The Eighteen Disciplinary Records

Kung-Fu, or Tauist Medical Gymnastics, by John Dudgeon, [1895], at sacred-texts.com

THE EIGHTEEN DISCIPLINARY RECORDS.

The Method of Rubbing the Shoulder and Wrist.—On the completion of the kung, first stretch out the left arm and let another lift up with both hands the "tiger's mouth," (the space

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between the thumb and forefinger) and rub energetically and gradually increase the times; if at first it was ten times increase gradually to 100 times. The right arm is to be rubbed in the same manner. The object aimed at is to produce heat in the two shoulders and wrists which will reach to the bones.

Disciplinary beating of the Hands and Feet. At first according to one's strength have a cloth bag made of two layers in which are five or six catties of small gravel or sand and hang it on a frame. In performing the kung, constantly push it with the palm, beat it with the fist, kick it and step upon it with the feet. The important thing is to keep the bag in motion, pushing and kicking it back. As time goes on gradually increase the weight of the sand in the bag.

The Method of disciplining the Fingers. One must calculate his own strength whether it is great or small and select a round, smooth clean stone of one or two catties in weight and grasp it with five fingers, let it go and again seize it before it leaches the ground. At first practise it several times and after a time regularly increase the number of times and the weight of the stone and thus the five fingers will become strong.

Another method is, when sitting at anytime press the seat with the fingers and gently raise the body on them and in this way the fingers themselves will develop strength. This exercise can be done whether one or many be present and after a time the result will be evident.

This is followed by a section on the "Jade Ring" Aperture; and this again by prescriptions entitled the Elixir capable of Beating a Tiger, the Great Strength Pills, the Immortals' Receipt for Washing the Hands and for Strengthening the Sinews and Bones. The two pulses: the Jen, (running down the middle of the body in front) and Tu, (from the vertex to the coccyx) with the acupuncture apertures are next described. Then follows a chapter on the number of the bones in the body, next on the blood vessels; then a discourse on the air and blood, the former being taken in the old sense of our artery and the latter of the veins or only real blood vessels and in this case a most convincing proof of the knowledge of the circulation of the blood possessed by the Chinese, without, however, respect to the cause of the circulation.