Over a thousand years ago the concubine Wu Zhao set out on the fairy-tale journey to become China’s most powerful woman. Her intelligence and erotic aura, combined with the strategies of Chinese arts of war, paved the way for her to become Empress. She was the only woman who ever officially ruled ancient China. Her faithful adviser was the wise shaman and doctor, Sun Simiao, guardian of the age-old secrets of feminine wisdom and power.

This book reveals what Sun Simiao taught the Empress and how women today can follow the “Path of the Empress”.

From previously untranslated classical Chinese sources we learn how women can strengthen their erotic aura, bring determination and flexibility into harmony, use anger strategically, and create alliances. But an empress, according to the authors, also takes good care of herself, just as Wu Zhao did. Women who make room for their “inner empress” are strong and generous, open and yet mysterious. They know the inner source of their energy, which gives them power over themselves and others.

Christine Li studied sinology and medicine before going on to study traditional Chinese medicine for five years in Shanghai and Peking. This book was inspired by ancient Chinese classics, her work with hundreds of women as a doctor of Chinese medicine, and a special inner bond with the Empress. Today Christine Li works as a free-lance writer based in Hong Kong, Hamburg and Santa Fe. Her internet address: www.bodenschatz-li.de

Ulja Krautwald studied sociology before going into research for several years as a medical sociologist. For many years now she has worked in the field of Far-Eastern healing and lifestyle. She is a free-lance author and lives in Hamburg. Her internet address: www.zinnoberfluss.com

Our internet address: www.path-of-the-empress.com

Christine Li • Ulja Krautwald

The Path of the Empress

The Feminine Power of Transformation

The information in this book cannot take the place of a doctor’s advice. In the case of serious health conditions please consult a doctor at all times. The authors can accept no liability for any damages incurred through the use or misuse of the material presented in this book.

ISBN 13: 978-3-943349-01-6

ISBN 10: 978-3-943349

First Edition 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Krautwaldverlag Hamburg

www.krautwaldverlag.de

All rights reserved / Local Court Hamburg

English by Mary Adams

Printing and binding: Spindulio spaustuvė

Printed in Lithuania

For our daughters

Jade and Jytte

FOREWORD

The Path of the Empress was published in German in 2000. Since then it received countless letters and emails gratefully recounting how the book had been the catalyst for far-reaching and liberating changes in the lives of women from every walk of life.

The book was translated into Bulgarian and Croatian, and our readers repeatedly asked us when it would be available in English. They asked because they wanted to recommend it and give it as a gift to their friends and loved ones all over the world.

This book propagates itself in a magical and mysterious way, like a root system below the earth. This made a deep impression on us, for there was virtually no official advertisement of our book. Women gave it to their friends, mothers gave it to their daughters, nieces gave it to their aunts, clients gave it to their therapists.

There are few therapeutic practices where women will not find our book. It appears in bibliographies and on bookstalls relating to alternative women’s health and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Many women therapists recommend it to their patients.

This book is the most beautiful gift a daughter can give to her mother, a great-aunt to her niece. Anywhere in the world. And because women have never stopped asking us when the book would finally be available in English, now they have it!

We hope that this English version propagates itself just as wildly and independently as the German version, and that it will help many women to follow their own powerful and self-determined path.

August 2012

To the Imperial Reader

Every woman can be an empress if she so decides, as long as she accepts all the consequences of her decision and is prepared to take control of her own life. At the moment of her birth, every woman is unique and complete. Everything she needs lies within her, as in the seed of a plant. If she succeeds in developing her hidden potential and living it out, she will become empress in her own empire, no matter how large or small that empire may be. Once she has freed herself from conventional views of how a woman should be, then pleasure and power, beauty and wisdom lie in her hands alone. It is up to each individual woman to choose the imperial path for herself.

But beware: the life of an empress isn’t easy. Instead of basing her life on predetermined models, an empress is independent and free. There are no conventions and well-worn paths for her to cling to. Each stage of her life presents problems and questions to which she must find her own solutions and answers. She follows her own visions, instincts and dreams, and thus realises her inner goals. She must roll out the red carpet for herself.

