A Friend Comes From Afar

Dr. Yaron Seidman enters the Huai Xuan school

By Ming Fu in Shuangliu

Tao Yangzhen, Yaron Seidman and Min Junmin standing behind Liu Bogu and wife at Rong Yuan (Silver Banyan) Gardens

Confucius said: “To learn and practice what was learned is this not pleasure? When a friend comes from afar is this not happiness? To be without fame and yet content is this not a nobleman?”

In June 2012 a group of Chinese medicine practitioners from USA, UK, Australia, Sweden and Israel, led by Dr Yaron Seidman, came to Sichuan following in the footsteps of the famous physician Zheng Qinan, the Fire Spirit school created some 150 years ago. They inquired about Zheng Qinan’s teacher Liu Yuan and his Huai Xuan doctrine. During the visit they met with Liu Bogu, Liu Yuan’s great grandson and the current standard bearer of the Huai Xuan School, who introduced the Huai Xuan theory basics. When the group heard that in Liu Yuan’s hometown there are still advocates practicing Huai Xuan they gathered in Shuangliu to meet, discuss and exchange with the Shuangliu Cultural Association.

Visit to Shuang Liu 2012

The meeting’s topic was the Huai Xuan doctrine created and developed by the Qing dynasty famous thinker, educator and humanitarian Liu Yuan. Following their persistent request, the group followed Liu Chi, the cultural association president, and Ming Fu, its director, to the tombs of Liu Yuan and his grandson Liu Xianxin, a talented scholar in his own right.

The group of blond haired and blue eyed doctors went to Yang Ping village in Peng Zhen township in the ShuangLiu municipality to visit the tombs and following the Chinese customs burnt candles and incense to express their respect to both scholars Liu Yuan and his grandson Liu Xianxin.

In fact, Dr Seidman’s already visited with Mr. Liu Bogu in Chengdu in 2010, while researching the Fire Spirit school, Dr Seidman knew of Zheng Qinan’s teacher Liu Yuan and intentionally came to visit Liu Bogu at his home hoping to find more about Liu Yuan.

Liu Bogu and Yaron Seidman 2010

In May 2013 a group of Huai Xuan practitioners followed Mr. Liu Bogu to Beijing and Shandong on a study trip. It happened to be that Dr. Seidman and Teja Jaensch from Australia was visiting a Taiji Quan competition on DaQing Shan mountain in Shandong province and as soon as they heard that Mr. Liu Bogu is visiting Confucius temple they went to Qufu to accompany master Liu and his entourage of Huai Xuan enthusiasts from Sichuan and Beijing.

Confucius Temple in Qufu 2013

These encounters with master Liu germinated the seed in Dr Seidman’s mind to enter formally into the Huai Xuan school. In the early years, Master Liu thought that the visitor lived far away and also might be seized by a whim and so he replied “let’s wait and see until you understand more the Huai Xuan.” Without realizing it seven years flew by in a flash. Over these years, Dr Seidman studied the Huai Xuan doctrine enthusiastically, one after the other composed, translated and introduced to others Huai Xuan literature.

In 2014 Dr Seidman invited Liu Chi and Ming Fu to Connecticut, USA to introduce the Huai Xuan doctrine in a Hunyuan Huai Xuan Cultural Exchange Conference with participants arriving from the USA, Australia, UK, Greece and Israel. At that time Dr Seidman accompanied Ming Fu to Harvard and yale universities inspecting their collections of Huai Xuan literature. In 2015, Dr Seidman donated on behalf of the the Shuangliu Cultural Association to both universities a copy of the book Huai Xuan Summary.

Seidman and Ming Fu at the Hunyuan Huai Xuan Cultural Exchange Conference, Connecticut, USA 2014

In 2015 by phone and by mail Dr Yaron Seidman lodged a formal request with Mr Liu pledging his intent to study and preserve the Huai Xuan. Mr Liu Bogu this time replied with pleasure and said “to study Huai Xuan means to study how to become a good person, it teaches the skill of Heart and True Nature. Following the Huai Xuan tradition of old one must comply and follow the Huai Xuan rules with integrity.”

Liu Chi in Shandong 2013

Even though an American citizen of Jewish heritage, Dr Yaron Seidman is well versed with Chinese culture, since he has lived in New Zealand (1992), Beijing (1993), Wuhan (1996) and Nanning (1998). He has studied Chinese medicine and Chinese culture, is able to speak Chinese fluently and read ancient Chinese medicine classical literature so he is able to follow all that master Liu speaks. When studying Huai Xuan one cultivates his moral character with utmost earnestness, diligently guarding the vow of following the Huai Xuan rules of becoming a better person.

Liu Shijin, Zhou Yuanbin, Yaron Seidman, Volker Olles

July 12th to 19th, 2017 Dr Yaron Seidman, with his daughter, flew from the USA to Chengdu to visit the current standard-bearer of the school Mr. Liu Bogu, the great-grandson of Liu Yuan, Huai Xuan founder. They also visited the school representative in northern Sichuan, the 104-year-old Chinese medicine master Zhou Yuanbin and LiuYuan’s great-great-grandson Mr. Liu Shijin. Just before the trip, Dr Seidman organized a group of Hunyuan practitioners from around the world who helped translate The Life of Liu Yuan, The Long Arduous Way, Yu ChengTang Family Precepts, and Learning the Sage’s Capacity for Forgiveness into eleven languages including English, German, French, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, Romanian and Albanian. Two thick volumes demonstrate Dr Seidman’s and his colleagues’ dedication to the Huai Xuan learning.

