Mo PaiArchive

墨派 · Mo Pai nei kung

The Mo Pai Archive

Rediscovering Ancient Teachings

A Taoist nei kung lineage, a ladder of seventy-two levels, one man in Java who could set paper alight with his hands, and about thirty minutes of 1988 television that brought all of it to the world's attention.

This archive gathers what the sources say: the curriculum level by level, the people, the history, the demonstrations, and the vocabulary. Each entry names where it comes from — the books and instruction sheets, or, above level 4, this archive's own reconstruction from classical alchemy.

Explore the 72 levels Start with the overview
72levels in the ladder
4described in the sources
7bands of practice
25centuries of claimed lineage

Start here

The Neijing tu: a tall allegorical diagram of the body as a landscape, with mountains, waterwheels, weavers and pagodas standing for internal organs and processes. Foundations Mo Pai: An Overview What the tradition claims to be, stated plainly and without decoration. 9 min read John Chang seated cross-legged in meditation, bare-chested, one hand raised palm-inward at the chest and the other resting open in his lap. People and History John Chang The shopkeeper in Java who became the most famous internal-energy practitioner of the twentieth century, and hated it. 14 min read Chinese chart of the dumai or Governor Vessel: a seated figure in profile with the channel running up the spine, over the crown and down to the mouth. Practice The Training Method Everything the sources actually say about what you do, assembled in one place. 13 min read A still from the 1988 Ring of Fire footage: John Chang crouching over a tiled floor with paper alight beneath his hand. Accounts The Demonstrations A catalogue of what was witnessed, filmed and recorded — set out as the sources give it. 12 min read An archive plate: a strip of film with sprocket holes, framing a single red circle. People and History Ring of Fire and "Dynamo Jack" The thirty minutes of television that created the entire subject. 7 min read An archive plate: a solid red centre surrounded by four rings, each fainter and more broken than the one inside it. Accounts Stories from the Source Material The anecdotes that carry the tradition, retold with their provenance attached. 15 min read

From the reading list

81 books, from the four primary sources to the Taoist classics, the later Mo Pai manuals, and the scholarship on internal alchemy, qigong and Chinese medicine that the rest of this archive draws on.

The full reading list, shelf by shelf →

Where each level comes from: the sources

The published record is deep for the first four levels and thin above them. Every level entry says which it is, so you always know whether you are reading the lineage's own material or this archive's reconstruction of it.

documented4 levels A full method appears in the published books and the leaked instruction sheets. attested3 levels The level and its capability are named in the sources; the method is not given. fragmentary7 levels A remark in passing, or a single student account. reconstructed58 levels Drawn from classical neidan by this archive, to show the shape of the band.

The seven bands of the 72 levels

1–4 The Foundation 築基 · zhu ji Jing → Qi (essence refined into energy) from the sources 5–12 Consolidation and Sealing 固本 · gu ben Qi (energy stabilised and made self-sustaining) editorial division 13–24 The Yin Shen and Separation 陰神 · yin shen Qi → Shen (energy refined into spirit) editorial division 25–36 Purification of the Vessel 煉形 · lian xing Shen (spirit consolidated; the body reworked to hold it) editorial division 37–48 The Yang Shen 陽神 · yang shen Shen → Xu (spirit refined toward emptiness) editorial division 49–60 Dominion 御 · yu Xu (emptiness; the boundary of self and world thins) editorial division 61–72 Ascension 飛昇 · fei sheng Xu → Dao (return to the undifferentiated) editorial division

The one fact to take away