Issue 65 - Tse Qigong Centre

Fig 6 Fig 7 Fig 8BenefitsThis movement is for balancing the last movement,Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain. Foolish Old Man Movesthe Mountain is for moving forward and backwards, but ButterflyPlaying is for moving left and right. Both together form a cross,which covers the four directions of north, south, east and west.If you just want to practise one of these, it would actually bebetter if you do both together. You might do Butterfly first andthen Old Man second and that is all right.It is not necessary do them in order. In Daoist theory,numbers are an important subject, and each number has itsown different meaning. Number four means four directions.Every direction has a different energy. East relates with liver,south relates with heart, west relates with lungs and northrelates with kidneys. The benefit of this movement is good forthe lungs and liver because left and right is related with liverand lungs. It is also good for strengthening the legs and waist,but the coordination is one of the hardest parts of thismovement.Fig 9History and backgroundThis movement comes from the Chen Style Taijiquanmovement called Seven Inches Shoulder. When you do this inTaijiquan, it is a very difficult movement which needs you to godown very far. This movement actually refers to a Chinese inch,so it is a little higher than the Western inch, but still it is quitedifficult to go have the shoulder go that low. For this movement,we should first just concentrate on leaning the body in the properway before we consider moving the hands. For Qigong, weshould think more about relaxation than hard work. The handmovements come from the flying of the butterfly in a figureeight. Because a butterfly is so light and relaxed, we shouldcopy this and do the movement in a happy way.Butterfly PlayingFig 10 Fig 11Qi Magazine Jan/Feb 2003 page 37