卜 · the eastern journal
The Eastern Journal
A longer letter from the Plum of the Tree, every eight days. The Chinese teachings, one theme at a time.
A new letter every eight days, straight to you. The full archive is below, always free to read.
No. 10
The Mandate of Heaven, and why nothing holds forever
Tianming, the old idea that even the sky's blessing is conditional, and the comfort hidden in that.
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No. 9
Tea as a way, not a drink
Cha dao, the way of tea. How a hot leaf in water became a practice for the whole attention.
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No. 8
The ancestors, and the unbroken line
Why the dead get a place at the table, a name on the altar, oranges and incense at the new year.
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No. 7
Wind and water, and the placing of things
Feng shui before the gimmicks. How a room holds qi, and how the directions carry meaning.
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No. 6
The twelve animals and the great race
Rat, Ox, Tiger, and the rest, and why your birth year hands you a creature.
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No. 5
The Way, and the art of not forcing
Wu wei is not laziness. It is the difference between rowing upstream and reading the current.
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No. 4
The Book of Changes and its eight gates
The oldest oracle, three lines at a time, and how the world was sorted into eight.
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No. 3
Qi, the breath of things
The word under all the others. Not magic, not mood, but the moving aliveness in a body, a room, a year.
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No. 2
The Five Elements, the wheel inside the wheel
Wood, fire, earth, metal, water, and how each one feeds and checks the next.
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No. 1
Yin and Yang, the two that are one
Not good and evil, not light against dark, but the breath going out and the breath coming in.
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