Swish and Swallow the Saliva

The classical verse

以候神水至，再漱再吞津。如此三度毕，神水九次吞

This form belongs to the verse line above, from the classical seated routine. Quoting it is how you can tell whether a version of this movement you find elsewhere is the same one.

The saliva gathered at this point is called "divine water", and in the classical terminology also "the jade fluid of the golden spring" or "the fragrant sweet fluid". The notes describe the swallowing itself in the classical language as "sending the medicine into the tripod furnace", meaning that the fluid is imagined as travelling down to the lower abdomen while the practitioner sits with the eyes closed and the attention turned inward. These are traditional names for what is done in the practice, given here as the tradition states them; no effect beyond the description of the practice itself is claimed.

How to do it

The official form is practised sitting cross-legged on a firm wedge-shaped cushion with the front edge lower than the back. Every step below also says what to do if you are sitting in a chair — the two are the same movement, only the seat differs, so there is no separate version to choose between.

1. Continue from the previous movement. Rotate the arms inward, draw the palms back past the waist and out to the sides in an arc, palms facing backward. Look forward and downward. In a chair: sit tall toward the front of a stable chair with both feet flat and begin from the loose fists already resting at the base of the thighs, the openings facing upward.
2. Without stopping, rotate the arms outward and bring the palms round in an arc to gather in front of the abdomen, fingertips facing one another, at the height of the navel. Look forward and downward.
3. Bend the elbows and draw the palms in toward the navel. As they come close to it, close the hands into the loose fist called wo gu, then lower them to the base of the thighs with the opening of the fist facing upward. Look forward and downward.
4. Close the lips lightly. Move the tip of the tongue inside the mouth in one circle: from the right upward, across to the left, and down. Then move it outside the teeth against the gums, tracing one circle in the same direction. Keep the stirring soft, and make sure it covers the gums both inside and outside. One inside circle plus one outside circle counts as one round. Do six rounds.
5. Continue without a break and repeat the same movement with the tongue circling in the opposite direction. One inside plus one outside counts as one round; do six rounds.
6. Once the mouth has gathered fluid, swish the cheeks thirty-six times, drawing them in and letting them out. Keep the motion natural. Look forward and downward.
7. Rotate the arms outward, open the fists into palms and raise them to chest height. Look forward and downward.
8. Continue without stopping: rotate the arms inward and press them straight overhead, palms facing outward. Look forward. In a chair: if raising the arms overhead is uncomfortable today, keep the movement at chest height — the tongue work, the cheek pulses and the swallowing are the parts the form asks for; the arms carry them rather than replace them.
9. Rotate the arms outward and close the hands into loose fists again, the centres of the fists facing one another. Look forward and downward.
10. Draw the fists down and place them at the base of the thighs with the openings of the fists facing upward. As they come down, close the eyes and swallow one third of the fluid in the mouth, the attention following it down toward the lower abdomen. Come back to a forward and downward gaze afterwards.
11. Repeat steps 7 to 10 three times in all, so that the fluid gathered in the mouth is swallowed in three parts across the three sequences.

Breathing and intention

Breathe through the nose and let it run at its own pace throughout. The traditional instruction is to imagine the mouth filling with fluid, to stir the tongue in round connected circles, to make the cheeks pulse quickly, and to swallow so that the swallow makes a soft gurgling sound, with the attention following it downward. Two details are easy to miss and are named in the notes: the tongue is stirred softly and must reach the gums both inside and outside, and the cheeks are swished only once there is fluid to swish, that is, when the mouth is full. While swallowing, concentrate and close the eyes, looking inward, with the attention following the fluid down to the lower abdomen.

Common mistakes

• Doing six swishes of the cheeks instead of the thirty-six the text asks for.
• Counting the tongue work as six inner circles plus six outer ones rather than as paired rounds of one inner and one outer circle.
• Stirring the tongue stiffly, or leaving the gums untouched either inside or outside. The motion is soft, and it covers both.
• Swishing the cheeks before the mouth has gathered any fluid, or forcing it with a dry mouth. Wait until the mouth is full, then swish naturally.
• Swallowing the whole mouthful at once rather than in three parts across the three sequences.
• Swallowing with the eyes open and the attention elsewhere. The notes ask for the eyes closed and the gaze turned inward while the fluid is swallowed.
• Stirring the tongue in short jerks instead of one even connected circle.
• Skipping the form because nothing visible happens. It is the closing practice of the set.

Where it comes from

The verse line reads "wait for the divine water to arrive, rinse and swallow again; when three rounds are done, the divine water is swallowed nine times". The nine swallows belong to that verse;the manual itself counts the fluid as swallowed in three parts, once per repetition of actions 7 to 10.

The Twelve-Section Brocade is the modern official form of the seated Eight-Section Brocade, also called the literary eight-section brocade (wen baduanjin), which the Ming dynasty texts record in eight figures. Its name appears in the eighteenth-century Shoushi Chuanzhen, and the version in most circulation today comes from the Neigong Tushuo. It was standardised as an official routine in 2010 by the General Administration of Sport of China.