A Daoist Qi Gong Meditation Classic -《胎息经》气功法

This is a short lecture and translation on possibly the oldest Daoist text (from the Tang Dynasty) on breathing, meditation, and Qi gong. The text is called the "Embryo Breathing Classic" - Tai xi jing (《胎息经》). This maybe one of or possibly the first translation into English of this classic.

Transcript

Hello my name is Sean and welcome to this short lesson on the Embryo Breathing Classic.

In Chinese the Embryo Breathing Classic is called a Tai Xi Jing.

Jing is always added to the end of a book to turn it into what we would call in English a classic,

But it really is kind of an honourable title to any form of writing that was seen to be at the exceptional and highest level.

Therefore things such as the Huang Di Nei Jing,

The Dao De Jing and various books had this title given to it.

The importance therefore of the Embryo Breathing Classic cannot be understated in its relevance to Chinese culture and thinking.

The Embryo Breathing Classic is possibly the oldest writing we have on breathing or meditative techniques that the Daoist or similar people did in those traditions.

The writing itself is hardly ever translated into English and therefore very hard to find or access.

The writing is also based in an old Chinese type of system of writing and in many ways slightly coded.

Therefore if one doesn't have a background in Chinese medicine,

The study of martial arts,

The study of qigong,

The study of ancient Chinese language,

Etc etc,

Kind of grabs the line and can be extremely difficult.

So today I hope to open up this small writing for you and allow you to see possibly the way that the Daoists thought about the human body,

The way that they trained their breathing and therefore meditation,

And also allow you to see the depth of what is behind some of the writing.

Also a fair amount of interest in Chinese based meditation and culture.

For you will see that the Chinese didn't separate breathing and meditation,

They combined it together.

Whereas of the ancient yogis in India very much separated pranayama breathing to dhyana meditation and saw them as two separate things with two separate goals.

So the Tai Shi Jing is the name of the text.

Tai means embryo,

Shi means to breathe and Jing means classic.

So the first line of the classic says Tai Cong Fu Qi Zhong Jie Qi Cong You Tai Zhong Xi.

What this means is that the embryo comes from the accumulation of concealed Qi.

The Qi comes from breathing right at the embryo.

So again straight off the bat you can see that there is possibly some difficulty in trying to understand what this line means.

The embryo itself refers to the specific feeling that develops in the abdomen below the belly button when focusing on it for long periods of time.

Concealed Qi means there is an accumulation of Qi within that area of the abdomen as it fills up with Qi.

So in Chinese medicine that area of the body below the belly button was called the Sea of Qi and this is why.

The key point here therefore is how do we get an accumulation of Qi within the abdomen.

Here is why they use the words an accumulation of concealed Qi.

The Qi comes from breathing.

So here we need to read this line again.

Here they say the embryo comes from the accumulation of concealed Qi.

The Qi comes from breathing right at the embryo.

This is the key and most fundamental point to all forms of Taoist breathing.

The fact that they want the breathing to initiate and come from the abdomen and not from the nose.

So when you breathe in they want you to use your abdomen to breathe in and not the nose.

So if we imagine it like a straw,

Your mouth is the abdomen whereas the other end of the straw is your nose.

This is the key point.

In modern times China they call this Tu-Nai breathing which means to expectorate and receive.

These odd words have been chosen as they describe the breathing that starts and ends with the abdomen.

So the second line says Qi Ru Shen Lai Wei Zhe Sheng Sheng Qu Li Xin Wei Zhe Si.

The translation of this is when Qi enters and comes into the body this is called life.

When the spirit leaves and separates from the form or the physical this is called death.

So when Qi enters the body through breathing there is life like a baby taking its first breath.

When the spirit leaves the body then there is no longer breathing and there is death.

So here this line is talking about the importance of breath,

That breath is life.

The third line says Zhi Shen Qi Ke Yi Chang Sheng.

Know the spirit Qi and you can live a long time.

When the spirit connects with the Qi in the abdomen there is longevity.

So here we are starting to get into some very ancient Chinese thinking.

In ancient China the mind and the heart were written as the same character called Xin.

The heart and the mind together represented the spirit which was called Shen.

This is a very difficult thing to translate,

The Shen.

In the Yin aspect or Tangular aspect the Shen just refers to your complexion.

So in Chinese medicine one of the first things that somebody would like to look at is their complexion.

Do they have a good complexion or is their complexion sickly?

From the Yang aspect or the intangible aspect you could say it is somebody's aura.

Not in the sense of it glowing or being seen but the feeling that somebody gives off as a whole.

So combining the Yin and Yang aspects together and the spirit is not only the accumulation of all the functions of organs in the body that manifest in the complexion but also the culmination of all the mental faculties as well.

Therefore within Chinese this word spirit is very interchangeable and can have many meanings.

In modern terms we could translate it as your entire being.

So the Shen is your entire being.

The heart wasn't still is represented by fire according to the five elements theory which is an incorrect translation.

It should be five movement theory.

While the kidney represents water.

One style of qigong meditation is to put your Shen into your abdomen.

This means that the heart fire is underneath the kidney water which in turn makes steam.

The character for qi is a symbol of steam coming off of rice.

This process by which fire and water come together to make qi is known as energy transformation or qi hua in Chinese.

