Qi Journal First Article
This will be the first of several articles about our (Kevin Siddons
and Ying Liang) effort to translate Xi Sui Jing to English.
I (KS) first started practicing Qigong over five years ago. The first
form I started practicing was Yì Jīn Jīng. As I was practicing, I
wanted to learn more about the origins of the form. In my efforts
to track down copies of the ancient documents, I contacted Livia
Kohn (an expert on translating Chinese Daoist materials into
English). She graciously referred me to Meir Shahar of Tel Aviv
University (an expert on translating Qing Dynasty documents
into English).
Dr. Shahar suggested the following book - 中国传统养⽣珍典.
After diligent researching, and with the help of my local library
(Bethlehem Public Library - thank you Valerie Mann), I was able
to access a digital copy of the document from a Chinese source.
Being that I am hopelessly mono-linguistic, I initially began
translating with Optical Character Recognition software (iOS
app Scan&Translate) and translation software (iOS app Pleco).
While this was helpful translating characters and phrases,
sentence structure was lacking. I then began searching for
someone who was fluent in both English and Chinese. I (KS) was
very fortunate to have been lead to meet my co-author Ying
Liang.
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Ying is a Fulbright scholar at Lafayette College in Easton PA. She
has a Master Degree in English Literature and is a trained
translator. (Ying, please add more. This is a chance to brag
some.)
Together we have been translating 中国传统养⽣珍典 (Middle
Kingdom Traditional Life Nurturing Precious Canon).
The change of focus: from Yì Jin Jing to Xi Sui Jing
As I (KS) said, my initial focus was to learn more about Yì Jīn Jīng
(Muscle Changing Scripture). As Ying and I translated the initial
sections of The Middle Kingdom Traditional Life Nurturing
Precious Cannon (Middle Kingdom book for short) I found that
there was a section on Xi Sui Jing (Essence Cleansing Scripture).
Up until that point, whenever I found historic descriptions of Yì
Jīn Jīng, I found short descriptions of Xi Sui Jing. What was
common to all descriptions was that historic copies of Xi Sui
Jing had been lost. I was completely surprised to find that I had
access to this lost document. Since this chapter is shorter that all
the other chapters in the book and because I thought this would
be a significant contribution to the growing practice of Qigong,
I shifted my focus to translating this first.
The author of the Middle Kingdom book
First, I think it is important to understand something about the
individual that authored and edited the overall book. Ying was
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
able to find the following biographic materials. (Ying, please
add some description of how and where you found this.)
Bio
Dr. Ding Ji Hua, male, (1932-) is from Feng Hua city of Zhejiang
Province. He was a researcher in the Orthopaedic Hospital of
China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (now the Wang
Jing Hospital of CACMS). He graduated from the Harbin
Medical University in 1954.
He was the past director as well as CPC chief of the
Orthopaedic Hospital of CACMS. He is now the director for its
department of theories and information. He also held some
part-time positions out of the hospital.
He was a member of:
• the Expert Committee,
• the Senior Professional Title Evaluation Committee and the
Academic Degree Committee of CACMS,
• an executive director of China Association of Rehabilitation
of Disabled Persons,
• an adviser for the Orthopaedic Committee of the China
Association of Chinese Medicine,
• Vice director for China Journal of Orthopedics And
Traumatology and Chinese Journal of Traditional Medical
Traumatology & Orthopedics.
• He was involved in two U.S. Medical academies.
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
• He was a visiting professor in Shenzhen University and
chaired 3 national scientific programs.
• His program in the State Administration of Traditional
Chinese Medicine is called “The Research and Sorting of the
Ancient Texts on TCM Orthopaedic”. It received the
Achievement Award from CACMS.
• His program, sponsored by the National Natural Science
Fund, is called “Study of the 30 Modern Expert Schools in
TCM Orthopaedic”. It got the S&T (Science and Technology)
Progress Awards from the the State Administration of
Traditional Chinese Medicine.
• His program in the State Administration of Traditional
Chinese Medicine with the name of “Study on the Clinical
and Experimental Treatment of Senior Citizen’s Osteoporosis
Through the Method of Enriching Their Kidney System and
Essence” is soon to finish.
• He is now engaged in the “Study and Building of a Software
Storing Ancient and Modern TCM Orthopaedic Texts and
Information”.
He wrote many books:
• Collection of the TCM Orthopaedic Works,
• Basics for TCM Orthopaedic,
• Foundation for TCM Orthopaedic, Different Schools’
• Theories on TCM Orthopaedic,
• Collection of TCM Essences Throughout the History,
• Essence of Modern TCM Schools,
• Collection of TCM Orthopaedic.
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
He also chaired the editing of many ancient scripts, such as:
• Treatment of All Injuries-Recover From Injuries From Falls,
Fractures, Contusions and Strains,
• The Real Knowledge Passed On By Famous Experts in Injures
from Falls, Fractures, Contusions and Strains,
• The Orthopaedic in Shaolin Temple and
• The Collection of Martial Arts and War Strategies.
