2024.11.25 - How to Preserve Yang Energy in Winter

Title: 2024.11.25 – How to Preserve Yang Energy in Winter

Selected Classics:

On a victorious day I seek blossoms by the Si River,
Endless scenery feels brand‑new for a moment.
It’s easy to recognize the east‑wind’s face,
Ten thousand hues of purple and red are all spring. — Zhu Xi, Spring Day

Let Ancient Villages Retain Their Cultural Roots and Nostalgia

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YK65oXGKBKp-j-l3e38e_w

Cultural scholar Feng Jicai once said, “Ancient villages are the spiritual homeland of the Chinese nation. Like the Spring Festival, protecting ancient villages means every Chinese has a ‘home’ to return to.” Scattered across China like brilliant pearls, these villages carry a long literary lineage and the everyday warmth of human life. They are the “homes we must return to,” the “roots we cannot abandon.” How can we preserve their distant past while stepping toward a vibrant future? The answer awaits our continued search.

Shi Tao: Releasing Light from Chaos

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ncGI77Vm_RIULkZ3B8hwlA

Shi Tao placed the artist’s capacity for feeling at the core of his theory. In the “Respect and Receive” chapter of Painting Quotations he writes: “Receiving and recognizing—first receive, then recognize. To recognize before receiving is not receiving at all.” One must feel before one knows; if you approach feeling with a pre‑set knowledge framework, it is no longer genuine feeling. “If you obtain the reception without respect, you abandon yourself.” Creative power stems from direct, life‑creating spirit; disregarding inner life experience is self‑deprecation and self‑abandonment.

Mr. Feng Xuecheng: The Secret to Having Everything

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-2uVEqrt-11i9u6E45KoNw

“Never forget, never lack.” How can one reach such a state? “Never forget” means there is nothing left to forget; “never lack” means there is nothing one does not possess. The result is “tranquil boundlessness, from which myriad beauties arise.” Zhuangzi discusses a similar realm in other passages.

Gold or Sweet Potato—Which Do You Choose?

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FpAJ2YBlw0k4CftIR38ykQ

When someone tells you, “This is the only standard, this is the only answer,” they have already fallen into a dilemma. If you follow them, you’ll only walk together into a dead end. Learning means not clinging to a single point, not treating doctrines as immutable, not getting stuck on a narrow path. We must master the art of a graceful pivot—this is crucial.

Alone on the West Tower – Reflections on a Child’s Growth

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qGRO5ihcU2BK79z3FDATFw

Health is not everything, but without health nothing can be sustained or expressed; like moral cultivation, it requires persistent, long‑term effort. Yet today the buzzword “tension” (卷) objectively reflects a pervasive anxiety across all fields, including schoolchildren. Parents naturally wish their children to excel and stand out—there’s nothing wrong with that—but it must be guided by principle and moderation. When balance is lost, the result can be counterproductive.

Liu Lihong | How to Preserve Yang Energy in Winter

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ziD5f0Z_M6ja673usP8Qaw

Spring warmth, summer heat, autumn coolness, winter cold. Why does cold arise? The nature of yang is heat; in spring and summer yang energy is in a releasing mode, so heat radiates outward and the weather feels warm. However, the release in spring is milder than in summer, so spring temperatures are lower. In autumn and winter, yang energy shifts from release to storage; the heat is tucked away, sealed off, and the weather gradually becomes cold. Moreover, the degree of storage in autumn is less than in winter, making winter colder. This is the fundamental meaning of cold. From this perspective, cold actually reflects the stored state of yang energy—it is the external manifestation of yang’s concealment. Thus, cold is not merely the winter’s climate; it is also the energy of concealment.

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Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on 拾一集 (Weekly Reflections). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.