Marnix Wells

Marnix Wells acquired an early interest in all aspects of Chinese culture and religion. He obtained a first degree in Chinese from Oxford (1967), later PhD from London (2001, School of Oriental and African Studies). In the meantime, he worked as shipping manager in the Far East where he acquired first-hand knowledge of the people and their heritage. He has given numerous lectures and authored several papers and books. The present volume is the first to show both Chinese original and English translation side by side.

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Marnix, after graduating in Chinese studies from Oxford University’s Oriental Institute in 1967, worked for twenty years in container shipping in the Far East. There he further absorbed its cultures, languages music and taijiquan with internal martial arts. In 1993 he returned to U.K. to study for a PhD in Chinese philosophy which he obtained in 2001 at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). The subject of his thesis was an interpretation of Shì (勢) in the ‘Dynamics of Cognition and Causation’.

Marnix’s research on this topic led him to re-examine the much neglected work of Heguanzi, the ‘Pheasant Cap Master’ (ca. 250 BC) which, following in the path of Laozi, gives insights into the ‘unity of opposites’, and their dialectical transformations, both in matters of practical politics in the time of China’s turbulent Warring Kingdoms (Zhan’guo) and proto-Daoist religion.

His writings reveal a forgotten messianic tradition, linked to the Dipper stars, that over two thousand years ago helped shape the emergent Chinese empire on the model of a solar calendar under an ‘Augustan’ (huang) god emperor, soon to be inaugurated by Qin Shi Huangdi.

Heguanzi’s vision was utopian and universal. He prophesied of this divine ruler:

Thus, he is able in government to unify myriad nations within shared boundaries, his virtue extending to the four seas. Whoever gets this Way, what does it matter from which clan he is, or what his nation?