On Taijiquan - Quotes and other things

[Xue Sheng]

On Taijiquan - Quotes and other things an place for taiji related posts and other things Taijiqaun

"Regardless of the tactics you can remember, an opponent may remember more; you cannot adapt to all the different schools. It is better for you to remember a single word from T’ai-Chi---stick or adhere (chan)—because everything comes from this."
-Yang Cheng-fu

"The key point is that you have to learn the real Taijiquan from a good
teacher. Without grasping the main points of Taijiquan, its effects, for the
most part, will not be better than common physical exercise. Consequently,
you will not realize benefits in this most subtle art even though you have
been practising it for tens of years. If your method of practice is
correct, you can also learn some skills of self defense besides its
significant health effects. Some people are skeptical about the martial
arts effects of Taijiquan. They think that Taijiquan is of no use in real
fighting. This is only because their knowledge about Taijiquan is too
superficial and they haven't got a good teacher to teach them."
---Tung Ying Jie

Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taijiquan by CHEN XIN
Chen Xin’s Push Hand 36 Sicknesses

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

 

[Xue Sheng]

These are interesting and do apply to training Taijiquan, however you have to take into account that (Chang San-feng) Wang Zongyue (Wang Tsung-yueh) are possibly mythical. Zhang Sanfeng (Chang San-feng) is the alleged founder of Taijiquan and is allegedly from Wudang however there is no actually historically verifiable proof of his existence. However if he did exist then it is possible that he is somehow connected to Wang Zongyue, who also may or may not have existed. There is a story that Wang Zongyue showed up at Chen village. Beat all their best fighters and then stayed a few years to help them develop Chen Style Taijiquan. There are also stories out there that after training Chen style with Chen Changxing that Yang Luchan then went and trained with a person in the Wang Zongyue lineage that was not of Chen village.

However Wu Yuxiang (Wu Yu-hsiang) is historically verifiable and was a student of Both Yang Luchan and Chen Qingping and is the developer of Hao style Taijiquan

All that aside all 3 of these classics are applicable and talk about things important to training Taijiquan

Chang treatise

In motion the whole body should be light and agile,
with all parts of the body linked as if threaded together.
The qi should be excited; the shen should be internally gathered.
The postures should be without defect,
without hollows or projections from the proper alignment;
in motion the form should not become disconnected.
The jing should be rooted in the feet, generated from the legs,
controlled by the waist, and manifested through the fingers.
If correct timing and position are not achieved, the body will become disordered
and will not move as an integrated whole; the correction for this defect
must be sought in the legs and waist.
The principle of adjusting the legs and waist applies for moving in all directions;
upward or downward, advancing or withdrawing, left or right.
All movements are motivated by mind, not external form.
If there is up, there is down; when advancing, have regard for withdrawing;
when striking left, pay attention to the right.
If the mind wants to move upward, it must simultaneously have intent downward.
Alternating the force of pulling and pushing severs an opponent's root
so that he can be defeated quickly and certainly.
Insubstantial and substantial should be clearly differentiated.
At any place where there is insubstantiality, there must be substantiality;
Every place has both insubstantiality and substantiality.
The whole body should be threaded together through every joint
without the slightest break.
Tai chi is like a great river rolling on unceasingly.
Wardoff, rollback, push, squeeze, pluck, split, elbow, shoulder are equated to the Eight Trigrams.
The first four are the cardinal directions; the second four are the four corners.
Advance, withdraw, look right, look left and central equilibrium are equated to the five elements: metal, wood, fire, water and earth.
All together these are termed the Thirteen Postures.

Zhang Sanfeng (Chang San-feng)

