The Second Day of Bigu - 31 August 2026辟谷第二天

On 31 August 2026, the second day of a bigu retreat at Wudang Mountain, the group left the buildings behind and spent the day walking outdoors. The note shared from the mountain described people going out into the hills and becoming part of the mountains and water. With so little around them, it said, the heart felt fuller rather than emptier: for a while you set aside the pull of the appetite, listen to the wind, and look at the mountains.

Out along the trail

The path is a narrow dirt track cut into a steep, green hillside under a clear sky. The walkers go in single file: white cotton, sun visors, a black cloth bag with a taiji emblem at one hip, a pale green umbrella bobbing further ahead. The slope rises sharply on one side and falls away on the other, and the only sounds are footsteps, leaves and wind.

Lower down, under tall trees, the track widens and the group loosens. One person stands with a hand on her hip, looking up the slope; another has a bottle tied to the strap of her shoulder bag. Someone ahead is carrying a bamboo basket. Nobody seems to be keeping time.

A pause on the path

At one stop the group gathers round a man holding a large glass jar of something amber. A woman leans in close to look; the others wait with flasks in hand, one of them with a folded sun visor tucked under her arm. For a moment, it has everyone’s attention.

The photograph at the top of this page was taken a little further on. Four of them sit in a row on a grassy bank at the edge of the track, an umbrella propped open beside them. They look out at the same wooded slope, talking a little, one of them smiling at something just out of frame. It is the kind of rest any walker knows: not a destination, just a good place to sit for a while.

Listening to the wind

The note from that day ended with two simple verbs: listen to the wind, look at the mountains. There is an old Chinese phrase for the ideal behind them, 天人合一 (tiān rén hé yī), heaven and humanity as one. It is less a doctrine to be argued than an orientation, a reminder that people belong to the natural world rather than standing apart from it.

On a day like this it looks very plain. A path along a hillside, a bank of long grass, a jar passed from hand to hand, and people who have set aside a few days to walk slowly and pay attention to where they are.

About these photographs

The photographs and the note that accompanied them were shared on WeChat by 武当 至焕 (Wudang Zhihuan) from Wudang Mountain on 31 August 2026, the second day of the retreat. This is a cultural record of one day. It does not describe what participants ate, give instructions for fasting, or offer medical advice; anyone considering a fasting practice should speak to a qualified doctor first.

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