Illustrated Album of the Eight Pieces of Brocade

"Eight Pieces of Brocade" and Tai chi are widespread forms of exercise for the Chinese. Documentary evidence for similar forms of physical training is found at the earliest in Record on Channeling Zi to Wu by the Master of Spirit Sword from the famous Wei-Jin scholar Xu Sun (249-347), which appears in Daoist book catalogues on healthy living from the Song dynasty.
"Eight Pieces of Brocade" is named after eight exercises that are "woven" together into a single "brocade." The contents include physical exercises as well as breathing regimens. Positions taken include both standing and seated. The former requires the feet to be planted at the same width as the shoulders, while the latter calls for knees placed squarely together. Combined with such details as keeping the tongue in contact with the palate and concentrating on the "dantian," each movement is done repeatedly. On display here are the standing "Eight Pieces of Brocade," which were catalogued at the Qing court using a "Thousand-Character Essay" accession system, the "sui" character here indicating the album was stored at the Yonghe Palace, the residence of the Guangxu Emperor's Consort Jin (1873-1924).