A Lesson on the Fourth Day · 2 September 2026辟谷第四天的一堂课 · 2026年9月2日

On 2 September 2026, the fourth day of a bigu retreat at Wudang Mountain, part of the day was spent indoors. This short film records one lesson from that afternoon: a teacher at a whiteboard, a room of students in white, and a movement shown once so that everyone could see it.

The room

The hall is quiet and well lit. Sheer curtains soften the windows, timber screens line the walls, and a pot plant stands in the corner. The students sit on low wooden chairs and cushions around long tables laid with notebooks, pens and cups. Most wear loose white practice clothes, their hair tied back with long black ribbons that fall down the spine. At the front stands the teacher in a dark robe with white cuffs, beside a whiteboard already covered in handwritten characters.

Shown, not only told

For a while she simply talks, hands folded, smiling at the room. Then she stops explaining and shows. Both arms rise above the head, the fingertips meet to form a circle, and the palms turn and open toward the ceiling. The students watch from where they sit. Nobody copies her yet. The first task is only to see the shape clearly.

This is an old way of teaching, and a patient one. Words fill the whiteboard, but the body carries the lesson. A movement held in front of a room lets everyone see where the shoulders rest, how far the arms extend, and how little force the whole thing needs.

Learning together

By the end of the clip the room has turned into a circle of conversation. The teacher sits among the students at the long table, someone takes photographs from the side, and the lesson has become a discussion. During bigu, days like this are about attention more than food: slowing down, listening, and giving the body time to catch up with what the mind has been told.

Read the day in photographs: The Fourth Day of Bigu. The retreat from the beginning: The First Day of Bigu.

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