《養生樁漫談》王薌齋
This article is part 5 of the Good Work Library collection Yiquan and Dachengquan - Texts of Wang Xiangzhai and the Lineage.
The English translation was prepared directly from the captured Traditional Chinese source text. The Chinese source text follows the colophon.
Preface
Health-preservation standing is a basic work of inner training. It is an art of nourishing life and strengthening the body. At the same time, because its postures and movements all coordinate with the physiological organization of the human body, on one hand it allows the higher central nervous system to receive sufficient rest and adjustment, and on the other hand it allows the organism to receive suitable training. It has both disease-preventing and disease-treating effects, which experience has already verified. Therefore it may also be called a medical learning, or an art of health-preservation. This little booklet was originally meant so that each student could have one copy and understand it more easily. It is different from writing offered to the world, so it does not explain in detail. Everyone knows that even oral transmission and heart-teaching cannot be understood in a very short time. Therefore I absolutely do not dare regard this as complete and flawless. Even if it is correct, it must still be gradually improved.
When I was young I had many illnesses, and medicine was ineffective. Therefore I gave up reading, went to teachers, and sought the art of nourishing life. When I grew older and traveled outside to many places, I visited famous teachers and sought helpful friends. Whenever there was a learning or art related to strengthening the body and nourishing the mind, I carefully drilled into it, took its essence, discarded its dregs, gathered widely and received broadly, hoping to have some accomplishment in the path of health-preservation. In my life I have had many teachers and friends, each with his own strength. Through their teaching, benefit, discussion, and polishing, through several decades of research and experience, and by combining the essential meaning of the Neijing and its Suwen chapter with the basic work of boxing study, using them in mutual relation, I finally obtained the outline of the art of nourishing life. Since this art can be practiced walking, standing, sitting, or lying, but takes standing practice as the main thing, it is called health-preservation standing, also called the Hunyuan Post.
I am now over seventy. Outside my body I have no other possession. Only in the path of health-preservation do I have a little attainment, and I deeply wish to offer it to the broad people as a method for strengthening the body and treating illness. But our country's health-preservation learning has no systematic written record. Apart from scattered fragments in the writings left by ancient people, it has been transmitted only by oral transmission and heart-teaching. Add to this my own stupid nature and shallow learning: it is impossible for me to explain the concrete content of health-preservation standing in detailed and correct written language. Therefore this explanatory writing is not only too simple and missing many things, but defects and errors are also unavoidable. I deeply hope that fellow lovers within the seas will correct it much, and experience and improve it during study.
The Source and Changes of Health-Preservation Standing
Our country's art of nourishing life has a long history, but there are few books to examine and no written records. When one occasionally obtains even a scrap of paper, it is often damaged and incomplete. On the basis of what predecessors transmitted and many kinds of reference, I personally believe that it should have been obtained when ancient humans, in the great natural world, competed for survival with poisonous snakes and fierce beasts. From the experience of struggle, it gradually accumulated and evolved, after no one knows how many thousands of years and how many ten thousands of people taking part in study and investigation.
It is transmitted that more than two thousand years ago there was already the book Neijing, a treasure-house of Chinese medicine, which records many methods for preventing and treating disease. Within it, the Suwen chapter is specially concerned with nourishing life. The original text says: "Lift and carry heaven and earth; grasp yin and yang; breathe essence-qi; stand alone and guard spirit; the muscles are as one." Though the words are simple and general, their meaning is deep. The earlier sages placed them in the Huangdi Neijing. On one hand they regarded them as an art of health-preservation for preventing disease. On the other hand, for many diseases in which medicines, stones, knives, and needles could not be effective, they used this principle to make patients train and rest, taking it as medical physical culture and using it alongside the Lingshu. Its main content is nourishing stillness, which is "standing alone and guarding spirit."
Before the Eastern Han, many literati, martial men, and soldiers all knew still nourishing. Walking, standing, sitting, and lying could all be used for practice, and it became a common art of strengthening the body. Later, in the time of Emperor Wu of Liang, Bodhidharma traveled through Han lands to teach. At this time Bodhidharma was sixty-seven, the third son of a king of India and the son of a foreign king; see biographies of eminent monks, the small accounts of his eastward flow, Emperor Wu of Liang, imperial edicts, and sacrificial texts. He transmitted methods such as washing the marrow and changing the sinews. In the Tang there were the Linji and Esoteric schools; one after another they transmitted methods such as inserted branches, soft poles, three folds, four-limb work, Eight Pieces of Brocade, Twelve Vajra Forms, and Eighteen Luohan Methods. In India these were generally called soft-pole methods. Later there were further branches; sects emerged one after another, too many to enumerate. Lay practitioners were especially numerous. Each marked out novelty and difference; the patterns were many, the methods extremely confused, and different theories mixed together. Thus this art did not develop but instead became divided. Already five hundred years ago it had formed a state of clinging to fragments and guarding deficiencies.
After the Song dynasty, it mostly changed into methods such as Chan sitting. Gates and households also emerged one after another, each with similarities and differences. Moreover, the sitting methods were often not natural enough and not concrete enough. They abandoned the essence and took the dregs. Not only was Master Bodhidharma's transmission submerged and exhausted, but the inheritance of our earlier sages through the ages was also abandoned along with it. A fine learning was invisibly destroyed. This is very regrettable.
In Japan, there are not a few arts close to this one. Before applying work, they often first gather the spirit and stand to settle thought. They have received encouragement and support from every side, and they truly have deep, specialized, refined, and lasting skill. But they too are fragmented and broken, only scales and claws.
