Qing Gong
Written by: Fireblade
Qing Gong, (Chinese for “light body skill”), is often considered to be a fabled skill seen only in legends, films, and stories. When heroes are depicted as jumping on water or gliding through the air, Qing Gong is the skill they are supposedly using. Despite Qing Gong being real, the way it is represented in popular culture would certainly discredit whatever claim this skill possesses in reality. With the exception of a handful of books, this skill is only rarely mentioned in Western martial arts literature. In the hope of shedding some light on this topic I will attempt to present some of the philosophy and techniques in an easily understandable manner.
I have been practicing various martial arts for approximately ten years. These arts include generic Karate, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Bagua Zhang, Tai Chi Chen/Yang, Chi Kung, Guandong Gung Fu and several weapons-oriented arts. For the past three years I have been a Tai Chi instructor, and I began learning Qing Gong about two years ago under the supervision of a martial arts master in China. However, I must make it a point that I have neither mastered this skill nor have I learned everything there is to know about it. Therefore I will only give the instructions of the things I have learned and performed myself.
Qing Gong can be roughly divided into two aspects: The ability to jump high vertically and the ability to move quickly forward. When these abilities are combined, a person will be able to jump higher and cross a larger distance. (Some traditions also include the ability to climb rapidly).
What are the mechanics of Qing Gong? The traditional explanation is that through the strengthening of the body, inner energy, and mastery of techniques, the martial artist is able to direct his energy in such a manner that he body becomes nearly weightless, allowing him or him to seemingly “glide through the air.” However, I feel that a more accurate, modern, and relatively easier way of explaining Qing Gong exists. A martial artist would use techniques and body strength to generate a near constant forward momentum that would maximize the person’s possible speed. This would not cause as much impact stress on joints as normal running or jumping would.
The training of Qing Gong can be divided into three separate and equally essential parts. Without all of the pieces, mastery cannot be accomplished. The three aspects are…
1. The physical training (strength, fitness, flexibility, balance)
2. The mental training (meditation, endurance)
3.The technique training (technique, balance)
All three parts of Qing Gong must be honed before they can complement each other. No aspect is more important than the next. In depth, the first portion of Qing Gong to be described in detail will be physical training. (I am not responsible for any injury sustained by use of this article.)
1. Physical training
The most important muscles to train to excel in Qing Gong are the leg, back and abdominal muscles. Stretching and flexibility is required to avoid injuries and difficulty in performing Qing Gong. Below are listed some traditional exercises for improving strength, jump height, and balance. After the basic move is perfected it is recommended to add weights. Please be careful with these and especially pay attention to your knees.
1.1. Ankle jump.
An ankle jump is performed only with the ankles instead of with the whole body. Simply kick down with your toes so hard that you jump into the air.
The number of sets and repetitions you'll have to decide for yourself. As for when I started this training, we had to do 100reps for 1-3 sets and when we started to manage that quite nicely....bodyweights were added to make it hard again.
This is also a good jump to practice up and down small hills, stairs, or ledges.
1.2. High jump.
This time you are supposed to jump with the entire body. Put your feet together, stand on your feet and sit down until your knees reach your chest. Then put your hands on the ground a bit apart from your legs. When you jump, you push with the hands, kick with the legs and stretch as far upwards as you can. 3 x 20 is a good start.
1.3. Continuous jump
Keep your feet together and jump with the whole body without crouching down. You are to jump as high as possible. Once airborne, crouch yourself together as small as possible then stretch out and land. This exercise is not done standing on one spot like the others are, in this exercise you are to continue jumping from a high spot to a low spot and back up again, without any pause or halt between. Traditionally this exercise is trained by digging a hole and jumping into it and up again. Every day/second day/week that goes by you are to dig it a little bit deeper to continue to improve.
1.4. Circle walking
-1.4.1. Put a number of small bricks (or similar) in a circle and walk the circle while focusing on the center and balancing on the bricks. When you can do this without much problem, you may put the brick on its end. Continuing you can use smaller stones that aren't completely stable on the ground and you can elevate the stones/bricks. Once you have done all this and attained good balance, you can start over with bodyweights.
-1.4.2. Get a large container of some sort that can support your entire bodyweight without breaking, but it should be a little unstable or shifting as you shift you weight on it. It must be large enough for you to be able to walk on its edge in circles. Once you have such a container you are to fill it with heavy stones or sand so that it doesn't move when you stand on it. Now you can begin training by doing the circle walk on this container, every day/second day/week of training you are to remove a rock or some sand from the container, making it more unstable when you walk on it. Once the container is empty and you can balance on it without falling of or tipping it over, fill it up again, add some bodyweights and repeat.
