If the first stage of sōng (鬆) dissolves the habitual contractions of the body (shēn sōng, 身鬆), and the second stage refines the release of the mind (xīn sōng, 心鬆), then the third stage opens the most subtle layer: the release of the spirit (shén sōng, 神鬆).

In Chinese internal arts, shén (神) is not “spirit” in a religious sense, but the radiant presence of awareness itself. It is what animates the body, oversees the mind, and allows perception to be clear, stable, and luminous. Where the body (shēn, 身) is substance and the mind (xīn, 心) is process, shén (神) is presence — the bright, ungraspable quality that makes life alive.

To cultivate shén sōng means to release the deepest kinds of tension: not merely muscular contraction (jīn jǐn, 筋緊), nor only mental rigidity (xīn jǐn, 心緊), but the subtle holding of identity itself. This includes the contraction around “I,” the clinging to roles, and the sense of being separate from the surrounding world. Where the body holds tension in tissue and the mind holds tension in thought, the spirit holds tension in the form of separation.

Daoist and Taiji writings often describe this as a return to míng (明, clarity) and xū (虛, openness). When the spirit is unsettled, awareness becomes scattered, reactive, or fixated, and this disarray instantly reflects in posture, timing, and interaction with others. When the spirit is clear, open, and settled, movement arises spontaneously without distortion.

At this stage, sōng is no longer only about relaxation. It becomes a process of dissolving boundaries, of aligning one’s inner presence with the rhythm of Heaven and Earth (tiān dì, 天地). The classics call this tiān rén hé yī (天人合一), “the unity of the human and the cosmos.” In martial terms, this is expressed as an unbroken awareness of both self and opponent, where action flows without forcing and perception encompasses the whole field of interaction.

Ultimately, shén sōng leads toward wújí (無極) — the undifferentiated state of emptiness prior to polarity. From wújí arises tàijí (太極), the dynamic interplay of yin and yang. To release at the level of shén is to rest in that ground, where no obstruction remains, and from which all true Taiji movement flows.