All my life I have especially loved the inheritance of the motherland: the art of nourishing life and the study of boxing. This is related to my many illnesses in childhood. From the time in my youth when I slightly recognized the gate and path of health-preservation, I sought teachers and visited friends on one hand, studying seriously; on the other hand I read ancient books broadly and experienced them carefully. At the same time, following the guidance of teachers and friends and the principles recorded in the Neijing and Suwen, I practiced morning and evening without cease. Though limited by my own wisdom and other conditions, with many defects remaining, more than fifty years of experience proves that it not only has the effect of strengthening the body and preventing disease, but also has an unimaginable therapeutic effect on many chronic diseases for which medicines are ineffective.
The Meaning and Function of Health-Preservation Standing
Health-preservation standing is a learning, and it is also a medical physical exercise. Those who take part in this exercise are not limited by age or sex, nor restricted by strength or weakness of body, and there is no other limitation. Those with illness treat illness; those without illness prevent illness. During the exercise one does not think only about posture, does not pay attention to whether the form is complicated or simple, and does not attend to the front-and-back order of postures. The main thing is to let the brain receive sufficient rest and the limbs receive suitable training: movement is born in stillness, and stillness is sought in movement.
This exercise can adjust the function of the nervous system, promote blood circulation, bring forth inner combustion, and strengthen the metabolism of the various systems. Therefore it can regulate, restore, and strengthen the functions of all organs and tissues of the human body. In preserving health and treating illness it has notable effects. For fifty years, not one person has developed a harmful abuse from it, and more than ninety percent have had results.
This exercise can strengthen the body's absorption and excretion. The ancients said, "Refine the essence and wash clean the dregs." Its meaning lies here. This is an exercise of self-reliance. That is, for the human body and its various parts, it has a living and unceasing effectiveness. For example, the weak may become strong through training. If some system, organ, or tissue of the body has a problem, training can remove the problem and restore health. The healthy become healthier, and they can easily experience inexhaustible principle and delight.
This exercise differs from ordinary physical exercise. It is a movement that unifies training and rest. It is a method of resting within training and training within rest. Therefore it has the functional effect of adjusting the central and peripheral nervous systems, so that all parts of the human body cooperate closely under the direction of the higher central nervous system.
Matters Requiring Attention in Health-Preservation Standing
Health-preservation standing is not only an exercise for strengthening the body and treating illness; it is also a skill for training the will. Therefore those who study health-preservation standing must pay attention to this training. Coarseness, violence, floating irritability, anger, worry, regret, fear, thoughts of gain and loss, and wishful thinking are all expressions of lacking cultivation. Students must especially avoid them.
For those treating illness: most people who study health-preservation standing to treat illness are people with long illnesses that have not healed, for whom medicines, stones, knives, and needles are not easily effective. But one must not let qi become discouraged. One should train actively, treat actively, make the spirit bright, store spring force, and always be prepared for repeated struggle. Only then can one overcome the illness-demon and restore health. If one is pessimistic and despairing, angry and anxious, not at all roused, working one day and freezing ten, practicing for a time and stopping for a time, it will have no effect. Doctors often say that the patient's mood must be cheerful. For those studying health-preservation standing, the first essential is a cheerful mood. Humbly experience the meaning of standing practice and train patiently and lastingly, making the spirit bright. After a long time, the work naturally arrives and the illness is removed.
In practicing health-preservation standing, the mind and spirit must be peaceful, and mixed thoughts must be cast out. "Spirit does not overflow outward; force does not come out to a point; intention does not reveal form; form does not break the body." The spirit-state should be light, relaxed, and free. Stored intention should be deep, simple, powerful, and whole. Force should be steady, accurate, empty, and numinous. "There is no movement without mechanism, no mechanism without delight; empty numinosity guards silence and answers the ten thousand things." Though this is a principle plain and near to people, beginners do not easily understand it.
The main point is to take spirit and intention as primary. It is not a problem of branch-and-detail forms. Intention lies in the whole body and the inside. Do not let the local part destroy the unity of the whole. Do not let external movement influence inward investigation. The whole body should be light, relaxed, and free, the mind wide and spirit pleased, as if bathed within great nature. To do this, before exercise one must make the mind peaceful and the spirit settled, casting out mixed thoughts. One must also pay attention to the four appearances and five requirements. The four appearances are head upright, eyes correct, spirit solemn, voice quiet. The five requirements are reverence, caution, intention, urgency, and harmony.
Toward people and matters, one should be respectful and cautious, with meaning thorough and practical. In any matter, do not speak hard words and do not do soft deeds. These are the health-preservation conditions that the student's inner mind and outer manner should possess. From the viewpoint of personal intention, one should have good will. It is best to treat people with the conduct of children and the heart of parents. From the viewpoint of practicing skill, this is "only requiring spirit and intention to be full, not seeking resemblance of bodily form." This is the essential meaning that training should have.
Health-preservation standing sets postures according to illness and differs according to the person. When illnesses differ, the related nervous and muscular systems naturally differ. The patient's living conditions, habits, cultivation, temperament, and other characteristics also have a definite relation to setting postures. One must consider suitable posture, the length of movement and rest, and the heaviness or lightness of the body's burden according to these different conditions. The teacher should fully understand the situation and arrange it properly. The student should pay attention, grasp it, and train cautiously. One must not suddenly break off and then suddenly continue, nor move arbitrarily. Only in this way can results be quick and abnormal phenomena during training be prevented.
People whose cultivation is insufficient often have fantasies, arbitrary movements, or rigid attachments when first learning. They must experience carefully; only after the experiment becomes full can these be resolved. The main thing is to take the ancients as teachers without being bound by antiquity. Carefully guarding the teacher's method is not easy to obtain. Do not be floatingly clever. Do not use dull effort. The spirit must be cheerful, and the muscles should often labor. Apart from one's own body there is nothing to seek; but clinging to one's own body is also error. Seek force outside the body; maintain intention within no-mind. If one works practically according to what has been discussed above and experiences it carefully, it is naturally not hard to obtain the marvel of ten thousand changes without end and strange delight growing everywhere.
