ChiDragon

This seems like a Zhan Zhuang stance with the legs bent and the hands hinging down. 頭戴石磨: head wear a stone grinder 垂脊正身: suspend the spine and straighten the torso 龜背鶴身: Turtle back and crane torso 懸肩插胛: suspend the shoulder and stick it into the shoulder blade 手似楊柳: the hand is like a willow tree 氣沉丹田: Chi sink to the dan tian 鬆腰坐胯: loosen the waist and sit on crotch 圓襠曲膝: circular stance and bend the knees 不丁不八步: the legs do not stand like the character "丁" nor like the character "八". 帥: General 主: Master 兵: Soldier 將: General

I see why you are confused because the source that you are using was confused in the first place. Find another book that the author has a better understanding of the 5-Phases system.

Hi, Marcus.... First of all, don't get involve with too many styles all at once. For internal arts, your best bit is too stick with Wu Taijiquan and then worry about the marital part later. The long form will take you a long way. This is not the case in the more the merrier. The WU Taijiquan is the best practice that will lead you where you wanted to go. It has the combination of internal and martial arts hidden in the system. You just need to put your heart into cultivation for a long time before you can realize what it can do for you. Please keep in mind, internal arts cannot be accomplished in days but years.

I am an atheist and practicing Chi Kung and Tai Ji perfectly without attracting any spirits. The notion about spirits was only in the mind of the practitioner.......

You are right about feeling lost. Nowadays, the kids are living in a world of rock n' roll which are too young to be learning about "emptiness" and sitting quietly. Emptiness is easier to be comprehended are those who are more mature and went through a series of failure and depression.

If a person is standing up straight, the body can be only turned within a limited space. The ankles and the hips are the pivot points. Anyhow, one standing in a Zuan Zhuang position has more flexibility to move freely and cover more space. It is because the knees are added to the pivot points. The body can move freely by bent the knees forward and the torso moving backward to maintain balance. Especially, the knees can move back and forth in different directions to have a greater flexibility for balancing. Generally speaking, standing up straight up one has two pivot point(the ankles and the hips). While in the ZZ position, it has five pivot points, the ankles, the knees, and the hips. In the ZZ position, the both ankles and knees can be moved in different direction separately. In addition with the combination of the bending arms and the hips, in deed, it gives more flexibility for the body to move as a whole to cover a variety of space around the body area. Of cause, the feet must have good rooting to anchor to the ground or floor. Good rooting was based on the Fa Jin in the lower leg muscles. The ankle joints must be strong to support the whole body weights. The strong ankle joints can be strengthen by practicing Zuan Zhuang for months and years. Another words, the purpose of Zuan Zhuang was the strengthening the lower leg muscles and the ankle points. Zuan Zhuang is equivalent to have the lower legs and ankles lifting weights; it is because they are supporting the weights of the whole body while standing in this position. Eventually, the muscle tone were developed in the lower legs and made them stronger. A good foundation for rooting was based on the strong lower legs and ankle joints. All these were accomplished from practicing Zuan ZHuang.

While the arm is fully extended, it gives a less chance to retract while someone was grabbing the wrist. At the time, the shoulder would be the weakest point. One can lock the elbow but not the shoulder if the arm was being pulled by someone. The shoulder is the root for the arms, so to speak, because the shoulder is the only part that supports and kept the arms in place. If a person was standing up straight with the arm fully extended and the arm was being pulled forward, then the person will be difficult to maintain balance. Most lightly this person will lean forward due to the pulling force. If a Tai Ji practitioner with the arms bent, most lightly, the arms can be retracted very easily because there was some potential energy(Jin) are readily available in the muscle. It allows the arms to retract by moving toward the body to counteract any pulling force. However, the most effective way was to push the opponent away. That way will put the opponent in the worse situation. Under the pushing position, the opponent will have the pulling force + the body weight + the pushing force against him/her. That is why we see a person flew across the room and hit the wall during a Fa Jin demo video. Btw The highest opposing force was the pushing force(Fa Jin) in the calculation. The summation of the forces will cause the opponent to go off balance in one direction by falling backward.

The last statement has a "?". Is that a question....???

