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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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qigong
Qigong ()) is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation said to be useful for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese medicine, Chinese philosophy, philosophy, and Chinese martial arts, martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance the mystical life-force ''qi''. 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 romanization of Mandarin, Yale) are romanizations of two Chinese words "''qì''" and "''gōng''" ( ... [...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 during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. A polymathic individual of many talents, he was best known as a founder of the Shangqing School, 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 fat ... [...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). The period featured civil war and political chaos, but was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spread of Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. The period saw large-scale migration of Han people to lands south of the Yangtze. The period came to an end with the unification 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 in both northern and southern China and Daoism gaining influence as well, with two es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maoshan
The Shangqing School (Chinese:上清), also known as Supreme Clarity, Highest Clarity, or Supreme Purity, is a Daoist 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 woman, Wei Huacun (251-334). According to her Shangqing hagiographers, her devotion to Daoist cultivation so impressed a number of immortals that she received revelations from them 31 volumes of Daoist scriptures which would become the foundation of Shangqing Daoism. Later, Tao Hongjing, a man, (Chinese: 陶弘景) (456－536) structured the theory and practice and compiled the 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 visualizatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence of effectiveness or logical mechanism of action. Some TCM ingredients Traditional Chinese medicine#Safety, are known to be toxic and cause disease, including cancer. Medicine in traditional China encompassed a range of sometimes competing health and healing practices, folk beliefs, Scholar-official, literati theory and Confucianism, Confucian philosophy, Chinese herbology, herbal remedies, Chinese food therapy, food, diet, exercise, medical specializations, and schools of thought. TCM as it exists today has been described as a largely 20th century invention. In the early twentieth century, Chinese cultural and political modernizers worked to eliminate traditional practices as backward and unscientific. Traditional practitioners then selec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period#Ten Kingdoms, Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song frequently came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao dynasty, Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasty (1115–1234), Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The History of the Song dynasty, dynasty's history is divided into two periods: 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 East China. The #Southern Song, 1127–1279, Southern Song (; 1127–1279) comprise the period following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the 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 (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 Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yi Jin Jing
The ''Yijin Jing'' () or Yik-kan Ging (Yick Kan Ging) is a manual of Daoyin exercises, a series of mental and bodily exercises to cultivate '' jing'' (essence) and direct and refine '' qi'', the internal energy of the body according to traditional Chinese medicine. Etymology In Chinese, ''yi'' means "change", ''jin'' means "tendons and sinews", while ''jing'' translates to "methods". Origins Legendary origins According to legend, the Yijin Jing was said to be left behind by Bodhidharma (Da Mo) after his departure from the Shaolin Monastery, and discovered within his grave (or hidden in the walls of the temple) years after he left (or died). It was accompanied by another text, the ''Xisui Jing'', which was passed to a student of Bodhidharma's, but has not survived to the present day. The monks of Shaolin supposedly practiced the exercises within the text but lost the true purpose of the document; Lin Boyuan recounts that they "selfishly coveted it, practicing the skills there ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baguazhang
''Baguazhang'' () is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the '' Wudang'' school, the other two being tai chi and '' xingyiquan''. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or ''neijia''). ''Baguazhang'' literally means "eight trigram palm", referring to the ''bagua'' "trigrams" of the ''I Ching'', one of the canons of Taoism. History The creation of ''baguazhang'' as a formalized martial art is attributed to Dong Haichuan, who is said to have learned it 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 ''baguazhangs frequent reference to core concepts central to Taoism, such as yin and yang theory, ''I Ching'', and Taoism's most distinctive paradigm, the ''bagua'' diagram. The attribution to Buddhist teachers came from the second generation teachers, i.e. Dong Hai ... [...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 form's name refers to how its eight movements characterize and impart a silken quality, like that of brocade, to the body and its energy. In contrast to religious and martial forms of qigong, the Baduanjin is primarily designated as a form of medical qigong, meant to improve health. However, this categorization does not preclude the form's use by martial artists as a supplementary exercise, which is frequent. History This exercise is mentioned in several encyclopedias originating from the Song dynasty. The ''Pivot of the Way'' (Dao Shi, ) describes an archaic form of this qigong. The ''Ten Compilations on Cultivating Perfection'' (Xiuzhen shi-shu, c. 1300) features illustrations of all eight movements. The same work assigns the creation of this exercise to two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neigong
''Neigong'' (internal strength or internal skill), also spelled ''nei kung'', ''neigung'', or ''nae gong'', refers to a series of internal changes that a practitioner goes through when following the path to '' Dao'', and these changes may be achieved through practices including ''qigong'' or tai chi. ''Neigong'' is also associated with '' xingyi quan''. 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 Shaolin kung fu or the so-called "hard style", "external" or '' waijia'' 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. Internal martial arts The martial art school of ''neigong'' emphasises training the coordination of the individua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qigong
Qigong ()) is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation said to be useful for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese medicine, Chinese philosophy, philosophy, and Chinese martial arts, martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance the mystical life-force ''qi''. 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 romanization of Mandarin, Yale) are romanizations of two Chinese words "''qì''" and "''gōng''" ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