The Cultivation and Training of "Standing Alone and Guarding Spirit; the Muscles Are as One"
Concerning the Neijing and Suwen phrases "lifting and carrying heaven and earth," "grasping yin and yang," and "breathing essence-qi," great physicians have already spoken. I add a little on the cultivation and training of "standing alone and guarding spirit; the muscles are as one."
"Standing alone and guarding spirit": before applying work, prepare thought first. One should first think of roaming at the beginning of things and quietly meeting the whole mechanism. Regard it as being like a plant: outwardly the form does not move, but inside there are changes of root growth and development, with forward, reverse, and horizontal growth. One must never enter methods of broken techniques and discontinuous movements. That would destroy everything. Even if local movement has benefit, over a long time it has harm; it is a slow life-damaging exercise.
During training, always maintain unbroken intention-force that is empty, numinous, lifted, light, relaxed, ordered, and whole, taking comfort and obtained force as the principle. During training, gather spirit and settle intention, silently facing the long sky. Inside must be clear, empty, and open; outside must be centered, upright, and harmonious. At the same time, change into a state of gladness in heart and eyes. Wash away all mixed thoughts and sweep away all emotional entanglements. Be silent, regulate the breath, and warm-nourish inside and outside. The pores of the whole body enlarge, with a feeling like through-hall wind passing back and forth. The muscle groups, without expecting it, become an empty, numinous bag hung in the sky, tied tight above by a rope and supported below by wood. It is like lying on a wide field under an open sky, and also like standing in leisurely swaying water. Thus the muscles train themselves without being trained, and the nerves nourish themselves without being nourished. This is the basic meaning of training.
How can one gather spirit and settle intention? One must make intention like a great furnace and smelting vessel, with nothing not being melted within it. Absorb all mixed thoughts as much as possible. When they come, melt them. Before long, mixed thoughts can naturally be removed. If one deliberately rejects mixed thoughts, then before one thought has gone, ten thousand thoughts all arrive. Spirit scatters and spirit-intention runs outward; then one cannot make intention settled and spirit gathered.
During training one must also have this intentional state: make the limbs respond with the great atmosphere, naturally and freely bringing forth the function of the whole body and instinct. If there is the slightest artificial softness, making, or local method, the function of the whole and of instinct is destroyed. The meaning of saying that this exercise is a learning of the human body's instinct, and that "not one method is set up, yet no method is unprepared," lies precisely here.
The training method is simple but truly difficult. In the first stage of training, large movement is not as good as small movement; small movement is not as good as nonmovement. Only from nonmovement can one experience the movement in which, when the four limbs and hundred bones move as one, nothing fails to move. In this way the nerves first become easy to stabilize, heat-force becomes easy to preserve, and metabolism is naturally strengthened. With this foundation, one can gradually study movement. Then it is easy to experience the movement of nonmovement, movement still like nonmovement, and movement and stillness mutually rooting in one another. Afterward one can experience the pressure of the great atmosphere and the function of looseness-and-tightness force. Then it is not difficult to control every imbalance within balance, and the movement of the stirring pivot: not moving yet moving, moving yet not moving. At the same time, there is the movement of hard and soft, empty and solid, loose and tight, interwoven, with surface and inside used together. As for the borrowed movement of all things, it would be too much to discuss here.
The whole body then naturally brings forth movement in which the upper moves and the lower naturally follows, the lower moves and the upper naturally leads, upper and lower move and the middle attacks, the middle attacks and upper and lower join, inside and outside connect, and front, back, left, and right all respond. The above is the testing of the functions of the various forces. Force is known through testing, and from knowing one obtains how it is used.
Training seeks force within no force, and seeks swiftness within subtle movement. As soon as one uses force, body and mind tighten, the hundred bones lose numinosity, and there is the harm of blood-stuffing and blockage. This force is spiritual; it is intentional. With form, the body is broken. Without form, spirit can gather.
First experience from within nonmovement; then seek recognition within subtle movement. Want to move and yet want to stop; want to stop and yet want to move. There is the intention of having to stop within movement and having to move within stopping. One must pay attention to seeking cleverness within clumsiness, the extraordinary within the ordinary, and the concrete within abstraction. During work, the large and small joints of the whole body are all form bent and force straight, spirit released and intention tight. Muscles contain force; bones hide edges. Spirit is like tiger and leopard; qi is like a soaring dragon. The release of spirit and intention is like a giant wind rolling up a tree, about to fly up from the ground. Its twisting, swinging, and horizontal shaking force cannot be opened by collision or scattered by rushing. Deeply quiet and silent, dwelling where it is, it is steady as a mountain. Outward form is clumsy; intention-force is clever. What is mostly ordinary is instead extraordinary. If one does not seek the root from within abstraction, one cannot find the concrete. The principles of learning then naturally pass through and become clear.
"The muscles are as one" is an especially important step of skill. On the surface this step seems like another kind of matter, but in reality it is closely connected with what has been described above. Without this step as a foundation, no movement has the ability to endure labor for a long time. Although this is training of the muscles, it still takes form as the root and intention as the use. Taking intention from form, intention fills the whole body, and spirit gathering inward is primary. In this exercise, strengthening exercise is also reducing fatigue, and reducing fatigue is precisely strengthening exercise. Training and rest are one thing. The important point is proper regulation, so that the patient unknowingly increases the ability to endure labor for a long time, while reducing as much as possible the burden on the brain and heart, until comfort and obtained force are reached.
Note: Sinew and muscle training is a further study. It is mostly sinews and muscles stretching, bone joints lifting, form bent and force straight, spirit released and intention tight, with natural sinews and muscles smoothing and rolling, each mutually as one. A still further study seeks the functions of force, mostly transcending outward images and approaching boxing study.
