Lessons in the Temple of Heaven Park

Just been going through some old notes, as I like to do now and then, and came across my reflections on some days training with Zhang Baosheng in Beijing’s Temple of Heaven Park in the 1990s. Zhang was in his seventies at the time and had learned from the renowned Wu style master Wang Peisheng. We met by chance during a few days in the capital getting over jetlag en route to Chenjiagou. Below are some of his words of advice…

On Zhan Zhuang:

• The arms are expanded outwards. The strength in each arm coming from the opposite leg if tested from the side. If tested from the front, the arms extend forwards while the lower back pushes backwards – as if pushing the lower back against a low wall.

• It can be helpful to practice zhan zhuang against a tree or wall with your back very slightly away from the wall; In the same way you can practice xu bu (empty stance) – as in zhan Zhuang, but with one foot forward and insubstantial; or gong bu (bow stance) by facing a tree with the front knee, toe and nose to the tree representing the final position you can extend to - this slanted position being a feature on Wu Taijiquan.  

On the importance of preserving energy - It is important to preserve pre-natal qi as the qi produced in later life is not so effective. To do this:

• Never finish practice panting and out of breath.

• If becoming agitated during practice, then stop and steady oneself.

• It is important in nei gong (internal strength) training that qi does not become excited and rise. The basic exercises mentioned above are helpful in this.

On intention and maintaining a “secondary energy”:

• The mind clearly distinguishes between yin and yang or solid and insubstantial.

• Do not concentrate totally on a particular response. Instead, always have an alternative or secondary alternative ready should your first response be inadequate.

• Apply the idea of root, trunk and branches to the upper and lower body. In terms of the arm, the shoulder is the root, elbow is the trunk, and the wrist/hand is the branch. In action, if you are pushing in with your hand and the opponent responds to this, then give him the hand (i.e., soften it) and push in with the elbow. 

• When performing a movement there should always be two energies present: one acts as a dummy or ruse and therefore, the opponent must be aware of it; the other performs the true attack and is disguised. So, while the opponent is aware of the “dummy” hand, intent must be with the other “attacking” hand.

On tuishou:

• When practicing push hands emphasis should be upon sensitivity. Connecting very softly and letting your partner reveal their weaknesses like water level settling after it has been disturbed. In Zhang’s words, “Pushing an opponent should be like pushing a boat with the tide, rather than against it.”

• The elbows should not be allowed to lift, and the shoulder mustn’t lift in response to an opponent’s pressure.

On form training:

• You must relax while doing the form, but at the same time be full of intent. Visualisation is as if you were swimming across a river to attack an enemy on the opposite bank. Though your intention is serious, you do your utmost to make no noise or ripples in the water.

• During form training every movement must be carried out with attention and precision. To help with this you can visualise that your extended hand is holding a precious vase.  

Salute to Zhang Baozheng!

Are You Feeling It?

Soak up what you see - Chen Xiaoxing demonstrating a point.  

An often repeated truism is that to be good at something, you should put yourself into an environment where you can follow people more skilful than you. Then, all being well, assimilate some of  what they have. The  reverse is also true. For example, most responsible parents would worry if their children were keeping bad company in case they picked up the poor attitudes and behaviours they were exposed to.

Thoughtful Taijiquan practitioners accept then that simply having the correct physical form is not enough. Beginning level students (here we are not referring to the amount of time a person has trained, but to their understanding of the training method) often perform the shape or pattern of the forms or push hands drills rather than actually “doing” it. An individual may be a good mimic, but comparing them to a highly skilled exponent it seems something is missing. 

In Chenjiagou it’s said that to become skilful you must be able to copy the external shape and work out and understand the inner aspects. Replicating these less obvious requirements calls for a deeper level of attention. The ability to be present in the moment requires an inner calm and full engagement to the action being practiced. As well as demonstrating the correct shape, all of the internal requirements of Taijiquan must be actualised. Of equal importance to the formal instruction process is the informal learning process. Observation is perhaps the single most important mode of informal learning. By watching more experienced practitioners learners can absorb the subtleties and essence of the methods.

