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Liu Zi Jue
The Six Healing Sounds or ''Liù Zì Jué'' () is one of the common forms of Chinese qigong, and involves the coordination of movement and breathing patterns with specific sounds. History The term Liù Zì Jué first appears in the book ''On Caring for the Health of the Mind and Prolonging the Life Span'' written by Tao Hongjing of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 - 589). A leading figure of the Maoshan School of Taoism, Tao was renowned for his profound knowledge of Traditional Chinese medicine. "One has only one way for inhalation but six for exhalation" he writes in the book. Zou Pu'an of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) was a major contributor in terms of theory and practice to the transmission of the exercise through his book ''The Supreme Knack for Health Preservation - Six-Character Approach to Breathing Exercises''. No body movements accompanied the Liù Zì Jué exercises until the Ming Dynasty (1386 - 1644) when Hu Wenhuan and Gao Lian wrote books on the subject. Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qigong
''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, ''qigong'' is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance '' qi'' (pronounced approximately as "chee"), translated as "life energy". ''Qigong'' practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. People practice ''qigong'' throughout China and worldwide for recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative medicine, meditation, self-cultivation, and training for martial arts. Etymology ''Qigong'' (Pinyin), ''ch'i kung'' ( Wade-Giles), and ''chi gung'' (Yale) are Romanized words for two Chinese characters: ''qì'' (／ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tao Hongjing
Tao Hongjing (456–536), courtesy name Tongming, was a Chinese alchemist, astronomer, calligrapher, military general, musician, physician, and pharmacologist, and writer during the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589). A polymathic individual of many talents, he was best known as a founder of the Shangqing "Highest Clarity" School of Taoism and the compiler-editor of the basic Shangqing scriptures. Biography There are a variety of sources about Tao Hongjing's life, from his own writings to biographies in the official Twenty-Four Histories. The British sinologist Lionel Giles said Tao's "versatility was amazing: scholar, philosopher, calligraphist, musician, alchemist, pharmacologist, astronomer, he may be regarded as the Chinese counterpart of Leonardo da Vinci". Secular life Tao Hongjing was born in Moling (秣陵, present-day Jiangning District, Nanjing, Jiangsu), which was near the Northern and Southern dynasties period capital Jiankang (present-day Nanjing). His fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern And Northern Dynasties
The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as the latter part of a longer period known as the Six Dynasties (220–589). Albeit an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spread of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism. The period saw large-scale migration of the Han people to the lands south of the Yangtze. The period came to an end with the unification of all of China proper by Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty. During this period, the process of sinicization accelerated among the non-Han ethnicities in the north and among the indigenous peoples in the south. This process was also accompanied by the increasing popularity of Buddhism ( introduced into China in the 1st century) in both northern and southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maoshan
The Shangqing School (Chinese:上清派), also known as Supreme Clarity or Highest Clarity is a Taoist movement that began during the aristocracy of the Western Jin dynasty. Shangqing can be translated as either 'Supreme Clarity' or 'Highest Clarity.' The first leader of the school was a lady, Wei Huacun (251-334). According to her Shangqing hagiographers, her devotion to Taoist cultivation so impressed a number of immortals that she received revelations from them - 31 volumes of Taoist scriptures, which would become the foundation of Shangqing Taoism. Later, Tao Hongjing, a man, (Chinese: 陶弘景) (456－536) structured the theory and practice and compiled the Taoist Canon. He greatly contributed to the development of the school that took place near the end of the 5th century. The mountain near Nanjing where Tao Hongjing had his retreat, Maoshan (茅山 – fr), today remains the principal seat of the school. Shangqing practice values meditation techniques of visualization and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action. Medicine in traditional China encompassed a range of sometimes competing health and healing practices, folk beliefs, literati theory and Confucian philosophy, herbal remedies, food, diet, exercise, medical specializations, and schools of thought. In the early twentieth century, Chinese cultural and political modernizers worked to eliminate traditional practices as backward and unscientific. Traditional practitioners then selected elements of philosophy and practice and organized them into what they called "Chinese medicine" (''Zhongyi''). In the 1950s, the Chinese government sponsored the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, and in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, promoted Chinese medicine as inexpensive a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song often came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The dynasty is divided into two periods: Northern Song and Southern Song. During the Northern Song (; 960–1127), the capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now Eastern China. The Southern Song (; 1127–1279) refers to the period after the Song lost control of its northern half to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. At that time, the Song court retreated south of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han Chinese, Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family—collectively called the Southern Ming—survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yi Jin Jing
