炁, Taoist Propaganda

董仲君者，臨淮人也。服炁煉形，二百余歲不老。

Mr. Dong Zhong, someone from the Huai river surroundings. Taking vapours and refining his body, still young when more than two hundred years old.*

炁 is a synonym of 氣(气) sometimes used by taoists and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Back to the Centre

磨轉千遭臍不動

The millstone turns a thousand times, its pivot remains still

練藝不練腰終究藝不高

Training the art without training the waist, in the end it's a waste*

三盤一軸

One axle for three plates

The waist moves first.

Style

把勢、把勢，全憑架式。没有架式，不算把勢

Martial arts, martial arts, it is all a question of posture. No posture, no real training.

把勢 is an old way to say training martial arts.

Short Heartless Steel

肘不離肋，手不離心，起如鋼銼，落如鋼竿

The elbows do not leave the ribs, the hands do not leave the heart, raising like a steel file, dropping like an steel pole

Training long, using short.

A Connected Neck

龜縮頸，耕牛之力

The tortoise pull back its neck, the power of the ploughing ox

頂要懸

The crown of the head is suspended

A connected neck improves direction and balance.

Flexible Lower Back

坐胯，轉腰，圈襠步

Sitting the hips, twisting the waist, rounded crotch step

襠胯宜提緊，須玩兑澤之情*
Crotch and hips shall lift and keep tight, having to play in the swamp of passions 

Wiggling one's bum is the flexibility needed in one's lower backbone.

Greenish Black And Blackish Green

劍走青，刀走黑

The sword goes green, the sabre black.

Green because of the homophony with the character for light.

Sticky and Nimble Hands

手為先鋒*

Hands are the vanguard

手以心把, 心以手把**

Hands are held by the heart, the heart by the hand.

One trains the grip, not the fist.

Light And Athletic Foot

手腳眼為根

Hands, feet and eyes for roots

足膝效法乎坤，取其鎮靜厚載*

Feet and knees model themselves on The Feminine, fetching its unruffled largeness which supports and contains.

腳為四肢百骸之舟楫，一身之領袖，稍有不合，全體之氣俱不入矣，不可不細為區別**

Feet are the oars of all the limbs and bones, what leads the body, just a little bit uncomfortable, none of the whole body vapours can enter! They cannot not be meticulously diacritical

With 26 bones, 33 joints and more than a hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments, the foot is a complex machine often overlooked in training.