qigung

Today Master Chang taught us five steps of full recovery from tiredness or injuries, they are:
1. Examining(檢)-- Examining where the injuries are
2. Treating(治)-- Treating the tired and injured parts
3. Mending(補)---Mending the damaged Qi in the injured parts
4. Containing(蓄)---Making Qi contained by injured parts
5. Completing(成)---Completing the entire treatment

Different to working-out, for Chinese martial art treatment won't be complete without mending Qi. Only stretching as rehab is far from treatment. Nonetheless it's still hard for me, a beginner, to conduct these five steps exactly, but Master Chang, as an experienced teacher, has simplified the procesdures.

When you are stretching you might feel sore at certain points or certain position, stop at that point or position and do diaphragmatic breathing several times. Pains are usually caused by long time pressing that sometime you are not even aware of. And doing diaphragmatic breathing is to give Qi back to the pressed part that hasn't breathed for too long.

You'd wonder why Qi is able to get to where it needs. It takes time to feel Qi and it takes even longer time to learn how to control Qi. The only tip: Practice, practice and practice. There are not shortcuts to martial art, one needs to practice it daily.

I am reading a book titled "The Adagio of Qi"(Chinese) by Dr. Wang Wei Kung, who has earned his doctoral degree of physics, emphasizing neurology, from the U. of Hopkins. He has devoted in the study of Qi since 1988, after teaching many years in several medical schools.

In the Prelude Dr. Wang pointed out that the first ten diseases causing death in both the West and in Taiwan, such as cancer, cardiovascular illness and diabetes are all related to the circulation system. He also pointed out that the existing medical theories regarding circulation are insufficient to explain the complex causes of diseases, and the new research has hit deadlock since the 1970s.

On the contrary, traditional Chinese medicine is specialized in curing problems of circulation system. Diseases commonly happening in modern society are mainly caused by the quality worsening of our blood, and the western medicine only sees the consequences of illness instead of finding the causes.

The history of Chinese study on body meridians can be dated back to more than three thousand years but it never established a theoretical framework that considered necessary for modern science.

In this book the author connects the blood flows and Qi by "resonance". He proposed several questions that never got explained by western medicine or fluid mechanics because it is totally ignorant about the Qi-- the flows of energy. One of his questions is: How heart works? The development of artificial heart has a history of more than two decades and the newest type is finally able to stabilize blood flows with about 30 watts power, but our hearts conduct this work with simply 1.7 watts. Without considering the existence of Qi, even the most advanced science fails.

To be continued....

Last Sunday morning my sister and I, along with a good friend of mine went together to take Gi Gung class. Our master, Master Chang belongs to Ting Zhan Gate. If you ever saw the movie Flying Dagger Gate you 'd feel funny that our gate doesn't seem to mean anything. But according to our master, Ting Zhan Gate came from Chinese royal house dated back to the Song Dynasty(960~1279 A.C.), and Ting suggests sudden thunders, Zhan suggests chopping or cutting and it actually means cutting with bare hands in this sect. Cool, right? We hardly know anything but hearsays about this sect. The inheritance of this martial art is legendary and involved with a lot of murders. I will write about the mysterious stories of Ting Zhan Gate later.

When we just arrived, our master was cutting something and he instructed us to do meditation first. After five minutes, he was still cutting food. My friend, first time attending this Gi Gung class, asked: "Is he doing knife play?" I listened more carefully and said: "His skill of chopping food doesn't sound much better than mine." Then I realized, the knife is not the point: "Today's weapon is the chopped carrot."

During the two-hour class we were so much distracted by the inviting smell of stewed beef, and I realized, again, the weapon was neither knife, nor carrot, but the smells distracting you. My mouth was watering, my stomach churning, my legs protesting.

The ending of the Qi Gung class was, our master held out a big pot of beef and cordially invited us to join his lunch, and we all happily ate after the class. We learned that Master Chang's wife and kids were traveling to Mainland China and he has to cook for himself and eat along, so we were invited.

That's all? I still think there was subtle philosophy in this meal. At least we know that, unlike many sects of Qi Gung suggest, Ting Zhan Gate doesn't bid it's apprentices to be vegetarians. I am happy with that though I don't think I need much meat.