Irish fencing champion John Twomey gave an interesting parallel from the modern sporting arena after the experience of training in Estonia: “He remarked how coaches from many countries had trained him in technique, but his Estonian coach told him only to watch the best fencers as he was training, to sense their feeling, imitate them, be like them, not to concentrate so much on technique but on that “feeling”, the special spirit of perfect fencing.” (Source: Peak Performance: Zen and the Sporting Zone by Felicity Heathcote psychologist for the Olympic Council of  Ireland). The same applies to learning Taijiquan, if you put yourself in good company and look deeply enough some of it might literally rub off on you. 

Look hard enough and some of what you see might rub off on you!

Can you Develop Push Hands Skills Without Training Partners?

Chenjiagou 1998 - A youthful Chen Ziqiang and David Gaffney 

A question people often ask is how they can practice push hands if they don’t have access to regular suitable training partners. By suitable read interested. During one of our early trips to Chenjiagou we interviewed Chen Bing. One of the questions put to him centered on any perceived advantages he had benefitted
from having trained in the village his whole life. His answer was that, on a general level, everybody knows the rules of Taijiquan, so in that sense he had no special advantage having to put in the hard work like anyone else who wants to improve. Pushed a little further though, he conceded that the two significant advantages he had enjoyed were the readily available access to high quality coaching and an endless supply of good training partners. 

With that in mind it would be foolish to say that a lack of training partners isn’t a potential barrier to skill development. Sometimes there are people who want to push, but they just don’t have the patience to want to train systematically and in line with the laid down process. Finding yourself in this situation is clearly not ideal. That said, it’s always better to focus on what we have and what we can do rather than crying about what we don’t have. Progress can still be made by taking a long term perspective and looking at the skill as a whole. So, for example, preparing for the time when you do have access to push hands partners by:   

1. The first point obviously is to continue to refine and develop the form. Form training, standing pole, reeling silk exercises etc. are of fundamental importance in building the basic skills that will ultimately make one’s push hands effective. 

2. Secondly an individual can train the various supplementary drills and strength building exercises of the system. These can be used to develop obvious physical fitness components including strength, speed, power, agility and flexibility that will ultimately enhance overall practically usable skill. So, for instance, there are: single movement drills that can be used to work on the ba fa or eight intrinsic energies (peng, lu, ji, an, cai, lie, zhou and kao); stepping drills to enhance footwork placement and agility; pole-shaking exercises to train whole body connected power; reaction drills etc. Chen Taijiquan has a deep repository of training methods and the list can go on and on. 

3. I remember Chen Zhenglei offering another method to telling the group that how they could begin the process of training listening skills by very consciously mirroring another person’s form. His suggestion was that they do this by trying to exactly match their teacher’s form in terms of speed, rhythm etc.  

All of the above exercises can be helpful in preparing for push hands. Eventually, though real sticking, following and listening skills require working with a variety of push hands partners. Good luck finding them and value them when you do!  

 

Chen Fake – Four Types of Fajin

Power focused to a single point

In practical terms releasing power can only be effective if the person applying a technique can combine the ability to generate a great amount of force with doing so in a short time. Skill, in terms of delivering a technique accurately, and the capacity to harness the maximum possible strength possessed by an individual also have a great bearing on whether it “works” or not. 

