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location: Frist page Theory & Efficacy The Cultural Connotation of “Ji Chang Shoots a Louse (Ji Chang Guan Shi)”(Ⅰ)
2018-04-19
The Cultural Connotation of “Ji Chang Shoots a Louse (Ji Chang Guan Shi)”(Ⅰ)

“Ji Chang Shoots a Louse (Ji Chang Guan Shi)” is the fourth routine of Health Qigong Daoyin Yang Sheng Gong Shi Er Fa. This idiom which was originated from Liezi Tangwen, contains a story about Ji Chang learning archery from Fei Wei, the archery master. After Ji Chang started his learning, the master told him: “If you want to be a good archer, you should first learn not to twinkle your eyes at any moment, and then learn to see things clearly as if they grew much bigger. Only after seeing small and blurry things clearly can you actually start learning archery.”

Ji Chang did as his master said and first lied down under his wife’s loom, watching the shuttle going back and forth attentively. Two years later, he can keep his eyes wide open even when a person stabs the point of a shuttle into his eyes.

To see things clearly as if they grew much bigger, he then caught a parasitic louse and hanged it at the window with a hair from an ox’s tail. After three years of dedicated practice, he finally gained his payback. In his eyes, the louse was as big as a carriage wheel and other things were as large as mountains and hills. He then used a bow made from ox horns produced in the State of Yan and an arrow made from northern bamboos to shoot the louse. The sharp arrow was sent through the heart of the louse while the ox’s hair remained unhurt. That is the story of “Ji Chang Shoots a Louse”.

Let's have a look at the movement structure of this routine. It can mainly preserve the yin, nourish the kidneys, strengthen the waist and maintain health by twisting and turning the body.

Then why can the movements of twisting and turning the body achieve such effects? There are three reasons as follows:

I. Connecting the Mingmen Point and the Shenque Point can help people get rid of yin deficiency and kidney diseases.

According to TCM theories, the Mingmen Point, a point closely related to longevity, is located under the second lumbar spinous on the back. (This point belongs to the kidney and is on the right of the viscus.) According to Nanjing Sanshijiunan: “The Mingmen Point is the place where mind and the source qi rests. Men store their essence here and women use the point to nourish their abdomens. The qi here is connected to the kidneys (the Mingmen point serves as the moving qi between the two kidneys), and the ‘moving qi’ is the origin of the fresh qi, the root of the viscera and the twelve meridians, the gate of breath, and the origin of the triple energizers.”    

Also, there is another point which can bring longevity on the Conception Vessel in the front of the body. It is called Shenque Point. According to Huiyuanzhenjiuxue: In Chinese language, Shenque indicates the place where immortals live. The upper part belongs to the heaven, the lower part belongs to the earth, the middle part belongs to the human, on the two sides there are the Huangyu Points, the qi points of the kidney meridian of foot-shaoyin, above it there are the Shuifen Point and the Xiawan Point, below it there are the Yinjiao Point, the Qihai Point, and the Guanyuan Point. The navel is in the center, acting as the entering gate(Que) and the spirit(Shen) connecting the innate foundation. Zhongyizhenjiuxue also wrote: “The immortal living in the Shenque is actually the mind and the vitality. In Chinese language, Que means the gate of the emperor's palace. Here it indicates the living place of vitality.” “ Moxibustion with ginger or salt can treat diseases such as kidney diseases, stroke, prostration, fatigue, rectocele, and infertility.”

It is proved by practice that when doing the routine of “Ji Chang Shoots a Louse”, twisting and turning the body can effectively promote the qi from the Governor Vessel in the Mingmen Point and the qi from the Conception Vessel in the Shenque Point, combine the back and front, the yin and yang together, realizing the effect of nourishing the yin and promoting the yang in the kidney, gaining more power and strengthening the body.

II. Combining the Conception Vessel and the Governor Vessel in the right way can dredge all the vessels and preserve the essence.

According to TCM theories, the Governor Vessel is located on the torso of the human body and runs through the center of the back. This vessel goes through the spine, belongs to the kidneys, intertwines with the brain, leads all the yang meridians of hand and foot, and is called “the sea of all yang meridians”. The Conception Vessel passes the abdomen of the human body. It starts from the inside of the lower abdomen, comes out from the perineum, and goes up the body through the center line of the abdomen and the chest. It meets with the three yin meridians of hand and the three yin meridians of foot, leads all the yin meridians, and is called “the sea of all yin meridians”.

Also, as Physiological Anatomy wrote: “The spine is made up of vertebrae, intervertebral discs, and ligaments. There is a vertebral canal in the center of the spine accommodating the spinal cord. It is surrounded by 31 pairs of spinal nerves (8 pairs of cervical nerves, 12 thoracic nerves, 5 pairs of lumbar nerves, 5 pairs of sacral nerves and 1 pair of caudal nerves) connected to the spinal cord. The spinal nerve goes out from the back of the intervertebral foramen. Its posterior branch controls the back-muscle movement and the back skin feeling. The anterior branch of the thoracic nerve, along the lower margin of the rib, forms the intercostal nerve, which dominates the skin and muscles of the thoracic abdominal wall. Cervical nerves, sacral nerve and the anterior branch of the caudal nerve interweave each other, forming nerve plexuses (respectively the cervical plexus, brachial plexus, lumbar plexus and sacral plexus, etc.). The nerve plexuses give off a lot of nerves scattered in the skin and muscle of body parts such as the neck, upper limbs, and lower limbs.

When doing “Ji Chang Shoots a Louse” in Dao Yin Yang Sheng Gong Shi Er Fa, the torso’s repetitious twisting and turning movements can promote the balanced and smooth transition of pressure. Doing it can train the lumbar intervertebral disc and ligaments, harmonize and develop the kidney meridians, the urinary bladder meridians, the nerves, muscles, and skin of the neck, chest, lumbar and sacral tail, and even the limbs and the viscera. These movements can not only make the Governor Vessel going through the spine and belonging to the kidney manage the body's yang qi more effectively, but also make the Conception Vessel better nourish the yin meridians. In this way, we can realize the goal of “dredging all the vessels by dredging the Conception Vessel and the Governor Vessel first”, “gaining affluent essence and qi, nourishing the sea of marrow”, and making the body healthy.

(By Zhang Guangde, Si Chaoquan)

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