heaven and earth, How like a bellows it is! Empty and yet inexhaustible, Moving and yet it pours out ever more. [The meeting place between the internal heaven (yang) and earth (yin) is the huang tyng cavity. This is where the fire and water interact to create the life breath.]/By many words one's reckoning is exhausted. It is better to abide by the center [of the body, th seat of the ki].

TTC 6; 1-3: The Valley Spirit is deathless, It is called the Dark Mare./The door of the Dark Mare, Is called the root of heaven and earth./Continuous, it seems to exist, Yet in use it is inexhaustible. [I'm taking the Valley Spirit to be the Spirit Valley, shen gu, the fissure which separates the two hemispheres of the brain. Yang Jwing Ming has likened this area to an energy resonance chamber (see Shaolin White Crane). Chen, in her commentary, says that the "dark mare" refers to the feminine creative power, also refered to as mu, from which yin and yang and, thus, all things are born. She also includes the following. "According to the Ho-shang Kung commentary, the dark mare does not stand for the one that gives birth to the two of heaven and earth or male and female. It itself is two, with the dark standing for heaven and mare standing for earth. These two lines are then integrated with chapter 10.5: 'In opening and closing the gate of heaven, can you be female?' Both, according to Ho-shang Kung, refer to the breathing technique through the nose and the mouth." The Ho-shang Kung commentary refers to breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth to foster smooth circulation of ki throughout the body. The gates are kept open and the eternal (deathless) spirit is born, nurtured and achieves independence (apart from the body). ??? The Stephem Mithchell translation is as follows. "The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds./It is always present within you. You can use it any way you want."]