Unintentional ASMR: Flipping Thru Antique Chinese Books (Rice Paper, Hand Written)

Hello and happy Wednesday. So today I want to show you these. These are traditional Chinese thread bound books. This was a format used for centuries and the pages are folded in half. And they're stitched along the spine and these are read from what we'd consider the back cover. The text runs vertically from top to bottom and the columns are read from right to left. Although these are often called rice paper, these are usually printed on what's called Xun paper. Rather than novels, these are actually Taoist ritual manuals and we're going to get into that. You might be familiar with Taoism from this book Tao Te Ching. Some of these pictures, you might want to sort of take note of them. And I'm going to read a few passages from this introduction. The Tao Te Ching is not only the most influential classic text of Chinese philosophy, it is also one of the most widely read examples of what can perhaps be described as wisdom literature. And it was written in the 6th century BC by the Taoist sage Lao Tzu, a contemporary of Confucius. However, analysis of the text's vocabulary and style suggests a date sometime in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC. So you might also be familiar with this book, The Tao of Pu, in which characters from Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne are used to illustrate the ideas of Taoism. This is a very popular book for Western readers to understand and decide if they're interested in Taoism. But for now, we're going to look at this bundle of books. So these are ritual manuals. You might have found this in the toolkit of a traveling medicine man or doctor. This illustration here is almost certainly Li Xuzhen, who was China's most celebrated physician. He wrote the Compendium of Materia Medica during the Ming Dynasty. And his appearance here suggests that these books combine traditional medicine with Taoist religion and healing practices. And as you can see, he's holding what could be regarded as a medicinal herb, and then a pen and paper. So he's combining philosophy and medicine here. Here we get to the text, and we get several illustrations about what the particular topic is regarding. This almost looks like acupuncture. We see a boxer, a warrior, maybe a student, a mother holding a baby, a man vomiting, perhaps vomiting maladies as he's being treated. Or this could also be a representation of drunkenness or illness. Very old drawings. Notice what he's wearing into the second volume. This is likely another teacher or philosopher. And he kind of looks like Confucius. once again we see the man wearing that outfit again. It almost looks like leaves. See the yin-yang symbol appear, which represents balance. There it is again. We get to the next volume. We see another philosopher. Likely he is the author of this text. I believe this is about the placement of graves and burial. This all ties into this cosmic balance that I may be mistaken. This also looks a bit like feng shui, which is the placement of different objects so they are optimal. They don't have cutting energy into each other or into the person in the room. But I think this is about graves. The next volume. Very much like the yin-yang sign here again. Quite a lot of illustrations in this volume. These different figures. Looks like bees. A foot. That's sort of a animal-like human animal. As well as this almost demonic looking figure. Another human figure. Kind of in a dance. These could be like drawings that you would do on the skin. Not tattoos but maybe temporary drawings or messages to ward off spirits or bad energy. And of course, please feel free to comment and correct me on any of this. Let's go to the next volume. Just text on the opening page. No picture of a person. Here we have a close-up of a face with markings on it. Kind of like acupuncture, which was a big part of Chinese medicine or Chinese traditional medicine. And here's the back of the head and the hand. Back of the hand. And the face again. Next volume. It's been sealed. We see the yin-yang again. And the philosopher. Are these divining bones? That's what my guess is. And to throw those on the floor, you scatter them and then this shows you how to interpret. Divining bones come in all kinds of variations. For instance, some you would scatter. And then you would use how they land and what side they are to to interpret or answer what question you're seeking to answer. But this is a completely different example of witch's bones. And I would guess these are different types of people, maybe different professions or individuals. I wonder why this book was sealed. He's riding a dragon. He's riding a horse. This one has an insect. Quite a lot of bones here. Next volume. Very spooky. He's smoking it looks like and eating. Carrying gourds or some type of tuber. Very old drawings. A blank page. This page left intentionally blank. This dragon represents the flow of qi through the landscape and feng shui. That is the symbolism of the dragon. And this text here speaks of prosperity, honor, and flourishing descendants, making this a practical guide to choosing suspicious locations. And there we get into feng shui. Laying out a room in an outside location. More feng shui. Next volume. He's holding a pike and he's holding a house or palace. And he's floating in the clouds. Obviously he's a spirit. But he's a Taoist figure. Probably this is about protection of your home. So next volume. And so this Taoist figure is holding. That is the sun and that is the symbol for the sun. And that is the moon. I'm sorry. I'm got it backwards. That's the sun and that's the moon. This represents cosmic balance. So moon, sun. This surrounding text is divine protection and removing illness. So this is about ritual healing and balance. That's what this has got to be about. Sorry, I got these two confused. Another floating spirit and he has a segmented sword floating in an astral plane. Okay, next volume. We got our doctor again. Not the same guy, I don't think. No. Okay. And the last volume. And we get to clinic in this picture. We see a water gate. It almost looks like how is your pain level pictures, doesn't it? Okay, so that was this manual. This is a Taoist ritual manual. And I'm going to bundle it up here. Okay, and now I can put it with my other thread books. And I hope you enjoyed this video. And I hope you like my channel. And please consider subscribing, clicking the bell icon, leaving me a thumbs up, and leaving me a comment. And I'll be back and see you again soon. Bye.