Every practitioner of Tai Ji Chuan should know this. The most unique thing about Tai Ji Chuan, at all levels, is bending the arms and legs for every movement. It would very noticeable if one is a good Tai Ji practitioner or not. A good Tai Ji practitioner will never straighten the arms and legs. The concept was to have the yang within the yin. That means by having a little tension on the arms and legs which allow them readily for action. The bending arms are readily to go any direction; the legs are readily to go up and down to maintain the body balance. A bending arm will have two pivot points such as the elbow and shoulder joints. The ankle and the knee are the two pivot points for the legs. The advantage of having two pivot points which allow the arms and legs to move more versatile and dynamically. Overall, the body was allowed to move more swiftly with the arms and legs bent. Especially, the bending legs allow to have more spring actions.

FYI..... 1. The Chen 108 Long Fist(Chang Fist, 長拳) is different from the 108 Tai Ji Chuan(太極拳). Ai Ping Cheng was doing the Fast Tai Ji with Fa Jin at the second level. At first level, the practitioner does not stumble the foot nor fast strike with the hands. Stumbling the foot and fast strike with the hand were in the process of Fa Jin at the moment.

You welcome....No problem....!!! When in doubt, one must not pass a good opportunity to ask question promptly.

If your teacher teaches the same set of movements in all sessions with consistency and ask you to practice it for one whole week before the next set of movements, then, the teacher is a good one. However, I wouldn't consider taken lessons from the one who gives instructions randomly.

People who live in the Southern part of China speak Cantonese; and the people in the Northern part speak Mandarin. Mandarin is the Chinese official dialect. It is the one to learn to get in touch with the Chinese culture. The people in Beijing was considered to be spoken the perfect dialect of Mandarin. A Mandarin speaking person may or may not understand Cantonese. It all depends how much one was exposed to Cantonese.

Relaxation of the muscles during the practice of Tai Ji Chuan. At the first level, it is important to relax the muscles when doing the slow movements. However, no matter how relax the practitioner was, there are always some tension in the muscles. Otherwise, the practitioner won't be able to stand up on the feet. Tai Ji Chuan is considered to be an internal art because it develops the inner strength or Jin. In order to utilize the body strength, the muscles must be contracted to generated the inner strength. A Tai Ji practitioner has more Jin than an ordinary person. The Jin was acquired from practicing the slow movements with the muscles relaxed. It is important to relax the muscles because that is the uniqueness of NeiGong. As a rule of thumb, NeiGong always start with something soft then become hard. After a long time practice, the muscles of a Tai Ji practitioner will be firmer or good muscle tone. It was an indication of progress from the practice. Another words, in Tai Ji terms, the Jin has been developed in the muscles. A Tai Ji practitioner should always feel a little tension in the muscles, even in relaxation, because of the presence of Jin. With the Jin in the muscles, it is readily to be exploded as soon a squeeze of the muscles. One can feel the strength of the Jin in the muscles when squeezed. However, if anything comes in contact with the muscles, then a slight movement of the muscles will cause anything to be ejected away to a distance. The process is called Fa Jin(發勁). One can tell if a person has any Jin at all by observing how the other person reacts to Fa Jin. If a person pushes an ordinary person, assuming they are same size, and the defender just fell back a little and was able to maintain balance; then the offender has no Jin. However, if the defender was completely off balance flew across the room and hit the wall, then one will know that the offender has Jin developed in the body.

zerostao.... That's cool. Sorry for picking on your brain......!!! I just like to be consistent as long as we know what's in our minds.

Yin within Yang and Yang within Yin. Perhaps during combat, 10% Yin within 90% Yang and 10% Yang within 90% Yin. Rather than 50/50 during combat.

I can understand the "I still listen when I issue"; but "I am Song at all times." It seems to me that Song is at the Yin state and Fa Jin is at the Yang state. Generally speaking, is it possible to be at a full state of Song while Fa Jin at the same time.....??? It seems contradicting....!!!

