Forever Young

 

拳怕少壯

The fist fears the young and vigorous¹

少時練得一身勁，老來健壯少生病

A whole body strength trained when young, robust, healthy and rarely sick at an old age.

練出一身汗，小病不用看

Training to sweat all over the body, no need to worry about minor illnesses.

身體鍛鍊好、八十不服老

A body well trained, eighty but not acquiescing to old age.

二五更的功夫

Skills coming from an early sleep and an early wake².

A part of old practices, which is almost lost nowadays, is the training of the organs and its deep transformation of one’s body. To stay fit, for old internal practices, was to upgrade one’s organs, the internal alchemy, which, amongst other things, led to slowing down the ageing process and keep one’s vitality at its best for a long time. 少壯, young and vigorous, stresses on such need.

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.

Overload

铁杵成针

To grind an iron bar down to a fine needle

集腋成裘

Many a little makes a mickle (many hairs make a fur coat)

The use of weights in old practices is often a misunderstood issue. Indeed, it is often considered as either good or bad. Old practices were all about method, which means most of the time neither a total inclusion, nor exclusion, of any exercise. It was a question of opportunity, so of when, how and why. The first question to be answered was why one would use weight in training, then would come the when was it opportune and how to train with them. Since training was primarily customised for children and teenagers, whose body would transform very quickly, the opportunity to use weights in training would come very fast. Hence, as far as teenagers were concerned, weights were almost from the beginning a part of their training. Unfortunately, going from children professionally trained to leisurely adult changes totally the equation. Therefore, it may be interesting to describe how adults shall face the weight issue.

Spirited Heart

心平氣和*

A peaceful heart for harmonised vapours

藏所藏：心藏神，肺藏魄，肝藏魂，脾藏意，腎藏志，是謂五藏所藏**

What storages store: the heart stores the spirit, the lungs store the corporeal soul, the liver stores the immortal soul, the spleen stores the intention, the kidneys store the will, this is what is called "what the five storages store".

Training differentiates the spirit methods, 神法, from the heart methods, 心法.

Breathless

呼吸往來，不及法禁*

Exhaling and inhaling comes and goes, never reaching what the method prohibits

At first your breathing will be rough. When it gradually calms down, your ch'i will become lively and should feel as though it fills Heaven and Earth. This is not a matter of holding your breath or straining your ch'i. In this case, your ch'i fills you internally and becomes active.**

當明內外呼吸之歸***

When understanding where internal and external breathing converge

Breathing is a complex matter which has been briefly described in Breathing, Complex and Evolving. Being one of the main obvious activities our body has, it is naturally ultimately the main tool used in practice, whether external, the body, or internal, the organs. Of all the different ways to train one's body, in the end, it just becomes a question of a correct breathing. Indeed breathing directs everything, from body relaxation and stretching to organs pressure, from body angles to vapours flow, from body stillness to mind awareness, from movements to emptiness of one's mind. Therefore fascias and vapours are linked through breathing, they naturally expand and retract following one's breath. Whether external (pulmonary) or internal, it may be interesting to describe a few ways breathing is used in order to decipher the method it relies on. 

The Rice Strikes Back

五臟實為生性之源，生氣之本*

The five organs are really the source of the production of essence, the basis of the production of vapours

布形候氣**

Deploying the body awaiting for vapours

行氣，深則蓄，蓄則伸***

Vapours behaviour, deep then accumulating, accumulating then stretching

Even if the original character for Qi was just a simple description of cloud vapours and did not contain any reference to rice, as explained in "气 Where is my Bowl of Rice?", one cannot also totally dismiss the presence of rice, or grain, in such notion. Indeed, languages are a living thing, meanings and understanding changes during the course of time, and the complex version of Qi, "氣", has been used for a time long enough to alter, willingly or not, the original meaning of what was just a simple way to describe the feminine and masculine principles interaction, more known as the Yin and the Yang. Futhermore, if the complex version was not a pictogram, it was still an ideogram made of two very recognisable compounds, grain (or rice) and vapours. Hence, for who opened the lid of a pot of just cooked rice, or grain, and saw the vapours coming out of it, the link between the character and vapours coming from just cooked grain or rice can seem quite obvious. A lot of texts describing the notions behind the concept of Qi were originally written with its complex version, meaning the understanding was also coming from an analysis including the rice/grain element.

Fast and Furious

故身雖疾而心自暇*

Therefore the heart remains naturally leisurely even though the body is swift

故以神為主，形而從利。以形為主，神而從害**

Therefore when the spirit takes control, the body follows for its own good. When the body takes control, the spirit follows for its own harm

電挈昆吾晃太陽***

To wield with lightning speed, Kunwu swings the Great Yang

There is a urban legend about some Japanese soldiers during World War II able while charging to withstand the shots fired at them until they reached their opponents and killed them. Only then would they die. If the Boxers' Uprising taught us to be extremely cautious with tales of seemingly extraordinary feasts performed by Asian martial arts against modern weaponry, this legend remains interesting because it tells about an achievement sought while training fast and in frenzy, "getting out of one's body".

All Along the Watchtower

故氣雖結而神自揚*

Therefore the mind naturally expands itself even though the vapours bind themselves

百拳之法，以眼為網**

All the boxing methods have the eyes as a key link

Moving extremely slow, taking half an hour to execute just one move, was made to further train one's heart capacity to endure by having one's mind even more awake. This is actually the essence of the peeping thief technique.

