Eight Pieces of Brocade: brief history.

Eight Pieces of Brocade (Chinese pinyin: Baduanjin) is attributed to general Yue Fei dating back about 1000 years. This figure was possibly a mythical figure and may not have existed, but the qigong exercise has its roots in antiquity, regardless. Legend has it that it was developed as a way to maintain the health of the soldiers. There is a standing form and a separate sitting form. I have learned the sitting form, but do not practice this regularly and do not teach this form, so the discussion below will be related to the standing form. Note that the standing form can be modified effectively to seated for those with limitations that prevent standing, but the original sitting form is a unique form and is not simply an adaptation of the standing form..

I learned this form from Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming at his North California retreat home. This was a fantastic introduction. I have since modified the form to highlight principles that I focus on and teach, but it is largely unchanged from what I learned with Dr. Yang.

Eight Pieces of Brocade: a great qigong form for spinal mobility and core engagement.

I practice and teach Eight Pieces of Brocade in several setting, but specifically I came to appreciate this form during much of the initial social distancing phase in 2020. This form, due to is simple stance and lack of stepping patterns, lends itself quite well to zoom based classes. In 2020, I initially also taught taiji, liuehebafa, and core strengthening classes, in addition to baduanjin (8 POB). While it is possible to teach taiji and liuhebafa on Zoom, they are not as obvious a fit as something such as eight pieces.

Eight Pieces of Brocade contains many of the same principles, especially those related to health improvement, that can be found in the other forms. Yet it is much simpler and more repetitive externally. The internal movement, however, features the same spinal mobility and core engagement. This can take some practice to find and maximize and is something we focus on in class. But it is pretty simple to jump in and start following, and you will likely be getting at least some of the this benefit from the beginning. You can get some nice stretching and strengthening from the start with plenty of room to develop and grow!

Eight Pieces of Brocade: Spinal Wave/Danyu

One way to maximize the benefits in eight pieces of brocade is to incorporate the spinal wave into each move. Some of the people I teach learned this qigong movement as the danyu (dūn yāo). There are some external differences between these two qigong exercises, but they both are ways of accessing the small circulation (microcosmic orbit) which is a circulation up the du mai (governing vessel) and down the ren mai (conception vessel). This movement can then travel out into the extremities and it would then be referred to as the grand circulation (macrocosmic orbit). Simply, this means that the movement of the spine and core manifest into the extremities. If you can find this movement in the Eight Pieces of Brocade, the benefits will be far greater for your health and wellness.

Check out the Youtube video below. This walks you through each move and allows you to follow along and practice. Also, check out the class information and contact info by clicking here.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions on the video by leaving a comment. Also, please like and subscribe as this helps build my channel which will allow me to continue providing content like this!