July 14th at Rong Yuan (Silver Banyan) Gardens in Peng Zhen township in Shuang Liu municipality, Dr Seidman together with Mrs. Tao Yangzhen from Hunan and Mr Min Junmin from Guangdong, according to traditional etiquette, became disciples of Mr Liu Bogu and vowed to fulfill the path of becoming a good person according to Huai Xuan. Together with Liu Bogu, Liu Shijin, Liu Chi and others they traveled to Lao Jun Shan mountain, Wu Hou Ancestral Temple and other places to explore the bond between Huai Xuan and the local Sichuanese culture.

Liu Bogu and Yaron Seidman at Lao Jun Shan Mountain where Mr. Liu learned Huai Xuan as a child some 80 years ago

Seidman and Min Junmin learning with Liu Bogu Huai Xuan at Lao Jun Shan mountain

Dr Yaron Seidman, residing in New Zealand, China and Germany, finally immigrated from Israel to the USA in1996. Embracing both Eastern and Western cultures he developed an appreciation to the world’s civilizations. During seven years of studying and practicing the Huai Xuan culture, he began developing his own field of vision observing and contrasting cultures. He told Mr. Liu Shijin that once on a visit to Israel he met an old erudite Rabbi who explained “if you are not respectful to your parents how can you go to heaven?” Seidman elaborated to Liu Shijin that Liu Yuan in
Yu Cheng Tang Family Precepts wrote exactly the same meaning: “Upon receiving Heaven’s true measure one becomes a human, therefore heaven and earth are like father and mother. My father and mother give me my body and therefore father and mother are just like heaven and earth. To deceive one’s own parents is easy, but to deceive the heaven in me is difficult (can lie to others but not to self). If a single thought is deceiving Heaven then it means that one is not filial [to his parents], and with a single thought deceiving a parent then one also offends heaven. To cultivate the proper path one follows the edict of parents, one respects their father and mother just like they would heaven and earth. To fulfill their own nature one serves heaven and earth just like they would their own father and mother.”

At Liu Yuan’s tomb 2012

Dr Seidman also told a story how he helped heal a patient suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis not only by using Chinese herbs but also by using Liu Yuan’s annotated version of Shi Yinfu’s Ledger of Good and Evil
helping the patient resolve obstacles in the heart and mind. Following a two-year treatment course, the patient amazingly recovered. In addition, Dr Seidman developed Hunyuan medicine in a way that merges cultures east and west and bridges between modernity and antiquity yielding outstanding clinical results. Liu Yuan in
Meng Xun Teaching the Young wrote: “While following antiquity one must adapt to modernity, one cannot be tied down by old conventions.”

Yaron Seidman, a doctor of Chinese medicine, from Israel who immigrated to the USA, then from the west went to China to learn Chinese medicine and Huai Xuan culture. In accord with Mr. Liu Jianquan “Observe the times and customs” where one experiences different cultures and times (modernity and antiquity), we, in the Huai Xuan school, have grounds to believe that in the spirit of the Huai Xuan there will be a time that perhaps Dr Seidman will reach an accomplishment in the merging of east and west of antiquity and modernity.

Confucius said: “To learn and practice what was learned is this not pleasure? When a friend comes from afar is this not happiness? To be without fame and yet content is this not a nobleman?” That Dr Yaron Seidman comes from such a distance to learn Huai Xuan and become a Huai Xuan disciple, we are touched and humbled and even more so happy. Mr. Nan Huaijin in his work Analects Selected Verses wrote: “A friend comes from afar not only speaks of space and distance, but it also speaks of time era difference, it means that 500 years later, just like when the Han scholar Dong Zhongshu learned and understood Confucius centuries later, a person comes from afar can become intimate friend with an ancient teacher leaping across time.”

Liu Bogu explains the Analects

When Liu Yuan was at age 88 he wrote in Yi Lao Tu Image of the Old One: “The vast and mighty heaven and earth remain with the Old One, the body and spirit do not follow with the withering of autumn wind, the six classics I corrected so the essence be transmitted to the children. Otherwise, after Confucius and Mencius later generations lacked this heart.” The meaning of this quote is to say that the master, being modest, did not dare to say that he himself initiated a doctrine but rather that he merely made corrections to the six classics, and considered himself to have “intimate knowledge of Confucius and Mencius.” Mr. Liu Bogu also points out that when we study the Analects we must first understand “To learn and practice what was learned.” In the teachings of Confucius and Mencius the first chapter is titles ‘To learn And’. This chapter instructs how to learn in order to become a good human being, and it also teaches how to practice and become a good person. When “a friend comes from afar” it means that everybody learns from each other the rationale of becoming a good person. How could that not be a joyous affair?

In Shuangliu with Liu Shijin and Liu Chi at the last day before going back to USA

Liu Yuan said “In the east there are sages, in the west there are sages. Their heart is the same, their underlying principle is the same.” Dr Yaron Seidman entered the Huai Xuan circle to learn the sages’ teachings, we have reason to believe that “a friend has come from afar” and that perhaps one day the doctor, just like Mr Liu Yuan advocated, will embody the sages’ teachings fully in his body and heart, and that perhaps one day after he has embodied completely the joy of “when a friend comes from afar, is this not happiness?” we could all hope and look forward to more Huai Xuan students and enthusiasts in the future. Everyone will be able to experience “is this not happiness?” Everyone will gaze to the objective of ‘recovering True Nature’.

Assuming the path of Confucius and Mencius and the Huai Xuan teachings of becoming a good person we first cultivate ourselves and then we help others to become better, we promote humanity and love and spread it everywhere in order to benefit the masses. We now have a reason to look forward to that!

 

Liu Yuan and disciples circa 1854