Yi Jin Jing

Nei Jia: the Qigong and Taijiquan Forum Qigong and Meditation
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Yi Jin Jing

Hi There,

Yi Jin Jing = Muscle and Tendon Changing.

Some people use it for health, where some people use it as a supplement for other forms of qi gong.

Though the original intention behind this form of qi gong, was to build up a stronger and healthier physique, by increasing the qi and blood circulation to the muscles, tendons and joints to help enhance the natural strength.

Primarily monks used this qi gong either prior to or after meditation, to help them recover from their long hours of meditation and kick start the body into action.

Regards

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Does anybody know, practice, or has practiced this style of Chi Gong? I would like to discuss it.
Not anymore but it a great exercise

In particular, what is it suppose to do/enhance? What did it do for you? Did you ever get hurt or know someone who got hurt practicing it?
The idea is strenghen the tendons and muscles and allow qi to flow since qi is flowing thru the main merdians good health results.Also since you are tensing and relaxing the muscles you are able to guide qi to them allowing them to withstand blows.The exercise for me helped strenghen my wrist.I can not think of anyone getting hurt from it unless they assume they developed an iron body and try to break things over there body which could result in harm.I guess from a nei gong standpoint it’s possible to strain yourself or screw up but this exercise is generally safe best thing to do is try it slowly.

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Its a great exercise - once you finish the set you feel like a million dollars :smiley:

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Bob,

Did you learn this Yi Jin Jing at the temple from visiting monks? When the monks came I asked Master Chan if they could teach us this exercise but the one they taught is not the “Real” Yi Jin Jing. Or it’s a Yi Jin Jing and not Da Mo’s Yi Jin Jing. Anyway, I was deeply dissappointed with what they taught as Yi Jin Jing. To me, what they taught was more like a stretching exercise.

>TaiChiBob Greetings..

>I practice it.. it is purely a health oriented QiGong, and a great supplement to 8 >pieces of the Brocade..

>Be well..

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I’ve got the temple version, if anyone wants to have me put a detailed description of everything up for this forum. My teacher never specifically said that I couldn’t show people this, so it’s probably okay. Maybe. Sorta.

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This is my favorite exercise

I learned it with the older transliteration of “I Chin Ching”

The set I know consists of 49 postures done with hard chi breathing where you “hiss”. It is good for health but also a very intense strength, flexibility, and balance workout. The first posture is the same as the one stated above, making fists. from there it goes into all sorts of difficult postures in which no part of the body is left out. To me it seems to be a blending of chinese hard chi kung with indian yoga, which fits in well with the story of its creation by Ta Mo. The way it works (supposedly) is by creating muscle tension in specific body parts, then using the breathing and concentration to send the chi there, where the tension traps it and causes it to build up progressively. Once you do all the postures every part of the body has been flooded with chi. Without even considering the chi aspect, its still an enormously difficult physical workout.

This is by far the most difficult exercise set I have ever come across. To do it properly with the correct number of breaths would take no less than 8 solid hours.
The benefits are many, including greatly increased strength, energy and endurance. If I could only do one exercise, this would be the one.

ok, you may commence the anti-shaolin-do rhetoric :slight_smile:

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Shaolin Yi Jin Jing : Fake or not Fake?

Shaolin Yi Jin Jing : Fake or not Fake?

One of the most argued about Qigong sets was always this set.

The common story is that the Yi Ji Jing (Muscle-Tendon Chang Classic) arose from Damo’s (Bodhidharma) teachings.

Shaolin researcher, the late Shi De Qian in the Shaolin Encyclopedia said that this Damo origin story cannot be documented by historical record and nor can its authors or sources be substantiated.

Martial arts historian Tang Ha said that this story was first found in the preface of an 1875 edition of The Yi Jin Jing book by Surig Kuang-So called the Weisheng Yijinjing. In it, a first preface is said to have been written by Li Jing, a great military officer of the Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D). It is dated the second year of the reign of Emperor Tai Zung of the Tang Dynasty (about 629 A.D). A second forward in this book claims to be written by General Niu Gao of the Song Dynasty.

All research so far by many people has shown these prefaces to be fake and full of erroneous information. (For example: in the first preface, Shaolin temple didn’t even exist yet when it was claiming the date that Damo had created it! The second preface mentions a Qinzhong temple that wasn’t even built yet till 20 years after the date it gives for itself!)

