When evil winds come, diseases are like wind and rain. Therefore, those who are good at treating them treat fur, skin, tendons and meridians, six viscera, and five viscera. Those who treat the five viscera will be half dead and half alive
In ancient times, it was really labor, because before the Republic of China, including the Qing Dynasty, the proportion of agricultural population in our country was still over 90%. Since agricultural population accounted for 9%, think about it, what are the agricultural population doing? It's all about farming, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, right? Like the famous figure of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang, who is well-known to us, "I was originally dressed in plain clothes, worked hard in Nanyang, risked my life in troubled times, and did not seek fame and fortune from the feudal lords," right? Zhuge Liang still had to work in the fields every day. So we can see from these that a senior intellectual at that time was also engaged in farming and reading, cultivating land while reading, which was the entire social state in ancient times.
We will find from this that what the ancients called labor is actually a degree. They are talking about labor, but don't go too far. Overwork can harm the body, but it is also necessary to balance work and rest. If you don't exercise, it won't work. The ancients did not say that you need to run or exercise every day, nor did they have such requirements. However, they have some health practices, such as the Yi Jin Jing, Wu Qin Xi, and Ba Duan Jin. Who invented the Five Animal Play? It's Hua Tuo. Hua Tuo invented the Five Animal Play and passed it on to his disciple named Wu Pu. Wu Pu practiced the Five Animal Play and lived to be over ninety years old, which is very impressive. In that era, he was able to live up to the age of ninety, which shows that the health benefits of Wuqinxi are very good. This is a method of dredging meridians, clearing qi and blood, and regulating the five organs, called Wuqinxi.
Descendants have many traditional martial arts, such as the Eight Section Brocade, which consists of eight movements that exercise all five organs and six viscera of the body, including muscles and bones. There are also the twelve forms of the Yi Jin Jing, and the source of the Yi Jin Jing is even more divine. In the ninth year of the face wall era, Bodhidharma Patriarch founded Shaolin. So the ancient records are very interesting. Damo crossed the river with a reed and arrived at Dengfeng, facing the wall of Shaoshi Mountain. If we go to Dengfeng now, there is also a relic called Damo Cave. There was a year when I and a few good friends were meditating in Damo Cave. Damo Cave is the place where Damo Ancestor once faced the wall. Damotas is on the inner wall, he needs to cultivate his mind. We need to exercise our bodies, and the Yi Jin Jing has been passed down. The Yi Jin Jing was designed to assist many of his students and disciples in not only practicing meditation and enlightenment, but also providing for their physical well-being. Therefore, the Yi Jin Jing consists of over a dozen movements.
Of course, the versions we see now include many from the Qing Dynasty and even more from the Republic of China, as well as the Yi Jin Jing from Southern Shaolin and Northern Shaolin. In short, if you read the content inside, you will find that the Yi Jin Jing connects and links with the internal organs of the body and our limbs through vomiting and breathing, allowing our blood and qi to flow smoothly throughout the body, thus achieving the goal of strong muscles and bones, and strong internal organs. The more one practices, the more abundant their qi and blood become, the stronger their body becomes, and at the same time, their five organs are also very stable, achieving the goal of health and longevity.
Some martial artists have combined the Yi Jin Jing with martial arts and developed it into divine power. As we see in the Yi Jin Jing, it records that the human power is infinite because of the practice of the Yi Jin Jing. These are the functions of traditional Chinese health preservation techniques, which we will briefly introduce here. This is about labor, which is different from modern people's exercise methods. Ancient people also had their own exercise methods, which we can understand as a way of physical exercise. But it's different from modern gymnastics. Nowadays, the coordination between gymnastics and breathing is relatively low, but ancient sports were all related to breathing and exhalation, which is a very interesting thing.
Hua Tuo's Five Birds Opera emphasizes the technique of spitting and guiding the five birds, which he called the technique of spitting and guiding the five birds in the Records of the Grand Historian. The Eight Section Brocade also emphasizes breathing, and the Yi Jin Jing we just talked about also emphasizes breathing. Therefore, breathing refers to breathing, including reverse abdominal breathing. Then, there is a diaphragm between the pleural cavity and the abdominal cavity, which allows the diaphragm to move up and down greatly, allowing the internal organs' qi and blood to circulate fully. After practicing, the whole body's qi and blood are unobstructed, and the mind is refreshed. This is a characteristic of ancient Chinese exercise.
In later generations, there are many traditional boxing techniques, such as Taijiquan, which we are very familiar with. People all over the country have more or less heard of it, and some even practiced it. Another one is Baguazhang, but few people know about it. We know that Dong Haichuan is the founder of Baguazhang. The third one is Xingyi Quan. There are not as many people who know Xingyi Quan as Tai Chi. The founder of Xingyi Quan is called Li Luoneng, who created Xingyi Quan. Xingyi Quan is interesting. It is a pile, called the Three Body Style, with five movements, five ways of exerting force, and five ways of exercising the five organs, which are chopping, smashing, drilling, blasting, and horizontal. These five boxing techniques are also called Five Elements Fist. After practicing the Five Elements Fist well, because the Five Elements correspond to the Five Organs, the Qi and Blood of the Five Organs are abundant, and the Five Elements Fist is also a method and usage of the five combat forces. The ancients called the struggle between two people martial arts, which are also the five methods of martial arts.
So if you want to learn Neijia Quan, you will find that it is very troublesome to learn Tai Chi. You can learn 83 and 48 Tai Chi at once. In short, you can learn for half a day. If you want to learn Baguazhang, the teacher will teach you how to walk in circles. Some people feel dizzy and dizzy after walking in circles, unable to walk, and will faint as soon as they walk in circles. I used to teach several patients how to walk, and out of ten people, seven would faint while three did not, which is quite a high proportion. Because he walks every day, he doesn't adapt, and the principle of fainting is that he may not have mastered the essentials well. If he doesn't adapt, he will faint, but after you walk well, it will be very beneficial to your body.
Baguazhang is very interesting. I practiced it when I was in college. At that time, I became a disciple of a 90 year old teacher named Tie Enfang. When I went to his house to learn from him, he taught me how to navigate circles. It's very simple, just put your hand forward and place it on the Dantian area, then hold onto the Qi and start walking. He said, 'The more you walk, the more peaceful you become. Don't try too hard. Slowly, the more you walk, the easier your body becomes. The Dantian Qi becomes stronger and stronger, and you feel very strong all over your body.'. This is Baguazhang. There are still 8864 palms to practice, which is too complicated to learn. Xingyi Quan and Wuxing Quan are very good, they are just five movements. A standing stake is a three body stake. Of course, some traditional training methods also include the two palm techniques of the Round Mound, Round Mound, and Three Body Fist, which consist of five movements known as the Five Elements Fist.
Many people hear it, it's too simple. I learned it in a day, that's right. The Trisolaran style includes standing stakes and the Five Elements Fist. It doesn't take a day for someone with a good brain, maybe half a day or two hours to learn. When I was learning with my teacher, it took me an hour and a half to master. Why? Too simple, these actions. But if you learn to use it for an hour and a half, you may not be able to practice well in three years. Why? It needs to have internal energy to swell, stretch, and expand inside. If you don't have internal strength, all you practice is an external empty frame, which is useless.
Disclaimer: This article is a sharing of health knowledge. The drugs, prescriptions, acupuncture and moxibustion and other treatment and health preserving methods mentioned in this article should be applied under the guidance of professional doctors, and should not be applied by yourself. We are not responsible for any issues arising from improper use.