the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

The term "rectum is lifted" is from The Xingyi Manual of Sun Lutang (1915) translated by Paul Brennan:  
第一式
Section 1d: POSTURE OF [EMPTINESS CONTAINING THE SINGLENESS OF ENERGY]
起點半邊向右。兩手下垂。左足在前。靠右足裏脛骨。為四十五度之式。內舌頂上腭。穀道上提。此式是攬陰陽。奪造化。轉乾坤。扭氣機。逆運先天真陽。不為後天假陽所傷也
From the starting position, turn halfway to the right, hands hanging down, left foot in front and closing toward your right ankle until your feet are now making a forty-five degree angle. Inside, your tongue touches your upper palate and your rectum is lifted. This posture is about grasping the passive and active aspects and getting them to switch, reversing Qian and Kun, turning the energies and thus reverting to the innate true active energy in place of the acquired fake active energy that is so harmful to us.

Paul Brennan translated 穀道 (gu dao) as rectum is not correct it should be anus with reference to "Compendium of Materia Medica grass seven 萆 薢" by Li Shizhen (1518-1593).

The question is how to lift the anus without using brute force or concentric contraction?

whats the difference between a rectum and an anus?

The rectum ends at the anus (ring).

the edumacation you get here is priceless...

a hat tip to you good sir....

收腹提肛

The way that I learned it (the same in the Taijiquan, Xinyiliuhequan, Baguazhang and Xingyiquan that I have seen at least), is that the stomach is pulled in and the anus is lifted, which is what the above four characters mean.

I think that this is an important part of the structure that makes internal arts. I always tell my foreign students "Michael Jackson!" when they forget.

Franklin wrote:whats the difference between a rectum and an anus?

Rectum
The rectum (Latin for "straight") is an 8-inch chamber that connects the colon to the anus. It is the rectum's job to receive stool from the colon, to let the person know that there is stool to be evacuated, and to hold the stool until evacuation happens. When anything (gas or stool) comes into the rectum, sensors send a message to the brain. The brain then decides if the rectal contents can be released or not. If they can, the sphincters relax and the rectum contracts, disposing its contents. If the contents cannot be disposed, the sphincter contracts and the rectum accommodates so that the sensation temporarily goes away.

Anus
The anus is the last part of the digestive tract. It is a 2-inch long canal consisting of the pelvic floor muscles and the two anal sphincters (internal and external). The lining of the upper anus is specialized to detect rectal contents. It lets you know whether the contents are liquid, gas, or solid. The anus is surrounded by sphincter muscles that are important in allowing control of stool. The pelvic floor muscle creates an angle between the rectum and the anus that stops stool from coming out when it is not supposed to. The internal sphincter is always tight, except when stool enters the rectum. It keeps us continent when we are asleep or otherwise unaware of the presence of stool. When we get an urge to go to the bathroom, we rely on our external sphincter to hold the stool until reaching a toilet, where it then relaxes to release the contents.

MaartenSFS wrote:收腹提肛

The way that I learned it (the same in the Taijiquan, Xinyiliuhequan, Baguazhang and Xingyiquan that I have seen at least), is that the stomach is pulled in and the anus is lifted, which is what the above four characters mean.

I think that this is an important part of the structure that makes internal arts. I always tell my foreign students "Michael Jackson!" when they forget.

This sort of contradicting to the concepts in Internal Martial Arts such as breath down to the lower abdomen and rotation of the crotch and not to use brute force. In fact it is not practical in motion with stomach pulled in and contracting the buttocks.

Yes, the crotch is rotated as well. Then the spine is aligned properly.

It seems like he is talking more about energy and only a little about skeletal positioning.

About information concerning Sun Style....I can't believe I'm about to chime in on this= "Closed" is a better substitution for Lifted. Nobody should make a big deal out of this IMO.

I'll say this about the subject. If someone waved their hand in front of your face and you "blinked" your eyes shut as a reaction.....

That's about the tension a person might put on closing the " you know what ". It's like when you have an insect land on your arm...and you know it's there. You're aware of it but you don't remove it. It's very passive that way and it's nothing that you have to concentrate on in a HIGH Tension kind of way.

Other info:
Think of the torso as a vessel...a see through vessel that you can look at the chi level as if you were looking at a "Mercury Meter"
- compression and expansion of the chi can be apparent.
- It's not mystical woo woo, it's tangible and you can feel it.

