《站樁功的“意念活動”》姚宗勛

This article is part 12 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.

Yao Zongxun

Since ancient times, predecessors have transmitted many health-preservation methods similar to standing practice, such as "stand alone and guard spirit; the muscles are as one," "take form as the body, intention as the use, and stillness as harmony," and "posture changes by intention; form is simple and intention complex." In these sayings, "guard spirit," "take intention as the use," and "posture changes by intention" all emphasize the importance of intentional activity.

As soon as "intentional activity" is mentioned, people easily think of the "guarding the dantian with intention" spoken of in ordinary qigong. In truth, intentional activity and guarding the dantian with intention are fundamentally not one thing. Guarding the dantian with intention asks the qigong practitioner to fix intention on the dantian area inside one's own body, below the navel in the lower abdomen. This is commonly called guarding the opening. The intentional activity of standing practice asks the practitioner to concentrate intention into some association with the natural world, such as silently thinking of a calm sea, a starry night sky, and so on. Therefore standing practice's intentional activity is completely different from qigong's guarding the dantian. At the same time, the result of standing practice coordinated with intentional activity only increases one's feeling of comfort and does not produce side effects.

For chronic patients beginning standing practice, intentional activity can stabilize emotion, remove mixed thoughts, and relax the muscles. Because of illness, ordinary patients often seem especially tense in spirit and muscles when they begin standing practice. It is hard for them to reach the requirement of calm heart and quiet qi. At this time, if one merely tells the practitioner to "relax," those two words feel too abstract and impossible to understand. If intentional activity is used to guide relaxation, it becomes concrete and effective.

There was once a patient who kept practicing by himself for a period of time, yet never felt comfort, and sometimes even felt whole-body discomfort after practice. One time he came to us for guidance. After seeing how he practiced, we pointed out that his spirit and muscles were both very tense. The patient did not agree and felt he was already very relaxed. Later we arranged his posture and guided his practice with intentional activity, letting him slowly think that he was bathing in warm water, the whole body relaxed and drifting with the water. After practice ended, he felt that this time he had truly relaxed and was as comfortable as after a warm bath.

Sometimes patients have a feeling of tension in chest and abdomen. For them, we coordinate the intention that back, buttocks, and an object are in contact, preserving the feeling of seeming to separate and not separate. For those with tense waist and back, we make them produce the intention of chest and abdomen sticking forward to an object. For tense arms, we have them think that their two hands are supporting a floating ball in water, and so on.

Intentional activity not only helps practitioners reach relaxation; more importantly, it can improve the effect of strengthening the body. Because intentional activity has a negative inductive action on the nervous system, it can cause protective inhibition in the cerebral cortex. It can inhibit excitation foci formed through the influence of illness and gradually regulate and restore the function of brain cells. Therefore after practice, many patients have good feelings such as a clear head, refreshed spirit, strengthened memory, increased appetite, and quicker and deeper sleep. For some cases of high blood pressure, Chinese medicine considers the condition to be "yin and yang losing balance, blood and qi both running upward." During practice, coordinating intentional activity that draws whole-body blood downward can have better effect. This shows that standing practice's intentional activity and posture can coordinate in a good way.

In standing practice, if one distinguishes what belongs to health preservation and what belongs to combat only by posture and size of exercise load, this is not exact. For example, some neurasthenia patients with comparatively good constitution can use postures with greater load for training, while weak patients may still find it difficult to support themselves even with the hands placed very low below the navel. If distinguished by exercise load, then large-load work would necessarily be combat standing and small-load work health-preservation standing. This standard does not combine with the patient's actual condition and makes it hard for patients to choose a suitable posture. Therefore we think that in determining the form of standing practice, intentional activity should be used as the first standard, and only afterward should posture be measured.

For example, the form "twisting, wrapping, pushing, and supporting" introduced in "Methods of Standing Practice," if the formal requirements of twisting, wrapping, pushing, and supporting are truly carried out, belongs to the limb-training method in the combat section. Generally speaking, this posture is not suitable for beginners. But if the same posture does not emphasize twisting, wrapping, pushing, and supporting, and instead coordinates the intentional activity of warm wind blowing, making practitioners think they stand on a sunny grassland with warm wind brushing the body and every pore of the whole body opening, then practitioners feel especially light, relaxed, and comfortable and absolutely do not have the tense feeling of twisting, wrapping, pushing, and supporting. Some patients with comparatively good constitution can use this posture. From this one can see that when determining the form of standing practice, intentional activity is very important. It is also closely related to the size of standing practice's exercise load.

In standing practice, from every link to every concrete posture, apart from special circumstances, one cannot depart from intentional activity. Otherwise it becomes stiff limb exercise and the effect will inevitably be affected.

