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Taijiquan Basics

2003-11-27 12:20 COC

    Taijiquan owes its name to the theory of taiji expounded in ancient Chinese philosophy. According to this theory, taiji is made up of two basic elements, yin and yang, which exist together as a unity of opposites. It embodies ideas of simple dialectics by which the ancients knew the world and revealed the laws governing the changes and development of things. In taijiquan, the concept of yin and yang refers to the movements of opposites such as opening and closing, emptiness and solidity, inhalation and exhalation, concurrence and counteraction, firmness and softness, extension and contraction, yielding and attacking, engagement and disengagement, etc. 

    During the long course of its development, taijiquan has evolved into numerous schools and styles, the most popular and distinctive being the Chen, Yang, Wu (Jianquan), Wu (Yuxiang) and Sun styles. Although each of the styles has its own characteristic features, they make basically the same demands on the positioning of the various parts of the body and on the methods of exercise.

    1. How to hold various parts of the body

    It is often said that taijiquan attaches more importance to inner strength than outward appearance. Actually this mainly applies to practised performers who are already quite proficient in bodily movements and need to advance their art further by guiding their movements with inner strength. For the beginners,  they should first learn to do the movements of an exercise correctly and achieve good coordination between different parts of the body, before trying to develop inner strength and combine it with physical movements. Here are some tips on how to hold various parts of the body:

    (1) The head. When you practise taijiquan, you must hold your head erect, with your chin slightly tucked in, and with the top of your head lifted slightly upward as if pulled by an imaginary string (Fig 1). Keep your head in the erect position when you turn it to either side; do not wag it at random. Your eyes should follow the movements of your hands. During the momentary pause upon the completion of a form, you should look ahead through the fore- or middle-finger. Expression on your face should be natural, with lips loosely closed and the tongue resting lightly on the hard palate.

    (2) The upper limbs. There are three major joints in an upper limb, namely, those of the shoulder, elbow and wrist. When practising taijiquan, you should first of all relax your shoulders so as to loosen up the muscles in the chest and on the back, thus making the upper part of your body light and flexible and the lower limbs firm and stable. Secondly, you must keep the elbow joint slightly flexed and lower the tip of the elbow all the time, even when you raise your hand above shoulder level as you do in White Crane Flashes Its Wings (Fig 2). Always keep the elbow close to the ribs to protect that part of your body, but never press it against the ribs lest its movement should be hindered. Lastly, you must relax your wrists and fingers. When you push forward a palm, you should flex your wrist slightly in the dorsal direction, keep your palm a little hollow and spread your fingers relaxedly and comfortably; never use force to bring your fingers together or draw them apart.

    (3) The torso. Certain requirements have to be met regarding how you should hold your chest, back, waist and buttocks. The chest should be slightly drawn in, and the back should be slightly humped so as to keep the thoracic muscles relaxed.  Never throw out your chest with force. Meanwhile, keep your back straight by allowing the back muscles to sink downward. This, however, is more mental than physical work and should not be done with exertion or your body will become stiff and your breathing will be hampered. If you are a beginner, just pay attention to drawing in your chest slightly when you exercise, and you will naturally get it right in course of time.
    The waist should be allowed to sink downward so that the qi (inner energy) will go down to dantian (elixir field below the navel) instead of floating upward. Only then can you make your lower limbs steady, powerful and nimble. While allowing the waist to drop downward, you should imagine it being pulled up by some force so that you can maintain balance when you move back and forth or turn your body from side to side. That way, you can also keep the abdominal muscles relaxed, which helps the practice of abdominal respiration as required in taijiquan exercises.
    Lastly, you should pay attention to drawing your buttocks slightly inward -- not by sheer muscular force, but by relaxing the hips, separating the legs wide at the crotch and keeping the huiyin point in the pelvis vertically under the baihui point at the top of the head.

    (4) The lower limbs. The general requirement here is that you should keep your knees flexed and your legs separated at the crotch so as to make your steps light and nimble. During the momentary pause upon the completion of a form, your stance should be such that your legs are widely separated at the crotch and the tips of your bent knees are turned slightly inward. By striking a balance between the "opening" of the crotch and the "closing" of the knees (Fig 3), your lower limbs will become firm and steady. When you make a move, you should first activate the hip, then the knee, and then the foot, so that your step is light and slow.  Generally, when you move forward you should set the foot on floor in a heel-to-toes motion. When you step forward or backward, always draw your foot close to the supporting leg before making the step. This will help keep your balance.

    2. Methods of exercise

    The following points should be observed when you practise taijiquan:                                         

    (1) Easiness and calmness. Easiness, which is based on a correct posture, means relaxing the body consciously, with the mind remaining alert. By calmness, we mean putting your mind in a state of tranquillity and concentrating on an exercise. With easiness and calmness, you will be able to use your mind to guide your movements. If you are a beginner, you must constantly look out for any faulty moves that prevent you from relaxing, such as holding the neck stiff, throwing out the chest, shrugging shoulders or holding breath. Whenever you have spotted anything wrong, you should use your mind to exercise self-adjustment and perfection. In this way, you can improve your performance quickly.

    (2) Continuity and circularity. The word "continuity" in taijiquan has several meanings. Usually it signifies the following ideas:
    a) The successive operation of various parts of the body, with the waist as the hinge. To execute a movement, the force begins from the feet and goes to the legs and the waist, which transmits it to the back, the arms and the fingers. To move a lower limb, you first activate the waist, which in turn brings the hip, the knee and the foot into action; likewise, when you move an upper limb, you first activate the waist, which in turn brings the back, the shoulder, the elbow and the hand into action. Hence the saying that "all the strength exerted in the nine segments of the upper and lower parts of the body are generated in the waist."
    b) The continuous execution of one movement after another. 
There is no interruption in between since the completion of one movement is the beginning of the next movement.

    (3) Clear distinction between empty and solid elements. In taijiquan, emptiness means flexibility and softness, while solidity refers to tension and hardness. The two opposites exist in each and every movement of taijiquan, and are interchangeable in keeping with the movements of the trunk and the limbs. They can also be interpreted in different ways according to the contexts. As far as the focus of your attention is concerned, the part of your body (e.g., the right hand) to which you direct your mind is said to be "solid," while other parts (e.g., the left hand) are "empty." During an exercise, a movement is said to remain "empty" until the momentary pause following its completion, when it becomes "solid" for an instant. In terms of  application of strength, light, restrained moves are "empty" while those performed with firm, substantial effort are "solid."  Take Brush Knee on Left Bow Step (Figs 4-6) for instance. The left leg is solid because it supports the body, while the right leg is empty. Only by clearly distinguishing between "emptiness" and "solidity" can you do the taijiquan movements correctly.

    (4) Natural breathing. There are four kinds of breathing methods, namely, natural respiration, normal abdominal respiration, paradoxical abdominal respiration and regulated respiration. Natural respiration, as the name suggests, means breathing in a natural way regardless of the changes in movement.  In normal abdominal respiration, the abdomen swells when you inhale and flattens when you exhale. In paradoxical abdominal respiration, the abdomen flattens when you inhale and swells when you exhale. Regulated respiration means adapting your breathing to changing movements. For a beginner, natural respiration is the easiest while all the other methods are hard to manage and may hamper your breathing if you strain at it. So just breathe naturally at the start. Pay attention to getting the right postures and movements as you keep on practising, and with the passage of time and improvement of technical proficiency, you will be able to adapt your breathing to your movements in a most desirable way.

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