The Thirteen Rules
of Nourishing Life.

Where it comes from

The Yǎngshēng Shísān Zé Chǎnwēi 養生十三則闡微 — Elucidation of the Thirteen Rules of Nourishing Life — is the fifteenth text in the Gu Shuyinlou Cangshu 古書隱樓藏書, the Longmen anthology gathered by Mǐn Yīdé 閔一得. It sits in the eighth volume, and Mǐn compiled it at Jīngài 金蓋山, Gold-Cap Mountain, in the winter of 1818.

What makes it worth practising rather than only reading is the commentary. The thirteen exercises themselves are old and widely known; Mǐn's contribution is to explain what each one is doing at the level of jīng, qì and shén, and to say plainly what goes wrong when they are done badly, in the wrong order, or abandoned halfway. Few yǎngshēng texts are that candid about failure.

It is part of the translation work Ian has under way on the anthology, so what is taught here comes from the original rather than from a secondary account.

The thirteen

Taken as one sequence, in order. The English is Ian's working translation.

• One 兩手握固閉目冥心

  Hold the solid grip, close the eyes, still the mind. The gesture is wògù 握固 — thumbs pressed into the base of the palm, fingers wrapped over them. Everything else rests on this.

• Two 舌抵上腭一意調心

  Press the tongue to the upper palate; single intent regulating the heart-mind.

• Three 神遊水府雙擦腰腎

  Spirit wandering the Water Mansion; double-rubbing the lumbar kidneys.

• Four 心注尾閭頻聳兩肩

  Mind directed at the coccyx, shoulders raised repeatedly — which is how the tailbone gate and the spine are opened.

• Five 目視頂門叩齒攪口

  Eyes to the crown-gate; teeth clicking and the mouth stirring. Guides the breath past the Jade Pillow and gathers the body's spirits.

• Six 靜運兩目頻頻嚥氣

  Quietly rotating both eyes; swallowing the breath, repeatedly. Assists the yang in the lower field.

• Seven 澄神摩腹手攀兩足

  Clarifying the spirit, massaging the abdomen, hands grasping both feet — recruiting the yang-breath at Yǒngquán 湧泉.

• Eight 俯身鳴鼓數息凝神

  Bowing the body, sounding the drum, counting the breaths, condensing the spirit. Every breath returns to the navel.

• Nine 擺腰灑腿兩手托天

  Swinging the waist and the legs, both hands holding up Heaven. Releases the obstruction that can settle after long stillness.

• Ten 左右開弓平心靜氣

  Drawing the bow left and right; levelling the heart-mind and stilling the breath.

• Eleven 無人無我心如止水

  Without self, without others: the heart-mind like still water. Mǐn treats this as the pivot on which the whole sequence turns.

• Twelve 遍體常煖晝夜充和

  The whole body constantly warm, day and night full and harmonious — described as the terrestrial-immortal level arrived at, rather than something to be performed.

• Thirteen 動靜不二和光同塵

  Movement and stillness not two; harmonising the light and being one with the dust. The sequence ends by dissolving the distinction it began with.

How it is used here

The Thirteen Rules are taught alongside the Eight Seated Brocades rather than instead of them; the two overlap in places — the teeth, the kidneys, the saliva, holding up Heaven — and comparing them is instructive in itself. Neither is taught as a fixed liturgy to be got through.