An Imperial Book

This is a book for empresses. Empresses choose their own path, so the book contains no ready answers or sure-fire tips. The ten chapters reflect ten important stages of development in a woman’s life, with their typical challenges and life-tasks. Exercises and magical herbal elixirs will help open up the mind and soul to new insights and solutions. But the book begins to take effect even as it’s being read, without the reader having to do very much about it. In the same way large portions of the book virtually took shape with almost no help from us. We simply held our knowledge and experience at the ready, like a set of tools, and pooled our thoughts. In a mysterious way we then began to encounter people and situations that shed light on our theme. The Chinese call this Wu Wei, when the Unknown moves of its own accord. This is how this book came about. This is how the words of the Empress came to us. The Empress in question is the Empress Wu, who ruled China in the seventh century, according to the Western calendar, and whose impact extends even to us and our time. Wu Zhao was a country girl, a simple concubine, who all by herself took on the whole of Chinese society and battled her way right to the top. She was the only woman who ever officially ruled in China. She was the mother of several children, a passionate lover, an artist and a scholar.

Wu followed her path without compromise. Conventions and traditional mores meant nothing to her. In an age that was hostile to women she created new and better laws; she loved her friends devotedly, particularly her female relatives, and pursued her enemies mercilessly. Wu’s special interest was medicine. She ensured that the ancient knowledge of sexual magic and medicine was preserved, and she fostered the great magician and doctor, Sun Simiao, who is honoured as the “God of Medicine” in China to this day. Because she continued to have young artists and Daoist monks as her lovers until she reached a ripe old age, later Confucian historiographers regarded her as a sex-obsessed monster and “unfeminine woman”. We have taken the life story of Empress Wu as a model demonstrating how a woman can achieve an independent lifestyle. The various stages of Wu’s life bring ancient lore, Chinese medicine and strategic action vividly to life for us.

At the beginning of each chapter we recount part of the Empress’s life-story, then we apply the issue in question to the life situation of a modern woman. Regardless of what stage of life she has reached and what problem she faces, an empress reads the signs and signals of her body like a book and uses them to develop her feminine power to the full and deploy it on her own terms. Body and soul are one. For this reason most chapters discuss disorders that are nowadays regarded as medical problems: “women’s troubles” such as lovesickness, menstruation, Pre-Menstrual Syndrome, irritability, depression, listlessness, exhaustion, the menopause and so on, which arise when feminine power is not allowed to develop and instead works against the woman herself. In many of these situations it’s a good idea first of all to release the blocked energy through the systematic use of herbs or specific foodstuffs. The improvement in well-being will lead to new insights and impulses.

The recipes and strategies in this book are all based on the original writings of Sun Simiao and other ancient Chinese scholars and sages. We have adapted them to the needs of the modern empress and have tested them over many years in our own practice.

However, lasting relief can’t be achieved without determination and personal expansion. Such changes may not always be kindly received by those around the empress. An empress isn’t everybody’s darling. In many situations things are exactly the same today as they were in the time of Empress Wu. Being an empress isn’t easy – but it’s enormously exciting!

Mysterious Effects

This book contains many tips and recipes from ancient times. However, it’s not a guidebook; it takes effect of its own accord as it’s being read. The imperial reader sits back, opens her eyes and sees.

The essentials hold true throughout our lives, Sun Simiao once said to the Empress: The essentials never change. Thus real wisdom retains its truth and validity. For more than a thousand years. The secrets that paved Wu’s path from concubine to Empress can also help the modern woman follow the Path of the Empress. The imperial reader will discover how these secrets can be acquired and utilised. Word by word, sentence by sentence, the ancient wisdom will take effect and permeate the imperial reader.

This book strengthens the empress in every woman. She may be affected in other ways also. There may be changes in the life of the imperial reader. She may notice that the more she reads and the more she sees, the more uncompromising and empress-like she becomes. It’s impossible to predict how far this may go. It may concern her lover or her home, perhapher work or her marriage. Every empress follows her own individual path, known only to her. After she has read the book, a great deal will have changed. It may even be that nothing remains as it was.

