Master Nan Huai-Chin is a very influential author of books in Chinese and English. While most of his works remain in Chinese, several excellent ones have been translated into English, notably by J.C. Cleary. Master Nan is unusual in being thoroughly versed in the schools of Vajrayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and Chan Buddhism, and thus able to express realisations in a wide variety of ways, not encumbered by sectarian limitations.
Zhuge Liang was a famous strategist at the end of the Han dynasty, as China entered the period of the Warring States. Portrayed as one of the prominent and colourful characters in San Guo Yan Yi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) Zhuge is the ideal of Confucian statesmanship. Yet, at the same time, he is spoken of quite seriously as a Daoist Celestial who chose to return to the world of men to assist the re-ordering of a chaotic world.
Click for complete article pdf (no charge, no sign-up, no nothing: just the article): Nan Huai-Chin discusses Zhuge Liang
A quote from the article; Nan Huai-Chin in fine form:
Without strength of will, you will not attain knowledge. In the search for knowledge, the first requirement is learning to be settled and quiet. Many of you have gained your PhDs, or studied overseas and returned, but your state of mind is not even a little bit calm, and thus your knowledge is not great. I am talking to you young people—who actually are now over middle-age—all of you great professors, renowned doctors, all of you are my old students, and I am scolding you. I am invariably polite to outsiders. But now I am reproaching you among my old students: pay attention to the line that says if you are arrogant and lazy, you will not achieve excellence. Several decades now you have been slothful …
For more from Nan Huai-Chin, see Master Nan discusses a Daoist poem and Master Nan tells a Zen story.
The Fat Monk 