Sign Of Times

 

Since modern weaponry and technology appeared, old practices coming from Asia, some still refer as martial arts, have entered a more or less slow decay a few centuries ago, surviving by spreading in more and more diluted versions in the civilian world. It’s neither a shame nor good, it’s just the way it goes for anything in this world ruled by time.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Directing Breath To Emptiness

 

得胎息者，能不以鼻口噓吸¹

Who obtains the fetal breathing can, without his/her nose or mouth, slowly breathe out and in.

食氣者必謂吹呴呼吸，吐故納新也²

Who nourishes himself/herself from vapours has to be called the blowing and yawning breathing, spitting out the stale and receiving the fresh.

其息深深。真人之息以踵，眾人之息以喉³

Their breathing came deep and silently. The breathing of the true man comes from his heels, while men generally breathe from their throats. 

鼻息無聲神氣守⁴
Soundless breathing through the nose, guarding vapours and spirit

Breathing is a much more complex subject than it seems. It encompasses multiple exercises coming from various and sometimes quite different, if not opposite, traditions. The general term breathing, therefore, can refer to the lungs main function, a cutaneous possibility, an organ-related capacity, a directional practice and so on… Goals are also numerous, from relaxation to waking, from heating to cooling, from posture to movement, from Berzek to emptiness, etc., a myriad of exercises so that one can easily get lost and most of the time ends up practising a mix of now and again actually incompatible ones.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Bar, Book and Pendulum

練長使短

Training in length, using short

練重使輕

Training heavy, using light

Most of the devices used in the search of verticality usually target the backbone, a stronger stretch or a better vertically. Two examples can be given, the use of chin-bar like tools for stretching and the book and pendulum-like ones for verticality.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Reaching Higher

天門亢

The gate to the Heavenly Palace is haughty

 

 

 

 

Old practices based on change were very adaptive, a thing which is almost lost in today's mass teaching, posture, routines and exercises being quite standardised and always to be repeated the same way regardless of the different body shape and transformation. Before, they were considered to be tools that one could modify, not only according to its body, mind and level of understanding, but also simply to what kind of objective one would look for.

The Swallowed Third Foot

  

龜縮頸，耕牛之力

The turtle retracts its neck, the strength of the ploughing cattle.

氣隨糞行
Vapours follow excrement.

五常，全寓性¹

The five constant virtues, all residing in the sex.

Sex remains taboo for some, a power to be mastered for others and often a laughing matter for everybody. Still, old practices aimed to fully understand any and every part of one’s body, nothing was left untrained. Since it used to be a verbal transmission between a teacher and his student, the taboo nature of the topic was actually not a big issue. This is a bit different if it has to be written down and the present post will be as short as possible, most of this kind of teaching should be kept as a timely transmission from teacher to student.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Production&Insulation

 

五臟六腑，各安其位，各司其職

The five viscera and six internal organs, each in its place, each in its function.

肛門不提，丹田氣散，内中空虚，元氣¹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.

A flat stomach is not only an issue linked with the body verticality, it is also an even more important one which concerns our capacity to correctly produce and maintain vitality. As mentioned earlier in this blog, the main machinery used to generate vitality are the organs, hence the first quote. The concept of 气 in its original writing refers to a process between fire and water which creates vapours.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Tiny Details Great Impact

天門亢

The gate to the Heavenly Palace is haughty

含胸拔背

Containing the chest and pulling up the back

提肛吊肚

Lifting the anus, hanging the stomach

Tiny details inside the body are always hard to describe and may slightly differ for each student according to their body built. Looking for them often leads to investigating more and more the different possible meanings of the sayings. Indeed, at this point, one should not try to reproduce externally what they illustrate, such as the ones quoted, but analyse the internal process which produces such results. It is, after all, the internal arts main focus.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Anti-Gravitational Reconnection, External Connections

 

頭部，身軀，腿足，為天地人三盤

Head, torso and legs, the heaven, earth and human plates

三盤一軸

Three plates, one axle

三盤對天

The three plates face the sky

Some martial art schools use the three plates theory, and the first two quotes are pretty common. As far as verticality is concerned the plates can be extended to any part of the body, the idea being that a vertical alignment means a horizontal one (the third quote and the concept of crosses in training). The best known one is the book on the head.

Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Anti-Gravitational Reconnection, The Basics

 

低頭彎腰，傳授不高

Lowering the head and bending the waist, not a great teaching.

 

腰與胯合，腰催胯

Waist and hips join, the waist propels the hips

圓襠鬆胯最為良

A round crotch and relaxed hips are desirable

吸胯提襠

Sucking in the hips and lifting the crotch

There are a lot of sayings, from a martial style to another, which insist on the importance of the middle section of the body, from the hips to the waist. They are often, if not totally forgotten (who talks about the crotch, if not just as a joke?), not really a key part of training any more, hips apart. Unfortunately, crotch, hips and waist are all essential parts where the connection between the upper and lower sections of the body is made and the vitality/heat is, or isn't, insulated.