In this age of a horde of internet taijiquan "experts" it is common to hear the statement, this or that is not taijiquan.
To which my usual response is that since taijiquan is based on the
taiji (yin/yang symbol), which is a universal philosophy, that is it
encompasses everything, anything that is not taiji must similarly be
taiji. This is basic Daoism. Many of these same "experts" will tell you
that when pushing hands (they seldom talk about application because that
might involve force and therefore be a bit too dirty for the pure art
of taijiquan)... your touch must be
butterfly/feather/ "very soft thing" light. If not, you are just using
force and that is not taijiquan, or so their lament goes.
Well here is some news for you, such "very soft" touching is not taijiquan… unless, wait for it, unless…it contains or allows the ability to put into action four extremely important taijiquan teachings. These four words, all very similar in English, are Stick, Connect, Adhere and Follow. The original four Chinese characters have shades of meaning which convey slight differences. I remember Master Tan Ching Ngee explaining these to me as follows:
Well here is some news for you, such "very soft" touching is not taijiquan… unless, wait for it, unless…it contains or allows the ability to put into action four extremely important taijiquan teachings. These four words, all very similar in English, are Stick, Connect, Adhere and Follow. The original four Chinese characters have shades of meaning which convey slight differences. I remember Master Tan Ching Ngee explaining these to me as follows:
Zhan – sticks very close so that you can't get it off, or get away from it.Nian – continuous, can't be cut off or separated.Tie – lightly adhering, on the surface (shares a connection with zhan).Sui – follow closely (connected to nian).
Now,
for all of these four to be present you have to have a connection to
your partner/opponent that allows, facilitates and creates this
stickiness, so that he is not able to escape nor move closer without
feeling that you are still in control. This necessitates a degree of
pressure – you have to be extending your ting jing (tactile sensitivity) beyond the external
skin and right to the heart of the other person, ideally right to their center of gravity.
1 comment:
Good post on beginning TJQ. ...
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