6 Hallmarks of a Good Bow
In his Dream Pool Essays of 1086 (夢溪筆談), Shen Kuo (沈括) gives six qualities to look for in a good bow. Next time you're looking for a composite bow à l'ancienne, be sure to take this checklist along with you.
6 Schools of Sima Tan
Sima Tan (司馬談) 165-110 BC was a grand historiographer and astrologer of the Western Han dynasty, who classified the philosophy of his time into six main traditions. Of the six, Sima Tan favoured Daoism as the one school among them with the breadth of thought to encompass the others.
6 different ways to write qi
'Qi', sometimes transliterated as chi or ch'i is a well-known concept in the worlds of Chinese medicine, philosophy, martial arts and geomancy. A traditional etymology suggests that the concept originally developed from the idea of clouds or mist and from there, by extension, the idea of breath. But actually there were many alternative ways of getting qi down in writing, and the different forms suggest a few different ideas were in play when nailing down this all-important concept in Chinese thought.