Taijiquan requires us to “focus power onto a single point.” At the same time it makes use of a type of sequential movement that picks up strength through the kinetic chain of every action. This is reflected in the saying that every practitioner is familiar with: “Power starts from the feet, goes through the legs, is directed by the waist and expressed by the hands.” In the excitement of trying to replicate the fajin effect of a skilled exponent it’s easy to lose sight of what is behind their action that makes it so powerful. It’s all too common to see people trying to muscle out the movement with their upper body and overlooking this sequential chain effect. Outside the realm of Taijiquan a study by Russian Yuri Verkhoshansky, a prominent figure in the field of explosive strength training, examined boxers of varying skill levels trying to establish where their power came from. He found that elite boxers generated 38.46 percent of their force from their legs against only 16.51 percent by what he described as Class II and Class III (lower level) athletes. At the same time superior performers relied less upon trunk rotation (37.42% vs 45.5%) and arm extension (24.12% vs 37.99%). The point, as in Taijiquan, is that force is picked up throughout the movement.

The kinetic chain from feet to hands

Assuming an individual is capable of generating this force, the next thing is that it has to be expressed where it is needed. That is, it has to be directed and controlled according to the situation.   Taijiquan has multiple means of delivering force. In a recent post the Chengoushui or “Water of Chenjiagou” website posted a short piece about fajin and four different ways it can be expressed according to Chen Fake. Chen Fake was renowned for his high level of Taijiquan skill, his tremendous physical strength and his practical experience. He listed the following methods of releasing force: 

1. The force on the “outer-edge of the wheel” [at the edge of the circle] where an opponent can be hit without [seriously] damaging them.

2. The force from the inner strength of the wheel. Here he gave the example of Taijiquan’s lie jin (splitting/tearing force), of which he said “this strength can break bones.” Lie jin is used by emitting a very short and sudden twisting and tearing movement. On a cautionary note, it is not easy to experiment with this method as it is very easy to seriously injure your training partner’s joints. 

 

Chen Fake

3. The third method he called “drill strength” or penetrating strength, describing this as cun jin or Taijiquan’s “inch power.” Penetrating force is realised through the combination of spiraling movement and speed focused towards a single point. Again this was described as a type of strength with the potential to hurt its opponent.

4. The final method was bao fali or “explosive jin.”  In Chen Taijiquan this strength is often compared to a sudden explosion akin to an earthquake emanating with no warning from the centre of the earth. Three generations earlier Chen Fake’s great-grandfather Chen Changxing vividly described the abrupt and unexpected nature of fajin: “Lift your hand like lightning flashing. When lightning flashes, there is no chance to close your eyes. Strike the opponent like thunder clapping. When thunder claps, there is no chance to cover your ears.” 

The Importance of Timing and Distance…

In martial arts training the concept of timing and distance incorporates not just the space between opponents, but also the time it takes to bridge the gap and the angle and rhythm of attack. Together, these elements all contribute to the exact position from which one opponent can effectively strike another. 

Talking about the practical application of Taijiquan Chen Ziqiang said: “The most important strategy is to always be in a stronger position than your opponent. If your opponent is in a weak position in relationship to you, no matter how strong he is physically, he cannot generate much force against you. Nor will he be able to deflect your attacking force easily. He will always be behind your movements… he will always be trying to catch up with you, but you are always ahead of him.” 

Your “position” can be considered either in terms of: your own shape/posture; or your strategic position in relation to an opponent. In the first case the meticulous attention paid to minute differences in bodily posture during training is rewarded with a balanced structure that does not favour any side. In Taijiquan practice this is referred to as “strength in eight directions” - the posture does not overreach or fail to reach your optimum boundary of strength. In the second case, using your sense of timing and distance, the aim is to grasp where change is heading so that one can position oneself advantageously as events unfold. In simple terms, a person is said to have good timing when they know when to release an attack; and good control of distancing when they are able to close the distance from an opponent with effective footwork. A good mastery of timing and distance can help overcome a faster or stronger opponent. In western boxing there is a saying that “timing can be used to overcome speed.” These skills can only be are developed through experience. For instance, improving your timing mostly involves you watching and adjusting to your opponent. Unskilled practitioners often fail to do this instead being preoccupied with themselves and what they are doing.

Training to improve your timing involves watching and adjusting to your opponent...

“Shape” - the Essential Base for Push Hands Skills

Chen Xiaoxing: "Before an individual is eligible to train tuishou they must first train the frame..."

