| Báishǔ Wěi Cǎo 白鼠尾草 | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mikhail Pavlovich Lavrentyev Михаил Павлович Лаврентьев January 31, 1949  Tsarytsin, Russia |
| Residence | Sochi, Russia |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Ethnicity | Russian |
| Occupation | Religious figure, Oriental medicine doctor, soldier |
| Religion | Taoism |
Mikhail Pavlovich Lavrentyev (Russian: Михаил Павлович Лаврентьев) also more commonly known by his Chinese honorific Báishǔ Wěi Cǎo (白鼠尾草, lit. "White Sage") is a Russian Taoist master, and martial artist who is well-known for promoting Oriental spirituality and Oriental medicine in Russia. He is the founder of the Russian Taoist Society, and it its Grand Master and opened the first Wing Chun Dojo in Russia.
Báishǔ Wěi Cǎo was a veteran of the Imperial Russian Army, who drew an interest in Oriental culture when he was stationed in Kalmykia, and later Yakutia as part of a Reserve Base. After his service with the Imperial Russian Army ended, he traveled to China, and lived in China for over 10 years, where he picked up on Chinese language as a second language to Russian. His interest however in Taoism and Buddhism came after visiting a Buddhist monk, where he became increasingly-impressed, and studied and even began to practice large elements of Buddhism. However, he stated that his belief in actual deities later led him to a Taoist monk.
He would go on to work as a Chinese medicine doctor in Beijing, and his contributions led Taoists and Buddhists to bestow upon him the honorific "Báishǔ Wěi Cǎo" meaning "White Sage", a reference to his white skin. In 1990s, Báishǔ returned to Russia, to promote holistic Oriental medicine, where he opened a clinic in Moscow. He had truly believed that the Tumultuous 1990s was a result if spiritual degeneracy, and believed that Taoism and Oriental lifestyle were the fix to that.
Biography[]
Mikhail was born four years after the Second World War in Tsarytsin, a city that had escaped the horrors of World War II. His father Pavel, was a veteran of the Imperial Russian Army, and served in the Western Front against the German forces. His mother, Militsa was a textile factory worker.
Mikhail studied Chemical Engineering at the Royal Kazan School of the Sciences. He would later go serve in the Imperial Russian Army, as part of the Engineering Corps. He had developed a fascination upon teaching Imperial Chinese Army Chemical Engineering students.
He was then stationed at an overseas base in Korea, where Chinese military personnel also trained with Korean and Russian troops. It is in Korea where he gained a fascination with Oriental culture. Chinese troops taught him many elements of Oriental medicine, as they were standard practices among the various medical branches of the Imperial Chinese Forces.
Mikhail claimed to have been healed from a leg injury sustained, after a Chinese military medic whom he names Zhang Mao performed an acupuncture session on him. It is these experiences that Mikhail claims disillusioned him with European and Western medicine.
After returning to Russia upon the conclusion of his business, he grew ever spiteful of the Orthodox Church, and European culture. Therefore, he used his veteran pension funds to go live and study in China.
In China, he followed several religions, namely first Buddhism - which he had already been familiar with thanks to his experiences with Kalmyks in Russia. As a student of Buddhism, he learned practices such as esotericism, and the such. However, due to spiritual disagreements he had with Buddhism's practice of self-denial, he left the Buddhist faith but continued some of the practices he learned. He however stated that his departure was amicable, and that he remained good friends with the Buddhist monk.
He went to learn and study martial arts, particularly Wing Chun, and later Jeet Kune Do. It is during one of his Wing Chun training that he met a Taoist master, which he claims synched with his beliefs of existence in deities. He continued to study Taoism until he eventually decided to become a full-pledged Taoist. He was educated at the Beijing Dongyue Temple at was mentored by Master Jin Pao.