The Song of Peng

This week in class we were working on Peng Jin (Ward off energy), the fundamental Yang energy (Jin) of Tai Chi Chuan.
A lot as been written and debated about Peng Jin in Tai Chi circles, but I think the following quote sums it up pretty well, for me at least.
From the classics:
“The Song of Peng
What [...]

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Sink the chest and pull up the back

No.2. in Yang’s 10 Important Points is “Sink the chest and pluck up the back”.
Yang says: “2.) Sink the chest and pluck up the back. The chest is depressed naturally inward so that the ch’i can sink to the tan-t’ien [field of elixir]. Don’t expand the chest: the ch’i gets stuck there and the body becomes top-heavy. The heel will be too light [...]

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Learning becoming a part of you

I was doing some push hands today, trying to work on integrating the spiral movement of silk reeling force into the movement pattern of push hands. It became obvious to me that you ability to do this is directly proportional to the amount of silk reeling exercise you’ve done in the past, not how well [...]

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Push Hands: Wu Wei in action

Another Classic that often gets quoted in connection with Tai Chi Chuan is that mainstay of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching (The classic of the way and its power) * . While debate continues to rage in academic circles over whether you can truly say Tai Chi Chuan is a Taoist art or not, I’d [...]

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Tai Chi Chuan applications practice

Sadly, a lot of Tai Chi teachers seem to be under the impression that by simply practicing the form for many years you will somehow magically acquire all the abilities you need to manifest martial skill when required. It goes without saying that these people are simply deluded. Applications practice is something that goes on [...]

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Threading into one

Let’s look at the Tai Chi Classic, attributed to Chan Seng Feng. We could spend the whole post debating who Chan Seng Feng really was, and if he ever really existed, but I think its better to hand that whole subject over to a qualified academic, so here’s Henning’s take on the matter.
What I’d rather [...]

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Wrist usage in Tai Chi Chuan

Following on from my last post about using the waist, I’ve been thinking about wrist usage in Tai Chi Chuan. According to the Classics, all movements in Tai Chi Chuan are controlled by the waist. “The waist is the commander of the whole body. If you can sung the waist, then the two legs will [...]

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Using the waist in Tai Chi Chuan

You know how it is when you can tell a section of your form has gone to seed, but you can’t put your finger on exactly why? While doing the form this morning I was having major problems with one particular move. Which one is of no consequence, all that’s important is that it [...]

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