Heaven and Earth

頭頂青天，脚抓地；懷抱嬰兒，手托腮

The head carries the blue sky, the feet grip the earth; hugging a child, resting the chin in the hands*

Stretching the fascia lines from top to bottom.

Firmly Elastic

魄門亦為五藏使*

The Mortal Soul Gate is also of use for the five organs  

下收穀道，上提玉樓**

Down holding the Grain Path, up lifting the Jade House

As it has been already mentioned many times in this blog, adapting professional training made for physically and mentally strong teenagers to leisurely adults raises a lot of issues. It is interesting to notice that one of the first issues is actually the basic training for any style focusing on fascia elasticity: flexibility. As it was mentioned in the posts concerning such elasticity, flexibility for those old practices is not meant to acquire acrobatic skills, even when the results seem quite similar. Indeed, as acrobatic postures may look, they still have to follow a set of rules concerning body alignment, like tucking in the butt for example.

A Fleeting Light

彷彿若光，影逐形追

Seemingly as if a light, shadows one by one chasing shapes

追 chase (or run) after; pursue

形 form; shape

逐 pursue; chase; one by one

影 shadow; reflection; vague impression

光 light; ray; brightness; naked; nothing left

若 as if, like

彿 seemingly

彷 seemingly,: resembling

When trying to expand the meaning of the quote, the first thing that strikes the reader is that maybe the second part is written in the wrong order*. Hence, the whole quote has been reversed in the present post. Since this text is relatively old, a lot of what seems to be part historically part of Chinese culture may actually not be relevant.

Hitting a Wall

打人千萬，不如一紥

Countless hits cannot compare to one prick

Sharp beats blunt.