Chen Xin’s Push Hand 36 Sicknesses

[Xue Sheng]

Chen Xin’s Push Hand 36 Sicknesses
Fron here and here

1. Chou - withdraw; take out; leave; get away

2. Ba - pull out; run away.
This means to withdraw your movement and run away.

3. Zhe - cover; block; shield from; hide from.
This means to use your hand to shield yourself from the opponent.

4. Jia - fend off
This means to use your arm to fend off the opponent's hand.

5. Keda - knock against directly; clash
It looks like using something to knock against something else directly.

6. Mengzhuang - suddenly and vigorously collide or dash against
Suddenly collide recklessly attack, just depending on brave force to dash forward vigorously; it is not natural, just
want to take chance.

7. Duoshan - dodge
Dodge your body from the opponent's hand. To make a sudden dodge causing the opponent to fall down.

8. Qinling - invade, aggression, intrude into and maltreat
Want to invade into the opponent's control sphere and to mistreat him.

9. Zhan - chop; cut off
Like to use a sword to chop something.

10. Lou - hold in arms; hug; embrace
To hold the opponent's body in your arms.

11. Mao - resist; support with hand; hold; help
This means to forcibly use the hand to resist and press the opponent holding him down.

12. Cuo - rub
This likes to rub something in the hands. To rub the opponent with your hands or elbows.

13. Qiya - bully and oppress; ride roughshod over
Qi means to cheat or deceive, Ya means to press down the opponent's hand with big force.

14. Gua - hang; put up; get caught
This means to use the hand or the foot to hook the opponent.

15. Li - leave; go away; separate from
This means to separate from the opponent, and be afraid that he will attack you.

16. Shanzuan - dodge and deceive
This means to deceive the gullible opponent and then attack him.

17. Bo - move; dispel; fiddle with
This means to use the hands forcibley to move the opponent.

18. Tui - push
This means to forcefully push the opponet aside.

19. Jianse - hard and unsmooth; involved and abstruse; intricate and obscure
This means your skills are not mature.

20. Shengying - stiff; rigid; harsh; lack of change
Just attack with reckless qi, and try to win with stiff skills.

21. Pai - push aside; push out; repel; exclude; reject; remove
This means to push the problem away.

22. Dang - block; hold back; hinder; stop check; obstruct
This means that you cannot use the lure skill to make the opponent in trouble so just to block him out with force.

23. Ting - straight up; stand; hold out
This means hard, tough, or stiff.

24. Ba - tyrant; overlord
Use force to control others, like a tyrant beating with force.

25. Teng - remove something to make room; release
To use the right hand to hold the opponent, then to use the left hand to support his arm, and then to release the
right hand to strike him.

26. Na - control; grip; take; hold
To grip and control the opponent's joints.

27. Zhi - straight; direct; frank; forth right
This means to use straight force; there is no twining, softness, and winding idea included in it.

28. Shi - simple and unadorned; dull; naive
This means too simple and unadorned, it is easy to be cheated and bullied.

29. Gou - hook
This means to use the foot to hook and throw the opponent.

30. Tiao - raise; push up
To push up

31. Peng - expand; inflate
To use hard Qi and force to fend off and push away the opponent's attack, not to use Zhongqi(3) to contact the
opponent's hand.

32. Di - conflict; resist; withstand; keep out; support
This means just to use hard Qi and force to resist the opponent.

33. Gun - roll; trundle
To be afraid of getting hurt, so roll to side. This looks like a ball rolling away.

34. Gentou Gunzi - somersault stick
This means when I push the small end of the stick down, the big end turns back and hits me.

35. Tuoda - "steal hit"; sneak attack; surprise attack
Do not attack directly, just surprise attack to some parts where the opponent is not prepared to defend.

36. Xintan - greedy; corrupt; covert; avaricious
Your skills are not good enough to win, but be very covert and greedy; it must lose if try to fight.

For the above thirty-six sicknesses, someone may have all of them, or four or five, or one or two. If a person has any one of these, his skill will not mature. When a person's skill has matured, no mistakes will occur. To keep Yuanqi (original qi) smooth, no movement may be uncomfortable. But how do you do push-hand? It is said: when the opponent's hand is coming, I should use my hand to lure him in, and then let him get into an uncomfortable position. It is called Zou - go (or walk away). Zou has the other name of Yin - lure. Why is the skill named Yin (lure) also named Zou (go)? Yin means lure him to come in; Zou means he is coming and I am going, and do not oppose him, so it is called Zou. But in Zou there has to be some Yin and Jin (enter) with it (a high level pratitionor can lure the opponent come in, and even let him feel he must come in; if he comes in, I am in comforable position and he is uncomfortable, so that I can do whatever I want) This is really a wonderful key in (Taiji) Quan, but without long and hard practice, it cannot be achieved.

 

[Carol]

Interesting! What does "sicknesses" mean in this context?

 

[wushuguy]

interesting.

35. Tuoda - "steal hit"; sneak attack; surprise attack
Do not attack directly, just surprise attack to some parts where the opponent is not prepared to defend.

that could explain why when playing with a taiji guy, during tui shou, when i found a gap and immediately did a straight punch, it took him like 3 seconds to react and we started tui shou again. did it three times in a row, he didn't bother to deflect or block any of those, but continuously insisted on doing only pushing hands and keeping the rolling rhythm while once in a while stepping on my foot and trying to tip me over. at that time I was hoping that he would have at least tried to block/deflect/parry/evade a punch, so I could see and experience some of the principles taiji's redirecting force. I suppose throwing a punch when there's a big opening on the inside line might have been considered a sneak attack...

 

[wushuguy]

Interesting! What does "sicknesses" mean in this context?

i think it means the aspects that prevents one from improving or developing skill fully.

 

[Xue Sheng]

interesting.



that could explain why when playing with a taiji guy, during tui shou, when i found a gap and immediately did a straight punch, it took him like 3 seconds to react and we started tui shou again. did it three times in a row, he didn't bother to deflect or block any of those, but continuously insisted on doing only pushing hands and keeping the rolling rhythm while once in a while stepping on my foot and trying to tip me over. at that time I was hoping that he would have at least tried to block/deflect/parry/evade a punch, so I could see and experience some of the principles taiji's redirecting force. I suppose throwing a punch when there's a big opening on the inside line might have been considered a sneak attack...

Talking Tuishou yup.

Talking Sparring nope

My Taiji Sifu (Yang Style) will hit you if you give him and opening either with his had or body and if you hang a fist out there he may redirect, absorb or use Qinna... and he appears to be rather fond of Qinna

And I believe Chen Bing (20th generation Chen family) is very fond of applying Shuaijiao whenever possible.

But the difference with Taiji is these apps are not forced, if the opponents energy (force) is going in the right direction it is use against him/her

Example
I have had people use Qinna on me multiple times over the years and I can generally feel it coming and sometimes counter it. But with my Taiji Sifu I can never feel it coming and every single lock comes as a complete surprise to me. His explanation for this was "I lock myself" all he is doing is redirecting and absorbing and waiting for me to make a mistake. Same goes for the use of fajing

Interesting! What does "sicknesses" mean in this context?

"Errors" that should be avoided or corrected.

aka

aspects that prevents one from improving or developing skill fully.

I should have probably added Chen Xin (1849-1929)

More from Chen Xin

Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taijiquan by Chen Xin