"Forget your perfect offering/There are cracks in everything/That’s how the light gets in" -Leonard i
“Forget your perfect offering/There are cracks in everything/That’s how the light gets in” -Leonard Cohen
Originally written by: Matej Velicky There are many stories about Chen Fake and Hong Junsheng and their fighting ability.
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Originally written by: Jeff Higins
My name is Jeff Higgins. For those of you thinking about studying with Master Chen Zhonghua I would like to share my background and experience taking a workshop. I have been studying various Chinese martial arts since for the past 8 years. Read more
Master Chen Zhonghua conducted a series of teaching sessions in Puerto Rico on this trip, including a weekend workshop at the Zen center, evening lessons for the San Juan group of Raul Pujol and private lessons. At the Zen Center weekend seminar, Master Chen taught the Hunyuan Qigong system at the beginning. He instructed on all the 12 forms and then gave a step by step detailed instruction of the movements of each form.
Master Chen also gave a brief introduction to the Daoist theories in order to enhance student’s understanding of the lectures. The main portion of the time was devoted to the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method system foundations. Master Chen was assisted by Humberto Pomales (New Jersey) and Raul Pujol in his teachings of the foundational exercises. Master Chen paid a great deal of attention to the positive and negative circles as they are fundamental to the entire Practical Method system. Each action was explained in angles, weight distribution, application and intentions.
洪式太极拳家王宗宪先生简介 Read more
Originally written by: David Rivera
Dear Joseph:
I have a slight mixup with the multiple email addresses for you and the school. If its
ok with you I will continue to use this one. I located it as you can see from your first
visit to Puerto Rico. Read more
At a higher level, stretching moves are changed to arching moves. Arching is really a way of extension without stopping the energy flow.Arching is more stable than stretching. However, arching creates less distance than stretching.
Some examples:
- When moving the arm back towards your body, don’t allow your front knee to move backwards. This way, you can extend your foot hand arching length.
- When pushing the front arm out, don’t allow your rear knee to move forward. This will make your rear foot-front arm stretch longer.
On February 6, 2009, Xavier Santiago of San Juan was accepted as Master Chen Zhonghua’s disciple through a brief ceremony presided by Raul Pujol. Xavier has been a student of Chen for several years. He became increasingly interested in the Chen Style Taijiquan as taught by Master Chen Zhonghua after attending workshops in Atlanta and Fairfield, IA. Last year, Xavier made trips to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Maple Ridge, BC. Canada to work with Master Chen.
The ceremony marked a milestone in Xavier’s life. He is currently pursuing his studies as a medicine doctor. According to him, Chen Taiji has helped him concentrate in his academic studies and improve his marks.
The ceremony was witnessed by all participants of the San Juan workshop and fellow disciples Humberto Pomales, Raul Pujol, Richard Druitt and Rafael Velilla, all of Puerto Rico.
Originally written by: Jesse Thoma
Dear Master Chen,
Encouraging getting to work out with you after such a long absence. Training everyday for over 6 months in 2004 under your mentorship was very developmental. Each one of those sequential days spent on the same subject, you may not see big changes in tai chi that are occuring in you. To be able to revisit so many concepts you emphasize was refreshing. Hearing your teachings about “additions, giving your opponent the feeling that you have one more arm than them. 3 part foot, 1 part hand. Catching with the upper body, then arching power from below. Not tossing in the circles which is a type of retreating, yes? Read more
1. 出手不出肘；收肘不收手。 Read more
Master Chen,
Greetings. I’m not sure if you’re interested in these things, but just in case, here are my experiences with Qigong since March 2008. Zhan Zhuang Experiences (wuji posture only) Read more
One of the characteristics of the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method System is the technique to bounce the opponent out. In this short video clip, Master Chen Zhonghua taught Nicholas Fung and Alex Nay to follow a simple procedure to start the bouncing sequence:
- Make sure that you make contact with your opponent.
- Always back off a bit so that you can feel you have absorbed your opponent’s power.
- Anchor you rear foot, or whichever foot is the farthest from your opponent. This is a two way lock. It cannot move sideways, or backwards.
- Lock your hand/hands onto your target. It is the same lock as your foot except the foot is locked onto the floor while the hand is locked onto your opponent.
- Make sure that you wiggle your hands a little bit so that they aim at your opponent’s center.
- Now move your waist. This move will create a tension that bounces your opponent out. This move is very much like the pull on the string of the bow as in using a bow and arrow.
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.
The knees are hinge joints, unlike ball joints. They only allow the thigh to move up and down. They cannot move horizontally.
This past summer Gord Muir and Master Chen Zhonghua together led an exceptional tour of China. Aside from the rejuvenating and inspirational training at the mountain resort known as Daqingshan, participants toured Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Weifang, Qufu, and Suzhou. Read more
Originally written by: John Brown
… I have been working with the bands, focusing on the instructions you have given me. Read more
Originally written by: Paul Hutcheson
Master Chen Zhonghua conducted a two evening workshop on July 29 and 30th, in Iowa, USA. During the day he conducted several private teaching sessions. The workshops were sponsored by John Brown. Over twenty people came to the workshop and private sessions.
Originally written by: Richard Johnson
I just spent a long time posting my notes from the workshop. They disappered into cyberspace when I tried to save them. I’ll have to re-post later.
This is a review of the 2008 Workshop with Chen Zhonghua from the viewpoint of the host. Read more
Originally written by: Jerry
It was great to come to the work shop. I am starting to really appreciate the special knowledge Master Chen has ………The special personal opportunity to study with him directly………………….to learn from such ancient traditions…………. It really is something to see him in person ………..