Methods of Regulation
Regulation of the limbs: this is nothing outside high and low, left and right, single weighting and double weighting. Whether in head, hands, body, shoulders, elbows, feet, knees, hips, and every place, all have distinctions of single and double, looseness and tightness, emptiness and solidity, lightness and heaviness. Every refined and subtle place that one can experience is also like this. One must use methods such as skeletal support, the matching of force, and the connection of muscles.
Regulation of the internal organs: this is nerve direction, intention leading, psychology affecting physiology, and physiology acting on psychology, each using the other.
Regulation of time: this takes the strength or weakness of the student's temperament as the basis. In general, one must not exceed the ability to bear the burden, and must not cause dullness, vexation, or boredom in thought. Several beginning forms of regulation are as follows.
Song of Health-Preservation Standing
Health-preservation standing is extremely easy, yet when pursued deeply it has a thousand threads. When applying work, do not hurry. Choose a suitable place, with sufficient sunlight and flowing air; if there is water and trees, it is even better. Whether walking, sitting, lying, or standing, inside and outside must release. The body is lifted upright, and the waist and spine hang on a vertical line. All the large and small joints of the body contain the intention of seeming bent but not straight. Guard empty openness and preserve clear emptiness. Gather spirit and quiet qi. The arms are half round; the armpits are half empty. Experience comfort in every subtle place. Do not think and do not expend force. The heart has no burden; the brain receives rest. Think of the sky's empty vastness, washing emotional ties and the ten thousand dusty thoughts. Empty numinosity alone remains, leisurely and mutually dependent, continuous as if drunk and as if dazed. Laughing and lying down, one is like resting in water. Return to infancy and seek the sounds of nature. Ordinary and unsurprising, it has natural delight. The teacher's method should be followed, but one must not be too rigid. Within this are contained infinite deep thought and sweetness. Movement and turning are rather like a fish in water: free, truly free. The earlier sages had no other difference.
Again, speaking of testing various forces: their names and uses each differ. They may be formed or formless, intentional or unintentional, concrete, local, automatic, passive, or stored; with fixed position or without fixed position; for application or for practice. Mostly they are bones hiding edges, sinews stretching force, sinking, supporting, separating, closing, lifting, sudden settling, swallowing, and spitting. The sinew channels drum and stir like springs; each hair-root has intention like a spear. On one side, contained and lingering force coils and spirals. On another side, it cuts iron, severs gold, coldly deciding, crisp and fast, with blades, shears, and axes all together. Bending routes store looseness and tightness; within surfaces, emptiness and solidity divide. There is sudden high and sudden low; high and low turn and shift at any time. Spirit is like an angry tiger; qi quality is like a numinous rhinoceros. The body moves like a mountain flying; force swells like the sea overflowing. This learning is not too strange; it is all the practical work of taking intention from form and seeking the concrete within abstraction.
Basic Postures
The characteristic of this exercise is to experience, within movement, the dynamic changes inside and outside the body: how to make all large and small joints of the whole body become obtuse triangles. Better still, do not have flat surfaces, and especially do not allow fixed points of attachment. Instead, be light, numinous, whole, and blended. Imagine the blood circulation of the whole body as having the intention of water drilling through sand. When pressed, it is like the force of floating wood in water. The whole body is also like an empty boat on lake water, floating and swaying without fixed place, answering only to wind-force and letting nature proceed.
The expression of this spirit and intention follows each person's bearing, character, unique endowment, features, age, physical strength or weakness, length of time applying work, and kind of illness. Of course it is not something a few postures can express.
Therefore, to explain this exercise, one must base it on all the different conditions, experience deeply, strengthen step by step, and regulate at any time. All of it should be adapted according to concrete circumstances, making the local part act together with the concrete whole. After training, most have results. If one says that wherever there is illness one treats that place, not only will it be ineffective, there may be loss. If this point is neglected, then spirit, force, and everything else will not be sufficient.
Note: Methods of regulation include formed and formless. What is formed is posture, bones, and muscles. What is formless is inexhaustible: spirit, intention, imagination, and force. These are not within the range of a few postures. Yet posture is truly the representative of spirit and intention; it explains spirit and intention according to outline. Therefore posture is also needed. But to express this exercise completely in diagrams is not currently possible because of objective conditions and limits of ability.
Experiences and Common Phenomena in Practicing Standing
As each person's bodily strength or weakness and illness differ, experiences, feelings, and expressions during practice also differ. In ordinary circumstances, after about ten days of practice one can experience the benefit of standing practice and feel light, relaxed, and happy after training. This feeling grows day by day with the progress of practice. After a few days of practice, some people develop muscle trembling, pain, soreness, numbness, swelling, and similar phenomena. These are mostly caused by obstruction in muscle movement, insufficient circulation of qi and blood, excessive fatigue, or other physiological defects. As long as excessive fatigue is prevented, comfort and obtained force are attended to, release is sought, and tight rigidity is avoided, qi and blood will gradually flow freely and the muscles will become lively, so that the phenomena above are gradually removed.
As for regular trembling without a feeling of fatigue, this is a good phenomenon showing that blockages in the channels, qi, and blood have already been removed. One should simply let it follow nature; do not deliberately suppress it, and do not consciously enlarge it. There are also phenomena such as tears flowing, yawning, belching, passing gas, abdominal sounds, and ant-walking sensations. These are all good phenomena in the process of practice, and after the illness is cured they can naturally disappear.
Therapeutic Effects of Standing Practice on Various Illnesses
Standing practice can regulate nervous function, adjust breathing, strengthen blood circulation and metabolism, and therefore has good therapeutic effects on illnesses of the nervous system, muscular system, and all sides of metabolism, especially illnesses that have turned from acute into chronic.
After forty or fifty years of experience, its effects vary according to person and illness, with differences of size, speed, and slowness. But aside from those who stop as soon as they begin learning, cases with no therapeutic effect are very few. Moreover, many people continue training after recovery and mostly receive the effect of turning weakness into strength and becoming stronger with age.
