Tai Chi Glossary > Middle Dan Tian (中丹田)

Middle Dan Tian (中丹田)

Definition: The Middle Dan Tian (中丹田) is one of the three dan tian of the Daoist internal tradition. It is generally placed in the chest between the breasts, with Shanzhong (膻中) as its surface reference, and it is called the residence of qi.

It belongs to a set of three — the upper, middle and lower dan tian — which are a traditional framework of attention rather than three organs.

Key points at a glance:

• One of the three dan tian. In the traditional framework: 上丹田藏神、中丹田藏气、下丹田藏精 — the upper holds shen, the middle holds qi, the lower holds jing
• Generally placed in the chest, between the breasts, with Shanzhong (膻中) as the surface reference point
• Called 藏气之府, the residence of qi, the place where the body’s qi gathers and rises and falls
• A region, and at its centre a point. 膻中 is an acupoint; 中丹田 is the area around it. The two are not the same kind of thing
• It is the 上气海 — the upper sea of qi, against the lower sea of qi at the lower dan tian
• The sources do not agree. Other names, other placements, and other depths are all on record
• In tai chi, “dan tian” usually means the lower one. The middle and upper centres belong to the Daoist internal and health-cultivation framework that later internal martial arts drew on
• What can be observed: the chest position, the breathing, and where attention rests

Where the sources place it

The usual placement is the chest, between the breasts, with the acupoint Shanzhong — the midpoint of the sternum, level with the line between the nipples — as its reference. In this framework it is the residence of qi, 藏气之府, the place where the zong qi gathers and moves.

The descriptions are not uniform, and the entry should say so rather than pick a single answer:

• The common account: the chest, in the area of Shanzhong, as the residence of qi.
• Other names: 绛宫 (Jiang Gong), 黄庭 (Huang Ting), 中宫 or 中黄 (Zhong Gong / Zhong Huang), 玄窍 (Xuan Qiao). The number of names in this tradition is very large.
• Depths inside the chest: descriptions such as 心下一寸三分, “one cun and three fen below the heart”, or “the Jiang Gong below the heart”.
• Other placements altogether: some writings identify the area of the acupoint 巨阙 (Ju Que) as the middle dan tian, or call it 灵台 (Ling Tai).

The honest way to write this: give the chest placement with the Shanzhong reference, and say that the descriptions differ across the literature and that what follows is the common account.

A region, and a point at its centre

This is the distinction English-language writing most often loses.

• 膻中 (Shanzhong) is an acupoint — a point on the midline of the sternum at the level of the line between the nipples. It can be located on the body.
• 中丹田 (Middle Dan Tian) is a region — the space in the chest roughly centred on that point.

The two overlap in location and differ in kind, and the same problem comes up in the lower dan tian entry, where 气海 is an acupoint and 丹田 is a region. The distinction follows from the difference between the Chinese acupuncture system of points and the Daoist system of centres, or 关窍: the names of the Daoist centres do not correspond to the meridian points, and the two systems “切忌混为一用” — must not be used as one. That formulation comes from a modern compilation of internal-training writing rather than from a classical text, and should be marked as such.

An English entry that renders middle dan tian and Shanzhong as synonyms has thrown away the layer that matters.

The upper sea of qi

The middle dan tian belongs to the “sea of qi” family of terms, and the sea of qi comes in two:

• 上气海, the upper sea of qi — Shanzhong, the middle dan tian area, where the zong qi gathers.
• 下气海, the lower sea of qi — the acupoint 气海 at the lower dan tian, where the original qi gathers.

The classical basis is 《灵枢》: “膻中者，为气之海” — Shanzhong is the sea of qi — and “其大气之抟而不行者，积于胸中，命曰气海” — the great qi that is gathered and does not move is accumulated in the chest and is called the sea of qi. Zhang Jingyue states the division plainly: “上气海是膻中，下气海是丹田.”

The middle dan tian entry therefore covers the upper sea, and points to the Lower Dan Tian for the lower one.

One body, three focuses

Classical practice moves attention between the three rather than treating them as organs. There is a formulation that gathers shen in the upper dan tian, regulates the breath in the middle, and gathers qi in the lower. It comes from a text traditionally attributed to Zhang Sanfeng, and belongs to the 流传说法 layer. There is also a “three dantians as one” reading, in which the three are threaded together with jing giving rise to qi and qi to shen, and a division of labour in the internal martial arts in which the upper “leads”, the middle “connects” and the lower “settles”. That last division is a modern interpretation and a modern school of writing, not a classical settlement, and must not be written as one.

Its place in tai chi

This has to be stated early, because it is where readers arrive with the wrong assumption: when tai chi classics say 丹田, they usually mean the lower dan tian. “命意源头在腰隙” and “气沉丹田” in the classical lines both point down, to the lower centre and to the waist.

The systematic treatment of the three dan tian comes from the Daoist internal alchemy and health-cultivation framework, which later internal martial arts absorbed and drew analogies from. The internal martial “three dantians as one” material is a modern interpretation, not a technical detail shared by every lineage.

So this entry is a concept entry: it says what the middle dan tian is in the traditional framework, who it belongs with, and how tai chi borrowed the vocabulary. It is not a tai chi method, and it should not be written as one.

What can be observed

• The chest position. 含胸拔背 and 虚胸实腹 — the chest contained and the back opened, the chest empty and the abdomen full. The chest is not thrust forward, and the breath is not held across the chest; 横气填胸, “air filling the chest sideways”, is the standard warning.
• The breathing. Long, even, and settling. Note that 气沉丹田 refers to the lower centre, so it is adjacent to this material but not the same as it.
• Attention. Keeping the chest area relaxed and free of holding is teachable, and it can be practised without any promise about internal sensation.

What must not be written: a step-by-step method for cultivating the middle dan tian that no public source documents, and any physiological or neurological claim about the chest.

Sources

• 《东医宝鉴》 quoting the 《仙经》 — “脑为髓海，上丹田；心为绛火，中丹田；脐下三寸为下丹田。下丹田，藏精之府也；中丹田，藏气之府也；上丹田，藏神之府也.” The clearest statement of the three-fold correspondence. A traditional framework, and it should be introduced as one.
• 《抱朴子·地真篇》 and 《云笈七签》 — the Daoist material on the centres and their names.
• 《灵枢·海论》 — “膻中者，为气之海.” A classical Chinese medical text.
• 《灵枢·五味》 — “其大气之抟而不行者，积于胸中，命曰气海.”
• 张景岳《类经》 — “上气海是膻中，下气海是丹田.” The division of the two seas of qi.
• 《千金要方》 and the acupuncture literature — the location of Shanzhong, and the point that it belongs to the meridian system rather than the centre system.
• 杨澄甫《太极拳十要》 — 含胸拔背 and the other structural requirements of the chest.
• 《道言浅近说》 (traditionally attributed to Zhang Sanfeng) — the gathering of shen, the regulation of breath, and the gathering of qi in the three centres. A transmitted attribution; mark as 流传说法.