Il tao del dragone. Verso la liberazione del corpo e dell'anima

by Bruce Lee

A rare, never-before-seen collection of Lee's private letters and writing, offering insight into the many facets of his life, including his poetry, life philosophies, and his thoughts on martial arts, love, fatherhood, friendship. A fascinating look at the man behind the myth.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, Nonfiction, Martial Arts, Biography Memoir, Spirituality, Psychology

Paperback

First published September 15, 1999

About the author

Bruce Lee was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts system, widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century and a cultural icon. He was the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.

Reviews

[Daniel Wei-hsuan · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can it be less than five stars? Bruce's mind is so great that even an incomplete or repetitive compilations of his thoughts and writings are worth every second of my time. Thank you John Little!

[Ante · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gives a very good insight into Bruce's thoughts, feelings and ideals. However, it fails to stand on it's on as a book.

The constant repetition of thoughts across multiple drafts of Bruce's writings serve not only to tire the reader, but also take the edge of his otherwise interesting and novel ideas. Reading the exact same paragraphs for the 8th time (literally) makes one feel an idiot, accompanied by a strong inclination to close down the book and start with Fifty Shades of Grey.

I get that John Little maybe wanted to shed some light on the evolution of Bruce's thought, hence putting multiple drafts in the book. The problem is that there is very little of that evolution in the drafts per se. They mostly stay the same, except increasing in volume. The final draft would be perfectly OK on it's own. We do, however, get a great insight into his evolution by comparing letters and articles from the 60s to those from the 70s.

I feel that that if John had put the focus on that instead of repetition, along with shedding some good 50% of the page content, we would have gotten a much better experience.

P.S. My Croatian edition translation was lacking, judging by the excerpts in the quotes, so that had also downed my impression of the book.

[Fefs Messina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that can be read even by people who are not interested in martial arts since this is a collection of essays (and drafts) about life, philosophy and art written by Bruce Lee.
Who would have thought Bruce Lee was such a good writer and a deep thinker?
His philosophy of life is simple and at the same time complicated to fully understand. You'll need a second -or maybe a third- reading to grasp the true meaning of his words.
A little redundant at times because of John Little's editing; he included all of Lee's personal papers, even those Bruce himself had revised over and over.
Recommended to those who are interested in Bruce Lee's way of thinking.

[Sanja Džalto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a man who intensifed my interest in martial arts and Chinese wisdom, and whom I started to idiolise since I became fascinated with his movies. However, many people, even some of his fans, don't see him as a whole, beyond his career as an actor and a great kung fu instructor. He was much more than that. The more I read about him, especially his own texts, the more I appreciate him as a real artist of life. That's what he really is above everything else he achieved.

[Gautham Vasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a neat little collection of Bruce Lee's unpublished, handwritten letters and articles that sheds light on his off-screen persona. The letters preserve the trademark Bruce Lee traits I respect and adore - striking thoughts, charisma and honest self-expression. While the chapter on "Jeet Kune Do" is quite repetitive due to editing choices, I still appreciate the publisher's decision to share the articles as is instead of posthumously editing them. Bruce Lee's thirst for self-knowledge is palpable in these letters. This book has given me quite a lot to think about, especially about the following:
- Self actualization over self-image actualization
- Self realization over accumulation of facts
- Peace of mind
- Art, self-expression and freedom

My earliest impressions of Bruce Lee were shaped by the movie "Enter the Dragon". At 8 years old, I couldn't believe that someone could strike so fast! I couldn't and still can't see the motion of his slapping hand (Paak Sau) on camera. I was so impressed that I'd frequently practice that "lightning slap" on my younger brother, and subsequently get chastised by my mother. This book helped me augment and reconcile my mental image of Bruce Lee the terrific martial artist with his other selves/facets - philosopher, romantic, poet, actor, autodidact, etc. It helped me get a sense of Bruce Lee as a person, as a true artist of life.

[H]

Biography. But more importantly, includes Bruce Lee's poetry, essays, and articles. When I read this I copied out copious amounts of "The Passionate State of Mind," which I only later learned is not his essay but notes he copied from Hoffer's aphorisms.

