Stillness and posture: sitting and standing practice in the internal traditions

Author: Raymond Hackland · Last reviewed: 18 October 2026 · Reading time: about 10 minutes

In short

• What this is: Chinese traditions have long taught quiet sitting and standing. This article reads the key texts: the Neiye on aligning the body, Zhuangzi’s “sitting in forgetting” and “fasting of the heart”, the Tang Zuowang lun, the Buddhist master Zhiyi, the Neo-Confucian “quiet sitting” of the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi, and modern standing practice (zhan zhuang). It is the eighth article of our neigong series.
• What the evidence says: The texts are well documented, though some authorships are disputed. Research on Qigong and slow breathing exists and is summarised in our research articles; claims that a posture opens channels or builds “internal power” go beyond it.
• What it means for your practice: Across Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian sources the same advice returns: an upright, relaxed body, a calm mind, and breath that is left quiet and natural.

What tradition says

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history).

The Neiye: align the body. The “Inward Training” (內業, Nèiyè), a chapter of the Guanzi (管子) devoted to self-cultivation, links posture and inner state directly: “If the body is not aligned, virtue will not come; if the inside is not still, the heart will not be ordered” (形不正，德不來；中不靜，心不治) [1]. It describes the result as a person whose “four limbs are aligned and blood and qi are still” (四體既正，血氣既靜) [1], and gives a rule for the mind: “With stillness you attain it; with agitation you lose it” (靜則得之，躁則失之) [1]. It also says that a person who can be “aligned and still” (正靜) will have relaxed skin, clear eyes and ears, and supple sinews and strong bones [1]; that is a traditional claim, not a finding.

Zhuangzi: forgetting and fasting. Two famous passages in the Zhuangzi (莊子), a Daoist classic compiled more than 2,000 years ago, give stillness a philosophical meaning. In chapter 6, Yan Hui tells Confucius that he can “sit and forget” (坐忘, zuòwàng): “I let my limbs and body fall away, dismiss perception and intellect, leave form and cast off knowledge, and become one with the great pervasion. This is called sitting and forgetting” (墮枝體，黜聰明，離形去知，同於大通，此謂坐忘) [2]. In chapter 4, Confucius describes the “fasting of the heart” (心齋, xīnzhāi): “Unify your intent. Do not listen with your ears but with your heart; do not listen with your heart but with your qi … Qi is empty and waits for things. Only the Way gathers in emptiness. Emptiness is the fasting of the heart” (无聽之以耳而聽之以心，无聽之以心而聽之以氣……氣也者，虛而待物者也。唯道集虛。虛者，心齋也) [3]. The same chapter warns against “sitting while racing” (坐馳): the body still, the mind running [3]. These are literary and philosophical texts; they do not describe a breathing technique.

The Zuowang lun and its disputed author

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history; authorship disputed).

In the Tang dynasty, Daoist writers turned Zhuangzi’s phrase into a method. The best-known text is the Zuowang lun (坐忘論, Discourse on Sitting in Forgetting), traditionally attributed to the Daoist master Sima Chengzhen (司马承祯, 647–735) [4, 7]. It quotes Zhuangzi’s definition and adds: “At the beginning of learning the Way, you must sit quietly, gather the heart and leave the world of objects behind” (學道之初，要須安坐，收心離境) [4].

The attribution is disputed. Livia Kohn’s annotated translation of 1987 follows the traditional attribution [12], but there are two different Tang texts with this title: the long one in seven stages, and a short one carved in 829 on a stele on Mount Wangwu [7, 8]. The stele text names a Daoist called Zhao Jian (赵坚) as the author of the seven-stage text and criticises it as “sitting while racing, not sitting in forgetting” [8]. The scholar Zhu Yueli and, in a 2016 study, Jinhua Jia conclude that the seven-stage text is probably Zhao Jian’s [7, 8]. They disagree about the short text: Zhu thinks it is probably Sima’s own, while Jia argues that it is not and may be the work of the Daoist priestess Liu Moran [7, 8]. Centuries later, a Neo-Confucian turned the same word against Sima: “Sima Ziwei once wrote a Zuowang lun; this is what is called sitting while racing” (司馬子微嘗作坐忘論，是所謂坐馳也) [13]; Ziwei was Sima Chengzhen’s courtesy name [14]. The saying is recorded among the words of the Cheng brothers, whom we meet below; the Jinsi lu, an anthology compiled by Zhu Xi and Lü Zuqian, gives it to Cheng Yi [14], and Zhu Yueli notes that we cannot tell which of the two texts he meant [8].