Some time ago I came across an interesting article in the Chinese Taijiquan media that posed the question, what is Taijiquan gongfu and can it be better acquired through form training or tuishou? The same question was put to several teachers of different traditions including Chen Xiaoxing and Yang Zhenqi of Chen and Yang family Taijiquan respectively.

First to answer was Chen Xiaoxing: “In this context gong does not refer to the gong component within jibengong (basic exercises). Instead it refers to grasping the essential aspects of Taijiquan during practice, and implementing these essentials. Some people believe that gongfu can be developed more quickly with tuishou (push hands), and that it is useless to train the form. This is not correct. Before an individual is eligible to train tuishou they must first train the frame, until specific internal qi emerges. Compared to learning the form, practising tuishou does nothing more than allow you to grasp a few of the more obvious attacking techniques.  Without learning the form it is difficult to achieve a higher level of Taijiquan.  Invariably, upon encountering some external interference, you will not be able to neutralise the attack or escape it and you will not be able to execute the principle of "using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds". 

On the same question Yang Taijiquan inheritor Yang Zhenqi spoke of the importance of first developing exactness of shape before training tuishou. I remember Chen Xiaowang making the point that the real skill of Taijiquan combat is based upon the ability to “arrive in the correct position.” Yang explained: “Placement (position) is jin… Gongfu does not develop from tuishou…  Gongfu is trained from the form, and not forced out of tuishou.  If tuishou can produce gongfu then our predecessors would not have needed to train the form and would have just focused on tuishou. The reality is that this was not the case…If you don't know the form, you do not train tuishou. When movements are relatively accurate, placements of the arms and legs are correct, movement positions are fixed, the jin route is integrated, and the xia pan (lower plane) is stable, then you can learn tuishou”. [Recollecting his father Yang Chengfu's method of teaching] First of all teach the correct positions - of the body, of the hands and feet, of accuracy of every posture.  When the position is exact, then the jin can come out.  He emphasised "bitterly train each position" in order for it to become "correct every time it's placed."

To summarise, within Taijiquan’s method correct form training – that is training focused upon establishing essential principles is the necessary first step. Ignoring this stage will result in a person developing no meaningful level of tuishou skill.

Yang Chengfu: "Bitterly train each position"

Words vs Direct Experience

Grueling basic training might  look simple but it provides the necessary framework for skill development

Every morning Chen Xiaoxing leads the training in the small dark room a couple of doors from his own quarters in the Chenjiagou Taijiquan School. While the faces in the class change, the programme never varies. For the first hour or so students are put through “simple” basic exercises. This part of the class is repetitive and gruelling. He moves around the room, wordlessly for the most part, adjusting people’s postures and using his hands to lead them through the correct movement route. This is the ultra important process of laying down deep foundations. During this stage [which never ends!] there cannot be any shortcuts. The structure and movement patterns established here provide a steel frame of understanding upon which to build further skills. As one of the guys in the class said “if you want to build a skyscraper you have to dig deep foundations.”

A key feature is the lack of discussion. In the tradition of Eastern teachers Chen Xiaoxing doesn’t ask people for their opinions about the movements. But what he does frequently is ask them to concentrate and “feel” the position or movement. Throughout the training there is an implicit understanding that words often get in the way. The realities of direct experience, and the fiction created by the spell of words people weave around them, can lead to great 
distortions of meaning. Many people can quote the fundamental requirements of Taijiquan – song (looseness), peng (expansion), sinking qi to the dantian while raising the spirit to the top of the head; maintaining a sense of opposition and harmonisation etc. Problems start when practitioners who haven’t gone sufficiently deeply into what these things actually are reinterpret them according to their pre-held understanding. [The pre-held knowledge is typically either in the form of intellectual knowledge from some other field or experience from a different physical discipline] It doesn’t matter if someone has done Taijiquan for decades, if they’ve never emptied themselves of existing frames of reference it’s difficult to really “enter the door.”      

