Still And Straight

腰不動，足不發 

The feet do not emit if the waist doesn't move. 

勁從足下起，還得丹田足

The strength rises from the feet on the prerequisite the cinnabar field is full. 

For internal practices, roots are an active relationship between the feet and the waist. Hence, moving the whole body while keeping the feet still is a way to work and enhance such relationship. Semi-static postures in the three-steps training were paying special attention to two things, keeping the feet as still as possible and the pelvis as straight as possible. 

Stretch It A Bit More

弹腿四只手，神鬼见了都发愁

Elastic legs are like four hands, gods and ghosts alike become anxious as they see them.

To be linked with 打拳不溜腿，必是冒失鬼.

Voiding

一步練錯百步歪。

One stage trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones.

The more professional and elitist one’s training was, the more attention was paid to details. After all, the rule remains the same nowadays in the real martial world, commando training has nothing to do with regular troops instruction. Therefore, martial artists, in the old days, paid particular attention not to the benefits, but to the defects of their training. Quite the opposite of nowadays leisurely schools with their “if you do it correctly then it’s all good” motto.

Right Path

一步練錯百步歪

One stage trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones

Apart from an external understanding, there is also internal understanding of such saying.

Tightrope

一步練錯百步歪

One step trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones

See Light And Athletic Foot.

Know Your Foot

力由足起

Strength rises from the feet.

足太陽之筋，起於足小趾，上結于踝

The fascias of the Foot Uttermost Masculin, starts from the little toe, linking up to the ankle...*

In internal practices, working on the feet means first posture then motion. Still, before even exploring those, it may be opportune to describe exactly what has to be trained as far as the feet are concerned. For such purpose, the foot is divided into five parts.

Mind Your Step

打拳容易走步難

Boxing is easy, stepping is hard

To compare with 我教你一手，不教你一走, teaching you a technique but not how to move.

Happy Foot

打拳容易走步難

Boxing is easy, stepping is hard

步不活則拳亂，步不快則拳慢

Boxing becomes messy when one does not step lively, slow when one does not step fast

One who has studied long enough old practices may have heard about a story or two describing the importance ageing masters paid to step. A typical one is probably the student being finally granted to see his master’s training only to end up walking hours with him. Beyond this type of story lies, for the least, two principles, “to each his/her training” and “feet go first”.

A Natural Breath

呼吸往來，不及法禁

Exhaling and inhaling going and coming, never reaching what the system prohibits

呼 to breathe out, exhale

吸 to breathe in, inhale, absorb.

往 to go, towards, past

來 to come, to arrive, next

不 not, no

及 to reach, up to

法(灋) method, system, to punish, to force

禁 (jìn) to prohibit, to forbid, (jīn) to contain, to restrain oneself

Breathing is one of the cornerstones of old practices. If the first part of the quote seems quite clear, the second part is quite obscure, what is prohibited by the system isn’t explained further in the text.

A Moving Mould

動則法，靜則型

With Method when moving, a mould when still.

Moving is about the waist.

Closing the Doors

肛門不提，丹田氣散，内中空虚，元氣*虧損

When the anus is not pulled up, the vapours around the cinnabar field disperse, the inside becomes empty and one's vitality depletes.

As it has been mentioned in the previous post, one could compare training teenagers and adults to fixing new or already used cars. Hence, when training adults, one has to consider the body deterioration, a thing teenagers have not yet undergone. As far as internal alchemy is concerned, it is mainly about the organs and their capacity to generate heat. Hence, their place, size and insulation are important matters to deal with when training adults. Right place and size are determined by the capacity to keep the stomach flat and insulation is working on the sphincters so that the sex and the anus are kept as closed as possible most of the time. Both issues are mainly solved by working on the pelvis and the perinea.

Bending the Bow

未学功夫，先学跌打

Before studying skills one shall study acrobatics

百折連腰盡無骨*

A hundred twists linking the waist, a boneless utmost

These two quotes are a perfect example of what kind of suppleness was required in the old days for Martists. Basically, one had to push flexibility to its utmost limits. Therefore, a great part of the basic training was extreme flexibility. Still, it was not the only basic training for internal arts, the other one was posture, learning a correct alignment. In a sense, those two trainings were not only made to complement each other but also as antidotes. Indeed, for the least, correct alignment locks the body in certain angles, restraining its movements and therefore diminishing its flexibility while extreme flexibility puts the body in detrimental angles which may, in term, lead to injuries.

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.

Right Intensity, Right Time

練功講究火候

Training is particular about the crucial moment

一日練一日功，一日不練百日空

A day spoil for a day training, a hundred empty days for a day without training

If there is an old method definitively lost in modern times, it is the idea of a crucial moment in training, basically having to do the right effort at the right moment. Indeed, modern training not practised on a 24/7 basis and not focusing on deeply transforming one’s body, such method has become obsolete. The timing issue is very similar to forging a sword, when and how are crucial, hence the use of 煉 instead of 練 in some texts regarding training.

And There Was Light

追形逐影，光若彿彷

Chasing after shapes and pursuing shadows, a light as if resembling seemingly

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

Definitely one of its hardest to understand statements, the second part meaning being obscure for the least. A first understanding coming to mind is, of course, the necessity to be fast. But the text is also about method, how to address the search of knowledge. Indeed one shall first find answers in the shape, then understand what is more and more hidden or obscure to finally reach real knowledge or Enlightenment.

Many a Little Makes a Mickle

一日練一日功，一日不練十日空

A day spoil for a day training, ten empty days for a day without training

藕斷絲連

The lotus root snaps but its fibres don't break

An old saying states that Taoists avoid violent exercises. This is often confused with intense exercises. Violence actually refers to something too harsh for one’s body and/or health.

Drastic Changes

杳之若日，偏如滕兔

Dark then like the sun, slant like a surging rabbit

杳 distant and out of sight, gloomy; dim; dusky, dark and quiet, disappear, remote and out of sight, obscure, dark, mysterious, deep.

之 "then" (之 knows multiple uses as a particle, in some cases with no particular meaning. Translating it by "then" is just to avoid not mentioning it), up to. 

若 as if, like if, assuming, similar.

日sun.

偏 slanting, leaning.

如 like, as if, such as.

滕 to surge, water bursting forth.

兔 rabbit.

This phrase is a typical example of a totally obscure text when one has not been given any clue to decipher such sentences. To understand what seems not only a total paradox but also two statements which do not seem to have any connection, one has to remember that change was the cornerstone of old practices. Indeed "Martial without change, a waste of the study of the Art"*. 

Ride Like the Wind

髮舌齒指

Hairs, tongue, teeth and fingers.

The “leisure for all ages” repurposing of ancient martial arts practices has brought to light a cornerstone of internal practices often overlooked before because, training teenagers, performance and endurance seemed quite similar. Still, if youth and a body growth which could be influenced towards heavy duties made teenager training look like searching for performance, the actual aim for internal schools was endurance and the rule was never to stretch one’s body over its limits, only to reach just below the breaking point.