Buddhist sitting: Zhiyi

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history).

Some of the most detailed early instructions on posture come from Buddhism. The Sui-dynasty master Zhiyi (智顗), whose short meditation manual we quoted in our article “The triple burner: ‘a name but no form’“, teaches five “adjustments”: of food, sleep, body, breath and mind [5]. For the body he describes the half-lotus and full-lotus seat and says the back should be upright, “the spine neither bent nor raised” (令脊骨勿曲勿聳); the rule is “neither slack nor tense” (不寬不急) [5]. For breath he names four kinds. Breath you can hear is “wind”; breath that is silent but blocked is “panting”; breath that is silent and free but coarse is “qi”; only breath that is “without sound, without blockage, not coarse, going in and out continuously, as if present and as if absent” (不聲不結不麁，出入綿綿，若存若亡) is true “breath” (息) [5].

Neo-Confucian quiet sitting

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history).

Song-dynasty Confucians took up quiet sitting (静坐, jìngzuò) and tried to keep it apart from Buddhist meditation. The leading figures were the brothers Cheng Hao (1032–1085) and Cheng Yi (1033–1107) [16]. One of their best-known disciples was Xie Liangzuo (谢良佐, courtesy name Xiandao 显道) [15]. When Cheng Hao told Xie that his students only repeated his words and asked why they did not put them into practice, Xie asked how, and Cheng answered: “For now, sit quietly” (且靜坐); and Cheng Yi, “whenever he saw someone sitting quietly, praised them as good at learning” (每見人靜坐，便歎其善學) [9]. Zhu Xi (朱熹, 1130–1200) [16] told a student that someone with no daily duties could spend “half the day in quiet sitting and half the day reading” (半日靜坐，半日讀書) [6]. He drew a clear line: “Quiet sitting is not meant to be like Chan sitting and entering concentration, cutting off thought. Just gather the heart and do not let it wander into idle thoughts” (靜坐非是要如坐禪入定，斷絕思慮。只收斂此心，莫令走作閑思慮) [6]. For Zhu Xi, quiet sitting supported study and conduct; it was not a way of withdrawing from the world [16].

Standing practice: zhan zhuang

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history; relies on secondary sources).

Standing still in a fixed posture, zhan zhuang (站桩, zhàn zhuāng, “standing like a post”), is best known through Wang Xiangzhai (王芗斋, 1886–1963). He is usually described as a student of the xingyiquan master Guo Yunshen, whom we met in “Internal and external: neijia, waijia and the epitaph of 1669“; some contemporaries doubted that Guo taught him directly, although a document of 1928 lists him among Guo’s pupils [10]. In the 1920s, building on xingyiquan, he founded yiquan (意拳), which some of his students called dachengquan; he abandoned the fixed routines of older styles and made standing practice its foundation [10]. In his own Yiquan zhenggui (意拳正軌), signed in 1929, he writes that skill in combat “must take standing practice and the changing of strength as its root and beginning” (須以站樁換勁為根始) [17]. A 2026 study by Enrico Storti, based mainly on an account by Wang’s daughter and his disciple Yu Yongnian, describes two phases: an early one focused on combat, and one from around 1945 in which health and Qigong became predominant. From 1958 Wang taught zhan zhuang at Beijing’s Guang’anmen Hospital [10]. Many stories about Wang’s fighting prowess come from his own students; Storti himself cites a 2026 book that examines the “legends and secrets” of yiquan history. We report the biography as told, not as independently confirmed.