Shaolin researcher Matsuda Ryuchi found mention about the existence of a Yì Jn Jng only as far back as 1827. In the course of his research, Matsuda found no mention about Damo at all in any of the numerous texts written about the Shaolin martial arts before the 19th century. Thus, there were no mentions that he created any sets either.

But the actual movements themselves?

Historian Lin Boyuan attributes the Yì Jn Jng to a Taoist priest named Zining, writing in 1624.

So, I don’t think the movements are fake as some people today claim (not the actual old time historians that researched this), just the prefatory information given in the book, which contradictorily claimed it to be a Taoist art that came from a Buddhist origination point. It seems that the movements existed way before this book came to be published.

There also are supposedly known to be the same physical movements in Qigong sets with different names written about from other time periods. I remember reading that the movements originally came from what farmers did in their daily chores, such as when constantly moving heavy rice bags using ergonomic movements without getting sore muscles.

I once saw a hand written book that was passed down for generations from Shaolin via (early 16th century) Yi Quan’s lineage (which led to Choy Gar’s founding) mention the Yijinjing type movements as being a “Luohan 12 section Brocade” Qi gong set.

Today, the definitive and respected version (for its therapeutic value) of the Yi Jin Jing is considered to be the 12 Posture Moving Exercise that a Wang Zuyuan learned at the Shaolin Temple. There are two anciently written and illustrated routines known of this Yi Jin Jing set, one from Chen Yi’s “A collection of Annals” published during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and another more recently published in 1882, from “Internal Work Illustrated”, which is that of Wang Zuyuan.

In practicing this set, Taoist neigong, and Indian Yoga, I find that although there is much from Taoist Daoyin that can be seen in the Yi Jin Jing, equally there are movements and postures that are very very close to Indian Yoga postures.

How they all got together, I don’t know.

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Wow, you really did your research. I don’t know about the history, and I don’t know about it’s qi gong applications, but I do know that I practice Yi Jin Jing every morning and can attribute some substantial physical ability to it (especially flexibility). I know that it is thanks to this, because when I do other exercises instead of Yi Jin Jing, I do not feel these benefits, when I first started practicing it, I felt major benefits within the first couple of weeks. So I don’t know the history, and it sounds like no one really does (though good luck with your search) but I do know that it is effective.

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[QUOTE=SifuPaladin;976032]Wow, you really did your research. I don’t know about the history, and I don’t know about it’s qi gong applications, but I do know that I practice Yi Jin Jing every morning and can attribute some substantial physical ability to it (especially flexibility). I know that it is thanks to this, because when I do other exercises instead of Yi Jin Jing, I do not feel these benefits, when I first started practicing it, I felt major benefits within the first couple of weeks. So I don’t know the history, and it sounds like no one really does (though good luck with your search) but I do know that it is effective.[/QUOTE]

That seems to be the general consensus, the movements have therapeutic value regardless of origin.

I found one source where this set was call Taizu Yi Jinjing, Grand Ancestor Yi Jin Jing.

(Oh, I decided to add a signature to my posts, going with the flow and all that, heh)

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Shi De Qian (RIP) taught a fantastically detailed version of the Yi Jin Jing.

You can get a VHS or DVD copy from MartialArtsMart here in this site!

I highly recommend it.

I think there was a poster of him doing all the movements too, to use as a memory jogger.

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the yi jin jing that I learned has 43 distinct “exercises”, many of which I have never seen done in any other school of qigong, and has numerous postures that are very similar to yogic asanas, including a few floor-work ones; as to their origin, I couldn’t say, although my sifu likes to point out that in Cantonese, “yi jin” is pronounced “yik gan”, which sounds not entirely unlike “yo ga”…:confused:

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[QUOTE=Sal Canzonieri;976059]Shi De Qian (RIP) taught a fantastically detailed version of the Yi Jin Jing.

You can get a VHS or DVD copy from MartialArtsMart here in this site!

I highly recommend it.

I think there was a poster of him doing all the movements too, to use as a memory jogger.[/QUOTE]

I actually have both and they are fantastic; one my most favorite qigong sets and I don’t even do Shaolin.