Morning session in Chenjiagou Taijiquan School

In a wide-ranging interview Naval Ravikant, a fixture of the Silicon Valley start-up scene, spoke on the importance of learning the difference between “knowing the name of something” and “knowing something”: “This is a very deep point. A lot of times we just define something with another definition.  Or we throw out a piece of jargon as if that means we know something. It’s the difference between memorisation and understanding. Understanding is a thing that you want. You want to be able to describe it in ten different ways in simple sentences from the ground up and re-derive whatever you need. If you just memorise you’re lost. So, I think this is one of the things that I get stuck on a lot just keep going back and reading the basics over and over trying to understand them.”

In the end training must be grounded in reality and the challenge is not mistake the word for the thing. The terms used and passed down in Taijiquan represent a compressed way of communicating knowledge that can only be understood from the first principles embedded through direct experience.

Chen Xiaoxing with long time disciple Lin Jun - "feeling it"!

   

 

Cui Guangbo - Training Fajin...

Chen Zhenglei & Cui Guangbo demonstrating applications in The Art of Chen Style Taijiquan

Clearing out an old filing cabinet I revisited a notebook from a training trip to China in 1998. It’s easy to forget how much harder it was to get information in those pre-internet days. On the flip side we valued and took note of any information we got! Among the comments that filled the pages was a short list of reminders from Cui Guangbo, one of Chen Zhenglei’s oldest students, who had joined our group training in Zhengzhou. He gave the following pointers on the process of developing fajin in the correct way.  

1. Silk-reeling exercises act as the root to fajin.

2. Fajin manifests in a scissor route – that is left leg to right arm and right leg to left arm.

3. The most important thing is to be totally relaxed and to learn the form in slow movements.

4. Each time you are going to release power you should first relax into the posture – loosen the kua, sink body, store your chest, relax shoulders etc.

5. Then, at the moment of fajin, all the relaxed positions should spring into action and be activated into their opposite state.

The notes then re-emphasised the point that above all to learn to fajin effectively you must practice the movement slowly and correctly (posture wise). When the movement becomes very familiar, gradually increase momentum (speed) until the correct quality of fajin is achieved. 

The following points were added by Chen Zhenglei:

1. Fajin is based on complete relaxation – the hands, even when held in fists, are relaxed throughout including the point of impact. The idea behind this being that in a real situation by bringing intent it will be easy to provide the necessary force/hardness. The harder part is the development of complete relaxation.  [Looking back at this note I’d add this is especially true for adult learners who tend to have more ingrained tension and faulty movement patterns that need to be worked out before there is any thought about added force at the point of impact.]

2. Think of each movement in terms of the entire route and the different possibilities. For example, depending upon where the energy is released, the Hidden Thrust Punch could be (i) a punch, (ii) an elbow strike, (iii) a shoulder strike.

A requirement to learning is the ability to listen and take note, even if what you’re hearing doesn’t seem to make sense at that moment. Assuming you’ve picked the right person to listen to, by following the process eventually what seemed complex may become clear.

Cui Guangbo and  David Gaffney pushing hands (Zhenzhou,1988)

Mind Training in Taijiquan

The body of a Taijiquan practitioner is observable, their mind is not. Take form training, as an individual does the routine they can be seen going through precise positional and attitudinal changes. At least at a superficial level, the direction and limits of the movements of the hands and feet, the direction of the torso, stepping actions etc are not too difficult to follow. Later, as the level of skill becomes more refined these become more subtle and a trained eye is needed to catch all the details. Traditional teaching involves a process of modelling where, with minimal words, a student learns the proper form by imitating the movements of their master or a senior student within the school. An outsider observing the interaction could easily conclude that the whole process was little more than a mimetic dance. 

