太极拳
T’ai Chi Ch’uan (T’ai Chi for short) is the famous slow moving exercise from China. Although it comes from the Martial Art tradition, most people today practice it for its tremendous health benefits. T’ai Chi has a very well-deserved reputation for improving people’s health and quality of life. It helps us live long, and age gracefully. It lowers blood pressure, improves balance and helps us feel young regardless of what the calendar says! T’ai Chi increases our vitality and strengthens the immune system. It can reduce chronic inflammation anywhere in the body.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan is a gentle exercise that teaches us good body mechanics. You learn to move and be active in a relaxed effortless way so that you can work and play without putting unnecessary stress anywhere in the body. Moving while deeply relaxed opens the flow of Qi in the body, and strengthens our Qi. Practicing T’ai Chi is like giving yourself an Acupuncture treatment!
In T’ai Chi we move slowly so that we can clearly feel how we are moving. It is my job as teacher to show you how the movements can be done more efficiently and more effectively. But T’ai Chi is more than just learning the movements of the form. You learn quality of movement. You become more mindful in your movements. You learn to integrate awareness of your breathing with your movements. And improve your awareness of the world around you.
I have been practicing T’ai Chi since I was twenty. I lived in Shanghai for 3 ½ years to study with Dr. Wang Zhi Xiang and Master Qian Zhao Hong. There is a deep connection between Acupuncture, meditation and the advanced levels of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. Dr. Wang and Master Qian each taught me these connections very extensively. As a teacher, I get to pass this understanding on to you. As an Acupuncturist, understanding these deep connections has improved the quality and effectiveness of my Acupuncture treatments tremendously.
A word about the spelling of Chinese terms. In general I use the Pinyin system of expressing Chinese words with the Western alphabet. The exceptions is “Tai Ji Quan” for which I use the Wade-Giles spelling of “T’ai Chi Ch’uan” largely because it is in more common use in the West. Also, English readers tend to trip up over the “Q” in “Quan”. Please scroll down to read more about the styles of T’ai Chi Ch’uan I teach.
Yang Style T’ai Chi Ch’uan 杨式太极拳
My teacher, Dr. Wang Zhi Xiang has organized the system of Yang Style T’ai Chi Ch’uan into three separate forms which represent different levels of practice. Each form follows the same sequence of movements, but each has its own unique flavor in the expression of those movements.
In each of these forms the most important point is to use mind and energy rather than physical strength. The first form is very much like the standard Yang Family long form. It builds a strong foundation of correct structure and body alignments. The body’s energy should flow fluidly like the water in a river. The second form was taught to Dr. Wang by Dong Bing of Shanghai. This form is more dynamic and expresses its martial qualities more obviously. It is very good for push hands and sparring skills because it develops strong internal Qi and also a very strong energy outside the body. The energy in this form flows with a powerful wave energy like the ocean waves.
Dr. Wang calls the third form “the natural form.” Dr. Wang learned this form from Wang Zhuang Hong formally of Shanghai; he now lives in Hong Kong. The energy of this form moves in spirals like a whirlpool, or a tornado. Spiritually this form really helps us dissolve our limited concept of self as an ego attached to a physical body into that state which Buddhists know as “Emptiness.”
This slow moving exercise that thousands of people practice daily in the parks of China is only one aspect of the complete study of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. In all the full art of T’ai Chi Ch’uan covers five areas. Besides the popular long routine, it also includes basic exercises, push hands (a two person practice), sparring (which is also a two person exercise), and meditation or qi gong. The two person practices of push hands and sparring give us an arena in which we can test our ability to respond naturally using energy, rather than to either struggle against the opponent using strength or suffer defeat.
Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan 心意六合拳
“Heart Intention Six Harmony Boxing” is the oldest of the internal martial arts. This art claims a lineage that extends back to General Yue Fei of the Song Dynasty (12th century). However, it is likely that Ji Longfeng of the 17th century is most likely the actual creator of the art. Ji Longfeng’s student, Ma Xueli taught in Henan and Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan became the secretive art of the Hui people, a Muslim ethnic minority within mainland China. The Hui people used Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan as their people’s private form of self defense for generations. It remained that way until modern times, never passed on to non-Muslims. My teacher, Qian Zhao Hong, was among the first generation of non-Moslem Chinese to learn the art. It was Master Qian’s good fortune to live across the way from the great master Lu Song Gao who brought the art from his native Henan to Shanghai.