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Greetings,

I had the opportunity to practice a Shaolin version, learned from a friend, a long time ago. The real question is does it do what it is supposed to do? From my experience it does. I noticed increases in strength and endurance. When preceded by meditation it becomes incredibly alchemical through the compressing of the cosmic energy into the physical body, raising the body’s frequency to that of the cosmos (oops, did I say too much here?). One can argue Shaolin or Wudang. It is the same science with varied approaches and varying results. Please keep in mind that the Shaw Brothers movie mentality did not really exist between the temples. There was a lot of cross pollinization. I would sooner go to Wudang or Omei to learn anything Shaolin these days than to go to Shaolin itself.

Now Sal,

What would be of interest to me is whether the Yi Jin Jing was influenced/inspired by the frescoes found in the Tun Huang caves. I have yet to find a book that shows the original frescoes. I saw some shown on the Yoga Journal many years ago and the frescoes looked painted over. They depicted extensive martial and internal hygenic/alchemical practices.

mickey

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[QUOTE=mickey;976094]Greetings,

I had the opportunity to practice a Shaolin version, learned from a friend, a long time ago. The real question is does it do what it is supposed to do? From my experience it does. I noticed increases in strength and endurance. When preceded by meditation it becomes incredibly alchemical through the compressing of the cosmic energy into the physical body, raising the body’s frequency to that of the cosmos (oops, did I say too much here?). One can argue Shaolin or Wudang. It is the same science with varied approaches and varying results. Please keep in mind that the Shaw Brothers movie mentality did not really exist between the temples. There was a lot of cross pollinization. I would sooner go to Wudang or Omei to learn anything Shaolin these days than to go to Shaolin itself.

Now Sal,

What would be of interest to me is whether the Yi Jin Jing was influenced/inspired by the frescoes found in the Tun Huang caves. I have yet to find a book that shows the original frescoes. I saw some shown on the Yoga Journal many years ago and the frescoes looked painted over. They depicted extensive martial and internal hygenic/alchemical practices.

mickey[/QUOTE]

Yes, that would be interesting to see.
There’s a VCD out of these Daoyin movements. Someone followed the movements and made a video of it.

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[QUOTE=taai gihk yahn;976061]my sifu likes to point out that in Cantonese, “yi jin” is pronounced “yik gan”, which sounds not entirely unlike “yo ga”…[/QUOTE]this is where someone chimes in about damo’s indian origins. :stuck_out_tongue:

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[QUOTE=Sal Canzonieri;976260]Yes, that would be interesting to see.
There’s a VCD out of these Daoyin movements. Someone followed the movements and made a video of it.[/QUOTE]

http://neigong.net/wp-content/gallery/qigong/daoyin.jpg

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[QUOTE=Sal Canzonieri;976454]http://neigong.net/wp-content/gallery/qigong/daoyin.jpg[/QUOTE]

So here is a semi-serious question,

How is all that different from:

You put your right foot in..you put your right foot out..

You put your right foot inthen you shake it all about.

Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around..

THATS what its all about!

In my mind there isn’t much difference, other maybe more controlled breathing.

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[QUOTE=Scott R. Brown;976478]So here is a semi-serious question,

“How is all that different from:

“You put your right foot in…..you put your right foot out…..

You put your right foot in…then you shake it all about….

Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around…..

THAT’S what it’s all about!”

In my mind there isn’t much difference, other maybe more controlled breathing.[/QUOTE]well done. :smiley:

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[QUOTE=Scott R. Brown;976478]So here is a semi-serious question,

“How is all that different from:

“You put your right foot in…..you put your right foot out…..

You put your right foot in…then you shake it all about….

Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around…..

THAT’S what it’s all about!”

In my mind there isn’t much difference, other maybe more controlled breathing.[/QUOTE]

The hokey pokey is a childish dance that is more focused on the beat of the music than anything. Yi Jin Jing is a form specially designed to stretch the muscles we don’t often use, and to move the chi in certain ways as to give us several physical advantages (balance and flexibility are certainly high among them, but there are more advantages than just those.) So to answer your question, Yi Jin Jing is a science (so to speak) of enhancing physical ability.

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Check out FIT YOGA magazine, April 2009, page 30:
CHANNEL SURFING- Meridian Yoga helps keep your life-force energy in optimal balance. By Lori J. Batcheller

I have practiced Indian yoga and Yi Jin Jing. I don’t know which is better, but will guess the Yi Jin Jing may be more refined.
My Yi Jin Jing instructor says he knows old people who have been practicing Yi Jin Jing all their life. Some of these only need to practice in their minds to get results.