This, however, would be to ignore the inner mental processes that are taking place. The mind is less easy to observe and more difficult to control often seeming to wander randomly. The Confucian sage Mencius said: “It comes in and goes out at no definite time and without anyone’s knowing its direction.” The traditional Taijiquan or other East Asian martial arts master is not only interested in the correctness of the form but also in the mental attitude behind it. He is aware of the disparity between a rote performer and an active participant, even though both may seem to follow instructions correctly.

Perceptive eyes can pick up signals revealing a student is still far off from actualising Taijiquan’s internal harmonies and bringing together the mental, energetic and physical aspects. That is the fusing of the xin (heart or emotional mind) and yi (intention or logical mind) with the sensations of expansiveness, weightedness and centredness and the external physical shape of the body. 

Realising this integration requires a mode of thought characterised by simplicity, intuition and naturalness. At the same time its results must be practical and concrete. In his book The Inherited Chen Family Taiji Boxing Art published in 1932 Chen Ziming said state: “To be able to actually do something, mind and spirit have to be gathered together within. When the feet stand heavily, the hands move reverently, the head is upright, and the eyes are solemn, these indicate that everywhere in the body, the mind is involved. Inability to function means the mind is getting distracted by external things.”

Taijiquan has its own methods for developing the mind including:

• Putting into practice the concept of movement coming from stillness – taking time to reach a place of physical stillness and mental calm or “enter stillness” before beginning training. Paradoxically while this is an important, maybe the most important aspect of training, no force or focused intent is used. Philosophically this is referred to as wuji or the place without extremes. Once the first movement begins, you must take care to settle and rebalance at the end of each posture. This is in line with the idea that the end of one movement represents the beginning of the next. 

• Each posture finishes with a clear focal point. Chen Xin spoke of the “spiritual power” that is manifested through parts of the body such as the hands, eyes and heart: “… when practicing boxing, your eyes should not express any angry emotions but simply follow the movements of the leading hand. In Lan Zha Yi (Lazily Tying Coat), the eyes follow the right hand, concentrating on the middle finger… the spirit of the whole body should concentrate on the final position of this movement… performing Dan Bian (Single Whip), maintain visual focus on the left hand which moves slowly left and upward from the lower right side in a large semi-circle at the front of the body. At the end of the movement, focus on the middle finger of the left hand… In Pie Shen Chui (Turn Body and Punch), focus the eyes on the toe of the left foot, while in Zhou Di Kan Quan (Fist Beneath Elbow) the focus is on the fist located under the elbow.”

• At the same time the mind is never allowed to rest on one place to the exclusion of everything else. There is a constant fine dynamic tension between the various aspects of the body. At a gross level requirements like: looking forward while listening behind; lifting the head lightly while sinking into the ground; loosening the root while stretching out to the extremity etc. At a fine level honing an ever-greater sensitivity to the point where “a fly cannot land without you being aware of it.”

Beyond an individual’s efforts in the training hall, mental training cannot be separated from daily life. Thought patterns have to be refined until they are habitually clear, balanced, focused and not over-reactive. A common Chinese parable about a farmer trying to force the process of growing a plant is often applied to the subtleness needed to cultivate the mental processes: “If we exert too much artificial effort to help a plant grow, it will soon wither. In the same way there is a natural course for the development of the heart (xin). One should neither forget nor assist in one’s daily effort to preserve it.” The training and discipline of the mind and body are inextricably linked and neither can be neglected. While the body requires a long and gradual process of shaping and strengthening, the mind too has to be slowly tempered. 

Eighth century Japanese depiction of one of  the Four Jingang: "With his brows knitted,eyes narrowed, and mouth closed, the image seems to be watching a distant enemy.Restrained in facial expression and bodily gesture, it suggests the amassing of energy and the fearfulness of its release.Its power is in a potential state..."

