Anyone have a link for an explanation of Nei kung terms?

[Encephalon]

[Iskote]

Edited July 6, 2009 by Iskote

[yugenphoenix]

These are exercises from C.K. Chu's system of Nei Kung, from his "The Book of Nei Kung" Very powerful stuff.

[Encephalon]

These are exercises from C.K. Chu's system of Nei Kung, from his "The Book of Nei Kung" Very powerful stuff.

 

Yes they are. Do you have personal experience with this routine? I'd still like to know the story behind the names.

[Iskote]

Yes they are. Do you have personal experience with this routine? I'd still like to know the story behind the names.

 

This is my take on it:

The names are usually descriptive of the movements, although sometimes fairly loosely and with a lot of

poetic license. Phoenixes, dragons, cranes, tigers, monkeys, snakes, stars, moons, the sea, etc. appear

a lot in many martial arts and qigong names, and usually help to give an idea of the feel of the movement as well. Movement names may sometimes have borrowed from other martial arts or other arts, like in the example I gave for 'Playing the Pipa'. Because of that and the fact that many names may have originated many centuries ago, it may be pretty hard to trace a movement name to its exact original source.

 

You probably won't go too wrong if you look at most of the names as trying to convey not only the feel of the movement, but they may also give some idea on how the movement is done. For example, I don't know

what the movement 'DOUBLE DRAGONS LEAP FROM THE SEA' looks like, but I would hazard a guess the name

is indicating that two of something is rising up or making a bounding motion, or something along those lines.

So, maybe the two arms are raised up from a lowered position or swayed as if bounding or something like that?

 

Various forms can sometimes go through quite a bit of changes when passing from teacher to teacher, so it is possible that sometimes certain movements may not resemble the original movement too much. I am basing that on the many different ways I have seen various movements done in 'Yang' style tai chi as taught by different teachers from various backgrounds and schools. Sometimes the movements are almost unrecognizable, although they retain the same name. Sometimes movement names may hold more

meaning than just trying to give a feel or description of a movement, but who's to say unlesss the originator

passed that information on in some way. If this info was passed on verbally, those meanings may well

have changed when passing from teacher to student over many times, I would guess anyway.

 

Best wishes from Iskote...

Edited July 9, 2009 by Iskote