The “Heart” of Heart Intention boxing refers to the mind in the sense of a general capacity of being aware. “Yi” is the active mind, focused and directed. It is “Intention” in the sense of the mind focused on a target like a cat focused on a rat. In the Chinese language paired words often form a Yin-Yang pair, and the Yin term always goes first. Thus, “Heart” is the Yin term, a field of activity, while “Intention” is the Yang term, the action itself. Taken together these two words connote that whatever is conceived of in the mind, focused through the intent, becomes manifest.
“Liu He” means “Six Harmony.” Harmony means to come together in a relationship. “He” can also mean “to close” as opposed to “to open” (kai). Becoming more harmonious is a form of coming together, whether it is actual shrinking of the distance between two things, or increasing the strength of the relationship between them.
The six harmonies are: Heart and Intention (Xin and Yi) come together, Intention and Vital Energy (Yi and Qi) come together, Vital Energy and Strength (Qi and Li) come together. These are the three internal harmonies. The three external harmonies are that the shoulder and the hip are in harmony, the elbow and the knee are in harmony, and the hand and foot are in harmony. By looking at the three external harmonies we can get a better feeling for the three internal harmonies. The shoulder should always be close enough to directly over the hip that the two joints feel connected to each other and that the movement of one directly affects the other. The same goes for the elbow-knee relationship and the hand-foot relationship. You will notice that when your elbow is out of alignment with the knee, the spine is also twisted out of its most efficient alignment.
Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan is also sometimes called “Ten Animal Xin Yi” or “Henan Xin Yi” to distinguish it from the “Xing Yi Ch’uan” (Form Intention Boxing) of Shaan Xi and He Bei which uses 12 animal forms in their system. The majority of movements in Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan mimic the qualities of ten different animals. This can be a little confusing at times as there are some movements which have no relationship to any animals (for example “suicide on a tombstone”) and at least one animal move which isn’t counted in the ten (“black ox tosses his head”). Details aside, the ten animals are: Dragon, snake, horse, chicken, eagle, hawk, bear, tiger, swallow, and monkey.
Master Qian Zhao Hong’s Xin Yi is characterized by deep relaxation in the movements without being soft or weak. The power comes from correct alignment and energy, more than from muscular strength. Strength is last on the list of internal harmonies, Heart, Intention and Qi all take precedence over physical strength.
Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan has very few long routines in comparison to other martial arts. Instead the emphasis is on perfecting simple movements which are first done in place, then with various stepping methods, and finally in short combinations. These individual moves and short combinations can be stitched together into longer routines, but the strength of this art is in the fundamentals. Xin Yi also uses the push hands two person exercise.
Silk Reeling T’ai Chi Chuan 缠丝太极拳
This is a lesser known style of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. It is an eclectic style in that it borrows moves from the five major styles of T’ai Chi. It has its own unique characteristic in the way that it manifests spiral energy.
Chen Style T’ai Chi Ch’uan is famous for its silk reeling quality of movement. In Chen style the spiral quality is manifest on the surface. It is obvious to any observer watching a skilled Chen stylist doing their form. The body is twisted in spirals in every posture, and every movement has a spiral feeling in its execution.
Yang Style also uses spirals, but they are often manifest more in the energy field surrounding the player and not visible to the naked eye. In Dr. Wang’s third form (which comes from Wang Zhuang Hong) of Yang Style T’ai Chi however, the spiral quality is manifest in the postures and movements as well as in the energy field. Chan Si T’ai Chi is different from the others in that its spiral quality is very deep, in the very center of the joints and in the axis around which the body moves in any particular posture. The spiral quality may not be apparent to anyone watching the movements of the Chan Si T’ai Chi player, but they are a definite and necessary aspect of this style.
This deep nature of the spirals in Chan Si T’ai Chi adheres to the idea that a small movement is better than a large movement, while not moving is better than a small movement. The circles and spirals become deeper and smaller as the player gets better, finally seeming as if there is no movement, yet the opponent is tossed around.
Qian Zhao Hong found this style T’ai Chi to be very compatible with Xin Yi Liu He Ch’uan. He found a great improvement in his own Xin Yi when he began to practice this style of T’ai Chi, and that improvement gets passed on when his Xin Yi students begin to practice Chan Si T’ai Chi as well. This was certainly true for me. Qian Zhao Hong taught me a 24 movement short form of the Silk Reeling T’ai Chi which helped me understand Xin Yi on a much deeper level. Like my teacher, I incorporate it into the Xin Yi curriculum.