[Daniele Cavagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

È un libro gradevole, ma con un grande potenziale inespresso.
La raccolta tocca sotto diversi punti di vista quelle che sono le idee e la filosofia di Bruce Lee. Ho avuto l’impressione, tuttavia, di non riuscire mai a scendere davvero in profondità.

I concetti che si ripetono sono gli stessi tre o quattro lungo tutto l’arco del libro e ho avuto l’impressione di essere “arrivato sin dall’inizio”.

In alcuni punti vengono riportate diverse versioni degli stessi scritti e questo, a mio parere, risulta un po’ fastidioso, perché ti trovi a rileggere tre, quattro o anche cinque volte le stesse cose espresse con parole quasi identiche.

Interessante per approfondire la conoscenza di Bruce Lee che esercita, anche molti decenni dopo la sua scomparsa, un fascino davvero unico.

[Baroness · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must summer read. Bruce Lee was a very interesting human. Some sections were repetitive, I found that very annoying. It seemed like those pages were fillers. Bruce has instilled the curiosity within, so I’m definitely going to read his other books.

[Alberto Grandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una stupenda testimonianza di un uomo divenuto leggenda: Bruce Lee. Già famoso grazie ai suoi film e alla sua pratica marziale, in questo testo, una raccolta di diversi scritti, appunti, pensieri, lettere e poesie di Lee, si approfondisce il suo interesse per la filosofia la poesie, la psicologia tutte legate da un filo conduttore, l'autorealizzazione di sé. Un libro per conoscere Bruce Lee non solo come marzialista, ma come intellettuale e soprattutto come essere umano

[Lorenzo Spreafico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book goes straight into the action, but takes a while to settle and feel a bit more structured. The continuous, small bit so bits of writing can be a bit too scattered! Nevertheless, they ultimately start painting a pretty cohesive picture of Bruce Lee's thinking / philosophy which I did find really interesting.

[Ḳristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself- that, my friend, is very hard to do."

With that being said, I have to give this book 3/5 stars (all 3 stars towards Bruce Lee only). John Little's decision to repeat paragraphs (6, 7, 8 times- word per word) was exhausting by the 8th instance. At first I thought I must've accidentally read a few pages ahead and redirected myself to the correct page without noticing.

I guess John Little was trying to show the audience the evolution of Bruce Lee's thoughts and perceptions. I think there was a better approach to this!

So many gems and notable quotes in this book--- however, it's buried in monotony. :( The book is not organised well!

[Ridthwan Adigun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content - 9/10
Format - 3/10

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of writings penned by Bruce Lee. I wasn't as jazzed on this as I thought I might be but there were still some gems to be found in this book. One problem is a good portion of this book was the same essay several times over in a revised version. There was also a lot of stuff like term papers Bruce Lee wrote when he was a philosophy major in college and some poetry he had written so its not all martial arts stuff. Overall it was interesting if your interested in Bruce Lee or martial arts but still somewhat of a disappointment.

[Oliver Ho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of writings, from essays to poems, notes and marginalia to letters, which is good and bad. It's good because it offers a very close look at him as he searches to express himself, and there are many opportunities to watch his thoughts and ideas develop, particularly when the book gives multiple drafts of the same pieces of writing. On the downside, this book is not a coherent statement and most (if not all) of the pieces were never meant for publication, at least not in this form. Ultimately, it still offers an intimate look at a fascinating person.

[Jessica]

anyone who has approached life as a GIANT ART PROJECT will appreciate this book. The content of this book is formulated from journals bruce lee kept throughout his life regarding the essence of the creative experience, and how one comes to apply the wisdom gained during the creative process. Once applied to any craft chosen by an individual comprimising the integrity of the individuals vision must be avoided.
-jessica in chicago

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was odd in how it was laid out in that it had drafts of the same essays written by bruce lee repeated like 3 or 4 times showing slight changes he made to his drafts over time. If you cut out the drafts of the same essay, this book would have been half the size. Besides that, Bruce Lee is the man. This gives you a glimpse of the mind and work ethic that made the star.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this material previously in the Jeet Kune Do book his wife, Linda Lee was involved with. It was the first book on Bruce Lee I read and really enjoyed it. I wish the cover had mentioned that the material was published previously under a Jeet Kune Do title; it would've saved me some reading time.

