精 JQS WELLNESS精气神
The half without medicine

Cultivation: move first

Chinese medicine was never only about herbs. Guided movement, breath, sun, and rhythm ask nothing of your stomach — they are the real floor of the system. Sources are given; folk traditions are labelled as such.

The old chart

The Mawangdui daoyin chart: 44 postures, 31 captions

The silk daoyin chart excavated in 1973 from Mawangdui Tomb 3 near Changsha is 133 cm long and 51 cm wide: four registers of eleven figures — 44 postures, 31 of them captioned with the movement's name, the animal it imitates, or the ailment it addresses (for knee pain, for example). It is the earliest painted exercise chart known, and the three sets below all trace back to this line.

Mawangdui daoyin chart, 44 postures
Image: reconstruction of the Mawangdui daoyin chart (the original silk is fragmentary) · Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0.

五禽戏 Wu Qin Xi

Mimic tiger, deer, bear, monkey and bird — one set, ten minutes. The point is not accuracy but moving every joint.

Morning, or after long sitting
Source: 华佗《后汉书·华佗传》：吾有一术，名五禽之戏
Tiger form
Tiger · pl. 5
Deer form
Deer · pl. 6
Bear form
Bear · pl. 10
Ape form
Ape · pl. 15
Bird form
Bird · pl. 18
Images: Wang Huaiqi, Hua Tuo's Five Animal Frolics, 1930s Shanghai; National Library of China scan (public domain).

导引吐纳 Guided breathing

Inhale four counts, hold two, exhale six; twenty rounds. A longer exhale slows you down.

Before bed, or when tense
Source: 《庄子·刻意》：吹呴呼吸，吐故纳新
Ming daoyin woodcut
Jinshen jiyao · pl. 1
Ming daoyin woodcut
Jinshen jiyao · pl. 2
Ming daoyin woodcut
Jinshen jiyao · pl. 3
Images: daoyin woodcuts from Jinshen jiyao, Ming edition of 1593 · Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0.

八段锦 Ba Duan Jin

Eight movements — raise both hands to open the triple burner, shake the head and tail to clear heart fire. Slow and wide.

Morning, an hour after eating
Source: 宋代已有记载，见《夷坚志》
Baduanjin photograph
Section 1
Baduanjin photograph
Section 3
Baduanjin photograph
Section 5
Baduanjin photograph
Section 7
Images: Lianpu Tieya, Baduanjin Tujie, Shanghai Commercial Press, 1930s (public domain).

子午觉 Midday and midnight sleep

Sleep before midnight, close your eyes twenty minutes at midday. It restores rhythm, not hours.

Same time daily
Source: 传统作息观：子时（23–1）与午时（11–13）各养一次
1

Sleep on your side before midnight, room dark and warm

2

Lie flat for twenty minutes at midday

3

Sit up in the early morning, awake and rested

晒背 Sun on the back

9–11am, back to the sun for fifteen minutes, clothing on is fine. Avoid the face and high noon.

Sunny morning
Source: 民间称「天灸」，端午晒背之说最盛
Back to the morning sun
Back to the morning sun; clothing on is fine
Courtyard sun
In the courtyard, back to the sun, arms relaxed
Bench and cloth
On a wooden bench, a light cloth over the shoulders

饭后百步 A hundred steps

Ten slow minutes after a meal — no running, no breathlessness.

After every meal
Source: 孙思邈《千金方》养生篇主张「食毕行步」
1

Walk slowly at dawn — no running, no breathlessness

2

Stroll after meals, hands behind your back

3

Walk at dusk, unhurried

These are daily cultivation habits, not treatments. See a clinician for persistent symptoms, and check with a professional first if you have old injuries or special conditions.
Next

Move first, then read your chart

Cultivation works the floor; the five elements read your lean. Do one, then read the other.

Read my five elements See the cultivation ladder