The ''Yijin Jing'' () is a manual containing a series of exercises, coordinated with breathing, intended to dramatically enhance physical health when practiced consistently. In Chinese yi means "change", jin means "tendons and sinews", while jing means "methods". While some consider these exercises as a form of Qigong, yijin jing is a relatively intense practice that aims to strengthen muscles and tendons, promote strength and flexibility, increase speed and stamina, and improve balance and coordination of the body. These exercises are notable for their incorporation as key elements of the physical conditioning used in Shaolin training. In the modern day, many translations and distinct sets of exercises are derived from the original (the provenance of which is the subject of some debate). See also *Baduanjin *Liu Zi Jue *Qigong ''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and med ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baguazhang
Baguazhang or Pakua chang () is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being T'ai chi and Xing Yi Quan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia quan). ''Bāguà zhǎng'' literally means "eight trigram palm", referring to the bagua "trigrams" of the ''I Ching'' (''Yijing''), one of the canons of Taoism.Lie, Zhang. “Classical Baguazhang Volume V: Yin Style Baguazhang.” Trans. Joseph Crandall. Pinole, California: Smiling Tiger Martial Arts 1995. History The creation of Baguazhang as a formalized martial art, is attributed to Dong Haichuan (), who is said to have learned from Taoist and Buddhist masters in the mountains of rural China during the early 19th century. Many Chinese authorities do not accept the Buddhist origin, instead maintaining that those teachers were purely Taoist in origin, the evidence lying in Baguazhang's frequent reference to core concepts central to Taoism, such as Yin and Yang theory, I Ching ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baduanjin Qigong
The Baduanjin qigong() is one of the most common forms of Chinese qigong used as exercise. Variously translated as Eight Pieces of Brocade, Eight-Section Brocade, Eight Silken Movements or Eight Silk Weaving, the name of the form generally refers to how the eight individual movements of the form characterize and impart a silken quality (like that of a piece of brocade) to the body and its energy. The Baduanjin is primarily designated as a form of medical qigong, meant to improve health. This is in contrast to religious or martial forms of qigong. However, this categorization does not preclude the form's use by martial artists as a supplementary exercise, and this practice is frequent. History This exercise is mentioned in several encyclopedias originating from the Song Dynasty. The ''Pivot of the Way'' (Dao Shi, c. 1150) describes an archaic form of this qigong. The ''Ten Compilations on Cultivating Perfection'' (Xiuzhen shi-shu, c. 1300) features illustrations of all eight moveme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neigong
Neigong, also spelled ''nei kung'', ''neigung'', or ''nae gong'', refers to any of a set of Chinese breathing, meditation, somatics practices, and spiritual practice disciplines associated with Daoism and especially the Chinese martial arts. Neigong practice is normally associated with the so-called "soft style", "internal" or neijia Chinese martial arts, as opposed to the category known as waigong or "external skill" which is historically associated with shaolinquan or the so-called "hard style", "external" or wàijiā Chinese martial arts. Both have many different schools, disciplines and practices and historically there has been mutual influence between the two and distinguishing precisely between them differs from school to school. There is both martial and non-martial neigong. Well-known examples of martial neigong are the various breathing and focus trainings taught in some traditional Taijiquan, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan and Liuhebafa schools. An example of non-martial ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qigong
''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, ''qigong'' is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance '' qi'' (pronounced approximately as "chee"), translated as "life energy". ''Qigong'' practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. People practice ''qigong'' throughout China and worldwide for recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative medicine, meditation, self-cultivation, and training for martial arts. Etymology ''Qigong'' (Pinyin), ''ch'i kung'' ( Wade-Giles), and ''chi gung'' (Yale) are Romanized words for two Chinese characters: ''qì'' (／ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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