The Liu Zi Jue stance. The 2003 standard form of Health Qigong Liu Zi Jue also begins with a standing posture. Its “preparatory stance” (预备势), as described in excerpts that the newspaper China Sports Daily (中国体育报) published in 2005, reads: “feet parallel, about shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent; head upright and neck straight, chin slightly tucked, spine upright and chest slightly drawn in; arms hanging naturally, the whole body centred; lips and teeth closed, the tip of the tongue flat and resting lightly on the palate; eyes looking forward and down” [11]. The same excerpts add: breathe in and out through the nose, naturally; smile slightly, keep the mind quiet and the whole body relaxed. They list as common errors knees that are too straight or too bent, which tenses the hips and knees, and lifting the chest and head with the eyes on the distance [11]. They also claim that the stance links the ren and du channels [11]; that is a traditional claim, not a measured effect.

What science says

Label for this section: Early evidence.

Systematic reviews of Qigong and tai chi, which include sitting and standing practice, are summarised in our article Qigong and tai chi: what systematic reviews say; for most outcomes the evidence is early, and study quality is often low. What slow breathing does to heart rate variability is explained in Slow breathing and heart rate variability. We have not found research that tests the historical claims in this article, such as a link between an aligned posture and the movement of qi.

Where popular claims go beyond the evidence

Label for this section: Speculative.

• “The right posture opens the meridians.” The channels are a traditional concept, and no study we know of measures them opening in a given posture.
• “Standing practice builds internal power.” Standing still in a half-squat is demanding muscle work; whether it builds anything beyond strength and endurance has not been shown.
• “Longer is always better.” Standing in a bent-knee posture loads the knees, and the instructions for the 2003 form themselves warn against knees that are too bent [11]. If you have a health condition, read who should be careful with breathing practices first.
• “Stillness means emptying the mind completely.” The sources disagree. Zhuangzi speaks of forgetting, Zhiyi of concentration, and Zhu Xi expressly rejects “cutting off thought” [2, 5, 6].

How this relates to the Six Healing Sounds, Qigong and neigong

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history); Raymond’s own approach is marked as his, and its link to the science of vibration is labelled Speculative.

The six sounds first appear in the Yangxing yanming lu, a text traditionally attributed to Tao Hongjing (died 536) and first recorded between the 6th and 8th centuries; see the history of Liu Zi Jue. The quiet sitting and standing traditions above are not the same thing, but the overlap is real. The manual whose posture rules we quoted from Zhiyi also reports that some teachers used six breaths against illness [5]; the 2003 standard form starts in a still, upright stance [11]; and Zhiyi’s “true breath”, without sound, as if present and as if absent [5], describes something close to a silent exhalation. One difference is worth stating plainly: the sitting and standing traditions above describe practice in silence, whereas a music-assisted practice adds sound from outside.

How my practice relates to this. My practice is breath-led: you breathe in quietly through the nose and breathe the six sounds out through the mouth, “voiced through the breath”, not sung, working over time towards a silent exhalation. The breathing stays slow and controlled throughout, with no breath holds and no fast breathing. I share the sounds standing, in the wuji posture (无极, “without limit”), for participants who are able to stand comfortably. Neidan is not part of what I share.

Label for the next paragraph: Speculative, based on Raymond’s own description. Raymond links the sounds to the science of sound and vibration: in theory, the voiced breath may reach the organs and set them vibrating. This has not been shown, and he does not claim that it works; what can be felt is the vibration of your own voice, as What is resonance? explains, and we know of no measurements of a particular sound vibrating a particular organ (see our article on vowels and formants). He also uses a visualisation in the spirit of neigong: you imagine yourself as the resonance, travelling with each sound to its organ, and with xi through the whole body (the triple burner). This rests on his own experience and that of his participants, not on a scientific finding; he describes his work as bridging the gap between the science and the experience. None of this is a health claim.

