This article is the first attempt at what I hope to be an ongoing series of articles about daoism, tea and other subjects written both in English and Chinese. Chinese is not my first language and so this series of articles is also meant to be a chance for me to practice writing in Chinese in hopes of eventually being able to write coherent and interesting Chinese language articles.
As such, please feel free to critique my writing, as it will help me to make progress as I develop this skill.
下面的文章是我第一次发英文和中文结合的论文。
中文本来不是我的母语，所以我希望朋友们可以帮助我看一下我写的东西，推荐怎么把它改成的更专业.
谢谢了!
孔杰老师回答朋友的问题：
朋友们问：
什么是丹田？
孔杰老师回答：
最近一些学仙佛家的同学问我了“什么是丹田？”
让我一会儿考虑怎么回答他们。
丹田在中国的道术方面可能有很多不同的意思。
我们要是想了解丹田真正的意思，可能我们必须先把我们学习的艺术主题说的稍微清
楚一点。
Recently some classmates studying the immortality school of meditation asked me
the question “what is Dantian?” (the elixir field). It gave me pause to think about
how to answer them.
In the Chinese Daoist arts, Dantian has many different meanings.
If we want to talk about the real meaning of Dantian, we must first be somewhat
specific about the field of study under discussion.
每种道家类似的功夫都有“丹田”这两个字，但是在原来学习基础的时候，可能它们的
意思会不同。
Every type of art in Daoism has its own interpretation of Dantian, and when first
studying basic methods we might think they are different from one another.
比如说，练武术的人可能认为丹田是在我们腰部，脐下一点的一款肌肉。那这个就是
肉体身上的一个肌肉的下丹田。练武术的人必须用这个身上的丹田为了把身体上下的
动作连在一起。
For instance, people who practice the martial arts might believe that dantian is a
collection of muscle in the centre of our waist, just under the belly button. This is
what we might call the physical aspect of the lower Dantian.
People who practice the martial arts need to use this area of the body to help them
connect the upper and lower aspects of their bodies while executing movements.
但是，学习气功的人可能以为丹田还是不一定找到在身体中间的肌肉。他们可能认为
丹田是我们身形的气体。
However, people who do Qi Gong might believe that the Dantian isn’t something
that we find in the physical centre of the body, rather it is associated with the
energy of the physical form.
这个气体可能会发生在很多地方。或者这个气体最主要是在我们的头部，胸部，和腰
部三个地方。这些丹田在气功学也都是很对的。
This energetic body could emerge in many different places, or it could be the three
major centres of the head, chest, and lower abdomen which make up what are
called the “three elixir fields.”
These Dantian in Qi Gong are all correctly defined as such.
最后一个例子是内丹。练内丹打坐的人对丹田有很多不同的了解释义。丹田有可能跟
武术和气功说的丹田一样，也可能代表人类和宇宙整个气。那么释义真的是特别丰
富。
As a final consideration, let’s take the internal alchemy school as an example.
People who practice internal alchemy seated meditation have many different
interpretations of the word dantian. Maybe the Dantian is the same one practiced
in martial arts and Qi Gong, or perhaps it refers to the entire energetic body of
humanity and the universe. The different ways of interpreting it are tremendously
complex.
所以介绍丹田是什么物真的不是那么简单。丹田代表太多东西了！
So understanding exactly what a Dantian is is really not that simple. Dantian
seems to refer to too many different things!
但是，丹田也有一个非常对的释义，说明这个以后大家都可以十分明白丹田正宗的意
思。丹田代表气。哪里有气那里就是丹田。哪里没有气，那里不是丹田。
However, there is one completely correct interpretation of Dantian and after saying
it, all of our classmates and friends ought to be totally clear about its true meaning.
Dantian refers to energy and wherever there is energy, there is dantian. Wherever
there isn’t energy, there also isn’t dantian.
气是什么呢？
不要思考的太复杂。气是大自然的生命最基本的本质。有气可以有生活，没有气，那里就死了。
So what is energy?
Don’t spend too much time complicating your thought processes over this. Energy
is the core characteristic of all living things in nature. If you have energy, you can
live, if you don’t have energy, you will die.
所以学习丹田，气，生命的人一定从“活”开始学习基础的。“活”不是一个植物，也不
是一个有形的东西。活是无形无相的一种生活的精神。所有有命的生灵，有肉体，植
物等等的生物都有这个生活的精神。有的越多越有一个荣华的感觉存在。
Therefore if we want to study dantian, qi, or life, we must start from the
term “living” in order to understand the basic concept of our study. Life
isn’t an organism and it doesn’t have a specific shape or form. You can’t
isolate it and look at it or perceive it, but it is contained in the basic spirit
of all living things. Anything that is alive, has a body, a person, a plant or
anything all have this basic energy. The more that something has it, the
more it seems to grow healthy and luxuriantly.
虽然精神是看不到的，还是我们看一个人的动作都可以很清楚他有没有生活的精神存
在。比如说，一个小孩儿的眼睛很有精神，我们就说他聪明了。要是感觉累累，傻傻
的，那当然就精神不对。
Even though you can’t see its basic energy, you can still see quite clearly whether
someone does or doesn’t have very much spirit.
For instance, a young child with bright eyes will often be called clever, while a tired
looking, dull child seems to have a dis-spirited look.
那么，在介绍丹田到底是什么，我们不可忘记，我们在说的东西不是一个可以看到在
身上的地方，它就是一种无形无相的生命力量，而且我们全身体都有丹田，都有气，
都有生活。除了生活以外，整个世界和宇宙都是一个大丹田。那么我们不应该问丹田
在哪里。我们应该问丹田不在哪里？这个问题非常重要，因为哪里没有丹田，那里就
没有生命的。
So when we think about what dantian really is, we can’t forget that the quality we
are trying to identify isn’t part of the body, it is a type of formless, imageless
energetic strength and we all have it in our entire bodies. So we shouldn’t ask
“where is dantian,” we would be better to ask where it isn’t.
This question is very important because anywhere that doesn’t have dantian
doesn’t have life.
研究哪里有命，哪里死亡是生命，神仙，和各种科学中最基本和最重要的基础主题。
要是可以发现生活是从哪儿发生的，那就可以得到世界众人的希望，做一个长生不老
的人，保持自己的精神，成真人，得仙而已。
Researching where life comes from and what is dead is the central concern of the
study of life, longevity, and every major type of scientific research.
If we can discover where our vital energy comes from, then we may be able to
grasp every living person’s deepest wish, to be a long living person who does not
become feeble with age and to protect our fundamental essence, become
enlightened and ascend the mundane realm.
分享这个理论为了让同学和朋友们找到方向做一个更快乐的生活!
谢谢。
please share this to help friends and classmates find their direction and live a
better, happier life.
Thank you!