Chen Boxian – Following the Middle Path & How One Thing Affects Everything…

Early photo of Chen Boxian and Chen Xiaoxing in front of the Chenjiagou Taijiquan School

A recent ceremony in Chenjiagou marked what would have been the one hundredth birthday of Chen Boxian (1920-1989). While he might not be very well known in the West, Chen Boxian was a well-respected Taijiquan practitioner in Chenjiagou. He was a direct descendant of Taijiquan creator Chen Wangting’s nephew Chen Suole and learned from teachers including Chen Ziming, Chen Zhaopi, Chen Zhaoxu, Chen Zhaokui and Chen Kezhong.   The event recognised his role in protecting a number of the old masters from the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, for the preservation of the lineage/genealogy records of the Chen family, and for collating and recording many historical events of the village. 

In one of his many writings Chen Boxiang highlighted the importance of following the middle path as the route to successful practice. At the heart of Taijiquan training is a search for balance, centredness and equilibrium. Outlining the essentials of Chen Taijiquan practice Chen Boxian explained how Taijiquan shares this quality with the three great philosophies that have shaped much of the Chinese worldview - Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. While each have their distinct nuances and subtleties, they can all be placed within the category of approaches of the “middle school.” The literal translation of his words is that, “Confucianism teaches "upholding the middle", Buddhism teaches "emptying the middle", Daoism teaches "observing the middle".  The practice of Taijiquan also attaches great importance to the word "middle”."

If the translation seems cryptic we can break it down to try to get a clearer idea of the point Chen Boxian is making. The reference to Confucianism is to grasp and withhold the centre or zhi zhong. Followers of this tradition are expected to be fair, unbiased and impartial, unwavering and in complete control of their thoughts and actions. The Buddhist reference of an empty centre or xu zhong points to the idea of the void. In the most simple terms we can say it is a way of perception where experiences are interpreted in their purest form. Where an individual neither adds to subtracts from what is in front of them based on their own preheld ideas or expectations. The Daoist notion of observing the centre or shou zhong is a call to observe balance and flow in harmony with occurrences in the environment.  Based on a clear and composed mindset and a balanced physical structure, Taijiquan’s core ideas such as listening and following the movements of an opponent, taking advantage of weak points and the requirement of acting from a position of central equilibrium, follow these essential concepts.

Chen Boxian

Chen Boxian wrote: “Without thinking and without worry, calm down and [let your mind] settle down: When you practise boxing, you should eliminate all distractions, leave nothing in your mind, and calm down your thoughts. Do not allow the area above the navel to fill with qi; qi sinks to the dantian… At the beginning stage of learning, while being aware that qi must sink down, you cannot be rigid with this, otherwise, it’s easy to [make the mistake of] worrying about one thing and losing the other.” [This is a common Chinese idiom – “if you hang onto one, you overlook a thousand” - being overly fixated on any single aspect of training you run the real risk of losing sight of the need to train the body as a whole system].           

Chen Boxian wrote detailed descriptions of the fundamental requirements of Taijiquan, emphasising the way that everything affects everything else. Take for example his instruction of how to hold the head:

·    “Stand upright; it is not appropriate to tilt the head in any direction: The body should be straight, not bending forwards or stooping,   not sticking the chest out,   not leaning to the left or right sides.  The head is kept straight, not bowed or tilted back, or do not shake or twist it. 

·    The front, back and lifting energies of the head converge; the eyes are level and look straight ahead:  The front and back of the head should have the sensation of pushing out as your head lifts up (ding jin). The intention should be for the front and back of the head to be slightly extended outwards and that should be enough.  Do not stiffen your neck and force your head upwards rigidly. Slightly draw in the chin, and keep the eyes level and looking forwards.  This way it is not easy to lose the front and back expansion jin. If you bow your head you lose the forward ding [the front part of the overall requirement to lift the head lightly] and your spirit will not be lifted and you may feel faint when turning. If you tilt your head backwards [looking upwards and raising your chin] you lose the backward ding and your breathing becomes unnatural and your chest becomes tight as transverse qi fills the chest.