2. Mental Training
2.1. Meditation
Usually a form of zhan zhuang (standing like a tree) meditation is used. The purpose is to strengthen the legs and posture through static training, increasing the inner strength as well as deepen stages of meditation which may aid both the development of your art as well as your personality.
2.2 Standing Tree Meditation
Stand with your feet parallel a little wider than your shoulders, sink your weight down and hold your hands and arms in a circle in front of you in chest height with the palms tuned inward. Your spine is to be as straight as it is in any sitting mediation asanas. Relax your shoulders and elbows while your hands hang in front of your chest. In the beginning this exercise will be felt the worst in the legs. If you just started training and you can stand more than 5 min without any pain in your thighs, you are doing it wrong. In the beginning it is best to set a certain amount of time to practice and to increase it steadily.
This is a terrible bastardized explanation of zhan zhuang so please study some other sources before you start doing this.
3. Technique Training
This technique can basically be described as a "low long distance sprint." As all Qing Gong it is supposed to be able to maintain a high speed both over short and long distances. It is "low" because that is the core of this technique (low stance). By keeping your spine straight at all times you lower your center/dan tien/gravity point while constantly moving forward. (i.e. With the upper body relatively straight, you crouch with your legs until your thighs are almost parallel to the ground.) At this stage you should keep your arms close to the body and then run. At this point you'll start to figure out the mechanics of basic Qing Gong by yourself.
There are but a few things I will ask you to keep in mind while practicing. When you try to run low in the beginning, it isn't low enough, if it is, then you aren't running fast enough. I don't mean to push your hopes down, but it is at this stage you'll learn exactly why basic strength is such a requirement to grow in this skill. KEEP YOUR SPINE STRAIGHT. Balance is important when running at high speeds. Balance your upper body upon your lower body. Your center of balance is hardly supposed to move at all vertically. You shouldn't go up and down each time you take a step and your body should remain at a level height. The movement will come from the hip and your center which rotates. The power comes from your legs and the will to endure the pain and push yourself further comes from the mind.
To better help you understand some of the basic exercises I am including a Youtube video of an ankle jump and circle walk.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pkpde4vSuwc
This article describes only the most basic of basics in Qing Gong. There are several other techniques, exercises, meditations and breathing techniques. Any questions or comments both on what has been explained here and other things related this skill are welcomed.
I hope this article has given you a bit more understanding on Qing Gong. Just remember, take what you need and discard what you do not. Do not believe my words blindly, but put them to the test and see for yourselves.
Humbly yours,
-Fireblade
Qing Gong, (Chinese for “light body skill”), is often considered to be a fabled skill seen only in legends, films, and stories. When heroes are depicted as jumping on water or gliding through the air, Qing Gong is the skill they are supposedly using. Despite Qing Gong being real, the way it is represented in popular culture would certainly discredit whatever claim this skill possesses in reality. With the exception of a handful of books, this skill is only rarely mentioned in Western martial arts literature. In the hope of shedding some light on this topic I will attempt to present some of the philosophy and techniques in an easily understandable manner.
I have been practicing various martial arts for approximately ten years. These arts include generic Karate, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Bagua Zhang, Tai Chi Chen/Yang, Chi Kung, Guandong Gung Fu and several weapons-oriented arts. For the past three years I have been a Tai Chi instructor, and I began learning Qing Gong about two years ago under the supervision of a martial arts master in China. However, I must make it a point that I have neither mastered this skill nor have I learned everything there is to know about it. Therefore I will only give the instructions of the things I have learned and performed myself.
Qing Gong can be roughly divided into two aspects: The ability to jump high vertically and the ability to move quickly forward. When these abilities are combined, a person will be able to jump higher and cross a larger distance. (Some traditions also include the ability to climb rapidly).
What are the mechanics of Qing Gong? The traditional explanation is that through the strengthening of the body, inner energy, and mastery of techniques, the martial artist is able to direct his energy in such a manner that he body becomes nearly weightless, allowing him or him to seemingly “glide through the air.” However, I feel that a more accurate, modern, and relatively easier way of explaining Qing Gong exists. A martial artist would use techniques and body strength to generate a near constant forward momentum that would maximize the person’s possible speed. This would not cause as much impact stress on joints as normal running or jumping would.