Taking One's Time

故形氣盛而能縱橫，精神斂而能飛騰*

Therefore one finds great ease when his/her vapours flourishes, may soar when he/she has collected vitality

鬆則活變**

From relaxation comes lively changes

且夫乘物以遊心，託不得已以養中，至矣***

Further still, let your mind find its enjoyment in the circumstances of your position, nourish the central course which you pursue, by a reference to your unavoidable obligations. 

Once one's form and heart were fixed through stillness, moving could be contemplated, normal speed being the first step since it allowed the student to remain relaxed. Deep and uninterrupted relaxation being one of the most important principles in internal practices, adding any kind of pressure had to be done with method and in a progressive way. Therefore, learning motion by beginning at a normal and relaxed pace was the preferred method for internal practices. Normal speed was not only a way to going beyond just memory but also to learn how to use one's vitality.

Still, Keeping at Bay

神寧氣靜

A mind at ease and calm vapours

神非其所宜而行之，則昧*

If one's spirit does not operate properly, it looses its clarity

Following the feminine and masculine principles theory**, the body (the external), and the mind (the internal), should compensate each other, meaning if one is fast, the other should be slow. If this seems quite easy, it gets complex if the concept of vitality and its materialisation (vapours) and the issue of the organs are added.

The Sleeper Must Awaken

心平氣和

A stable heart for harmonised vapours

擊敵有用形，用氣，用神之遲速*
The speeds of one's body, vapours and spirit, all have to be considered when fighting an opponent 

故每一勢之操縱手法，心先，命門為次，頭又次之，手足之次而又次之**

Therefore, when executing each posture technique(s), the heart comes first, the Life Gate (Mingmen) second, then, after, the head, hands and feet being even more ancillary

If one's body speed issues seem complex, the internal part, organs, vitality, mind and their relation to the body is even more challenging in internal arts. Before explaining the impact of the different training speeds on the internal side, it may be useful to first explain, or recall, how the mind and the vitality can influence speed. Indeed, speed is not only a question of going fast in martial arts, it is also a question of having swift reactions. Hence, mind, through its clarity, improves one's reflexes while vitality makes someone more reactive.

Rock the Cinnabar

內有丹田，氣之歸宿*

Inside are the Cinnabar Fields, the place vapours return to

勁從足下起，還得丹田足

The strength raises from the feet on the prerequisite the cinnabar field is sufficient enough

掌心力從足心印

The force from the centre of the palms comes from the mark in the centre of the feet

Working on one's vitality flow, as it was explained in the two previous posts, was one of the objectives in the old practices. To do so, apart from mobilising one's organs, one could work on, or enhance, certain parts of the body having an impact on such flow. Of the numerous parts, the most famous are the cinnabar fields, 丹田.

Vitality and Strength

眼無神, 拳無魂

Eyes with no expression, boxing without spirit

氣發若風行, 氣納吞百川*

Vapours are emitted like the wind, vapours receive, swallowing a hundred rivers

夫內勁寓於無形之中，接於有形之表，而難以言傳**

The inside strength is in the incorporeal, connecting with a corporeal expression, thus very hard to convey in words

Chinese arts differentiate strength from just body force. In Chinese, force is 力, which originally was a representation of human tendons or connective tissues***, "筋也。象人筋之形". Strength is 勁, the "underground river", 巠, of force, 力.

Vitality and Force

全神貫注

To concentrate one's attention on

神清氣爽

A clear mind in a calm state

聚精會神

To concentrate one's attention on

心馳神往

One thoughts fly to (a place or a person)

Similarly as to the difference between fascias elasticity and muscle contraction, it may be interesting to try to first determine what belongs more to vitality. Of course, since vitality is mainly invisible, contrary to muscle mass, the noticeable differences lie more in effects than on visible or touchable things on one's body.

Sweet Sweat

汗流浃背

Sweat streaming down and drenching one's back

二、周身發汗：體溫增高，熱能可通達全身，暢及四肢，周身皮膚毛孔開，透出微汗，出汗不宜過多，以汗透毛皮為度，初步可治療傷風感冒，經常煉功者能遍燒全身，汗流如雨，濕透衣褲，可永絕感冒

Second, the whole body perspire: the body heat increases, a heat that can go through the entire body, smoothly reaching the four limbs, all the body pores open, slight sweat passing through, but too much would be inadvisable, just allowing the sweat to penetrate the skin pores, which can in the beginning cure from a cold or the flu, and if often trained shall heat up the entire body, dripping with sweat, clothes fully drenched, keeping away flu for ever.*

In internal practices, sweat is a cornerstone of one's training, a way to check one's practice and general health. It is also quite a complex matter as nervousness or tiredness can often produce the same results as the ones looked for in training.

Foggy Heart

心靜气動

A still heart for moving vapours

二振气，三安和

Second rouse vapours, third calm and at peace*

The two main pillars of internal arts are the heart and the Qi, emotions and vitality. If one was to describe a high internal level, even though martial arts have little to do with meditation, it would be through two lotus postures. The first one would be a Martist at noon in the middle of a very hot summer in a very stuffy room.