Bamboo, Iron And Cotton, A New Realm

一层功，一层理

One level of skill, one level of intrinsic order¹.

古者謂是采真之遊

This is what the ancients called plucking the genuine wanderings².

Old practices were about constantly evolving, which meant changes, which meant to sometimes reach something totally new with very different rules or principles to be followed.
Therefore, the small, medium and great mastery in which one’s training used to be divided into was a way to reflect such fact. For those, this usually went hand in hand with achieving a deep body transformation allowing it to operate in a very different way. Bamboo, iron and cotton training corresponds to such a new realm, following the straight, round and locked one.

Coming to a new realm implies being able to answer two questions, what body transformation is necessary to reach such level and what would be the new governing principles to be followed. Such post defies, of course, the logic of self-discovery³.

I. A New Beginning

One can judge he/she is able to switch to bamboo training upon checking body, breathing and internal alchemy.

1.1 Body

One has to reach the locks, being able to tense, if not all, most of the body by finding the right alignments. Muscles must be tender and force can be created at will by having them stretch, totally lax, as much as possible in all six directions (or three dimensionally) in order to have the fascias tense.

1.2 Breathing

One must understand basic skin breathing techniques as far as external breathing is concerned, as well as basic condensation and compression ones as far as the internal one is concerned. This means that one’s stomach shall become as flat as possible when reaching the locks.

1.3 Internal Alchemy

Mobilising the organs and being able to, at least, work with the down and middle Dantians are what should be mastered. Hence, the peeping thief for the organs and drowning the Dantians, 沉丹田, are the basics to master⁴.

Going beyond straight, round and locked, then, will mean moving forwards with new principles and training methods.

II. A New Order

Most of the training nowadays focuses on a few principles, sometimes religiously followed. It is very important to understand that old internal practices, especially those following the Taoist principles of everlasting changes and truthfulness of the instant, do have therefore changing and evolving principles. Going from straight, round and lock to bamboo, iron and cotton, is a characteristic example. Such changes will be introduced in this post.

Basically, alignments, breathing and internal alchemy will all follow other rules.

2.1 Elasticity Over Alignment

Because old practices work with trends, there are principles trumping over others. Here connectivity through elasticity is what is sought for. Therefore, alignments will not be as important as before. This will be obvious when practising the swaying fist, already mentioned in this blog, where the upper body will be bent as much as possible on the front, back, right or left looking totally off balanced and forfeiting some of the alignments previously followed in straight, round and locked, especially the backbone verticality.

2.2 Emptiness Over Fullness

The basic breathing technique for straight, round and locked revolves around getting the stomach full, then compressing it. In bamboo, iron and cotton, the basic technique is totally reversed, it is all a question of emptying the stomach as much as possible.

2.3 Floating Over Sinking

Drowning the Dantians, 沉丹田, will also be reversed, one will have to search 丹田浮， the floating Dantians⁵. To do so, 灌丹田， pour (in) the Dantians, and 贯丹田， piercing the Dantians, are techniques which will have to be trained. Furthermore, in a similar way as breathing, mobilising the organs will become ‘voiding the organs’.

Finally, as each stage in straight, round and locked knows a particular set of principles, bamboo, iron and cotton will also be smaller realms in themselves. Hence, bamboo and iron will emphasise on a floating body while cotton on a drowning one for example.

Never being confined to one technique, one exercise, one routine, a theory, a set of principles and always evolving was the almost nowadays forgotten motto of internal practices. The next post on the subject will introduce the bamboo, iron and cotton method, pointing out what may be left of it in the popular martial arts culture.

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1 To be compared with 一层功，一层理, One level of skill, one level of principles.

2 Heaven’s Revolution, Outer Chapters, Zhuangzi, 莊子, 外篇, 天運.

3 As mentioned very early in this blog in Method, self-discovery is the cornerstone of internal practices.

4 During the locks, one shall also start to work on 灌丹田， pour (in) the Dantians, the following technique.

5 Sinking and floating are complementary opposites in internal practices, meaning that both interact.