The training of Qing Gong can be divided into three separate and equally essential parts. Without all of the pieces, mastery cannot be accomplished. The three aspects are…
1. The physical training (strength, fitness, flexibility, balance)
2. The mental training (meditation, endurance)
3.The technique training (technique, balance)
All three parts of Qing Gong must be honed before they can complement each other. No aspect is more important than the next. In depth, the first portion of Qing Gong to be described in detail will be physical training. (I am not responsible for any injury sustained by use of this article.)
1. Physical training
The most important muscles to train to excel in Qing Gong are the leg, back and abdominal muscles. Stretching and flexibility is required to avoid injuries and difficulty in performing Qing Gong. Below are listed some traditional exercises for improving strength, jump height, and balance. After the basic move is perfected it is recommended to add weights. Please be careful with these and especially pay attention to your knees.
1.1. Ankle jump.
An ankle jump is performed only with the ankles instead of with the whole body. Simply kick down with your toes so hard that you jump into the air.
The number of sets and repetitions you'll have to decide for yourself. As for when I started this training, we had to do 100reps for 1-3 sets and when we started to manage that quite nicely....bodyweights were added to make it hard again.
This is also a good jump to practice up and down small hills, stairs, or ledges.
1.2. High jump.
This time you are supposed to jump with the entire body. Put your feet together, stand on your feet and sit down until your knees reach your chest. Then put your hands on the ground a bit apart from your legs. When you jump, you push with the hands, kick with the legs and stretch as far upwards as you can. 3 x 20 is a good start.
1.3. Continuous jump
Keep your feet together and jump with the whole body without crouching down. You are to jump as high as possible. Once airborne, crouch yourself together as small as possible then stretch out and land. This exercise is not done standing on one spot like the others are, in this exercise you are to continue jumping from a high spot to a low spot and back up again, without any pause or halt between. Traditionally this exercise is trained by digging a hole and jumping into it and up again. Every day/second day/week that goes by you are to dig it a little bit deeper to continue to improve.
1.4. Circle walking
-1.4.1. Put a number of small bricks (or similar) in a circle and walk the circle while focusing on the center and balancing on the bricks. When you can do this without much problem, you may put the brick on its end. Continuing you can use smaller stones that aren't completely stable on the ground and you can elevate the stones/bricks. Once you have done all this and attained good balance, you can start over with bodyweights.
-1.4.2. Get a large container of some sort that can support your entire bodyweight without breaking, but it should be a little unstable or shifting as you shift you weight on it. It must be large enough for you to be able to walk on its edge in circles. Once you have such a container you are to fill it with heavy stones or sand so that it doesn't move when you stand on it. Now you can begin training by doing the circle walk on this container, every day/second day/week of training you are to remove a rock or some sand from the container, making it more unstable when you walk on it. Once the container is empty and you can balance on it without falling of or tipping it over, fill it up again, add some bodyweights and repeat.
2. Mental Training
2.1. Meditation
Usually a form of zhan zhuang (standing like a tree) meditation is used. The purpose is to strengthen the legs and posture through static training, increasing the inner strength as well as deepen stages of meditation which may aid both the development of your art as well as your personality.
2.2 Standing Tree Meditation
Stand with your feet parallel a little wider than your shoulders, sink your weight down and hold your hands and arms in a circle in front of you in chest height with the palms tuned inward. Your spine is to be as straight as it is in any sitting mediation asanas. Relax your shoulders and elbows while your hands hang in front of your chest. In the beginning this exercise will be felt the worst in the legs. If you just started training and you can stand more than 5 min without any pain in your thighs, you are doing it wrong. In the beginning it is best to set a certain amount of time to practice and to increase it steadily.
This is a terrible bastardized explanation of zhan zhuang so please study some other sources before you start doing this.
3. Technique Training
This technique can basically be described as a "low long distance sprint." As all Qing Gong it is supposed to be able to maintain a high speed both over short and long distances. It is "low" because that is the core of this technique (low stance). By keeping your spine straight at all times you lower your center/dan tien/gravity point while constantly moving forward. (i.e. With the upper body relatively straight, you crouch with your legs until your thighs are almost parallel to the ground.) At this stage you should keep your arms close to the body and then run. At this point you'll start to figure out the mechanics of basic Qing Gong by yourself.
There are but a few things I will ask you to keep in mind while practicing. When you try to run low in the beginning, it isn't low enough, if it is, then you aren't running fast enough. I don't mean to push your hopes down, but it is at this stage you'll learn exactly why basic strength is such a requirement to grow in this skill. KEEP YOUR SPINE STRAIGHT. Balance is important when running at high speeds. Balance your upper body upon your lower body. Your center of balance is hardly supposed to move at all vertically. You shouldn't go up and down each time you take a step and your body should remain at a level height. The movement will come from the hip and your center which rotates. The power comes from your legs and the will to endure the pain and push yourself further comes from the mind.
