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KUNG-FU,
OR TAUIST MEDICAL GYMNASTICS.
BY JOHN DUDGEON, M.D., C.M.
pp. 67-291 in The Beverages of the Chinese; Kung-fu; or, Tauist medical gymnastics; the population of China; a modern Chinese anatomist; and a chapter in Chinese surgery.
Tientsin, Tientsin press
[1895]
Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com by John Bruno Hare, October 2008. This text is in the public domain in the US because it was published prior to 1923.
This is an historical text which includes accounts of 19th century Chinese medical practices. Please do not attempt any of the exercises or treatments described in this document without consulting your physician first.
KUNG-FU,
OR
TAUIST MEDICAL GYMNASTICS.
BY
JOHN DUDGEON, M.D., C.M.
Movements for the development of the body and for the prevention and cure of disease were known and practised in the most ancient times in all countries. We find gymnastic exercises forming a part of the religion of the ancients. The great heroes of antiquity either instituted, restored, or took part in them. Poets made them the theme of their verses; and so, by immortalizing not only themselves but their victors whose fame they celebrated, they animated the Greek and Roman youth to tread in similar steps. Such exercises were then indispensable, the use of fire-arms being at that time unknown. The body required to be strengthened, and health to be confirmed and inured to fatigue. Contests were generally decided in close fight, by strength of body. Hence the origin of gymnasia, where the science of movement, as it were, was taught, and which were always dedicated to Apollo, the god of physicians. The Greeks owed mu