Among his works, the Collection of the TCM Orthopaedic Works
is awarded as an National Excellent Book. It also got awards
such as Excellent National TCM Ancient Books and National
Excellent Reference Book.
He also publish dozens of papers in domestic and foreign
journals, such as:
• The Treatment of Orthopaedic Problems in TCM and
Combination of TCM and Western Medicine,
• The Characteristics and Development of TCM Orthopaedic,
• The Initial Study of the Theory of Kidney System Controlling
Bones,
• The School of Enriching the Kidney System,
• Study on Treatment of Bone and Joints Problems by Using
Medicines to Enrich the Kidney System.
Since 1992, he begin to receive the special allowance for
experts from the State Council of PRC.
~~~
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
More about the Middle Kingdom book.
Dr. Ding worked to gather together important source
documents about Qigong. Here's the Summary from the Middle
Kingdom book.
Summary
“Middle Kingdom Traditional Life Nurturing Precious Canon” is a
reference book which: promotes the Chinese culture; helps the
healthy to become even stronger; the sick to recover; and
prolongs people's life.
In this book, we have collected:
• the Five Animal Exercises created by the well-known ancient
doctor Hua Tuo,
• the Eight Pieces of Brocade written by Priest Qinghai of Wu
Dang Mountain Daoism School,
• the Muscle Changing scripture and the Essence Cleansing
scripture created by Bodhidharma of the Shaolin Monastery
and Martial Arts School,
• and other materials.
Some of the documents and materials in this book are from
relevant libraries, while other materials are from contributions of
family heritage books of private collectors. Some material are
taken from several versions to verify each other. Materials
related to this topic written and published after 1911 are not
included here.
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
In this book, there are not only martial art canons, but also
tested medical prescriptions. In addition, there are many
illustrations about how to practice for the readers to follow.
~~~
Next, the Forward.
Forward
In the process of collecting ancient (from the Spring and
Autumn and Warring State periods to the Ming and Qing
Dynasty, which means before 1911 AD) Chinese medical books
concerning the treatment of bone injuries, we have visited
libraries of 26 Chinese provinces and cities, and gathered nearly
three hundred sets of Chinese medicine documents concerning
the treatment of bone injuries, including some books about
"Dao Yin" (Daoist exercises involving breathing, stretching and
self-massage) such as:
• "Muscle Changing Scripture",
• "Essence Cleansing Scripture",
• "Nurturing Life in Eight Aspects",
• "Essential Hygiene Techniques”.
• and other books.
Additional works contain (are)
• "Five Animal Exercises",
• "Eight Pieces of Brocade",
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
• "Twelve Brocades",
• "Taoist Breathing Exercises",
• The internal (exercises to benefit the internal organs) and
external (exercises to benefit the muscles and bones) schools
of "Dao Yin",
• "the motion (exercises to benefit movement) and quietness
(exercises to benefit contemplation) schools of "Dao Yin",
• and other exercises pieces and essential techniques.
Those exercises not only strengthen body and prolong life but
also prevent and treat illness. They have special effects on the
recovering from bone injuries and other illness.Therefore, I
collect them into a book for the readers.
This kind of book (is) consequently an outstanding, leading
compilation with broad and great benefits for the readers.
First:
It is said that the Muscle Change Scripture and Essence
Cleansing Scripture were written by Bodhidharma, the
eminent monk from India, during the period of Hou Wei
dynasty (A.D. 386–534) at the Shaolin Temple at
Songshan Mountain.
The editions we gathered here are the versions in the
Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), according to our textual
research on the 6 different editions of Muscle Change
Scripture and Essence Cleansing Scripture we have on
hand.
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Although the editions are different, most content are
completely alike. There are only slight differences in
wordings or ways of description. And just one or two
sections are slightly different from other versions. Those
differences maybe due to mistakes made by those who
copied them by hands in a time when the printing
technology is not very developed or maybe caused by
an intentional addition by the copiers. (They made
annotations about there additions.)
Every edition has a preface from Li Yaoshi of the Zhen
Guan Period of Tang dynasty (618-907) and another
preface from General Niu Gao, a warrior in the troop of
the famous General Yue Fei of Song dynasty (960-1279).
Even if those prefaces in those two famous people’s
name may be faked, the original books are written by
one person. The other versions passed down from the
later dynasties just copied those original versions. There
are nothing new in them.
Second:
the Nurturing Life in Eight Aspects is written by Gao Lian,
a Daoism practitioner, while the above mentioned two
scriptures are written by a prominent Buddhism monk.
Therefore, "Dao Yin" (Daoist exercises involving
breathing, stretching and self-massage) may have
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
something to do with religious self-cultivation or martial
art exercises.
Third:
In order to stay faithful to the original document, and let
the readers know what is from the original material and
what is the editor’s opinion, we use two fonts in writing
them respectively.