Is by protecting this process that one can achieve longevity according to ancient Chinese theory.

Hence there are many aspects in Chinese medicine of only drinking hot water.

Keeping your feet and legs warm.

Abstaining from sex for long periods of time.

All these things have the same aspect to keep that qi hua or energy transformation cracking along.

If we look at it further it is the kidney,

The Chinese medicine kidney not the western medicine kidney,

That is the basis for this qi hua for the entire body.

This is very important because the abdomen and the kidney and the fire are all one integrated system that is now called the Dan Tian.

The next line says Gu is a very special word.

Gu means to grasp something tightly.

I use the words hold on.

Gu shou xu wu means hold on to the emptiness.

Yi yang shen qi and you'll nourish your spirits qi.

The Chinese believe by focusing on the abdomen you still the murky water of the mind.

Because by focusing on the abdomen you cannot focus on your thoughts and by not focusing on your thoughts that murkiness or the constant irritation and thoughts in your mind settle down.

So in chapter 3 of the Dao De Jing Lao Zi says empty the heart,

Fill the abdomen,

Weaken the will and strengthen the bones.

This idea is most likely derived from the yin yang theory.

Only when one is full can the other be empty and vice versa.

If we go back to this line we say empty the heart and fill the abdomen that's very easy to understand because I just explained it.

Weaken the will and strengthen the bones.

So we may think why would you ever weaken the will?

But what he's really referring to is take away these consistent desires and you will strengthen the bones.

You will get healthy.

Here there is a deeper meaning because the bones in Chinese medicine are related to the kidney.

So you will consistently see this kidney,

This dantian,

The abdomen,

They're all one related system.

So the next line says shen xing ji qi xing.

Shen zhu ji qi zhu.

So what this means is when the spirit moves then the qi moves.

When the spirit stays then the qi stays.

So here they're referring to that when the spirit goes to some place the qi follows it.

If the spirit remains in a place then so does the qi.

Therefore by focusing on the abdomen the qi will go to the abdomen.

When the mind remains in the abdomen for a prolonged period of time the qi will start to accumulate in that area becoming the concealed qi that they were talking about in the first line.

Ru yu chang sheng shen qi xiang zhu.

If you wish to live long the spirit qi must mutually infuse.

Again a line that may be very complex but in the end is just talking about that the Taoists here believe if you want to have longevity you must have your mind,

Your intent,

Your spirit,

All those mental faculties focused on the abdomen for long periods of time.

And again why does this give you longevity according to them?

Because the kidney is meant to be the foundation for all other organs in the body.

It's the engine room.

When you put fire underneath the water you create steam which basically means that qi transformation,

That qi hua is strong.

Once again of course this is where the Taoists said to abstain from sex or to be celibate because according to them the number one method to weaken your kidney energy was by losing your essence.

The next line says xin bu dong nian wu lai wu qu.

It says the heart does not think neither coming or going.

The heart here is again the heart and the mind intent were all seen as one thing.

So the heart does not think neither coming or going.

The mind does not think there are no thoughts coming or going as you're focusing on abdomen.

The next line bu chu bu ru zi ran chang zhu.

Neither out or in it will naturally dwell.

This is referring to when one is starting to get deeper into meditation and your mind just naturally dwells within the abdomen itself.

The final line says qin er xin zhi shi zheng dao lu.

The translation is to diligently do this is the true road of the Tao.

This line means train in this way as it is the true way to find the Tao inside of you.

So if we were to just recap here and use modern day terminology,

Don't make the words pretty and discuss how to really do this breathing method.

It's actually relatively simple.

They're not telling us to sit in any specific way,

Sit in any posture,

To have anything.

This text tells us that you focus on your abdomen and you focus on the breath that is in the abdomen.

Not on the tip of the nose,

You focus on the breath that is in the abdomen which will automatically mean that you are using your diaphragm to breathe as opposed to other higher parts of the lungs.

By focusing on the abdomen you are bringing your mind's intent down into the abdomen.

Once you do this for long periods of time they believe that that area will fill with qi.

When that area fills with qi you will have an anchor to your boat so no matter how rough the seas or the oceans are the boat will not float away or be too ruffled by the high seas.

As you are putting qi into the most important part of the body which is the engine room which they call the kidneys,

Much later on they call it the dan tian,

You create a situation where this special work or the qi hua or energy transformation happens where we make the function of the qi hua or the energy transformation in the engine room of the body exceptionally effective which will then allow the entire body to be healthy and strong.

Reviews

I love the attention to accuracy in translating the ancient Chinese texts and trying to understand them as they would be understood by ancient Chinese people. This is a gem. Thank you Shuan

So insightful and a wonderful cultural deep dive 🙏🏼

Amazing! Turns on this is what I’ve been doing intuitively for quite a while. So this really rang true for me.

Good information. It reminded me that back when I was doing Tai Chi regularly they told you to focus on the abdomen breath.

Brilliantly articulated 🙏🏼

Really appreciating the Taoist perspective! Excellent presentation 🙏🏾🔥🙏🏾

Very informative!

Fantastically explained, I'm really interested in Taoist breathing and meditation so will look out for more of your work. Thank You

Very interesting 👍🌸

Very insightful. For best chi breathe in through mouth?