Our Story So Far
Daoist Practice is a way of life emphasising the need to live in harmony with the natural world. The origins of the philosophy were first captured in three texts, the I Ching, Dao De Jing, and Zhuangzi, written many centuries before the common era.
The Daoist Association of Europe (DAE) is dedicated to making authentic Daoist practice accessible to all - through inclusive community classes across Europe and the development of Sea Cloud Hall in Leeds and Tenerife, as well as Centres of Excellence in Germany and France.
This Daoist practice system, of which the President of the DAE is an inheritor, was passed down through the Lee family from Master to Student over many generations before it was brought to the United Kingdom in 1930 by Chan Kam Li. Chan Kam Li had no successor, but while living in London he encountered a young boy playing football in Hyde Park who was half Chinese. The boy was known as Clifford Gibbs, as he was using his mother’s name. Clifford was orphaned as a child and raised in a Barnardo's Home. Chan Kam Li accepted the young Clifford as a student, and the boy was initiated into the family system. Chan Kam Li eventually adopted Clifford as his son.
In 1937, with the possibility of war increasingly apparent, Clifford joined the British Army as a soldier in the Royal Tank Regiment. During the war he served in France, North Africa, and Burma as a tank commander. He was awarded the Military Medal in 1941 and taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. He escaped the prison camp and survived in the jungle until he was located and repatriated. He was finally demobilised in 1947 and went on to establish a school for the Daoist Arts in London.
Chan Kam Li was lost at sea during a storm off the coast of China, near Canton. With Clifford being the only successor, he changed his name to his father’s and used the name Chee Soo until his death in 1994.
Chee Soo personified and upheld the Daoist arts throughout his life. His many books and exploits are a matter of public record. One of his duties as the custodian of the Arts was to nominate a successor and, as such, he chose an Irishman born and bred in England, Desmond Murray. Desmond is the current grandmaster.
As such, the richness and vitality of the Lee family Daoist arts have been cultivated, unchanged and protected, for nearly 100 years. This has ensured their ongoing continuity and integrity through volatile times. In China, the fact that this alchemic family tradition has been guarded and protected for so long is known as the mystery of mysteries. This explains the respect with which Chee Soo and Desmond Murray are held within the Chinese Daoist establishment.