Because of the lack of written records, past experience has not only not been summarized; even the number and names of students cannot be statistically counted. Now, for everyone's reference, I can only briefly describe by category a little of the experience from the last one or two years in using standing practice to treat various illnesses.
High blood pressure: cases of nervous origin take effect relatively quickly. Cases involving functional changes, such as hardening of the blood vessels or coronary arteries, take effect more slowly.
Neurasthenia: ordinary dizziness, head swelling, headache, and similar symptoms are comparatively easy to treat. The speed of effect mainly lies in whether the nerves can be stabilized. Those that have already caused indigestion or constipation take effect more slowly.
Arthritis: ordinary rheumatic and multiple arthritis are both easy to treat. Acquired arthritis is comparatively hard to treat.
Bronchitis: there are many kinds of bronchitis, and most have symptoms of emphysema and cardiac asthma. Those who have not been ill long receive results relatively quickly. Congenital cases are not easy to treat, but this is closely related to age, constitution, temperament, and living conditions. As long as one practices patiently and persistently, and pays more attention to food, sleep, and daily life, it can also be cured or lessened.
Liver illness: liver swelling and cirrhosis, as long as one practices patiently and properly and also pays attention to nourishment in diet and environment, can gradually lessen and even be cured.
Cholecystitis: among the cholecystitis patients I have experienced, most had already undergone gallbladder-removal surgery. Some had already turned into liver-spleen illness or neurasthenic illness. Judging from several patients in the past, symptoms gradually lessened during the process of practice, and the effects before and after recovery were very good. Whether one can be certain in the future is still hard to predict.
Lung disease: as long as one follows the steps, practices suitably and patiently, and also pays attention to food and nourishment, in general it can be cured.
Hemiplegia: one must practice patiently and persistently. In general it can be cured or lessened. But this illness is especially easy to relapse, so while practicing one must also avoid anger, catching cold, and overwork. If the tongue, hands, and feet are all damaged, it cannot be treated.
Stomach and intestinal illness: the therapeutic effect is good, but comparatively slow. Those with milder illness recover in three or four months; those with heavier illness may take eight or nine months, or three to five years, depending.
