Mo PaiArchive

Section

Foundations

6 articles in this section of the archive.

The Neijing tu: a tall allegorical diagram of the body as a landscape, with mountains, waterwheels, weavers and pagodas standing for internal organs and processes. Mo Pai: An Overview What the tradition claims to be, stated plainly and without decoration. 9 min read An eighteenth-century Chinese acupuncture chart showing a standing figure covered in named points and channel lines. Qi: The Word Everything Rests On What the Chinese tradition means by qi, why "energy" is the wrong translation, and how Mo Pai uses the term more literally than almost anyone else. 12 min read Chinese woodcut of an alchemical refining furnace with a cauldron above it and trigram markings around the frame. The Three Treasures: Jing, Qi, Shen One substance at three densities, and the ladder of refinements that every level of Mo Pai is a step on. 12 min read Ming-dynasty ink painting of Laozi, an old man with a long beard, seated on the back of an ox. Taoism, and Where Mo Pai Sits in It Two thousand years of philosophy, religion, liturgy and alchemy — and the odd, institutionally homeless corner of it that Mo Pai occupies. 14 min read An archive plate: a balance with two empty pans hanging level from a beam. Ethics, Access, and Yuanfen The rules the tradition places on who may learn and what they may do. 7 min read An archive plate: a grid of seventy-two small squares, the first four filled solid red and the rest outlined and fading toward the bottom. Why Seventy-Two? The number is a cultural signature, not a measurement. 6 min read