ChiDragon

Translation by the meaning of the characters: 獨: Solely. 占: to seize; to be taken by will or force 鳌頭: the head of a big sea turtle. 獨占鳌頭: I'm the one to be solely taken the turtle head. Which implies that: I am the only champion.

Most martial artists use RAB, I guess a warrior falls in the martial arts side. Scholars are after good health and not much concern with fighting, I guess NAB is their basic need. You should learn the basic fundamental concepts about Chi Kung and try not to pay too much attention to those numerous confusing names that people came up with.

It was recommended, in Zhan Zhuang for beginners, not to have the knees pass the toes. It's better to stay in between the toes and the ankle. It is best to have the lower leg perpendicular to the ankle. The reason for that was when the knee bends, only stress was placed on the upper part of the knee cap and less stress on the lower. Therefore, the practitioner will feel less pain. The most painful situation was when the knees were passed the toes mark. Hence, the upper and lower parts of the knees are pulling each other causing a very stressful pain.

It is a direction translation but a poor one for a non-native without knowing the story behind this phrase. So, does it make any sense to you...??? I had been thinking how to put my thoughts together overnight. Well, these two creatures are the good luck symbols of longevity. The turtle with a dragon head which means long live the king. Since the dragon was the highest animal in the Chinese history. Only the emperor uses it to symbolize his supreme authority. Therefore, the dragon head symbolize the head of something, number one in rank, or a trophy of championship. In competitions, everybody want to win the dragon head as a trophy of championship. The crane standing on top of the turtle with one leg which symbolizes that "I am the only one standing high on top to get the highest honor of championship." The final meaning behind this phrase is "to be the champion", "to be the first", or "to be number one".

Stosh... Welcome aboard. You are a gentleman and a scholar....

As I'd mentioned before, LaoTze was not really concern about the positive stuff, he was more concern with the adversity from the negative outcome. I will let you digest this and see if you will come up with this again....

Stosh, welcome to the club... 'Will' was not advocated by LaoTze. If there is will, then there is desire. It is not Wu Wei. Chapter 3 1. Dejectedly soliciting intelligentsia, 2. Discourage people from striving. 3. Not to value hard to obtained goods, 4. Prevent people from being thieves. 5. Not being seen desirable, 6. People won't become perturbed. 7. With sagacious ruling, 8. Emptied one's heart, 9. Solidified one's belly, 10. Weaken one's volition, 11. Strengthen one's bone, 12. Always keeping the people innocent without desire, 13. Presumptuous people cannot commit their acts. 14. Trailing to a natural path, 15. Thus nothing that couldn't be handled. I think lines 10 thru 12 of Chapter 3 reflect LaoTze's thinking. PS... @informer I meant to throw this at you too, finally, here is my chance...

Green Tiger.... May I ask you when you slide your back down against the wall and get into deeper knee bends, did you move your feet forward too, so, the lower legs do not bend...??? In other words, are your ankles perpendicular to your feet...???

I would recommend you to do Zazen with breathing to speed up the recovery for the ribs. Since your ribs are broken, you should only breathe to a point that you don't feel any pain and avoid any strenuous exercises. Circle walking with your hands is not a desirable thing to do at this time.

Please translate this phrase: 實事求是 I was visiting a thousand year old university in Wunan(湖南) China last week. The phrase was handwritten by the principal of the university and carved on a plaque. I was told that even Chairman Mao had attended the university.

informer.... You really standout to your own name. That was very informative. Thank you. Yes, that phrase was an advice for us not to distort the actual fact. Stick to the idea of what it is by not adding nor removing any parts of the whole which might be leading to a misconception.

Yes, certainly. It is a Chinese idiom: 獨占鰲頭: To be in first place.

