Gymnastics 143
to receive a blow, thereby lessening the pain and possibly preventing injury, or
he may direct his internal power to augment the strength of an attack. For ex-
ample, a performer who smashes stones with his bare hands is said to have cir-
culated his qi into his palms.
The internal circulation of qi was facilitated by massaging—either self-ap-
plied or performed by others. Massage was relied upon to cure a variety of
health disorders from obstructions to the internal flow of breath to injured
tendons and dislocated bones. It was also used to warm up the body, spreading
energy to its outer layers, so that the skin would retain its youth.^15 Usually,
kneading was combined with qi circulation as in the following remedy for indi-
gestion, from the sixteenth-century Red Phoenix’s Marrow (Chifeng sui) (preface
1578): “One should lie straight, facing upwards. He should apply massage with
both hands to his upper and lower abdomen. He should circulate his qi (yunqi)
thereby capsizing the river and churning the ocean six times”^16 (fig ure 31).
The Zhuangzi’s reference to the Chinese Methuselah Pengzu (who suppos-
edly lived eight hundred years) indicates that as early as the first centuries BCE,
gymnastics were considered useful not only for safeguarding one’s natural life
span but also for ushering divine longevity. Some pre-Qin authors explicitly as-
sociated qi circulation with the quest for transcendence.^17 During the ensuing
Fig. 31. Massaging and
qi circulation in the
treatment of indiges-
tion, from the 1578 Red
Phoenix’s Marrow
(Chifeng sui).