SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

self-mastery

  • About Caigentan

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    Juan

    Caigentan (菜根谭 in Chinese), often translated as Discourses on Vegetable Roots or Tending the Roots of Wisdom, composed in the late Ming Dynasty (c. 1590) by scholar-philosopher Hong Yingming (Zicheng), is a timeless classic of Chinese wisdom literature.

  • The mirage in “The Daoist Priest”

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    Ana

    In Strange Tales from Liaozhai: The Daoist Priest, a ragged Daoist priest befriends Scholar Han — a nobleman fond of hosting banquets — and his neighbor Xu.

  • The Mind-Control Spell in Journey to the West

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    Juan

    In Journey to the West, Guanyin Bodhisattva grants Tang Sanzang the ‌Tightening Curse‌ (Tight-Fillet Spell) and its accompanying ‌golden fillet‌ to subdue Sun Wukong.

  • Dao De Jing – Chapter 45

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    Ana

    Who thinks his great achievements poorShall find his vigour long endure.Of greatest fulness, deemed a void,Exhaustion never shall stem the tide.Do thou what’s straight still crooked deem;Thy greatest art still stupid seem,And eloquence a stammering scream. Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under…