To better help you understand some of the basic exercises I am including a Youtube video of an ankle jump and circle walk.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pkpde4vSuwc
This article describes only the most basic of basics in Qing Gong. There are several other techniques, exercises, meditations and breathing techniques. Any questions or comments both on what has been explained here and other things related this skill are welcomed.
I hope this article has given you a bit more understanding on Qing Gong. Just remember, take what you need and discard what you do not. Do not believe my words blindly, but put them to the test and see for yourselves.
Humbly yours,
-Fireblade
The Art and Essence of Qing Gong
posted by Shinichi
Qing Gong means Lightness Skill, and is in essence a method of moving without moving. There are two main, traditional ways of training for this: External and Internal.
External training involves lots of lower body strength and balance training--a Bagua Master discribed his Qing Gong as "moving from the dantien, so that you can move without touching the ground." All methods of external training revolve around this concept, which is ultimately to move through sheer control of balance and not through muscle movement.
Internal training involves mastery of certain Qigong training. When you master your Qi so that you can feel and move it freely, you can then go through certain training that lets you use Qi to make your body physically lighter. This means learning to concentrate and visualize very clearly in order to mold and maintain the goal you want your Qi to preform--which, here, is to make you as light as a feather.
For actual practices: there are many levels to each path of training, and many stages of development throughout. But for now, I will give a simple list of basic exercises you can do to achieve your goals.
External Practices:
Gimase (http://homosanctus.org/qigong.html)--get to ten minutes holding it steady, and then go find two regular bricks. Then, do Gimase steady for ten minutes with the bricks flat. When you can do that, continue by turning the bricks side ways and doing it that way. When that becomes easy, turn the bricks on end and do it that way. What about when you can do the bricks easy all the way? Get two pieces of 2X4 board the same size as the bricks--though roughly the same size, they are half the weight, and thus it's twice as hard to stand on. Follow the same routine with the boards instead of the bricks then. When you can do that, cut one of the board-pieces in half and stand on the 2X2 pieces on end, and if you want you can continue making the training as difficult as you want (according to common sense--do not hurt yourself!).
Bagua Walk--for those who study Bagua from a proper Master (as I will not teach it here), you can do the same as above, just with eight bricks and eight pieces of wood instead of two, set up in the pattern of the Bagua Circle. For this training in particular, I have known people to carry their practice as far as walking on chop sticks. ~_^
(also, as a note: if anything hangs off of the bricks/boards/stick/thingies while doing this, let it be the heel--your toes, and most especially your big toes, are the key to remaining rooted and maintaining balance)
Finally, as an application and extension of external training, I highly recommend Parkour. It's awesome, and in doing it you can quickly learn to apply the strength and balance skills you pick up in your training. :)
Internal Practices:
Well, in all honesty, I can't give you any meditation that will just suddenly up and allow you to be able to do it. So for Internal Practice, I will lead you to assume that any training in Psychokinesis (as I have defined it in the other thread) will eventually count towards this. Since, ultimately, all but a few methods of attaining Qing Gong via this route is going to be nothing more then Psychokinesis.
If you still want to do it this way (though I myself honestly know little about it's traditional methods as is), any concentration, visualization, or energy development excercise will help.
Qing Gong means Lightness Skill, and is in essence a method of moving without moving. There are two main, traditional ways of training for this: External and Internal.
External training involves lots of lower body strength and balance training--a Bagua Master discribed his Qing Gong as "moving from the dantien, so that you can move without touching the ground." All methods of external training revolve around this concept, which is ultimately to move through sheer control of balance and not through muscle movement.
Internal training involves mastery of certain Qigong training. When you master your Qi so that you can feel and move it freely, you can then go through certain training that lets you use Qi to make your body physically lighter. This means learning to concentrate and visualize very clearly in order to mold and maintain the goal you want your Qi to preform--which, here, is to make you as light as a feather.
For actual practices: there are many levels to each path of training, and many stages of development throughout. But for now, I will give a simple list of basic exercises you can do to achieve your goals.
