1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (4)

In Sept 1993, Master Wang attended the National Olympic Game. I saw him in the Wu Zhou Hotel. I noticed that he was wearing the identity card of the lieutenant governor and so I asked him why, he said "They are afraid that I will escape and so want to tied me here with this." I said "What's your mission?" Master Wang answered "To ensure that Liaoning Province win the most gold medals. Before the event, they were worried that Liaoning wouldn't come top. Now that their gold medals are way more than the second place, they are worried about there won't be enough bonuses for the athletes." I asked for his opinion on the book. He said that he had read it, there wasn't much to change in the content. But he wanted to tell us about the influence of "I Ching" on Chinese civilization:

In Chinese history, the times of Fu Xi, Shen Nong and Huang Di were the beginning of the ancient cultures; emperors Yao, Shun and Yu were the origin of the people cultures ; Dynasties Xia, Shang and Zhou was the birth of the Chinese civilization proper ; the Spring and Autumn and the Warring states periods when the hundred schools of thought sprung up established the base of the traditional Chinese culture. The core body of all these is I Ching.

Master Wang gave me the final touch I need to complete the book and also deepen my understanding of the Chinese culture. After I got home, I worked on the final edition of the book. On my birthday in Oct, I officially finished writing, I was thirty years old.

I didn't anticipate that publishing a book was so difficult. When I was still writing the book, I contacted the publisher of the "UFO" magazine about publishing my book. I sent them some sample chapters and they agreed to publish it with the Gansu Science and Technology Publisher. I wanted to publish my book in Beijing and so I declined their offer. I was then unexpectedly turned down by dozen of publishers, the reasons were that: (1) I didn't have money. (2) The editor didn't understand the book. After a year of major effort, I had finally found a publisher, the China World Language Publisher but there was one condition : I must pay 15000 yuens. I manage to raise the money from everyone I knew before the Chinese New Years holiday. During the festival, my wife only had 120 yuens. Whenever I thought about this later on, I always felt ashamed.

In May 1995, "Walk on the Great Path" was finally published. From 1985 - 1993, from the time I began to learn qigong to the completion of the book, or from 1987 - 1995, from the time I started learning from Master Wang to the publication of the book. They had been both 8 years long. It seemed the number 8 was my lucky number. In business world, 8 means good luck with wealth. However, other qigong books authors can make a fortune but I couldn't even get back the 15000 publishing fee. I told myself : As long as I can popularize traditional daoist cultures, I should be happy. So I have never regretted.