Schizophrenia, disharmony of sinews and muscles, and similar conditions: these are comparatively easy to treat.
Heart disease: among the patients I have experienced, most had good results. But this illness mainly depends on the person's temperament and living environment. If temperament and living conditions are not good, the results are not obvious.
Colophon
Translated directly from the Traditional Chinese text of 《養生樁漫談》王薌齋, captured from the HK Yiquan Society public article archive and live-verified against the archive index on June 2, 2026.
Published in the Good Work Library under rights clearance received by the New Tianmu Anglican Church on June 2, 2026.
The English translation was independently prepared from the captured Chinese source for the Good Work Library. Source-text punctuation and evident web or OCR artifacts are retained in the Chinese appendix; the English follows the sentence sense of the captured text.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: 《養生樁漫談》王薌齋
Source: HK Yiquan Society article 5
序言
養生樁是內在鍛煉的一種基本功夫，是一種養生（健身）之術，同時因為它的姿式動作都是和人身的生理組織相配合，一方面使高級中樞神經得到充分的休息與調整，一方面使機體得到適當的鍛煉，兼有防病和治病之效（這是經驗已經證實了的），因而也可說是一種醫療學術，又可說是養生的藝術，這本小冊子，原為同學們人手一篇，領略較易，不同于問世之文，故不詳解。大家都知道口傳心授尚不能在很短時日領會到，因此，我絕不敢認為這是完整無缺的，就算對的，也還須要逐漸改進。
我幼時多病，醫藥無效，於是棄讀投師、尋求養生之術，既長外遊各地，訪名師尋益友，凡有關鍵身養心的學術和技藝，無不用心鑽研，采其精華，舍其糟粕、博采廣收，以期於養生一道有所成就，平生師友最多，皆各有所長，在教益和切磋琢磨中，經過數十年的研究體會，並結合《內經。素問篇》的要義和拳學的基本工夫，參互為用，終於獲得養生術的梗概，因此術的姿勢，行站坐臥皆可用功，但以站樁為主，故名為養生樁（又稱為渾元樁）。
我年逾七十，身外無他物，僅對養生一道，稍有心得，深願貢獻給廣大人民，作為健身治病的一種方法，但我國養生之學，沒有系統的文字記載，除了片斷點滴地散見於古人遺著外，僅憑口傳心授流傳下來，加之個人天性愚魯，學識淺薄，用文字來詳細而正確的說明養生樁的具體內容是不可能的，因此這段說明文字，不但失之於簡單，有挂一漏萬之處，而且缺點錯誤也是不可避錫的，深望海內同好多加指正，並在學習中體會改進。
養生樁的來源和變遷
我國養生之術歷史悠久，但乏書藉稽考，也無文字記錄，偶獲片紙，也多殘缺不全，根據先輩傳述和多方的參考，個人認為，應是古代人類有大自然界同毒蛇猛獸競爭生存時，由爭鬥經驗中，逐漸積累演變，不知經過多少千年多少萬人的參加研究探討中得來。相傳二千餘年前，即有《內經》一書，為中醫寶庫，對防病治病之法，記載甚多，其中《素問》一篇，就是專講養生的，原文是：［提攜天地，把握陰陽，呼吸精氣，獨立守神，肌肉若一。］文雖簡單籠統，意義深厚，先哲把它列入《黃帝內經》，一方面視作防止疾病的養生術，另一方面凡藥石刀針不能奏效的多種疾病，就根據這種道理，使患者鍛煉休養，作為體育醫療並和《靈樞》互相為佐，其主要內容是養靜，就是［獨立守神］。
東漢以前，很多文人武士兵都會靜養，行站坐臥皆可用功，成為一種普通的健身術，後樑武帝時，達摩行教遊漢土（此時達摩年六十七歲，是天竺國王第三子番王之子，見高僧傳、東流小傳、梁武帝、詔文、祭文），傳來洗髓易筋等法，唐代有臨濟、密宗兩派，相繼傳出插條、柔杠、三折、四肢功、八段錦、金剛十二式，羅漢十八法－－印度統名之曰柔杠，後又有岔派，派別迭出，不可枚舉，居士尤多，標新立異，花樣繁多，方法極亂，異論雜出，遂使此術沒有發展反而有分裂情況，早在五百年前，已形成抱殘守缺。
宋代之後，多變為禪坐等法，也是門戶迭出，互有異同，而且坐法多不夠自然，也不夠具體，舍精華而取糟粕，不僅達摩師傳湮沒已盡，而我歷代先哲遺產出隨之俱廢，大好學術無形銷毀，殊為可惜。
日本相近此術者不少，每在用功之前首先凝神站立以定神思，並得到各方面的提倡支援，也確有深造獨專精持久的功夫，但亦系支離破碎，只鱗片爪。
我生平對祖國遺產－－－養生術、拳學、特別愛好（這和幼年多病是有關係的）。由青年時代略識養生門徑之後，就一方面求師訪友，認真學習，一方面博覽古書，細心體會，同時按照師友的指導，和《內經＊素問》篇所載的道理，朝夕不輟的練習，雖受個人知慧和其他條件的限制，存在著不少缺點，但五十餘年的經驗，證明他不僅有健身防病之效，而且對很多醫藥無效的慢性病，確有不可想像的治療作用。
養生樁的意義和作用
養生樁是一種學術，也是一種醫療體育運動，參加這種運動的人，不限年齡性別，不拘身體強弱，亦無任何局限，有病者治病，無病者防病，運動時不盡在姿式方面著想，也不在式之繁簡上注意，更不在姿勢的前後秩序，主要使大腦得到充分休息，使肢體得到適當的鍛煉，即靜中生動，動中求靜。
這種運動能調整神經系統的機能，促進血液迴圈，發揮體內燃燒，且能加強各種系統的新陳代謝作用，因而能調整、恢復和加強人體各個器官組織的機能，對保持健康，治療疾病，具有顯著的待效，五十年來從無一人出流弊，且百分之九十幾都有效果。
