China trip- 2007
Taoist Studies Institute Trip to China - October 2007
By Matthew P. Sieradski
Harrison Moretz and Shoko Zama took seventeen students on a two-week trip to China during the last two weeks of October 2007. We visited Beijing and Qing Cheng Mountain, outside of Chengdu. While the second trip of its kind-Harrison had organized the first TSI China visit four years earlier-the journey provided a unique opportunity for participants to immerse themselves in regular practice, train with Grandmaster Feng and some of his senior students (including, of course, our very own Harrison), and visit numerous Taoist shrines and other Chinese cultural sites.
Early on, the trip was marked by an unprecedented and auspicious event. Prior to the arrival of the majority of the participants, five of Harrison's students were formally accepted as his disciples in the Hunyuan Taiji lineage. This event was commemorated by a discipleship ceremony at Feng Zhiqiang's Hunyuan Taiji Academy in Beijing. Present were Grandmaster Feng, his wife, and two of their daughters-Feng Xiufang and Feng Xui-as well as Chen Xiang and several other of Grandmaster Feng's disciples. Shoko kindly introduced us to the Chinese delegation and assisted Harrison in standing and sitting as required throughout the bowing ceremony. Those of us honored as new disciples were, in order of seniority by age: Bill McMillin, Pau King Hung, Brian Dempsey, Nate Summers, and Matt Sieradski. Present as TSI representative and staff photographer was TSI Board President Jill Bader.
With the arrival of the rest of the trip participants, the tone of the group took on a festive tone. During the first week, our hosts-Feng Xiufang and Feng Xiu-put us up in a very modern and upscale hotel where we were treated to all the amenities: warm running water with polished-clean bathrooms, bottled water for drinking delivered daily with fresh fruit or biscuits, breakfast buffets with everything from pork buns to spaghetti, and the use of a computer with