External Practices:
Gimase (http://homosanctus.org/qigong.html)--get to ten minutes holding it steady, and then go find two regular bricks. Then, do Gimase steady for ten minutes with the bricks flat. When you can do that, continue by turning the bricks side ways and doing it that way. When that becomes easy, turn the bricks on end and do it that way. What about when you can do the bricks easy all the way? Get two pieces of 2X4 board the same size as the bricks--though roughly the same size, they are half the weight, and thus it's twice as hard to stand on. Follow the same routine with the boards instead of the bricks then. When you can do that, cut one of the board-pieces in half and stand on the 2X2 pieces on end, and if you want you can continue making the training as difficult as you want (according to common sense--do not hurt yourself!).
Bagua Walk--for those who study Bagua from a proper Master (as I will not teach it here), you can do the same as above, just with eight bricks and eight pieces of wood instead of two, set up in the pattern of the Bagua Circle. For this training in particular, I have known people to carry their practice as far as walking on chop sticks. ~_^
(also, as a note: if anything hangs off of the bricks/boards/stick/thingies while doing this, let it be the heel--your toes, and most especially your big toes, are the key to remaining rooted and maintaining balance)
Finally, as an application and extension of external training, I highly recommend Parkour. It's awesome, and in doing it you can quickly learn to apply the strength and balance skills you pick up in your training. :)
Internal Practices:
Well, in all honesty, I can't give you any meditation that will just suddenly up and allow you to be able to do it. So for Internal Practice, I will lead you to assume that any training in Psychokinesis (as I have defined it in the other thread) will eventually count towards this. Since, ultimately, all but a few methods of attaining Qing Gong via this route is going to be nothing more then Psychokinesis.
If you still want to do it this way (though I myself honestly know little about it's traditional methods as is), any concentration, visualization, or energy development excercise will help.
by ChangWuJi
I came across an old written text describing the basic theory behind ching/qing gong. "The secret of ching gong gong fu" written by Pai Yen Sheng. The theory is very sound and does not contradict to the modern science. It refers to the mastery of inner being ability beyond the normal limitations. In some way, I am looking very silly in trying to explain the idea that text attempt. But keep an open mind before you read on.
Ching/qing gong basically consists of two main skills according to this old text. One is being the ability to jump vertically as many fold of the body length. The second is the ability to flit through the wheat field or tree or water as if flying.
The second ability of flit through wheat field is being the highest level in mastery this skill. There are theory and constraint in this ability as I later describe. The text stated that the body weight is not reduced when performing ching/qing gong. It is not magic in any length of imaginary. It is just a trick of mastering a different way of walking or running that allowing the lightness illusively displayed. Simplily put it, the ability of this is just the ability of transition body weight between two feet such that the body weight never get a chance or time long enough to accumulate and rest its fullness on to any of the legs in any giving of time. In the normal way of walking, the weight is transition from one to the other with its fullness at each time. For the body weight of this kind of walking is to complete its transition in normal way to its fullness, it require a giving time. If we measure the amount of weight accumulated in one leg during this normal walking transition, we probably observe the manigtude of weight being increase from 0 to body weight as max. For this increase to take place there is a time factor.
Just to illustrate, here is the time interval with its related weight transition accumulation progress:
Time inverval/weight in fraction of second :
Time : 0 1 2 3 ... N
weight : w1 w1+w2 w1+w2+w3 w1+w2+w3+w4 ... w1+w2+...+wN
The ability of ching/qing gong of second category is the ability/skill that enable one individual to immediate transit the partially accumulative weight from one leg to the other before the full body weight has a chance to accumulate/rest totally on one leg. The normal walking/running time cycle could be 0,1,2,3 ... N. In a ching/qing gong way of walking, the duration of weight transition interruption could happen in a cycle of 0,1,2 ... 0,1,2 ...0,1,2 .. This means that the two legs/feet is constantly manupulate the weight transition with a very high speed that causing forward mometum to carry the weight in the air. At any giving of time only a small fraction of the weight is used for body displacement or leg displacement. You are probably imagine how fast the two legs operating. Not to mention how the body,hands,head work together in special manner that the forward momentum not lose.
The text mentioned of one constraint is that one body weight can not over a certain weight. It seems to imply that there is a certain barrier on speed of two legs can operate. The other constraint is the age to start this training. It said a required very young age with persistence. Apparently, the result is special kind of body,legs,tandons. Gong Bao Tian was said to be quite small comparing to the average person at the time. He was probably heavy than his son. That may be why his son were able to do the flitting on the trees but he was not. From the look at the theory, it does not seem contradict with science but further than that it use the so called science now to achieve the goal.
Martial art is always about explore, discovery, develop the natural ability of human to its fullness of capacity. I am not surprise if Ching/qing gong is just one of the achievment of lost past.