Knowledge
View posts in sub-category:
Application Articles Body and Posture Class (Workshop) Notes Common Errors Glossary and terms Hunyuan Knowledge-Movement Explanations Learning Method Principle-Concept Principle-List Principle-Rule Principle-Technical Push Hands Quotations Routine Names Routines Videos Stories Student Evaluations (Private) Taiji Apparatus Taiji FAQ Taiji Sword Thoughts and Understanding Workshop and Class Notes
It was a hot summer day in the practice hall of the Wah Lum Temple in Orlando. A young Danny Abrahms was trying to learn Chen Style Taijiquan from master Li Enjiu. Danny had been a student of the Wah Lum system for many years. He was quite eager to learn this new system but he was finding it difficult.
There were only a few students studying Taiji. They were surrounded by people practicing other forms and weapons. (Wah Lum is famous for its weapons repertoire. At that time, Danny had experience training with more than thirty weapons.) Suddenly, Danny heard a whip sound; he saw a white flash darting towards Master Li’s chest! Just as the white flash touched Master Li’s chest, Li turned sideways.
There was a loud crash, as a window was shattered! The spear dart at the end of a 9-section chain whip had separated from its chain, as the student was whipping it. The dart was traveling at lightening speed— it certainly could have killed Master Li had it struck his chest directly.
Everyone rushed to see if anything had happened to master Li. He was calm, quite normal and untouched, as though nothing had happened. Experience and quick reflexes had saved his life. When he heard the sound of the traveling dart, by instinct, he spontaneously reacted with the perfect response. He raised his head, and seeing the incoming object, turned his chest precisely 40 degrees. The dart touched his chest but was redirected to the window. What an incredible demonstration of martial skill, effortlessly averting the life threatening danger!
As a martial artist, you will recognize that this was by no means blind luck. One cannot dodge “bullets” with luck. The dozens of years of diligent taijiquan training had endowed him with the ability to act instinctively and appropriately in a dangerous situation.
Danny was duly impressed. With this remarkable inspiration, he was ever more motivated to pursue the path, to learn Taijiquan from master Li. Today he is an accomplished master of both Praying Mantis and Chen Style Taijiquan.
All movements in Taijiquan are extracted from daily life. If you don’t understand the interchanges of shun and ni, you don’t understand Taijiquan. You don’t understand life either.
—Hong Junsheng
The eight techniques of Taiji: peng, lu, ji, an, cai, lie, zhou and kao.
1. Peng: overall expanding energy.
2. Lu: energy that catches the opponent and make it come towards you.
3. Ji: energy that gets in close to the opponent but will not act on him.
4. An: energy that pushes but mainly separates from opponent.
5. Cai: energy that severs opponent by a pull or a jerk.
6. Lie (Lieh): energy that severs opponent by a even break (power on both ends or hands).
7. Zhou: energy that twists the opponent.
8. Kao: energy that is whole body action.
Open: shun Close: ni Shun: the arms move towards own body. Ni: the arms move away from own body.
“Taijiquan is the method of Chanfa…”
If this is not understood, there will be no undersanding of Taijiquan.”
—Chen Xin, 16 generation Chen Taiji Grandmaster
Chanfa literally means twining method.
To Adhere.
This is one of the central concepts that used to be in the daily Taijiquan vocabulary. It is hardly mentioned today. Zhuo is very illusive as it encompasses several actions.
-
To adhere to the opponent and not change position or angle.
-
To catch the opponent by the above means.
-
To transfer one’s power into the opponent’s center through Zhuo.
-
Make feel sticky-like.
“Don’t Move Your Hands!” Contrary to what most believe, the hand in most cases move too much. Everybody wants to learn how to move the hand. In fact, they should learn how NOT to move it!
When the hand moves too much, the following will occur:
-
The hand will skip off the contacting surface, resulting in loss of power on the opponent.
-
The power leaks out to the hand which is not directed towards the opponent.
-
Power becomes front-drive: flexibility but less power.
So it is very important to keep your hand inline (that’s a different topic) and don’t move it around too much!
“When you follow the rules to the extreme, every unintentional action becomes part of the form!”
—Hong Junsheng Read more
Thursday, 15 November 2007
The shoulder cannot move sideways on its own.
It can move downwards and rotate on its seat. It must always staying right on top of the kua.
The five positions of Taijiquan are: Advance, Retreat, Look, Gaze and Central Equilibrium.
1.
Advance: move forward.
2.
Retreat: step backwards.
3.
Look: size up the opponent.
4.
Gaze: examine the oppnent.
5.
Central Equilibrium: keep the balance and not fall down.
Here is a clip of the activities at the 2007 Taiji Tradition.
Another way Master Chen teaches the students how to stick to your opponent. Master Chen believes that one of the most common errors in modern Taijiquan training is the use of other energies before “Squeezing” (press) energy is developed. The sequence of the primary four energies are:
Peng as a initial energy
Lu as a change of direction based on Peng
Ji as a step in (further energy) in addition to Lu, and
An as a result of the three previous energies.
