Psychotic Jim
First Post
There's been many good ideas in this thread. I'd be interested in seeing the rest of SSS-Druid's stuff; it's sad that it is not going to be published.
There's very little that I can add. I’ve studied and read a little bit about it, but I'm no expert. But here's what I can give off the top of my head. All of the mystical traditions and religions are very complex and full of variety, so I'll probably be missing some things.
Feng-shui is often concerned with proper placement of things in order to aide in the intake of positive chi and exhaling of negative chi. It is also concerned with monitoring and making use of ley lines, or "dragon roads" as they are called in the East, IIRC. As SSS-Druid indicates, feng shui literally means wind and water.
Shamanism and spirits played a key role in ancient China and continued to be influential in some parts of China throughout the ages.
Ancient practitioners used bones and turtle shells for divinatory purposes, heating the bones and shells until they cracked. Then the diviner would read how the cracks formed (and in which direction) to make divinations.
Philosophical Taoism is often concerned with eschewing the laws of man in favor of harmony with nature and being a part of it. Taoism teaches a person to be yielding and flexible instead of strong and unyielding. The ability to endure is a hallmark. Direct confrontation and fighting the stream of life can often be destructive, and Taoists try to follow the natural way of the universe (the Tao), instead of resisting it. From what I've heard, Zen (or Chan Buddhism as it is called in China) was heavily influenced by Taoism , and combined it with Buddhist doctrine as a sort of "get back to basics" movement to what followers of Zen say Buddhism initially was, that is meditation and letting go of all the distracting noises in the illusion people live in. Zen/Chan teaches to make your mind like a mirror and that the true wisdom is not transmitted by language, but by transmission of Mind from master to student.
Like philosophical Taoism, philosophical Confucianism has been a practical philosophy in focusing on how people live in their everyday lives. It tries to bring about harmony by restoring the proper relationships people should have with each other in the proper order. Confucianism is concerted with people following the proper rituals, etiquette, and rules of behavior. However, from what I've read, there were little mystical, otherworldly traditions in Confucianism until it came into contact with Buddhism. This heralded the creation of Neo-Confucianism, a fusing of Confucianism's principles and Buddhist mysticism into a mystical tradition of a cosmic moral order.
For references, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind might be helpful on Zen/Chan. The Chinese folk novel Monkey is filled with humor and over-the-top action and strangeness. It depicts many instances of mysticism and magic. Looking at traditional Chinese medicine might provide ideas as well.
As for OGL game references, Avalanche Press made a product for Mythic China called Jade and Steel that is fairly bare-bones, being a short product. It uses standard D&D base classes and magic, but it has a few prestige classes and feats that might be useful for inspiration. Atlas Games' Occult Lore has a few interesting tidbits, including rules for geomantic positive and negative magic zones. For non-OGL references, Palladium Books' Mystic China for the Ninjas and Superspies game might serve as inspiration also; it has a large collection of game material on Chinese mysticism.
As an add-on to Chinese mysticism, you might consider looking at Carl Jung's work for a Western perspective on it. He incorporated many aspects of Eastern philosophies and culture into his concept of the Collective Unconscious and archetypes. In this fashion, a good game match for this concept might be Monte Cook's Akashic class.
Edit: One thing I forgot: the Celestial Bureaucracy had a unique aspect of localized gods that could be promoted or demoted by priests and officials if it was deemed that they were not fulfilling their jobs. The Celestial Bureaucracy was generally thought to be the equivalent of the earthly one. By burning "hell money" or paper representations of wealth and objects, it was thought that this could benefit one's ancestors in the afterlife.
There's very little that I can add. I’ve studied and read a little bit about it, but I'm no expert. But here's what I can give off the top of my head. All of the mystical traditions and religions are very complex and full of variety, so I'll probably be missing some things.
Feng-shui is often concerned with proper placement of things in order to aide in the intake of positive chi and exhaling of negative chi. It is also concerned with monitoring and making use of ley lines, or "dragon roads" as they are called in the East, IIRC. As SSS-Druid indicates, feng shui literally means wind and water.
Shamanism and spirits played a key role in ancient China and continued to be influential in some parts of China throughout the ages.
Ancient practitioners used bones and turtle shells for divinatory purposes, heating the bones and shells until they cracked. Then the diviner would read how the cracks formed (and in which direction) to make divinations.
Philosophical Taoism is often concerned with eschewing the laws of man in favor of harmony with nature and being a part of it. Taoism teaches a person to be yielding and flexible instead of strong and unyielding. The ability to endure is a hallmark. Direct confrontation and fighting the stream of life can often be destructive, and Taoists try to follow the natural way of the universe (the Tao), instead of resisting it. From what I've heard, Zen (or Chan Buddhism as it is called in China) was heavily influenced by Taoism , and combined it with Buddhist doctrine as a sort of "get back to basics" movement to what followers of Zen say Buddhism initially was, that is meditation and letting go of all the distracting noises in the illusion people live in. Zen/Chan teaches to make your mind like a mirror and that the true wisdom is not transmitted by language, but by transmission of Mind from master to student.
Like philosophical Taoism, philosophical Confucianism has been a practical philosophy in focusing on how people live in their everyday lives. It tries to bring about harmony by restoring the proper relationships people should have with each other in the proper order. Confucianism is concerted with people following the proper rituals, etiquette, and rules of behavior. However, from what I've read, there were little mystical, otherworldly traditions in Confucianism until it came into contact with Buddhism. This heralded the creation of Neo-Confucianism, a fusing of Confucianism's principles and Buddhist mysticism into a mystical tradition of a cosmic moral order.
For references, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind might be helpful on Zen/Chan. The Chinese folk novel Monkey is filled with humor and over-the-top action and strangeness. It depicts many instances of mysticism and magic. Looking at traditional Chinese medicine might provide ideas as well.
As for OGL game references, Avalanche Press made a product for Mythic China called Jade and Steel that is fairly bare-bones, being a short product. It uses standard D&D base classes and magic, but it has a few prestige classes and feats that might be useful for inspiration. Atlas Games' Occult Lore has a few interesting tidbits, including rules for geomantic positive and negative magic zones. For non-OGL references, Palladium Books' Mystic China for the Ninjas and Superspies game might serve as inspiration also; it has a large collection of game material on Chinese mysticism.
As an add-on to Chinese mysticism, you might consider looking at Carl Jung's work for a Western perspective on it. He incorporated many aspects of Eastern philosophies and culture into his concept of the Collective Unconscious and archetypes. In this fashion, a good game match for this concept might be Monte Cook's Akashic class.
Edit: One thing I forgot: the Celestial Bureaucracy had a unique aspect of localized gods that could be promoted or demoted by priests and officials if it was deemed that they were not fulfilling their jobs. The Celestial Bureaucracy was generally thought to be the equivalent of the earthly one. By burning "hell money" or paper representations of wealth and objects, it was thought that this could benefit one's ancestors in the afterlife.
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