Prof. Pang’s (彭泓基教授) Seminar
on Traditional Chinese Culture - I Ching Studies and Taoist Education entitled “Wisdom
of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and the "I Ching": What is
Love? To the Point of Life and Death Devotion!” (中國傳統文化之2026易學及道化教育講座: 紅樓夢與易經的智慧：情為何物？直教死生相許！) was
held on 14th Mar 2026 in Hong Kong Central Library. In the
beginning, Minda and I took a photo in front of the topic before the seminar
start.
I Ching classmate’s Yuanyin Choir (緣音合唱團)
practiced in this afternoon.
I recorded a short video during their rehearsal.
Yuanyin Choir took this group photo before heading to the
performance venue.
We quickly had a tea and then took a taxi to the venue.
At the venue, we set up our instruments and practiced
again.
We all happy and took a group photo before the performance.
Partick Ng and I were the photographer and journalist,
respectively. I captured this moment with a selfie.
Yuanyin Choir is ready to go.
Before the seminar, Mr. Wong on behalf of Hong Kong
Taoist Association(香港道教聯合會)
presented the appreciate certificate to Prof. Pang.
In the beginning, Prof. Pang briefed the content of
tonight’s seminar covered the value, core ideas, I Ching wisdom, Taoist
philosophy, analysis of love and desire, and modern inspirations found in
"Dream of the Red Chamber."
He then compared the four great classical Chinese novels:
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Power), Water Margin (Justice), Journey to the
West (Cultivation), and Dream of the Red Chamber (Illusion).
And then Prof. Pang introduced the Character Relationship
Diagram of “Dream of the Red Chamber”. It is very complicated!
After that he summarized the whole book into four stages
in which described
recognizing illusions, developing emotions from appearances, deepening
emotional involvement, and ultimately understanding the true nature of
emptiness.
Prof. Pang discussed the love secret in “Dream of the Red
Chamber” using Chinese poem 「雁丘詞」- 情為何物，直教生死相許 (What
is love that makes people willing to die for it?).
The second topic is the Wisdom of the I Ching in Dream of
the Red Chamber (紅樓夢中的易經智慧).
He employed I Ching hexagrams (易經卦象) to
analyze the family fate and different roles characteristics.
During the break, we introduced our friend and teacher of
TCM Ms. Huang to Prof. Pang.
Before the performance, Yuanyin Choir and Prof. Pang took
a photo for memory.
Prof. Pang performed the Electronic Saxophone.
And then Yuanyin Choir performed two songs and recorded
as follows.
The first song named “好了歌”.
The second song was “紅豆詞”.
The last topic was “Eight Sufferings of Life in Dream of
the Red Chamber” .
It included suffering of Birth, Aging, Illness, Death, Being with Those One Hates (怨憎會), Parting from Loved Ones (愛別離), Not Getting What One Wants (求不得) and Flourishing of the Five Aggregates (五蘊熾盛).
After that he explained the roles and functions of
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
Finally, Prof. Pang analyzed love, passion, desire (愛, 情, 慾).
They had different levels, forms and directions.
Lastly, he using the I Ching life cycle to explain the trend
of love, passion, desire (愛, 情, 慾).
Q&A session.
After the performance and seminar concluded successfully,
we had dinner together to celebrate.