Jerry
Originally written by: Gene Hess
Private lesson with Master Chen Zhonghua during the Fairfield Workshop:
I have been to a number of Master Chen’s workshops in the past and have always gotten a lot out of them and I will enthusiastically continue to attend. This is the first time, however , that I have ever scheduled a private lesson with Master Chen. As the time drew closer, I looked forward to my lesson. I had a list of questions and a set of specific goals that I wanted to address during the lesson. When it started, Master Chen asked me what it was that I wanted to work on. I described my goals and he immediately began to lead me through a focused, step by step process of postures accompanied with in-depth explanations. As one idea became clear, he would start explaining the next part to me. Master Chen would demonstrate a posture and then have me copy him, correcting me so I replicated his examples as precisely as possible. He would add extra information at just the right time, as if he could sense when I understood a new concept and was ready for more. This created a nonstop experience of learning for me that was organized and complete. It definitely increased my understanding of Taiji.
I am very glad that I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to schedule a private lesson with Master Chen. Because of it, I was able to return home and immediately begin to improve the way that I practice Taiji. What a great thing!
Many thanks to Master Chen for offering these private lessons! I’ll look forward to the next one.
Gene Hess
Originally written by: Tim Duehring
Another great workshop given by Joseph and Richard. It seems that every time I go to a basic introduction workshop I end up with information overload. We worked on circles and I gained some new insight. Some day in the future I may be able to do one almost correctly.
It was good to get reaquainted with some old friends and make some new ones. Richard and his family were wonderful hosts and Master Chen continues to amaze us with his ability to make this mysterous art understandable.
The only bad thing for this Northern boy was the heat and humidity.
四月 5, 2007 — BlogEditor
Another observation I made is that pretty much everyone who has been doing taiji for sometime can tell you how taiji is supposed to be done and in most cases the things they say I don’t think are wrong but the problem I think is because everyone thinks that they are doing the concepts they talk about and that is why they are not doing them. They just think they are instead of looking at what is really going on and what is really going on is that they are not doing what they say they are doing. They are just fighting.
I think taiji should be as easy to learn as anything else because in other things you see the difference between you and an expert very easily. In taiji you see the difference between beginner and expert. In push hands so many people claim to be experts but they won’t push with you. If someone were to claim to be an expert hockey player and they can’t even skate everyone would know right away they are a fraud.
Basically Master Chen I have been thinking a lot and the more I think the more everything fits into my logic, and my logic is based off of what I see and to be true and in short the way I see it is almost everything is backwards.
四月 5, 2007 — BlogEditor
Another thing is that everything not just taiji seems to be that you allow each thing to do its part and that is how something greater can be achieved.
I remember on the mountain you said the manager was worried about November and you told her that if she took care of today everything would take care of itself. It always seems that if you want something then you have do the opposite. Like if you want something to take no thought then you have to give it a lot of thinking first.
Master Chen this email is my thoughts on taiji and other things you have taught me and the reason I am sending this is because I think I am right and now that I think that I can only see how I am right so the true purpose of this email is to find out where I am wrong so any response will be apprieciated, and please hold nothing back.
First in practicing pushhands I realized what I do is nothing like the form or anything close to that. In fact what I do is more like the opposite. The way I saw this was if I stop in the middle of pushing with John or trying a move and then with him away I recreate the same feeling and intent I had when i was pushing him it is as if I don’t even know how to move. What happens is that my whole body is actually going upwards and even my heels the only things that are not going anywhere are my feet and the spot I was touching him.
This reminded me of how you say that it is about how fast your feet are. When I push my feet are as slow as possible. So in reality all my effort just comes back to me and my opponent does the same thing so it is who is stronger and we are both rediculously weak. I thought up an analagy.
A rocket ship needs a tremendous amount of force to move because what is pushes on moves so easily, pushing on air a rocket ship has to move enough air until the amount of air pushing it is so great that the rocket moves but a gun is much more effient because of the material and the structure. It is natures way that everything finds the easiest path. So the gun is made so that the easiest place the explosion has to go is through the barrel and the only thing in the way is the bullet. The air moves so easily that is why rocket has so much trouble moving. So I realized if you want to move then you need something that won’t budge and if you don’t want to move you need something to move.This concept seems to me as the same thing as laying the tracks. The form is a restriction and until it is no longer a restriction we can’t use it, and the truth, is the way i see it is, that the form or proper way to move is actually freedom and that the way I move right now is the restriction. Horizontal movement versus vertical movement. The best way to move is a straight line because it transfers instantly. But we are not straight lines however Hong said seek the straight through the curve so it can be done.
When I asked Master Wang Haizhou of the Zhaobao Village what Bei Si Kou is, he said, You throw a silk (like a spider’s web) net on him. He will struggle until he cannot move any more. Then it is your time to do something.
- Movements that causes the body to create an outer going force so that the body is made to move outwards.
- Movements that causes the body not to move so that the body can stay in a certain position.
These two types of movements form the proper physical structure for our taiji practice.
These are pictures (taken by Xavier Santiago) of the 2 week full-time training with Master Chen Zhonghua in Edmonton and Vancouver.
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Here are a few photos of the group of Stonelion Shaolin students who participated in the Introduction to Chen Taiji class on July 12 2008.
Most of the following relate to Tai Chi principles and form, but some are just general comments. All the comments below were either heard directly from Master Chen, or conveyed from another person who heard the lesson directly from him, or is based on my personal observation or experience. – Marvin Glotfelty Read more
