Chi Kung. Lily Siou

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      Library of Congress Card Number: 75-32212

       ISBN: 978-1-4629-0759-5 (ebook)

      First printed in 1973

       by Lily Siou's School of the Six Chinese Arts

       First Tuttle printing, 1975

      Printed in U.S.A.

      Preface

      At the dawn of mankind, primitive man lived a very simple life. His main concern then was physical survival. His daily task was to fight for food and to survive against nature, enemy and beast. He lived on a very physical level. Through his struggles to survive, he developed fitness and prowess. Fitness and prowess in turn brought survival.

      This simple fact of nature forced itself upon the consciousness of man everywhere. Through time, however, the importance of this fact was lessened by changes in the conditions of man. With the cultivation of crops and domestication of beasts, less was the need for direct physical contest against death. Countless changes too in technology and social conditions have brought man to where he is today-in cities, in environments quite distant from nature, in conditions which even require him to sublimate expression and aggressive energies. The too often realities—tension, anxiety, highblood pressure, obesity and loss of vigor—extensive deconditioning.

      Direct physical exertion of the individual parts through exercise has been the primary means of combating deconditioning in the West. But exercise that requires exertion is tiring and requires much determination and effort. It requires quite the opposite of what most people are inclined to put forth especially when tired. Also, exercise in the West are, as a rule, dissectory and specific. It is usually limited to just physical development of a very specific muscle or set of muscles without regard to benifitting the body as a whole and without attention to the person as a whole being.

      Going back again to early man, we see that the Chinese remained very close to nature. They were ever conscious of things being part of a system in a web of relationships. They had no hesitation in relating what they saw in nature to their own situation. Studying the movements of animals, he had no trouble relating their movements to his own. He was aware of the differences between man and animal but he was able to obtain from animal movements certain valuable features. By study and practice he was able to adapt these features to his own needs and improve upon them. He remained, throughout, ever conscious of a prevading system of forces, the wholeness and universal relatedness of things.

      This has its importance when we contrast it to western relish for isolating problem and solution from its total circumstances under the urgency for a solution. The westerner sees exercise as exercise, dance as dance and emotion as something just emotional. He is predisposed to seeing things as units or as a collection of separate units. He is goal oriented and he prefers simplified solutions. Even for his own garden, he is more likely to construct his walkway in a straight path than to let it meander around brook and stone. He is satisfied if "it works", and in mathematics, he honors a simple solution with the term "elegant".

      One can indeed say that the simplest solution in mathematics is elegant, but the problems of man can rarely enjoy the luxury of being in a closed system as mathematics. Most problems of man involve many disciplines and demand a concern for totality. To ignore this fact is to invite other problems. Man's threatened environment and growing social ills result from his preoccupation with technology and industrialization. There are real benefits in considering a problem and its solutions in relationship to other factors. On the individual level, he is learning that treatment of emotional problems cannot be confined to treating just the emotions. He must look to the physical and beyond. Hence the terms psycho-physical, psychosomatic and psycho-social.

      Health, fitness and emotion go together. Why should exercise be for exercise only, dance for dance only and emotional therapy for emotional therapy only? Can one not improve the health, gain vigor, fitness and tranquility in one effort?

      The ancient Chinese lived with nature and saw that nature had its own way—a way which existed long before man and which would continue long after him. He realized very early, that he must accept and work with this way. To oppose the way was foolish. To follow the way was wise. Little effort is needed when one heeds the way. "Nature has a wisdom we know not yet of, but by listening very closely we may learn of its ways.

      While the West focused its attention upon the external, the East focused on the internal. Both East and West advanced very far in their opposite study. The Chinese listened very closely to the needs and ways of the body and developed a unique understanding to it—an understanding which enables remarkable control and usage. Chinese martial arts is one example. Summing up strength and releasing it in a sudden smashing blow may seem remarkable to westerners but represent a tiny fraction of what is possible. More sophisticated are the soft styles of physical discipline which do not rely on strength but body mechanics. In these arts, each form, each movement is efficient. There is little waste of either movement or energy because attention is paid to the total body and the total situation. Not only is ones own body used with maximum efficiency, but the enemy's power is diverted and turned against himself.

      The Chinese have developed, too, even subtler control of the body in a unique, and seldom heard of art called Ch'i Kung. In this art they generate and control the body energy and achieve a profound mastery of the body.

      In Ch'i Kung the same Ch'i or life energy that acupuncturists stimulate and control through needles is mastered but to an even higher degree. In fact, acupuncture is merely a short cut in the application of this larger study. In this art even the minutest mechanisms such as oxygen level, blood supply, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, anti-body level can be controlled. Organ function is stimulated and inter-organ blance is achieved to bring about optimum overall health and a sense of overall harmony and well being.

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