One of the oldest and most famous of all qigong sequences is ‘Ba Duan Jin’, or ‘Eight Pieces of Brocade’, also known as ‘Eight Treasures’.  This practice can be traced back to the Song dynasty, which lasted in China from 960-1279CE. During this period, China was noted as  the most advanced civilization on earth and responsible for the invention of the mass printing of books, gunpowder, and the compass.  General Yue Fei (a Song era military general, poet, and calligrapher) is often noted as the originator of the set of exercises that became Eight Pieces of Brocade as a way to keep his soldiers healthy and ready for battle.