Why are some people healthier than others....??? It is because the internal organs of some people are in good health and the functions of the organs are at the peak performance. People with illness was due to the malfunction of the internal organs. Fortunately, the human body has the capability of self-healing. Any illness if found in time are curable. There are two things that the body need for healing such as food and breathing. The ancients had discovered by breathing alone has great effects on the human body. The more they breathe the healthier they are. Besides breathing was good for self-healing, it also make the body much healthier than before. Therefore, the ancients were paid more attention to breathing and called it Chi Kung. Since Chi Kung has great effects on the body internally, it was considered to be NeiGong(internal practice). When NeiGong was mentioned, it was understood that Chi Kung is the primary requirement. At first, Chi Kung was done by just sitting down in a lotus position(靜功, Static Chi Kung). However, it was discovered that Chi Kung was done with slow motion of the arms and legs has a great effect of strengthen the body muscles. Hence, it becomes the, 動功, Dynamic Chi Kung. For example, Tai Ji Chuan has a set of sophisticates movements which is the best internal practice for the health of the human body. The body strength can be developed tremendously by the practice. In order to distinguish the inner strength that was developed by Tai Ji Chuan, it was called Jin(勁) rather than just the normal body strength.

steve.... "To achieve this requires a high degree of skill in Song and Ting Jin (sensitivity) among other things." Okay, I have been thinking that we should understand each other if we are talking about the same thing. If we want to communicate in the same field, then we should speak the same language by not assuming that the other doesn't know what one was talking about. For a skillful practitioner, by the choice of words such as "Song and Ting Jin" was applied to the defender; and Fa Jin is for the offender. During Fa Jin, at that moment, it was no longer Song and Ting Jin because one of the practitioners become the offender. Did I make any sense....???

In general, the person who practice externally was to speed up his ability to combat in a short time. However, one must be physically build and have great normal body strength. These innate features make one a good fighter but one must win in a short time. Otherwise one will become fatigue when the normal body strength become exhausted. The one who was not physically build and weak must practice the internal art to build up the body strength and strengthen the muscles. That was exactly what Tai Chi and QiGong are all about. One does not suck the energy from thin air by breathing. The body makes its own adjustment as one breathes. To exert an external force, the force has to be coming from the inner strength of the physical body. The body must be capable to withstand any external force for some reasonable time. Without the inner strength, it would be difficult for the body to resist any external force nor can endure for some time. In the body, it was the muscles that generates the inner strength. How much inner strength can be generated depends how much practice does one had done. I will emphasize what are the nuances between internal and external practices. Basically it is the concept of the Yin-yang principle. If one can identify what is being yin or yang attribute, then it won't be so difficult to understand what is internal or external. Indeed, the purpose for the internal practice was to convert the Yin(weak) body into a Yang(strong) body.

Zerostao... I'm flattered. Thank you for your generosity and respect. Let's wait and see how it is going to be worked out. Thanks again

"Bagua is the yang side of the coin, Tai Chi being the yin." I don't know where this notion was coming from. I wouldn't take that for granted. "Hence careful with Bagua, don't train this art or you will overtrain and hurt your body." Any martial arts can hurt your body if over trained. Just use a little common sense can go a long way. PS.... I would be under my own discretion to listen to any generalization which can be a fallacy made by anybody.

If you took it literally like that, I can't ague about that. I believe I only said relax the muscles but not totally relaxed. Even though I have said totally relaxed, I still wouldn't be collapsed if I wasn't unconscious.

The Tai Chi movements are fundamentally the same but there are slight variations between the Tai Ji families. The effects for the physical health are the same. The unique thing about Tai Ji was that the breathing is in synchronization with each movement. Indeed, the breathing was guided by the movements spontaneously. For example, as a general rule, inhale while the hands are being raised, exhale while the hands are being lowered. Tai Ji is the best cure for people with breathing problems. Normally, people with breathing problem, their breathings are very shallow. Another words, they cannot breathe deep down to the abdomen. Breathing down to the abdomen is equivalent to the saying of "Sunk Chi to the Dan Tian". Dan Tian was referred as the abdomen by the martial arts industry. Hence, the goal in breathing was to have the breath reach down to the Dan Tian. In QiGong, it has the same goal of "Sunk Chi to the Dan Tian". Most people thought or interpreted that this Chi was the energy being stored in the Dan Tian. However, by the Chinese definition, it means that the breath was being sunk to the abdomen. The priority in breathing for QiGong and Tai Ji is reversed. In QiGong, breathing is primary and movement is secondary. While in Tai Ji, the breathing was guided by the movements which is secondary.