Most people perform the four energies in an unrelated manner. They will not have progression in this way.
In the video clip below, Master Chen Zhonghua shows how two people are tied up with rubber cords to experience “snot” (sticking) energy. The aim is to make the lower body move and power up, while making the upper body to adapt and to adhere.
One of the most difficult things to do in the CTS system is to keep the elbows in. Master says “the elbow must be no more than 3 inches from the ribcage.”
While we cannot take these words literally, it does remind us just how important it is to keep the elbows in. While the hand moves outwards, the elbow must always have the orientation of moving towards the center, or the Dantian.
Here, Master Chen Zhonghua uses rubber cords to ties the students down at the elbow so that they will always keep their elbows in.
One of the more remarkable things about studying taijiquan is how learning a new concept changes your whole approach to how one practices the form. Read more
This is a photo slide show of master Chen in 2007 on Daqingshan. At the end of the show, master Chen shows the concept of “dots, not surface” with a video clip.
In this video, master Chen Zhonghua shows the positive circle and negative circle using a rubber cord. This exercise is very effective in getting the pulling energy and the pushing energy to move along the correct line.
youtube version
Dear Master Chen
(please forward to master Chen)
My name is David Fadjar, and I appreciate very much your effort to translate GM Hong’s book. I have a question about Bow stance as described by GM Hong’s book (page 10) Read more
… Next is rotation and spirals. In any of the stances of the circles the weight on the feet is mostly caused by the torso and if your torso moves the weight will change. Therefore if your torso is truly rotating then the centre is not moving and you don’t shift so the weight should remain the same. And if your weight never changes and you are pushing hands, the opponent’s moves must be having no effect.
Also a rotation keeps the centre intact and a true centre is just a straight line but rotation is not enough you need another direction and that movement is downward. This creates a spiral. All the spiral does is move everything in such a way so that the straight line in the centre moves and remains a straight line.
Using the torso as an example. If your torso were to be rotating and moving downward or spiraling then any force that hits it will only be moving with it. This is because when a force comes in contact with a rotation the rotation is always moving 90 degrees to that force and in physics I learned that every force is made up of component forces. These components are just forces in different directions that when you add them up they are really only in one direction.
However there is no 90 degree component in any force. And the downward movement we do is also 90 degrees so if you move down as much as you rotate then the result is you are moving at a 45 degree angle with depth to the push. And there is so much talk about 45 degrees in Practical Method taiji. So if all body parts moved this way then they would all actually moving in straight lines.
Master Chen this email is my thoughts on taiji and other things you have taught me and Read more
Another obsevation I made is that pretty much everyone who has been doing taiji for Read more
In this video, Chen Zhonghua and Gord Muir showed how a structure can bring out power in Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method.
Read more
In this video Gordon Muir and I demonstrated how to match your opponent’s power with your angle changes and other subtle adjustments. Read more
You can generate power by pivoting on your foot. Here is a clip from master Chen Zhonghua’s 2005 Taiji Tradition Camp in Victoria, BC, Canada.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlFW7GjBri4]
Go here for more on this topic:
http://wujimon.com/2007/what-does-a-camera-tripod-have-to-do-with-taiji/
http://hunyuantaiji.livejournal.com/
Note: if you get this post from your bookmark, it is because we have change the website server so there is no chinese content anymore, please update your bookmark to http://practicalmethod.com or create a new one after clicking the home button
In the summer of 2004, Chen Zhonghua took a group of students to visit the Black Tiger Springs Park, where he received his Taijiquan training from Grandmaster Hong Junsheng. This is a brief video clip Read more
Everyone knows how dedicated master Chen Zhonghua is about his teaching. All his students all have stories to tell about being thrown into the bed in hotel rooms late at night or in his basement. When it comes to Chen Style Taijiquan, master Chen Zhonghua Read more
Some Yilu and Cannon Fist moves on the Great Wall in 2004. The video was filmed in the early morning in July.
陈中华老师2004年7月一天早5点在长城。一路和炮捶部分动作。
One of the aims of Chen Style Taijiquan training is to achieve the ability of penetrating power. Read more
These are clips of Chen Zhonghua in 2005 and 2006 demonstrating Cannon Fist and Yilu in Victoria, Push Hands and Fajin in Athens, GA, USA Read more
These are some practice shots of Chen Zhonghua during his 2003 full time training course. Watch out for the following:
Whole body integrity, flow, power does not exceed limits, stops at the right place without over extension, center line always erect and upright, center line does not sway when changing direction of movements.
Half-step is not unique to Xing Yi. It is an integral part of Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method footwork. It serves to integrate techniques so that power is allowed to come out. Most of the “Single Whip” moves start with the previous move stepping in a half-step manner into it.
