練功拾遺—氣沉丹田 Practice Reminder – Sinking Qi to Dantian (qi chen dantian)

練功拾遺—氣沉丹田

Practice Reminder – Sinking Qi to Dantian (qi chen dantian)

練氣沉丹田常見的錯誤或忽略了的情況：

What one often fails or forgets to do correctly when practising qi chen dantian:

沉向丹田時連頭皮都往下沉，只有下沒有上；

When one tries to “sink towards the dantian”, the scalp sinks “down” as well resulting in the missing of an “up";

不自覺兩肩聳起，這是兩邊頸項未放鬆；

Raising the shoulders unknowingly, which is caused by tightness on both sides of the neck;

兩肘有力上抬。這會令橫膈膜不能下降，氣也不能往下沉；

Both elbows get raised with brute force. This state prevents the diaphragm from lowering, and neither can the qi sink low as a result;

兩肋未鬆開。能正確鬆開，左右腹部會有向中間微微陷進去的感覺，氣亦會隨任脈通過氣海穴至丹田；

The ribs on both sides fail to relax. When done correctly, one can feel the left and right sides of the abdomen cascade in gently towards the middle and that qi can also flow along the ren meridian reaching dantian via the acupuncture point of qihai;

當感覺到氣聚丹田不要忽略與頭頂相對，頭皮要往上領，頭皮以下所有血、肉都往丹田沉，無論何時都要保持此狀態。一有全有，一無全無，這是太極拳的基礎。如果身法散亂，所有太極拳技巧均

無法施展。

Whenever you feel the pooling of qi in the dantian, make sure you don’t lose the awareness of the top. While the scalp should feel like reaching upwards, everything else below it, including flesh and blood, should sink towards dantian. This is the state one should be in at all times – either all or nothing, as simple as that. These are the basics of Taijiquan practice. If the posture is less than perfect, none of the Taijiquan techniques can manifest themselves.

By Patrick SW Chan 陳少華

Translated by Vicky Wong