Pouring, Another Reverse Breathing

氣灌丹田

Vapours pours into the Cinnabar Field

吸自背下五端，呼灌於骨盆轉

Inhaling from the back down to the five extremities, exhaling to pour into the pelvis in a rotation.

Usually, people refer to reversed breathing, 逆呼吸法， as a technique where one expands his/her stomach while breathing out and shrinking it while breathing in. If such a technique, provided one uses a belt to keep the stomach from bulging, is a good start, it is just what we could name as the entry breathing, often called 'the vapours sink into the Cinnabar Field'. As mentioned in a previous post about breathing, one then has to evolve towards other types of breathing, the next one being not sinking but pouring. 

Compared to sinking, pouring breathing knows different, if not opposite, principles. One can use reverse breathing as a classical example of how principles and training methods will drastically change whenever one reaches a new level, a new realm. Indeed, most of the time, reverse breathing refers to expanding the stomach as one exhale instead of emptying it. This is, of course, in opposition to a more common breathing, which involves the thorax.

Pouring will maintain this minimum participation of the chest, but will completely alter the rules as far as the stomach is concerned. For this, reverse breathing will not lead to stomach bulging on exhalation, but must be viewed as a directional one that opposes the normal flow of vapours. As for everything, it is important to first understand what the body needs to do externally while pouring into the down or middle Cinnabar Field¹. 

I. Compressed Stomach, Expanded Back

When sinking into the Cinnabar Field, it is customary to try to have the stomach bulge. Indeed, this technique is referred to as accumulating, learning to put as much vapours as possible in the lower or middle Cinnabar Field². Still, one normally had to wear a belt, sometimes even a sash, around the waist or the stomach, to avoid it from actually protruding. Indeed, what was ultimately sought is pressure, not volume. Therefore comes the second type of breathing, pouring. While trying to gather as many vapours as possible in the stomach, one would also set out to shrink it as much as possible. Wearing the belt/sash was, of course, a way to understand this opposite motion that the body needed to perform. Indeed, it would create it almost automatically.

Furthermore, when learning to accumulate, one would attempt to concentrate vapours in the pelvis or mediastinum areas², not caring whether it will be in the front or the back of the body. When pouring, one will have to start to apply the principle of an empty stomach for a full back. Indeed, the idea will be to try to keep the abdomen as flat as possible all the time (even more while exhaling, see previous paragraph) while, when inhaling, having only the back expand.

But pouring breathing would go even further. Indeed, if, when learning to accumulate, the way to put vapours down while exhaling is not important, pouring has to follow a certain path.

II. Reversing and the Spring Effect

This is the harder part to understand for most people. Vapours are supposed to follow a flow; some of it is often described in books. Contrary to popular wisdom, the diagrams explaining it are more to be taken as avenues of research than anything else. Still, the direction of the flow they describe aligns with the general trends that vapours will normally observe.

For this, reverse breathing, in this case, will take the opportunity given by directional breathing techniques to direct the vapours against the flow going upwards in the back while inhaling. Still, one cannot defy natural laws; this will only slow its progress, creating a spring effect. 

Exhaling presents a more complex matter, as it does not follow the usual flow described in books. That’s where this breathing technique gets its name: ‘pouring’. Indeed, when one pours a liquid into a glass, for example, the shock at the bottom makes it bounce back up until it settles. This produces a mostly rotational motion that pouring into the cinnabar field tries to recreate in the pelvis or mediastinum areas².

At this level, everything is to be taken as an avenue of research, not something to follow to the letter. Once mastered, one will have to go from pouring to piercing, 贯, which begins by finding how to link the lower and medium Cinnabar Fields, as the character also means ‘to be stringed together’. 

1. To make things simpler, the present post will only describe what happens in the down and middle ones. The upper one is another kind of training. 

2. See Women and Breathing for different approaches according to genre.