Wake Forest University

Traditional:

人呼氣時，腹卻脹；吸氣時，腹卻厭。論來，呼而腹厭， 吸而腹脹，乃是。今若此者，蓋呼氣時，此一口氣雖出， 第二囗氣復生，故其腹脹；及吸氣時，其所生之氣又從裡 趕出，故其腹卻厭。大凡人生至死，其氣只管出，出盡便 死。如吸氣時，非是吸外氣而入，只是住得一霎時，第二 口氣又出，若無得出時便死。老子曰：「天地之間，其猶 橐籥乎，動而不屈，虛而愈出。」橐籥只是今之犕扇耳。
廣

Simplified:

人呼气时，腹却胀；吸气时，腹却厌。论来，呼而腹厌， 吸而腹胀，乃是。今若此者，盖呼气时，此一口气虽出， 第二囗气复生，故其腹胀；及吸气时，其所生之气又从里 赶出，故其腹却厌。大凡人生至死，其气只管出，出尽便 死。如吸气时，非是吸外气而入，只是住得一霎时，第二 口气又出，若无得出时便死。老子曰：「天地之间，其犹 橐龠乎，动而不屈，虚而愈出。」橐龠只是今之□扇耳。
广

big5:

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GB:

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Translation:

When a person exhales, the abdomen actually expands, and when a person inhales, the abdomen actually contracts. In theory, when exhaling the abdomen should be compressed, and when inhaling the abdomen should be expanding. Now in regard to these matters, probably when one exhales a breath, although this one mouthful of air leaves, the second mouthful of breath is being produced in the abdomen, and so the abdomen expands. When one inhales, then the breath that was just produced in the abdomen in being forced out of there, and so the abdomen actually happens to contract. In general, in a person's life, all the way to the time of death, all that person's qi does is to leave the body, and when it has been completely evacuated, then the person dies. When one is inhaling a breath, it is not the case that one sucks external breath into the body, it is just that it is retained in the body for a brief time, and then the next mouthful of breath is also exhaled [along with the temporarily retained external air]. If one becomes unable to exhale it then one will dies. Lao Zi said: 'The [void] between Heaven and Earth is like a wind bag. It moves without crumpling, and the more empty is is the more it can put out.' A wind bag is just the bellows of today."
-- Guang

Commentary:

This passage is very odd, because it gives the existence of a presumed entity that escapes our senses priority over the experience of wind, air trapped in the bladders of slaughtered animals, air trapped in vessels inverted and pressed into water, and so forth.

The theory of qi appears to be that it is always the gas phase of some liquid or solid. Or sometimes it appears to be an immaterial but energetic "field" that hovers around some more easily identifiable entity. For instance, a poem can have its characteristic qi. Likewise, a sword can have a qi.

If the above general account is correct, then human beings must evolve and give off their characteristic qi. Just as when a glacier sublimates and disperses as water vapor it loses some of its mass for every bit of vapor that drifts away in the atmosphere, each human being loses something of the part of his or her substance that is the substrate for qi with every breath. When that substrate is gone, the qi, the lifeforce if you will, comes to an end.

Zhu Xi evidently thinks that the substrate for qi resides in or near to the abdomen, and that the qi is first accumulated in the abdomen. The fact that he wants to argue that there is new qi there waiting to be exhaled with the most recently inhaled outside air probably accounts for the assertions he makes about the the way the abdomen contracts when we inhale and expands when we exhale. You can try this for yourself. It is possible to do it, but it requires heavy concentration.

-- PEM