Secrets of Drunken Boxing Volume Three: Internal Alchemy Chinese martial arts have always been filled with secrets. Secret forms, secret weapons, and most importantly secret training methods and potions (Dit Da Jow). This volume focuses on the secret training methods for cultivating qi, hard skills like Iron Body and Iron Broom, soft skills like Drunken Cotton Belly and Heavy Hands aka Cotton Palm, and internal work (Nei Gong) involving meditation and cultivating Dantian as a source for internal power. The Ma Family where this Northern Drunken style originates also has its own secret qigong practices which are included in this text as well. The methods within are the power source for a Drunken Boxers gongfu skills. Once the shape is built, the power must be cultivated to flow through the shape of the art ? this is the text outlining how.

Paul's statement that 'letter kills but the spirit gives life' [2 Corinthians 3.6] has had an extraordinary impact on Christian thought through the ages. It has been read both as affirming the saving power of the new covenant in comparison to the old, and as a key to hidden, spiritual meanings in the text of scripture. It is, however, an ambiguous phrase, followed by a tangled story. This book explores the Pauline distinction both in its original context and in its aftermath in the early church, the Reformation and modern Biblical Studies. It then considers a postmodern reversal, where ideas of 'Spirit' are often seen as 'deadly' and the openness of the 'letter' or text as life-affirming, and draws conclusions for Spirit in the world.

Follows the path of an everyday object, from quarry to desk An inkstone, a piece of polished stone no bigger than an outstretched hand, is an instrument for grinding ink, an object of art, a token of exchange between friends or sovereign states, and a surface on which texts and images are carved. As such, the inkstone has been entangled with elite masculinity and the values of wen (culture, literature, civility) in China, Korea, and Japan for more than a millennium. However, for such a ubiquitous object in East Asia, it is virtually unknown in the Western world. Examining imperial workshops in the Forbidden City, the Duan quarries in Guangdong, the commercial workshops in Suzhou, and collectors’ homes in Fujian, The Social Life of Inkstones traces inkstones between court and society and shows how collaboration between craftsmen and scholars created a new social order in which the traditional hierarchy of “head over hand” no longer predominated. Dorothy Ko also highlights the craftswoman Gu Erniang, through whose work the artistry of inkstone-making achieved unprecedented refinement between the 1680s and 1730s The Social Life of Inkstones explores the hidden history and cultural significance of the inkstone and puts the stonecutters and artisans on center stage.