The Basics

For this book to be fully effective, it will help if the reader enters into the world-view of the Daoists (old spelling: Taoists). The teaching of the Daoists is not foreign to us, for it tells us that all truth and all wisdom already lie within ourselves. If each of us allows the Unknown to work within us, wisdom and power will be realised. The less we do about it and the less we become involved, the more we will become one with the Unknown. Laozi, author of the Dao De Jing1, also described the Unknown as the Feminine, the Mother of All Things.

1 Better-known but outdated spelling: Lao Tse and Tao Te Ching

Daoists believed that women were more directly connected with the mysterious mechanisms of life than men, and honoured them accordingly. After all, life itself issued from women. In later times, more hostile to women, Chinese scholars repeatedly warned against the power of women, which, once unleashed, would be insuperable.

This book uses Daoist teachings to help modern women unleash these powers.

Essence and Spirit

At conception all creatures receive everything they need to make them complete. This seed, the Essential in concentrated and material form, is called essence (Jing). In the course of a lifetime essence develops continuously until it becomes entirely spirit, but sometimes, due to a careless lifestyle, it simply seeps away ineffectively. When all available essence has become spirit, life is held to be complete.

A component of essence can be exchanged and refined in the sexual encounter between a man and a woman. Through the refinement and intensification of essence a new and complete being may be generated. If the partners, or one of them, understand the magic of sexuality, she or he can also use the refined essence for themselves and thus in the course of many sexual encounters amass great powers. This isn’t easy. It requires an extremely clear, cool spirit and experience in meditation.

A heated spirit allows essence to seep away ineffectively. In this case both partners lose essence during their sexual encounter and gain nothing. Since women have direct access to the mysterious mechanisms of life, they can more easily succeed in boosting their essence during a sexual encounter. Assuming they don’t lose their heads in the process.

Qi

In the course of a lifetime essence develops continuously until it becomes entirely spirit. All functions and movements that take place between these two poles are described as Qi (pronounced chee). Essence, spirit and Qi constitute all that is. They’re called “The Three Treasures”.

A person’s Qi can be increased, strengthened and regulated through nourishment, breathing and meditation. If this doesn’t happen, or happens too late, more essence is expended and the person in question literally lives on substance. The weakening of essence often leads to an illusory feeling of lightness and immateriality, which is why fasting can become a downright addiction for some people. In Daoist teaching fasting is therefore not regarded as a suitable path for beginners, who don’t yet know how to nourish their Qi without sustenance.

As long as Qi can flow free and undisturbed, harmony and health reign. If the flow of Qi is obstructed, it leads in nature to wind, storms and other disasters, and in the human body to pains, cramps and, directly or indirectly, most other illnesses. For this reason Chinese doctors try to keep Qi flowing freely, for example, with needles in acupuncture. There are also countless other methods, such as Tai Chi Chuan, breathing, meditation or massage. The generic term for all techniques employed to influence the flow of Qi in human beings is Qigong (pronounced chee gong), meaning “Work with the Qi”. (The flow of Qi other than in humans is analysed and influenced by Feng Shui specialists, among others).

Yin and Yang

In the course of a lifetime essence develops continuously until it becomes entirely spirit. Essence, the innate substance of each person, should be carefully preserved, so that it can develop without haste and without overheating. The process of preserving, cooling and holding Qi together is termed Yin. That of developing, heating and expanding is termed Yang.

Women are, at least until menopause, governed primarily by Yin. For this reason the process of preserving and keeping cool is often easier for them than for men, who are governed by Yang. On the other hand it’s often more difficult for women to come out of themselves and assert their will. A woman’s Yin and Yang alter cyclically, like the ebb and flow of the tide. It is therefore supremely important for an empress to learn how she can utilise the cyclical changes in her body in order to purposefully employ her Yang, her assertiveness and aggressive potential. But it can also be important in certain stages of life to strengthen Yin, to go inside herself and protect her innate energies from seeping away senselessly.

