August 31st - Beng Quan and Prayer

More motivation for me to continue stretching.

Daily Move ⚪ 日常的动作

崩拳 - bēng quán - "Parry Fist"

“握拳屈臂向外崩击”

"Make a fist bending your arm outward to block with the other arm bent"
 

Possible Uses: This move is a very simple block that can be done from almost any stance. Very similar to the blocks in karate, this is best used as a parry where then you would immediately strike your opponent.

Daily Word ⚪ 日常的词

祈祷 / 祷告

qí dǎo / dǎo gào
"to pray, to say one's prayers" - Verb
"和尚每天祈祷"

Related Words:
宗教 zōng jiào - "religion" - Noun
教堂 jiào táng - "church" - Noun
寺庙 sì miào - "temple" - Noun
上帝 Shàngdì - "Lord, God (Christianity)" - Noun
天神 tiānshén - "Deity" - Noun
主 zhǔ -"Allah (Islam)" - Noun

I chose this because I want to focus more on connecting my thoughts of religion and spirituality. I believe if I connect my Chinese studies with religion by beginning to learn religious words maybe it will some how improve my spirit... or just help me continue studying.

Daily Thought ⚪日常的想法

I've never thought much about internal martial arts like Taiji Quan, Xing Yi,  WuDang and others. It surprised me to see that White Crane Kung Fu is another internal martial art but it has an emphasis on "hard" and fast movements. Even though I did a month of Tai Ji Quan while I lived in China (and enjoyed it) I didn't think it would help my fighting skills. After watching this, though it does look a little silly, I'm starting to think that this idea of Qi or energy could help me since I'm a smaller and thinner fellow who wishes to fight.

There was also some nice Chinese thrown in throughout the video which is always nice for someone learning the language! :)

根 - Gēn - "root"
松 - sōng - "loose, relax"
内功 - nèigōng - "internal energy"
外功 - wàigōng - "external energy"



What is something new that you've realized today?

- Johnny