Resonance Heritage Qi is a personal, music-assisted practice inspired by Liu Zi Jue: connected to it, not a replacement for the traditional form or for study with a teacher of that tradition.

Where this series goes next

This is the last article of our neigong series for now. To start from the beginning, read “What is neigong? An introduction“.

Sources

1. 管子 Guanzi, chapter 49, 內業 Neiye. Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/管子/第49篇內業
2. 莊子 Zhuangzi, chapter 6, 大宗師 Dazongshi. Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/大宗師
3. 莊子 Zhuangzi, chapter 4, 人間世 Renjianshi. Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/人間世
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5. Zhiyi 智顗. 修習止觀坐禪法要 Xiuxi zhiguan zuochan fayao, chapters 4, 調和 (adjusting body, breath and mind), and 9, 治病 (treating illness). Chinese text, Wikisource edition (from the Taishō canon), accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/修習止觀坐禪法要
6. 朱子語類 Zhuzi yulei, juan 12 (持守) and 116. Chinese text, Wikisource editions, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/朱子語類/012 ; https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/朱子語類/116
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8. Zhu Yueli 朱越利, 2000. 《坐忘論》作者考 (A study of the authorship of the Zuowang lun). 炎黃文化研究 Yanhuang wenhua yanjiu 7:99–104; reprinted in his 道教考信集 (Jinan: Qilu shushe, 2014). Read in the online reprint, Daoyin wenhua, parts 1 and 2, August and September 2019, accessed 18 October 2026. https://www.daoisms.com.cn/2019/08/16/6073/ ; https://www.daoisms.com.cn/2019/09/11/6071/
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10. Storti E, 2026. Wang Xiangzhai and the theory of martial creation. Martial Arts Studies 21:15–29. https://doi.org/10.18573/mas.254
11. 健身气功·六字诀 (serialisation), chapter 4, 预备势 (preparatory stance). China Sports Daily (中国体育报), 25 March 2005, republished by Sina Sports, accessed 18 October 2026. https://sports.sina.cn/sa/2005-03-25/detail-ikftssaq0541200.d.html?vt=4
12. Kohn L, 1987. Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhen’s Zuowanglun. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag (Monumenta Serica Monograph Series 20). Publisher’s description read, accessed 18 October 2026. https://www.monumenta-serica.de/monumenta-serica/publications/monographs/Catalog/Seven-Steps-to-the-Tao.php
13. 二程遺書 Er Cheng yishu, juan 2A (二先生語二上). Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/二程遺書/卷02
14. Zhu Xi 朱熹 and Lü Zuqian 呂祖謙 (comp.). 近思錄 Jinsi lu, juan 4 (存養). Chinese text, Wikisource edition (Siku quanshu), accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/近思錄_(四庫全書本)/卷04
15. 宋史 Song shi, juan 428 (道學二), biography of Xie Liangzuo 謝良佐. Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋史/卷428
16. Tiwald J. Song-Ming Confucianism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, first published 19 March 2020, substantive revision 30 April 2025. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/song-ming-confucianism/
17. Wang Xiangzhai 王薌齋 (signed Wang Yuseng 王宇僧), 1929. 意拳正軌 Yiquan zhenggui, section 樁法換勁. Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/意拳正軌

Source quality note: [1]–[6], [9], [13]–[15] and [17] are primary Chinese texts read in Wikisource editions, some of them only partly proofread; the translations are our own working translations. For the authorship of the Zuowang lun we rely on [7] (a peer-reviewed article, of which we read only the abstract), [8] (a Chinese scholar’s study, first published in 2000 and read in an online reprint) and, for the traditional view, the publisher’s description of [12]. Dates for the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi follow [16]. Wang Xiangzhai’s biography comes mainly from one recent peer-reviewed article [10], which itself rests largely on an account by his daughter and a disciple; his teaching on standing practice is quoted from his own text [17]. The Liu Zi Jue stance is quoted from excerpts of the 2003 form published in a sports newspaper in 2005 [11], not from the official 2003 book, which we have not seen.