The Story Behind “Imperial Tutor”
This is an updated repost from a couple of years ago but still relevant…
My mentoring work around “Imperial Tutor” is rooted in my desire to share what I have learned from the ancient Chinese classics (medical, philosophical, cosmological, and otherwise) with dedicated practitioners and students of the Chinese healing arts, or of “medicine” in the largest sense of that potent word. I have spent my entire adult life immersed in these teachings and have been profoundly affected by them. I am convinced that they offer powerful and elegant answers to many of the problems facing us today and can assist all of us in our healing work, as we strive to create harmony between Heaven and Earth.
The vision and inspiration for my "Imperial Tutor" mentorship program was born at a Chinese astrology reading in the spring of 2017 when I learned that my professional focus in this lifetime is to serve as "Imperial Tutor." A more normal person might stumble over that job description or stroke their ego and move on. But to me at that moment, as a stressed university professor who really disliked institution-imposed grading (as opposed to giving constructive feedback) and teaching large required classes to exhausted students, this made immediate and perfect sense. It also gave me a clear direction on how to change my life going forward to better match my mìng 命 (“destiny” or “Golden Path”). I know that I am no emperor and find situations where I have been thrust into “imperial” leadership roles quite stressful. I also know that in this particular lifetime I don't get to be a hermit in the mountains or nomadic goat herder, as much as I might wish for that in weak moments. In my view, a tutor is a person who gives guidance or instruction to special individuals or small groups. I started tutoring (music, German, and Latin) in middle school, to earn the money for my first bicycle, and have loved this role ever since.
Please note: "Imperial" is not an arrogant label that I use here to describe myself, but a reference to the people I tutor. The point of this job description is that I get to support YOU and enable and inspire and educate YOU, so that you can assume the leadership role that is in your stars.
In the classical Chinese world view, the equivalence between medicine and rulership, and between the roles, skills, and approaches of the emperor and the doctor, is ubiquitous. Both doctors and rulers, at least in ancient China, are supposed to establish good order and "nurture life" (yǎng shēng 養生) by managing flow, by draining excess and supplementing deficiency, by resolving blockages and containing gushing floods, and by making sure “defense” (aka weiqi) and “provisioning” (aka yingqi or “nutritive Qi) support each other harmoniously. Intimately linked through resonance between the microcosms of the physical body, the social body, and the local environmental body with the macrocosm of Heaven and Earth, the skills of one are easily translated into the skills of the other.
“The human body is just like a state. The chest and abdomen are like the imperial palace, the arrangement of the four limbs like the outskirts, the divisions of the bones and joints like the hundred offices. The spirit is like the elite, the blood like the servants, and the qì like the general population.
Knowing how to treat the body, you thereby know how to rule the state. By loving your people, you create peace in the state. By cherishing your qì, you keep the body complete. When the population scatters, the state perishes. When the qì is used up, the body dies.”
– Baopuzi 《抱朴⼦》, quoted in Sun Simiao 孫思邈, Beiji Qianjin Yaofang 《備急千金要方》
And in this way, it is my great pleasure and honor to support you, dear "Emperor" or perhaps still "Prince" or "Princess," on your path to mastery of this unique ability to restore order and harmony, in our proper role as humans in that sweet spot between Heaven and Earth, by sharing what I have learned from the Chinese philosophical and medical classics. And if you want to find out more about my life’s path up to this point, you can read my CV here. And if reading his story has gotten you interested in becoming a member, why don’t you join us?