Fourth
Because there are too many versions, we try our best to
merge the similar contents during editing to avoid
redundancy. At the same time, we made annotations
under the title of different versions, showing differences
in their table of contents and indicting that in which
version can you find certain chapters. Though we have
saved spaces through merging in that way, we
sometimes have to allow some redundancy to assure the
wholeness of some chapters.
Fifth
The materials we collected are mostly lithographic
printing or handwritten copies. In sorting them out, we
simplified the traditional characters of the ancient texts,
split the sentences properly, added punctuation and
corrected some wrong characters. In order to make sure
materials about the same topic can appear in a collective
way, we sorted them out into chapters of Five Animals
Exercises , Eight Pieces of Brocade , Twelve Brocades,
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Muscle Change Scripture, and Essence Cleansing
Scripture. We also added names of those books as the
title of sections for this book, therefore readers can easily
refer to them.
Sixth:
The materials we collected are abundant in contents, rich
in illustrations and texts and clear in explanations. They
are all very easy to learn. Since it will be greatly beneficial
to patients seeking to recover, medical professionals
studying bone injuries and other illness, athletes, martial
art fans and senior citizens, it is worthy to be introduced
to the general public. Therefore, we edited this book for
the readers
Ding Jihua - January 21st, 1998
~~~
Lastly, the Table of Contents.
Table of Contents
Chapter of Wu Qin Xi / Five Animals Exercises
Brief Introduction
Illustrations and Explanations for Five Animals Exercises
[Editor: Xi Xifan, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)]
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Chapter of Ba Duan Jin/Eight Pieces of Brocade
Brief Introduction
External Robusting Power of Ba Duan Jin / Eight Pieces
of Brocade, [Author: Bodhidharma, Northern Wei
Dynasty (386-534)]
Illustrations and Explanations for Ba Duan Jin/Eight
Pieces of Brocade [Editor: Xi xifan, Qing dynasty
(1644-1911)]
Illustrations and Explanations for Yì Jīn Jīng / Muscle
Change Scripture
Illustrations of the Miraculous Effect of Strengthening
Power [Anonymous author, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)]
Nurturing Life in Eight Aspects [Author: Gao Lian, Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644)]
Illustrations and Explanations of the Sitting and Standing
Postures of Ba Duan Jin/Eight Pieces of Brocade [Editor:
Lou Jie, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)]
Illustrations for Sitting Posture of Ba Buan Jin/Eight
Pieces of Brocade [Author: Daoist Priest Qing Lai, Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911)]
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Illustrations for Ba Duan Jin/Eight Pieces of Brocade
[Editor: Pān Wèi, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)]
Quxian’s Method of Saving Life (Author: Zhū Quán, Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644)]
Chapter of Shí Èr Duàn Jǐn / Twelve Brocades
Brief Introduction144
Yì Jīn Jīng/Muscle Change Scripture • Shí Èr Duàn Jǐn/
Twelve Brocades [Author: Bodhidharma, Northern Wei
Dynasty (386-534)]
Wèishēng Yào Shù / Essential Hygiene Techniques • Shí
Èr Duàn Jǐn / Twelve Brocades [Editor: Pān Wèi, Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911)]
(Append) Yì Jīn Jīng / Twelve Illustrations for Muscle
Change Scripture
(Append) Jiu Tu Què bìng Yán Nián Fǎ / Nine Illustrations
for Illness Prevention and life Prolonging Methods
Chapter of Yì Jīn Jīng / Muscle Change Scripture
Brief Introduction
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Collection of Prefaces and Table of Contents for Yì Jīn
Jīng / Muscle Change Scripture
Yì Jīn Jīng / Muscle Change Scripture [Author:
Bodhidharma, Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534)]
Summary and Collection of Illustrations and Explanations
for Inner and Outer Marshal Art • Twelve Illustrations for
Muscle Change Scripture /Yì Jīn Jīng [Editor: Xi Xifan,
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)]
Illustrations and Explanations for the Outer School of
Muscle Change Scripture • Illustrations of the Miraculous
Effect of Strengthening Power [A Book from the
Collection of Liáng Shì Chāng, Qing
Dynasty(1644-1911)]
True Yì Jīn Jīng / Muscle Change Scripture • Treasured
and Secret Copy of Xǐ Suǐ Jīng/ Essence Cleansing
scripture [A Book from the Collection of Jiǎng
Zhuzhuāng, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)]
Illustrations and Explanations for Yì Jīn Jing/ Muscle
Change illustrations [Author: Bodhidharma, Northern
Wei Dynasty (386-534)]
Chapter of Xǐ Suǐ Jīng / Essence Cleansing scripture
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
Xǐ Suǐ Jīng / Essence Cleansing scripture[Author:
Bodhidharma, Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534)
~~~
In the next article we will start presenting the content of the Xi
Sui Jing or Essence Cleansing Scripture chapter.
Copyright 2017 Kevin Siddons
