Origin and translation                  Illustration                  fig.  1 the three field

Origin and translation:

Quoted from:

The profound origin of being (jen yuan), inborn chih, is about 1.2 times a forefinger’s length below and behind the navel. It is named the heart of heaven (tian shin), the chih ocean (chih hai), and the kuen¹ stove (kuen lu). One cultivates the inner dan here, so it is also named the root of heaven (tian gen). Hence, it is here that we cultivate the jing into chih, which travels around in order, it is also named the kuen stove. The ney dan text calls it The Low Field (shiah tyan).

The Court of Yellow (hwang tyng), also named the Palace of Red (jianq gong), is above The Low Field. One's commanding of life grounds here, for it contains his internal secretions (shiee) and communicates (shin) with his thinking. It can’t be cultivated, but, only cares and maintains itself under good conditions (tswen yeang). That is, by consciously communicating between here and his thinking, to care and maintain his internal secretions that are gently becoming jing (tswen yih cherng shiee, yeang shiee huah jing)², is key to life too. The Middle Field (jong tyan) was also named as the Main House of Yellow (hwang tarng) and the Earth's Mansion (tuu fuu). It is below and behind the heart. The "I Jing" calls it the yellow center (hwang jong) and the ney dan text, the crux of the profundity (shyuan chiaw). Here, the inner dan up from The Low Field grows to bear; the three acquired treasures³ harm it if they leak into here.

The names of the ni wan acupuncture point⁴ in one’s head are the chyan⁵ head (chyan diing), valley of heaven (tian gun), and inner yard (ney yuann). After a baby⁶ is formed, it rises up from the Middle into The Upper Field (shanq tyan), as the ney dan text names it.

Illustration:

This outlines the way and procedures for cultivating the inner dan without too many details. Chinese martial arts also have a conscious and procedural operation known as gong faa⁷, with the external actions differing greatly from that of the ney dan theory. The ancestors had built these two on the world view that chih comes every being (i chih huah sheng⁸). This became the basis for the various Chinese martial arts schools and systems.

Profoundly, every being came from the chih. Kuen was most yin and substantial and tended to flow downward and congeal as water and ice did. The chyan was most yang and fresh and tended to go upward and spread out as fire and air did. The Middle Field was jenn⁹, the figure of which was as a bowl containing something. In external dan theory¹⁰, they cultivated the materials in the cauldron to become the external dan by cooking them on the stove. Hence, the inner dan cultivating process was likened to that of the external, The Lower Field was likened to the stove, the Middle was likened to the cauldron, the substances in here were likened to the materials, and the communicating between the Middle and one’s thinking, the fire. In brief, the way of cultivating the inner dan was to practice communicating with the inner fire going down and the inner water flowing up. That helped the practitioner keep his internal secretions reacting to the external positively, instead of hyper-functioning and reacting too actively. Then, gently, the substance in The Middle Field was to be the inner dan that built up the practitioner. This also helped him to concentrate and be less mindless and absent-minded.

According to the external dan theory, once the unessential leaked into the cauldron, the cultivating dan was polluted or destroyed. According to the inner dan theory, once the impure of the acquired jing, chih, and shern leaked into The Middle Field, it harmed the practitioner. This happened when one was too tired, moody, thinking too much, breathing heavily, snoring, having too active a sexual life or incorrectly restricting it, etc, for example. The tswen yeang, the internal secretions reacting positively, was the way to avoid that.

Yellow was the color of earth. It was in the center while the azure, the east, black, north, white, west, and red, south. The Middle Field was in about the center of human body, between the upper and lower. The ney dan theory likened here to the earth changing what it took to grow plants. Moreover, one's commanding of life, the shern¹¹, grounded on The Middle Field. The Middle Field was just like the ground a commander stood on to order his soldiers, and he had to carefully take care of his charges, inspecting and constructing something. The Middle Field was also named the Court of Yellow, the Palace of Red, the Main House of Yellow, and the Earth’s Mansion. The latter characters: the Court (tyng), main house (tarng), and mansion (fuu) indicate the comprehensive and conscious procedures needed to cultivate the inner dan. Through some conscious procedures and operations, one reached the ground (dih¹²), the land in its natural state, to the so-called earth (tuu). Through those procedures and operations such as ploughing, watering, seeding, fertilizing, weeding, and expelling the injurious insects, the ground was prepared, and after that, there was good corn for reaping and storing up. There were also some procedures and operations for constructing a good house, Courts, or mansions on the ground, even for making a cave in which to dwell. Those latter characters metaphorically likened the cultivating inner dan procedures and operations to that of planting and constructing. One had to live in a building or cave which provided him the necessary protection; a seed had to shoot from a seed-bed where it rooted, and so in The Middle Field, the internal secretions, communications, and substances had to bear to be the inner dan. These were the arts of humans; however, the arts of nature, such as the natural caves and wild plants, came from the chih. Human beings, one of nature’s arts, also came from the chih. Inside this world view, it is the chih that made all possible the arts of humans and cultivating inner dan procedures.

The other name, the Crux of the Profundity, denoted that unless one had cultivated himself through these procedures for a certain period and with a good master¹³ capable of guiding and correcting his practice, he could not touch any of life’s profundity. These procedural operations were comprehensive and conscious, some of which were expressed in the eight diagrams (ba guah)¹⁴, her twu¹⁵, and euoh shu¹⁶, though those text were not only used here in the past time but also by Confucianism, feng shoei¹⁷, divining the fates, and the ruling authorities. That was believed to make the practitioner more healthy and long lived.

The inner dan in The Upper Field was likened to a baby. The multiple meanings of this metaphor were: (1) Both too much attentiveness or carelessness to a baby harmed it; the same did so to the inner dan. (2) The difficulty of cultivation was likened to common social matters, from meeting a mate, being a couple and becoming pregnant, to bearing a new life. It might take years to overcome many unknown obstacles. (3) There was yet a long path and many tests before one who had finally cultivated the inner dan, as there were many years and tests for a baby to survive after it was born. There were always unexpected turns. This new life, too, might go down the wrong path! When caring and educating a young life, restricting him too much or forcefully asking him to be someone or to do something usually turned out contrary to the expectations. By far the best way was to care and guide him always according to his nature; the same for cultivating the inner dan.

The essence of wu was to practise for survival; the original writing¹⁸ meant more about the profundity of life, whereas the other one¹⁹, the rich food to worship the heaven. One’s practice for surviving was considered as tzuoh wei²⁰, meaning the positive doings for life. This, over thousand years, became various developments in Chinese culture. In this essence, the wu was one side of a whole, whereas the yiou²¹, the other side. Both the achievements of cultivating inner dan and practising Chinese martial arts have to be grounded in the correct procedures, following the steps of a good master, and practiced over a long period of time.

fig. 1    the three field

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² That helped his internal secretions to react positively. Or they hyper-functioned and reacted to the external too actively.

³ The three acquired treasures were the acquired jing, chih, and shern.

⁴ The ni wan acupuncture point, comparing to the anatomy, was in about the center of one’s brain.

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⁶ The inner dan in The Up Field was likened to the baby.

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¹⁰ The external dan theory was also applied into refining Chinese medicine, another culture development on this worldview of chih.

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¹³ In Chinese language, a good master and a famous one is sounded the same though the meanings are quite different. A good master shows you the right way and helps you to reach your own results, whereas a famous master always shows you the result.

A good master in Chinese language is:

A famous master in Chinese language is:

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