* Another thing, maybe you guys can confirm this in other practices for me...reason I ask because I only do Yang (ku) style and Sun Taiji.

= Weird thing about Sun style, is how your breath and chi draw in to your center such that you can feel your "Cheeks" sucking inwards. By the time you reach the end of the set...it's very strong. It should never be fake or forced. Obviously with tongue on the upper pallet behind the front top teeth with mouth closed and breathing via nose only.

This never happens to me when doing Yang. But I don't know...mabe it's common for everyone.

I actually learned to correctly train my anus using brute force.

But all jokes aside, before learning how to do it, I was first told to just clench/"suck in" the anus. Not because that was exactly what I was aiming for, but because I would eventually learn to relax from it and pull up the correct muscles. I keep hearing it referred to as perineal muscles. Either way, this method certainly helped me

Subitai, can you further elaborate?

I'm reading all the Sun manuals on this site now.

He talks a lot about energy but doesn't mention this point about "rectum" often, and doesn't go into detail. There are other points he emphasizes often so they must be more important.

I was taught the same way, that we should first "clench" it and that it will relax on its own over time.

I think that because Sun is a smaller frame, like XYQ and XYLHQ that this is more important. I don't remember if I learned it in Chen or not. I'd imagine that most Yang is trained in a larger frame as well.

everything wrote:Subitai, can you further elaborate?

I'm reading all the Sun manuals on this site now.

He talks a lot about energy but doesn't mention this point about "rectum" often, and doesn't go into detail. There are other points he emphasizes often so they must be more important.

Ah Crap, I should never have spoken up...I didn't want to get sucked too much into this! ( PUN INTENDED ) You guys get my humor? I sense crickets! hahahahaha ...


Well, my information is not just coming from just Suns books but more so how it was related to me from my sifu yada yada yada ....from Sun Jian Yun.

Maarten using the word Clench is right on...although I have to stress that it's NOT Heavy tension...It is as I said above in my example.

IF the body is a vessel and you're trying to store Chi...then it can escape via "you know where". Your mind is aware of it...you just don't have to stress out thinking about it. You certainly don't want to perform the set looking "Anal Retentive" ...LOL. The body as a gauge or (mercury Meter) example can be used to temper out the breathing:

- It can be really simple in and out (via nose only) Mind to lower dan tien. This is pretty standard stuff for you I Imagine, "Long is your inhale = Long is your exhale". This is because most people with weak breath control only take a shallow inhale (lazy)...yet let everything out on the exhale.

- Or We also learned to divide the torso into 3rds (upper, middle and Lower) But when you breathe... you try to only replace the top 2/3 's of your air...the lower 1/3 of it to keep down in the belly as a reserve. Only when you return to Wuji do you completely recycle ALL of your (Air/Chi)...i.e. return to empty or nothing...no root & no mind.


From Wuji...no mind, no root (empty) and I laugh as I type this.... no thought about rectum closing. Then a thought begins in upper dan tien and proceeds down to lower DT...as if the kua is a vessel. For example filling with water....to make the Dan tien more FULL prior to even beginning the form we wrap our hands gently backwards and squeeze gently with our elbows to COMPRESS the vessel. It is at this point....and it pains me to say this "that the mind closes the rectum". But I don't go all hippie about it and think about this sh!t allot ok. So now that I've said this stuff... I'm expecting jokes galore...go ahead I can take it.

Above all however the breathing should never be forced and should just be natural...it's just how the mind and Intent is being focused underneath it all that matters.

SLT, talked about beginning his Taiji from Wu ji (wu chi , spelling?) with feet set at a 90deg angle (toe pointed outwards and heels NOT touching) to make sure you always began from nothing and then proceed to develop your chi. Afterwards you return to Wuji. You should always finish by walking(minimum of 200 steps), sometimes briskly waving arms to help disperse the chi you have collected...obviously with NO intention of rectum closure.

I can show you a video section of how this begins...although I don't really talk too much in detail about what is going on Internally.
Here starting at about 30secs:

Please keep in mind, that i'm trying to show an alternate way to apply that movement other than the standard.

Getting back to the breathing... then end result of this type of breathing focus , when you are done with your form...you can literally feel the Cheeks of your face being drawn in. It cannot be faked or forced, it either happens organically because you did it correctly or not at all.

Lastly, does it help my fighting ability at all? I gather not but it was still something cool to learn at the time.

Thanks a lot, really interesting.