[Lloyd Fassett]

1/12/14 Found it through Brain Picking's weekly e-mail. The e-mail was about 15 Worthy Resolutions for 2015. This book came in at 12 with 'Be like water'.

[Reinier Brands · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty challenging read but also super rewarding. Didn't know much about Bruce Lee before reading this, still haven't seen his movies, and have no real interest in martial arts, but I'd heard so many good things about him that I wanted to check out what he was about. Got this book gifted to me just before my trip to Asia (giving me the chance to read this in Hong Kong, which was kinda cool), so perfect timing to read it.

A lot of the notes, letters, and memos featured in this book are fantastic to read. Full of new insights in life and into the man that Bruce Lee was, and so many new perspectives to think about. That alone made it a worthy read.

I personally still have trouble truly understanding poetry though (or appreciating, might be the better word), so that section was harder to get through. Equally hard was the Jeet Kune Do section that had 10 of the exact same memos, differing slightly in wording but saying much of the same things. The effect of getting to see the perspectives from Bruce change over the memos was interesting, but it also felt like homework at times to keep reading the exact same paragraphs again.

Still made me very interested in checking out more of Bruce Lee's work though.

[Robert Turanský · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruce Lee was a progressive and deep thinker. He connected the west and east philosophy by creating his unique art, master piece - Jeet Kune Do.

His legacy is about simplicity and guiding people to not follow the rule in any system, because blind follow of the system creates not humans but robots and put people's mind in a "cage" with a limited thinking.

Life is about self-help and self-awareness.

Our mind need to be trained to stay calm, but flexible like a "picture of the moon" on the surface of the river.

And we should be like a water in the river. Always moving forward, changing, adapting and transforming the surroundings.

When the water hit the stone or obstacle, it always find the way and if doesn't. It patiently, day by day create a hole even through the rock.

The only constant is a change. Living is a process of change - lifelong learning.

Bruce Lee's philosophy of life is simple and at the same time complicated to fully understand.

You'll need a second or maybe a third reading to grasp the true meaning of his words.

[Elke de Echte · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A good JKD (Jeet Kune Do) artist rests in direct intuition.” That must be my favorite quote from the enigmatic Hong Kong-American martial artist, actor and philosopher Bruce Lee’s writings. Considered to be the most influential martial artist of all time, Lee (1940 – 1973) was on to so much more. The selection of essays Bruce Lee. Artist of Life - albeit unfortunate editing choices - ultimately starts painting a pretty cohesive picture of Bruce Lee's thinking. Stressing the individual journey and responsibility, he sees art as a means to acquire personal liberty. The process is key, maturing a must (and palpable throughout Lee’s writings). Lee proclaimed to be a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession, but most of all, in actualizing his potentiality through soulful discoveries - searching internally for the cause of his ignorance - and daily exercising, he strived to be an artist of life.

[Miguel Ángel Siller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Bruce Lee fan will find the book compelling and confusing. The magnitude of Bruce´s philosophy is difficult to comprehend. Be ready to find paradoxes or what may look as controversies throughtout the book. Try understanding the time period of the excerpt because Bruce Lee was a different person from year to year, month to month, and on a daily basis. He attached to nothing and neglected nothing.
The reason it is important to read this is that Bruce Lee was a martial artist by choice, an actor by profession, a philosopher by accident, but above all, he actualized daily to be hope to be an artist of life. He has more to give than kicks.

"As he matures, a martial artist will realize that his kick or punch is really not so much a tool for conquering his opponent, but a tool to explode through his consciousness, his ego, his fear, and all his mental blocks." - Bruce Lee

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can be approached as a sort of psychological biography of Bruce Lee. I was more interested in his view on the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies but even more about himself, Bruce Lee, his energy and force he put in his life and passions for martial arts, philosophy, and art.