Colophon

Translated directly from the Traditional Chinese text of 《站樁功的“意念活動”》姚宗勛, 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: 《站樁功的“意念活動”》姚宗勛

Source: HK Yiquan Society article 12

自古以來，前人傳留下了很多類似“站樁”功的養生方法，如“獨立守神，肌肉若一”，“以形為體，以意為用，以靜為和”，“勢以意變，形簡意繁”等說法。其中的“守神”，“以意為用”和“勢以意變”，都強調了意念活動的重要性。

一提到“意念活動”，就容易使人聯想起一般氣功所提的“意守丹田”。其實，“意念活動”和“意守丹田”根本不是一回事。“意守丹田”是要求練氣功的人，固定的“意守”在自己身體內的“丹田”部位（臍下小腹處），也就是常說的“守竅”。而“站樁”功的“意念活動”則要求練功者把自己的“意念”集中到大自然界的某種聯想中去，如默想平靜的海洋、夜晚的星空等等。所以，“站樁”功的“意念活動”，完全不同於氣功的“意守丹田”。同時，“站樁”功配合“意念活動”的結果，只會增加自身的舒適感，不會產生任何副作用。

對初學“站樁”的慢性患者來說，“意念活動”可以起“穩定情緒，排除雜念，放鬆肌肉”的作用。一般患者由於受疾病的影響，在開始練“站樁”時，精神和肌肉都顯得格外緊張，很難達到平心靜氣的要求，這時，如果只簡單的告訴練功者要注意“放鬆”，就會使他們感到“放鬆”這兩個字太抽象，無法理解。如果配合“意念活動”讓他們放鬆，就顯得具體而有效。曾有一位病人，自己堅持練功一個階段，總沒有什麼舒適感，甚至有時練完了覺得全身難受。一次，他來找我們指導，在看了他練功的情況後，我們指出他的精神和肌肉都很緊張，這位病人卻不以為然，覺得自己已經很放鬆了。後來我們給他擺姿勢，配合“意念活動”指導他練習，讓他慢慢地想到自己是在溫水中洗浴，全身放鬆，隨水飄蕩。在練習結束後，他覺得這次才真的放鬆了，象洗溫水澡那樣舒服。有時有的患者出現了胸腹緊張的感覺，就給他們配合上“背部臀部與物接觸”，保持“似離不離”的意念；腰背緊張的，使他們產生“胸腹向前貼物”的意念；兩臂緊張的，讓他們想著自己的雙手在扶著水中的浮球等等。“意念活動”不僅能使練功者達到放鬆的目的，更重要的是它能增進強身效果。因為“意念活動”對神經系統有負誘引作用，能使大腦皮層產生保護性抑制，可以抑制住因疾病影響形成的興奮灶，逐漸調整恢復大腦細胞的功能。因此，很多患者練功後，有頭腦清醒、精神爽快、記憶力增強、食欲增加、入睡快而深沉等良好感覺。對一些高血壓症，中醫認為是“陰陽失去平衡，血之與氣並走於上”。在練功時，配合全身血液下引的“意念活動”，就會有較好的效果。這就說明了“站樁功的“意念活動”與姿勢配合起了良好的作用。

在“站樁”功的練習中，如果單純以姿勢和運動量大小來區分哪些是屬於“養生”的，哪些是屬於“技擊”的，是不確切的。例如，一些體質較好的神經衰弱患者，就可以採取負擔量較大的姿勢進行鍛煉，而體質較弱的病人，有時把手放在臍下很低的位置上，也還感到難以支持。如果以運動量來區別的話，就必須是運動量大的是“技擊”樁，運動量小的是“養生”樁，這是不結合患者實際情況的標準，這會使患者很難選擇合適的姿勢來練習。所以，我們認為，確定“站樁”功的形式，應先以“意念活動”為標準，然後再以姿勢來衡量。例如，《站樁功的練法》一文中介紹的“擰裹推託”一式，如果形式上真做出“擰裹推託”的要求，就是屬於“技擊”部分中的四肢功鍛煉法了，這種姿勢一般來說並不適於初練者。但如果同樣是這個姿勢，不強調“擰裹推託”，而給練功者配合上“暖風吹拂”的“意念活動”，使他們想到自己是站在陽光燦爛、暖風拂體的草原上，全身每個毛孔都在開放，那會使練功者感到格外輕鬆舒適，決不會有“擰裹推託”那樣緊張的感覺，某些體質較好的患者，就可以採用這種姿勢。由此可見，確定“站樁”功的形式時，“意念活動”是很重要的。同時，它和“站樁”功運動量大小也是很有關係的。

“站樁”功從每個環節到具體姿勢，除了特定情況外，都不能離開“意念活動”，否則就會變成呆板的肢體鍛煉，效果難免不會受到影響。

Source Colophon

Source text: article 12 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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