Deng Ming-Dao, The Wandering Taoist.
New York: Harper and Row, 1986, 240pp.

This is a biography of Kwan Saihung, a Chinese Taoist ascetic master written by an American student of his in martial arts and Taoist training. Kwan Saihung was trained in a leading Taoist monastery in China in the 1930s. He left the monastery to fight the Japanese during the late 1930s. After the Communist victory in the civil war, he arrived in California where he teaches Chinese martial arts – many of which are related to Taoist philosophy.

Although Taoist sages usually speak little of themselves – the personality and outward events of life being of less importance than one’s relations to nature and the permanent patterns of life – Deng Ming-Dao has pieced together a chronological description of Kwan Saihung’s early life and training from conversations with the master. Most of the book is recounted in conversational style, which makes for pleasant reading.

“All that matters to a Taoist is that one is in harmony with nature. In one’s character, one is like heaven and earth, as orderly as the four seasons. The book Tao Te Ching clearly states that when things reach the pinnacle of their strength, they begin to grow old. (1) Therefore excessive strength is contrary to Tao. What is contrary to Tao will come to a speedy end. Thus one seeks not to build up one’s own power but to unite with the Tao. Things change but the laws underlying change remain unchanging. If one understands these laws and regulates one’s actions in conformity with them, one can then turn everything to one’s advantage.”

(1) See Arthus Waley, The Way and its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching (New York, Grove Press, 1958, 260pp)

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.