The book is OK, but lot of chapters are repetitions of the same articles rewritten multiple times by Bruce. So I ended up skipping quite a few of them. The part on Jeet Kune Do is hardly understandable to me. I think he tried to hard to appear as a philosopher (that text was destined to a publication, if I remember well) because later he wrote at a more personal level, for himself, and his clarity improved greatly.

Still, it's an interesting book, to understand the person of Bruce Lee and the impact he had from Hong Kong to Hollywood.

[Alexander Shagov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Слушал аудиокнигу и, по правде, очень глупо себя чувствовал от постоянных повторений.

В итоге несколько последних глав я так и не дослушал!
Напротяжении книги действительно открылась философская грань личности Брюса Ли, но его отношения с коллегами, друзьями, семьей — все это осталось за кадром. А ведь это важно, это и есть жизнь, а не эзотерические размышления о балансе бытия.

Его идеи боя и подхода к жизни берут исток в восточной философии, вряд ли стоило компоновать про это целую книгу. Ведь те, кто знаком с нею, не найдут здесь ничего нового, кроме того, что эта философия была применена к самому бою как процессу.

Если вы ярый фанат Брюса — читайте, но мое личное мнение в том, что книга переоценена.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated by Bruce Lee as a kid and even moreso once I moved to the Seattle region in my mid 20's. This book contains Lee's personal thoughts and poems relating to philosophy, life, and the art of gung fu. It can be repetitive at times - certain passages are listed multiple times to show the work it took to get to the final version. I liked the writings that showed Lee's Seattle roots - after all, he is buried here (along with Brandon). It isn't perfect, but it is the best way to get into Bruce Lee's mind. Recommended.

[Chase Dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a selection of Lee's personal essays on philosophy, psychology, martial arts, as well as Lee's personal poetry. Most of the essays are good food for thought; they're okay, as is the poetry.

However, there about a dozen or so essays that are special. They offer Lee's great wisdom to the reader, revealing that he was more than just an actor or martial artist. He was a poet and a philosopher, deeply concerned with questions about how to live well. The "In My Own Process" series is, perhaps, the best example of this; truly great.

[Patryk Zabicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays from Bruce Lee one of the most profound martial artists of XX century.
Topics are very broad, from his perspective on Eastern philosophy through Jeet Kune Do to his unique perspective on life.

What I found most valuable are his thoughts on intersection of martial arts, personal growth, art and in general terms aestetics of life.

Good way to follow it up would be by reading Heidegger or Camus for ethics, Heidegger feels closer to Lee, due to certain type of optimism.

[Nikolay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is collection of Bruce Lee's articles, notes, college lectures records, letters to his friends and even poetry. Sometimes these materials are very raw, sometimes different versions of the same article presented in the book. While it might be interesting for Bruce Lee's fans and historians who studies his life, it was weird for me to see the same article duplicated several times in the book with minor changes. I also I didn't get why they've included into this book notes from philosophical lectures that Bruce Lee recorded in University.
But despite the fact that only around 30% of this book consists Bruce Lees thoughts and unique articles, I've found there some nuggets of wisdom and insights to think about. I've also opened for myself Bruce Lee from different perspective - I've never knew that he was so interested in studying philosophy, wrote poetry and wrote a lot of articles about martial arts, life and other topics.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aus privaten Briefen, Notizen und Gedichten entsteht das Bild eines Mannes, der nicht bloß eine Kung-Fu-Attraktion sein wollte, sondern ein ernsthafter „Künstler des Lebens“. Die Sammlung erlaubt einen seltenen Blick hinter die Fassade auf jemanden, der über Liebe, Vaterschaft und Philosophie reflektierte. Sie zeigt eine Popikone, die ihre Kampfkunst als ästhetischen und existenziellen Ausdruck verstand. Ein Muss für alle, die den sensiblen Menschen hinter dem Mythos kennenlernen möchten.

[Kevin Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a pretty well rounded exposure to Bruce lee's view points on martial arts, life experiences, western and eastern philosophies based on a collection of his own personal writings. It was not good to read it all in a setting as its a lot of short essays so I found it best read as a section a day for a few months.