Green Tiger... I am sorry, I did not make myself clear. When I say do ZZ with the knees bend at 15 degree, it has to be done for weeks or months before the next increment to 20 degree and so far. That was what I meant by progressive sequence. You see we stand on our feet with the knees in a straight position all the time. They cannot take the stress if we bend our knees all the sudden. In order for the knees to take the stress, we must work them in slowly by standing with the knees bend at the lowest degree without hurting or damaging the tissues of the knees. The purpose of Zhan Zhuang is to strengthen the leg muscles and the knee caps. The knee caps hold all the upper body weight while the lower legs are acting like a tree root to lock them to the ground to hold the body in place. I would like to go into more details about Zhan Zhuang in the following posts. However, I still love to hear more of your interesting ideas and questions to test my basic knowledge about ZZ. PS... I know you are taken up Tai Ji. Did your teacher tell you to bend your knees all the time while you're do the movements. Actually, when you bend your knees while moving, you were doing dynamic ZZ instead of static ZZ.

No, I did not invent it. The 90 degree ZZ attainment is not for an ordinary person. It is for someone who can do full time practice like a Buddhist monk or a Taoist priest. For health purposes, 45 degree bend for the knees is sufficed. Here is an good example of the 90 degree ZZ at 3:35. Ref:

Does anybody know the concept of the five elements and how do they interact with each other. It is like one element is aiding or opposing another. Did you know that the fire element represents the heart instead of the heart stores the fire element. Actually, each of the five elements represents a different internal organ. Is there anyone know how to read the five-elements chart...??? Five elements From the chart, the WOOD produces FIRE which says that the LIVER is effecting the HEART. In other words, in TCM, the function of the heart depends on the liver. The liver has to deliver nourishment to the heart. That was how the concept of the five elements were used to relate the internal organs. When the Chinese doctor said that the fire of the heart is weak; it simply means that the heart is very weak and needs attention. Since the liver is providing the nourishment to the heart, therefore, the liver had to be treated instead of the heart. The WATER puts out the FIRE, then it is the KIDNEY needs attention but not the HEART.

I think that John Wu had squeezed "the path of Tao" into his thought. The line is about personal behavior not about Tao.

6. 強行者有志。 6. The one who forced forces upon oneself to do something has inspiration. I see that you are still thinking about the other translation. However, 強行者(the one who does thing forcefully or unwillingly) in the phrase does not contain the meaning of 'perseverance'.

Recently, I went to Hong Kong, China and bought couple books. One is the Tao Te Ching and the other is Zhunag Tze. The Tao Te Ching was translated into modern Chinese line-by-line. Therefore, I have to revise this line. 6. 強行者有志。 6. The one who forced upon oneself to do something has inspiration.

You got it.........

DAO rain TAO.... You do not and cannot jump to the extreme ZZ position with a cold joint in your knees. You must follow the ZZ sequence as I have described above. The purpose of the progressive sequence was to get rid of the pain, in the muscles and knees, slowly at each degree interval. Thus you will have no pain when you have reached the highest ZZ position.

Aha... You had jumped the gun. 1 min and 45 sec at 90 degree which mean you have not reached the highest attainment of Zuan Zhuang. At 45 degree, you should do it until there is no pain for longer than 20 minutes. Then increase to 50 degrees until no pain for longer than 20 minutes' and then 55, 60, 65.....90 degrees. This is the progressive sequence of Zhan Zhuang practice. If you follow this procedure, then you should be able to stand at 90 degrees for a long time.

I have this DVD...

Yes, sweet....!!! How long can you hold in that position....???

sinfest... I know your are crazy about horse stance. The highest ZZ attainment, for each leg, is to have the ankle perpendicular to the foot and the knee bent 90 degrees too.

FH.... The master was using his student for the demo because the student had falling trainings. Any master is an expert in controlling the amount of strength to assure not to hurt anybody. He is not picking the weak to be beaten. He was not using full power when he Fa Jin. If he did go full blast, then the student would be in more danger of being hurt. Self control is the higher degree of accomplishment of a superb master. If they want to hurt someone, then it would be very severe. BTW The purpose of the demo was only to show his partial strength of Fa Jin by the distance of his hand had moved. If he took one step forward, then it would be much stronger. The student would had been flew away a lot farther.