這種運動能加強人體的吸收和排泄作用，古人說：“提煉精華，洗淨糟粕。”其意義就在於此。這是自力更生的運動，就是說，它對於人身及其部分機體，具有生生不已的效能，比如體弱的通過鍛煉可使身強，人體某一系統或器官組織有毛病的，通過鍛煉可使毛病消除，恢復健康，健康者更健康，且容易體會到無窮的理趣。
這種運動和一般體育運動不同，它是把鍛煉和休息統一起來的一種運動，是在鍛煉中休息，又在休息中鍛煉的運動方法，因此它具有調整中樞神經和末梢神經的功能作用，從而使人體各部分在高級中樞神經支配下密切協作。
養生樁應注意的問題
養生樁不僅是健身治病的運動，也是一種鍛煉意志的功夫，所以學習養生樁的人必須注意這種鍛煉。粗暴、浮燥、氣憤、憂慮、悔懼、得失之念和僥倖思想等，都是缺乏修養的表現，學者切要禁忌。
對於治病的人來說，凡是學養生樁治病的大半都是久病不愈，藥石刀針不易奏效者，但須要氣不自餒，應該積極的鍛煉，積極的治療，精神要煥發，蓄有彈力，時時作反覆鬥爭的準備，才能戰勝病魔，恢復健康，如果悲觀失望、生氣著急，毫不振作，一曝十寒，時作時輟是不起作用的。醫生常說病人的心情要愉快，學習養生樁的人首要心情愉快，虛心體會站樁的意義，耐心地、持久地鍛煉，使精神煥發，久而久之，自可功到病除。
練養生樁必須心神安祥，摒除雜念，“神不外溢，力不出尖，意不露形，形不破體。”神態要輕鬆自如，蓄意要深戇雄渾，力量要穩准虛靈“無動不機，無機不趣，虛靈守默，而應萬物”，雖是平易近人的道理，但初學不易理解，主要是以神意為主，不是枝節片面形式問題，意在整體與內部，不要使局部破壞整體的統一，不要使外部動作影響內部推敲，要渾身輕鬆自如，心曠神怡，好像沐浴在大自然之內似的，要做到這樣，在運動前就必須作到心安神定，摒除雜念，還要注意四容五要，四容是頭直、目正、神莊、聲靜；五要是恭、慎、意、切、和。對人對事都要恭敬謹慎，意思周密而切實，任何事不說硬話、不作軟事，這是學者內心和外貌應具備的養生條件，從個人意念來說，應具善意，最好是以子女的行為，父母的心腸對人，在練功方面來說，就是“只要神意足，不求形骸似”，這樣才是練功應有的要義。
養生樁是因病設式，因人而異的，病症不同，其有關的神經和肌肉系統自然就不相同，患者的生活條件、習慣、修養、性情以及其他各種特點，對於設式也有一定的關係，必須根據這些不同的情況，考慮適當的姿勢和運動與休息的時間長短，以及身體負擔的輕重等，教者對此自應充份瞭解情況，作適當的安排，學者應注意掌握，慎重鍛煉，不可忽斷忽續，任意活動，只有這樣才能收效快，並防止在鍛煉中發生不正常的現象。
修養不夠的人，初學時多有幻想或任意活動或拘泥執著等現象，須細心體驗，待實驗充實之後才能解決，主要是師古不泥古，謹守師法未易有得，不要浮聰明，不要笨用功，精神要愉快，肌肉常勞動。離開已身，無物可求，但執著已身，都是錯誤。力量在身外求取，意念在無心中來操持，若本著以上的所談切實用功，細心體會，自不難得到萬變無窮，奇趣橫生之妙。
“獨立守神、肌肉若一”的修養鍛煉
“獨立守神、肌肉若一”的修養鍛煉，關於《內經＊素問篇》的“提挈天地”，“把握陰陽”，“呼吸精氣”，大醫師們早已說過。我對於“獨立守神、肌肉若一”的修養鍛煉稍加補充。“獨立守神”在用功之前，思想先準備一下，應首先著想游于物初，靜會全機之意。視同植物外形不動，內裏卻起著根生發展、順逆橫生的變化，萬不可走入招式斷續的方法，那就破壞無餘了，局部運動縱然有益，長久也有害，是慢性的戕生運動。
鍛煉時要永遠保持意力不斷的虛靈挺拔，輕鬆規章整以達到舒適、得力為原則。鍛煉時，要凝神定意，默對長空，內要清虛空油，外要中正賀和，同時要脫換一個心目歡喜的狀態，洗滌一切雜念，掃除一切情緣，寂靜調息，內外溫養，軍身毛孔放大，有如來回過堂風之感，使肌肉群不期然而然的成了一條空靈口袋，掛在天空，上有繩吊緊，下有木支撐，有如躺在天空地闊的草地上，又像立在悠悠蕩蕩的水中，如此肌肉不鍛自煉，神經不養自養，這是鍛煉的基本要義。
怎樣才能凝神定意呢？要使意念如洪爐大冶，無物不在陶熔中，並儘量吸收一切雜念，來則熔之，不久雜念自可消除，倘若故意拒絕雜念頭，則一念未去，萬念齊來，精神分散神意外馳，就不能做到意定神凝。
鍛煉時還要有這樣的意態，使肢體和大氣相呼應，自然而自在的發揮整體和本能的作用，如果有絲毫的矯柔造作和局部方法，就破壞了整體和本能的作用，所謂這種運動是一種人體本能學術和［一法不立，無法不備］的意義，就在於此。
鍛煉方法雖簡實難，初步鍛煉是大動不如小動，小動不如不動，由不動才能體認到四肢百骸的一動而無不動之動，如此神經始易穩定，熱力才易保持，自然的增強新陳代謝，有了這個基礎，才能逐漸學動，才容易體會不動之動，動猶不動，一動一靜，互相為根之動，然後才能體會到大氣的壓迫，鬆緊力的作用，也就不難控制一切平衡中的不平衡，以及動盪樞紐之動，不動而動，動而不動，同時起著剛柔、虛實、鬆緊錯綜，表裏為用之動（至於假借一切之動，言之太繁，姑不談敘），全體就自然的發揮了上動下自隨、下動上自領、上下動中間攻，中間攻上下合，內外相聯，前後左右都相應之動，以上是試驗各種力的功能作用，蓋力由試而得知，由知而得其所以用。
鍛煉是在無力中求有力，在微動中求迅速，一用力身心便緊，百骸失靈，並有注血阻塞之弊。這種力量是精神的、是意念的，有形就破體，無形能神聚。
先由不動中去體會，再由微動中求認識，欲動又欲止。欲止又欲動，有動中不得不止，止中不得不動之意，要注意從拙笨裏求靈巧、平常中求非常、抽象中求具體，用功時渾身大小關節都是形曲力直，神松意緊，肌肉含力，骨中藏棱，神猶虎豹，氣若騰蛟，而神意之放縱有如巨風卷樹，拔地欲飛，其擰擺橫搖之力，有撞之不開，沖之不散，湛然寂然，居其所而穩如山嶽之勢，外形拙笨，意力靈巧，大都平凡，反是非常，不由抽象中求根本，找不到具體，學理自通，自然明瞭。
“肌肉若一”是特別重要的一步功夫，這一步功夫表面好像另一種，其實和以上所述是有密切關聯的，沒有這步功夫作基礎，任何動作也沒有耐勞持久的能力，這雖是肌肉鍛煉，但仍是以形為本，以意為用，因形取意，意注全身，以精神內斂為主。這種運動，加強運動也是減低疲勞，減低疲勞正是加強運動，鍛煉和休息是一件事，要在調配適當，使患者在不覺中就增強了耐勞持久的能力，並儘量減免大腦和心臟的負擔，以達到舒適得力為止。
（按：筋肉鍛煉是進一步的研究，大都是筋肉伸展、骨節提縱、形曲力直，神松意緊，自然的筋肉捋卷，相互若一，更進一步的研究求力的功能多系超以象外，接近拳學。）