The Five Phases of

Transformation or Five Elements

In the course of a lifetime essence develops continuously until it becomes entirely spirit. In the process it repeatedly passes through a cycle of five phases. The Five Phases of Transformation are Water, Wood, Fire, Metal and Earth.

Water – Storage

Through Yin the essence is stored and preserved. Thus genetic traits remain constant down through the generations. Thus the bones and hair remain attached even after death. Thus we preserve what we experience and learn in our memories. Thus, even in sleep, the body stores urine and stools, vaginal fluid and sweat.

Storage is the condition of Water. Water gathers in the depths. In nature this corresponds to winter, when the seeds slumber beneath the earth and all life is apparently frozen.

Wood – Activation

Once Yang awakens in spring, the ice melts. Now essence urges upwards out of the earth towards the light. Plants sprout buds and animals go courting. The eye wanders in search of things that seem worthy of aspiration – spiritually and physically. Imagination rises heavenward, and can get lost there. But quite concrete plans may also be forged or, if things don’t run smoothly, a ferocious fit of rage may ensue.

This expansion and running riot is the condition of Wood. Wood grows and expands. Its orientation is from below to above, from inside to outside. It is the movement of Yang.

Fire – Spirit

Once fully developed, essence attains the condition of pure spirit. This is a heated and ephemeral condition which has scarcely any dimension in time, merely flickering briefly. Examples of this condition are laughter, love, orgasm and the fulfilment of the moment of death. In nature this corresponds to the fleeting moment in summer when a plant is fully in bloom. Once Yang attains completion in Fire, the movement reverts to Yin.

In nature the full bloom of summer is followed by autumnal withering. A creature that remains in the condition of Fire will die before its time.

Metal – Turning Back

The heat of summer can’t last long, otherwise everything will dry out. Therefore in nature the moment of summer is followed by the condition of autumn. A moment of pure love is inevitably followed by disenchantment. This is sad, but a necessary part of life. If the turnaround does not come off, essence seeps away before its time. Therefore each person must establish boundaries and pronounce, Thus far and no further.

This turning back and cooling off is designated as the condition of Metal. Metal reflects and separates. Its orientation is from above to below, from outside to inside. It is a Yin movement leading back into the depths.

Earth – Ripeness and Metabolism

In order that these huge transformations can take place steadily and peacefully, there is an intermediate condition devoted to nourishment and prudence. This condition should be sought over and over again in all life situations. As the say ing goes, food and drink hold body and soul together. Just as important as food and drink are reflection, perseverance, silence and meditation. All of these are termed Earth, or centre. Through Earth – nourishment and meditation – all living creatures are provided with Qi. Qi is energy and substance in one. It is Qi that provides the strength for the transition between all stages. Without Qi all life functions would be extinguished.

For a child, the mother assumes the function of Earth – first through the placenta, then through her milk and through the love, steadfast and serene, that she gives her child as she nurtures it. In the course of its development the child must learn to take over these functions for itself. This isn’t always easy, and we’ll see that the conscious pursuit of a condition of Earth, also known as “Earth nurture”, is fundamental in many situations.

Earth is the condition of wisdom, the Middle Way, half Yin and half Yang. Those who persevere too long in this state become lethargic and dull. Those who don’t seek this state regularly become nervous wrecks.

In the yearly cycle Earth is most often equated with the condition of late summer, the time when the fruits of the field ripen and everything seems peaceful, abundant and mild.

Further information at: www.path-of-the-empress.com

You may contact Ulja at: www.zinnoberfluss.com

You may contact Christine at: www.bodenschatz-li.de

One

The Prophecy, Earlier Heaven, Ripening

The Kidney – Innate Essence

In the year 6241 Wu Zhao was born in Sichuan. Her mother was unstinting in her nurture and care. Her father gave her a roof over her head. Both of them left her to herself. Thus passed the first years of the girl who would later be Empress of China, just as it was spoken by the wise Laozi:

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!