·     Ears listen behind; keep the heart (intention) close to your back. Raise the tip of the tongue and place it gently between the teeth:   As the eyes look to the front, they also look to the left and right [in other words the attention is not focused too narrowly]. The back seems to be imperceptible as it is outside your field of vision and sensation. Because you cannot see your back you have to compensate the deficit. This explains the need to listen behind – known as “reverse listening.” [During this process] the mind intent stays close to the back to maintain neutrality and guard against the sense of emptiness at the rear of the body.  It also meets the requirements of "quietness in motion" and "the whole body follow each other". 

·       The mouth is kept closed, breathing is through the nostrils, and the tip of the tongue should be placed gently between the roots of the upper teeth and upper palate:  In this way, fluid under the tip of the tongue (saliva - known as Huachi in Chinese medicine, or in literary figurative speech Yuyeqiongjiang–  jadelike or high quality wine) is readily secreted.  The saliva must be swallowed, not only for the purpose of preserving the original qi but also in practical terms to avoid the problems such as dry mouth, thirst and panting and breathlessness during Taijiquan training.”

The above are merely some of the requirements for the head. The same degree of detail is applied to every part of the body. In the final analysis Taijiquan has to be understood and approached with the end goal being the training and developing every aspect of an individual – both physical and mental – through a process of mutual integration, influence and transformation.     

The first Henan Sanshou and Tuishou tournament in 1982. Chen Boxian (seated in the centre) led the team that included Chen Xiaowang, Chen Zhenglei, Zhu Tiancai and Wang Xian.

Timing and Taijiquan's Movement System...

When asked what was the single most important thing to pay attention to in training Taijiquan? Chen Xiaoxing said “timing”. He was referring to the coordination of multiple different aspects e.g. the left and right sides of the body and the upper and lower body. And also the integration of the physical and energetic, for instance harmonising the internal sensation within the body with outside movement etc – so that everything starts and finishes together. To fulfil Taijiquan’s six harmonies (i.e. the three internal and three external connections) we aim for the combination of a body that is loose, relaxed, pliant and strong with a mind that is calm, focused and clear so that the body and mind are harmonised. In a nutshell, it’s not enough to be strong or fast if movements are scattered and disorganised. 

This idea of timing is an often visited theme in Chinese philosophy. Confucian scholar Du Weiming illustrated its importance in relation to playing music: “A performance that accords with the highest standards of excellence requires both the “strength” to carry it out and the skill to make it right. It is not only the power and ability to complete the whole process but also the “timing” at each moment as the music unfolds that gives the quality to the performance.” Mencius cut straight to the heart of the matter explaining: “It is like shooting from beyond a hundred paces. It is due to your strength that the arrow reaches its target, but it is not due to your strength that it hits the mark.” 

In a similar vein, chatting with Chen Xiaowang during his last seminar in the UK, he highlighted some of the obstacles that people must overcome if they are to make a success of their practice. A common mistake, he suggested, was focusing exclusively on the external aspects and the appearance of Taijiquan rather than understanding its real essence: 

“People ask how high your arms are or how far you should reach, or how far the legs should step out. This is not the aim of practice. The aim of practice is to make your body into a movement system. The whole body should become like a system. Like the relationship between the engine of a car and the steering wheel. The steering wheel is like the movement system and the movement system is driven by the engine. No matter what kind of car you’re driving, the movement system is the same. No matter how the car changes, the movement system doesn’t change… So when we train Taijiquan there are hundreds and thousands of possible movements, but they all go back to one method. As in the saying ‘ten thousand methods return to one principle’. This is the key to understanding Taijiquan. It doesn’t matter what movement or form you do, the question is whether you can use this movement system.”

So what then is Taijiquan’s movement system? Again we go back to the issue of timing and coordinating every aspect of an individual’s movements. Or as Chen Xiaowang often explains, “It is using the dantian as the centre or axis - the whole body moves as one unit so that when one part moves everything moves, permeating from section to section - qi linking and flowing unimpeded.”