Wang treatise

Tai chi comes from emptiness and is the mother of yin and yang.
In motion tai chi separates; in stillness yin and yang fuse and return to emptiness.
It is not excessive or deficient; it follows a bending, adheres to an extension.
When the opponent is hard and I am soft, it is called yielding.
When I follow the opponent and he becomes backed up, it is called adhering.
If the opponent's movement is quick, then quickly respond; if his movement is slow, then follow slowly.
Although there are innumerable variations, the principle that pervades them remains the same.
From familiarity with the correct touch, one gradually comprehends jing (internal power); from the comprehension of jing one can reach wisdom.
Without long practice one cannot suddenly understand tai chi.
Effortlessly the jing reaches the headtop.
Let the qi sink to the tan tien.
Don't lean in any direction; suddenly appear, suddenly disappear.
Empty the left wherever a pressure appears, and similarly the right.
If the opponent raises up, I seem taller; if he sinks down, then I seem lower;
advancing, he finds the distance seems incredibly long; retreating, the distance seems exasperatingly short.
A feather cannot be placed, and a fly cannot alight on any part of the body.
The opponent does not know me; I alone know him.
To become a peerless boxer results from this.
There are many boxing arts.
Although they use different forms, for the most part they don't go beyond
the strong dominating the weak, and the slow resigning to the swift.
The strong defeating the weak and the slow hands ceding to the swift hands
are all the results of natural abilities and not of well-trained techniques.
From the sentence "A force of four ounces deflects a thousand pounds"
we know that the technique is not accomplished with strength.
The spectacle of an old person defeating a group of young people, how can it be due to swiftness?
Stand like a perfectly balanced scale and move like a turning wheel.
Sinking to one side allows movement to flow; being double-weighted is sluggish.
Anyone who has spent years of practice and still cannot neutralize,
and is always controlled by his opponent, has not apprehended the fault of double-weightedness.
To avoid this fault one must distinguish yin from yang.
To adhere means to yield.
To yield means to adhere.
Within yin there is yang.
Within yang there is yin.
Yin and yang mutually aid and change each other.
Understanding this you can say you understand jing.
After you understand jing, the more you practice, the more skill.
Silently treasure knowledge and turn it over in the mind.
Gradually you can do as you like.
Fundamentally, it is giving up yourself to follow others.
Most people mistakenly give up the near to seek the far.
It is said, "Missing it by a little will lead many miles astray."
The practitioner must carefully study.
This is the treatise.

Wang Zongyue (Wang Tsung-yueh)

Wu treatise

The mind mobilizes the qi.
Make the qi sink calmly;
then the qi gathers and permeates the bones.
The qi mobilizes the body.
Make it move smoothly, so that it may easily follows the mind.
The intention and qi must interchange agilely,
then there is an excellence of roundness and smoothness.
This is called "the interplay of insubstantial and substantial."
The mind is the commander, the qi the flag, and the waist the banner.
The waist is like the axle and the qi is like the wheel.
The qi is always nurtured without harm.
Let the qi move as in a pearl with nine passages without breaks so that there is no part it cannot reach.
In moving the qi sticks to the back and permeates the spine.
It is said "first in the mind, then in the body."
The abdomen relaxes, then the qi sinks into the bones.
The shen is relaxed and the body calm.
The shen is always in the mind.
Being able to breathe properly leads to agility.
The softest will then become the strongest.
When the shen is raised, there is no fault of stagnancy and heaviness.
This is called suspending the headtop.
Inwardly make the shen firm, and outwardly exhibit calmness and peace.
Throughout the body, the intention relies on the shen, not on the qi.
If it relied on the qi, it would become stagnant.
If there is qi, there is no external strength.
The jing is sung, but not sung; it is capable of great extension, but is not extended.
The jing is broken, but the intention is not.
The jing is stored by means of the curved.
The energy is released by the back, and the steps follow the changes of the body.
The mobilization of the jing is like refining steel a hundred times over.
There is nothing hard it cannot destroy.
Store up the jing like drawing a bow.
Mobilize the jing like drawing silk from a cocoon.
Release the jing like releasing the arrow.
To fa jing, sink, relax completely, and aim in one direction!
In the curve seek the straight, store, then release.
Be still as a mountain, move like a great river.
The upright body must be stable and comfortable to be able to sustain an attack from any of the eight directions.
Walk like a cat.
Remember, when moving, there is no place that does not move.
When still, there is no place that is not still.
First seek extension, then contraction; then it can be fine and subtle.
It is said; “If the opponent does not move, then I do not move. At the opponent's slightest move, I move first."
To withdraw is then to release, to release it is necessary to withdraw.
In discontinuity there is still continuity.
In advancing and returning there must be folding.
Going forward and back there must be changes.
The form is like that of a falcon about to seize a rabbit, and the shen is like that of a cat about to catch a rat.

Wu Yuxiang (Wu Yu-hsiang)

 

[Xue Sheng]

An excellent quote from T.T. Liang in his book “Tai Chi Chuan for Health and Self Defense”

The teacher however, can only lead the student to the correct gate, he cannot compel him to go further, Somewhere inside the gates masses gold and diamonds lie hidden. It is up to the student to go beyond the door and into the inner rooms to search for the treasure. So in order to acquire the art one must have a determined and enduring mind, ready to persevere and study hard. If one relies entirely on the teacher one will never find the treasure.”

and another from Ma Yueliang (Ma Yueh Liang)

There is no mystique to Tai Chi Chuan. What is difficult is the perseverance. It took me ten years to discover my chi, but thirty years to learn how to use it. Once you see the benefit, you won’t want to stop.