調配方法
（一）肢體調配：不外高低、左右、單重、雙重，不論頭、手、身、肩、肘、足、膝、胯各處，都有單雙、鬆緊、虛實、輕重之別，凡體會得到的精微細小之處，也都是如此。要使用骨骼支撐或力量的稱合，肌肉的聯繫等法。
（二）內臟調配：是神經支配，意念領導，心理影響生理，生理作用心理，互相為用。
（三）時間調配：是以學者性情強弱為基礎，總要不超過負擔能力，不使思想上產生煩悶或厭倦，調配初步形式有如下數種。
養生站樁歌
養生樁，極容易，深追求，頭萬緒，用功時，莫著急，慶選個適當場地，充足陽光，流通空氣，有水有樹更相宜，不論行走坐臥和站立，要內外放鬆，身軀挺拔，腰脊骨垂線成直，渾身大小關節，都含著似曲非直意，守空油，保清虛，凝神也靜氣，臂半圓，腋半虛，體會無微不舒適， 不思考，不費力，心臟無負擔，大腦得休息，想天空虛闊，洗滌情緣和塵俗萬慮，虛靈獨存，悠揚相依，綿綿如醉也如迷，笑臥如在水中宿，返嬰尋天籟，平凡無奇有天趣，師法當遵守，不可太拘泥，這裏邊包羅著無限深思和甜密，動轉頗似水中魚，自在真自在，先哲並無其他異。
再談試驗各種力，名稱用途各不一，有形或無形，有意或無意。具體、局鄣、自動、被動及蓄力，有定位、無定位、應用和練習，大都是骨藏棱、筋伸力、沉、托、分、閉、提、頓、吞、吐，筋絡鼓蕩彈簧似，毛髮根根意如戟，一面要含蓄纏綿力旋繞， 面要斬鐵截金、冷決脆快、刀剪斧齊，曲折路線存鬆緊、面積中分虛實，有忽高而忽低，高低隨時任轉移，精神猶怒虎，氣質若靈犀，身動似山飛，力漲如海溢，這種學術開不太稀奇，都是以形取意，抽象中求具體的切實。
基本姿式
運動的特徵，是在運動中體會身體內外的動態變化，如何使渾身大小關節，都成鈍三角，更好是不要平面積，尤不許有執著點，而是輕靈渾然，想渾身血液迴圈有如水鑽沙之意，按之又如水中漂木之力，而全身又像湖水空舟飄擺無定，惟風力是應，聽其自然，這種神意的表現是隨著個人的豐度、性格、獨賦、特徵以及年歲的老幼，體質的強弱，和用功時間的長短，病情種類之不同，當然就不是幾個姿式所能表現。
因此，說明這種運動，必須根據一切不同的條件，深切體會，逐步加強，隨時調配，都是根據具體情況運使變通，使局部跟著具體起作用，經過鍛煉大都有效。如某處有病就治某處，非但無效，且恐有損失，如果忽視了這一點而精神力量一切就不夠了。
（按：調配方法，一有形，一無形，有形的是姿式、骨骼、肌肉，無形的可就無窮了——精神、意念、假想、力量，也就不是幾個姿式所能範圍，但姿式確為神意的代表，按照輪廓來說明神意，所以姿式也是需要的，不過要把這種運動完整地用圖表現出來，目前因客觀條件和能力的限制還作不到。）
練習站樁的體會和常見的現象
隨著各人身體強弱和病情之不同，在練習過程中的體會感覺及表現變亦各不同，一般的情況是，練習十日左右就能夠體會到站樁的好處，感到練功之後輕鬆愉快，而且這種感覺是隨著練功的進程逐日增長的，有練習幾天之後，就發生肌肉震顫、疼、酸、麻、脹等現象，多半是肌肉運動障礙、氣血欠通或疲勞過度或生理上有其他缺點所致只要防止疲勞過度，注意舒適得力，力求放鬆，避免緊僵，漸漸地就會氣血暢通，肌肉靈活，使以上現象逐漸消除，至於不覺疲勞的有規律地顫動，是經絡和氣血閉塞已經消除的好現象，只要順其自然，不可故意的抑制也不要有意識的擴大，另外還有流眼淚，打哈欠，飽嗝、虛恭、腹鳴、蟻走等現象，都是練功過程中的好現象，病癒之後自可消除。
站樁對各種疾病的療效
站樁能夠調節神經機能，調整呼吸，增強血液迴圈和新陳代謝的作用，因而對神經系統、肌肉系統等以及新陳代謝各方面的病症，特別是急性轉為慢性的病症，都有良好的療效。
經過四五十年的經驗，其效果雖因人因病而異，有大小快慢之別，但除去隨學隨止之外，沒有療效是很少的，而且有很多人病癒之後繼續鍛煉，大多收到轉弱為強，老而益壯之效。
由於缺乏文字記錄，對於過去的經驗不但未能總結，就是學者的人數姓名也無法統計，現在為了供大家參考，只好將最近一、二年來對於站樁治療各種病患的一點體會，分類略述於下：
高血壓——神經性的收效較快，官能發生變化的如血管硬化或冠狀動脈收效較慢。
神經衰弱——一般的頭暈腦脹，頭痛等症狀較易治療，收效的快慢主要在於能否穩定神經，已經引起消化不良或便秘者收效較慢。
關節炎——一般的風溫性和多發性關節炎都易治療，屬於後天性的關節炎比較難治。
氣管炎——氣管炎的種類很多，大多有肺氣腫和心臟喘的症候，得病不久者，收效較快，先天性的不易治療，但和年齡、體質、性情及生活條件有密切關係，只要耐心持久的煉功，飲食起居多加注意，也是可以治癒或減輕的。
肝臟病——肝腫和肝硬化只要耐心地適當地練功再注意飲食和環境方面的保養，可以逐淅減輕以至治癒。
膽囊炎——經歷過的膽炎患者，大多已作過膽切除的手術，有的已經轉為肝脾病或神經衰弱病，根據過去的幾個患者來看，在練功過程中病狀是逐步減輕的，痊癒的前後效果都很好，將來能否有把握，尚難預測。
肺病——只要按照步驟適當地耐心練功，再加注意飲食保養，一般都可治癒。
半身不遂——要耐心練功，持之以恆，一般是可以治好或減輕的，但此病最易復發，必須一面練功，一面避免生氣、著涼、勞累方可，如舌頭手腳都壞，就不能治療。
胃腸病——療效良好，但比較遲緩，病情較輕者三、四個月好，病情較重者八、九個月，三、五年不等。
精神分裂病、筋肉失和等症——比較容易治療。
心臟病——經過的患者，大都效果良好，但這種病主要是在個人性情和生活環境，如性情和生活條件不好，就見效不顯著。
Source Colophon
Source text: article 5 of the HK Yiquan Society article archive, captured in articles_with_content.json on June 2, 2026, and live-verified against the public archive index the same day.
The source appendix includes only the article text. Photographs, book scans, manuscript images, and separate book-page editorial matter are not reproduced here.
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