Shih Shui

The Systems · Internal Cultivation

Shih Shui

Shih Shui is the internal cultivation half of Little Nine Heaven, and the component that has travelled furthest beyond the parent system. Grandmaster Chiao Chang-Hung chose to release it more widely than the rest of the art, on the reasoning that a method this effective for health should not stay locked to a handful of martial disciples.

It is nei-kung rather than ordinary chi-kung — the training works at a deeper level than breath exercises alone, combining specific breathing patterns, physical strengthening, and directed energy circulation. The traditional claims for it are substantial: revitalised marrow, restored and detoxified organs, improved blood, reduced load on the heart, and a marked increase in vitality that practitioners describe as feeling considerably younger than their years.

What It Involves

• A specific sequence of breathing methods, trained precisely rather than approximately
• Strengthening exercises that work the deep structures rather than surface musculature
• Energy circulation techniques directing chi along defined pathways
• Work with sexual energy — its conservation, transformation, and circulation, which is central rather than incidental to the method

A Note on Accuracy

Shih Shui has been widely and badly copied. Most of what circulates under the name traces back, at several removes, to Grandmaster Chiao's teaching or his Chinese-language book, and much of it is taught wrong by people who never received correction. Details that look minor in this method are not minor, which is why it is taught in person and stage by stage.

Who Can Learn It

Any committed adult, male or female, with no martial background required. Unlike the rest of Little Nine Heaven, this is available as standalone training.