The Quality of Tai Chi Jin New words- Liu He Jin: Tai Chi Jin containing the 6 essential qualities.
To “Tai-Chi-ize”: To condition the body so it becomes capable of doing Tai Chi. What I am actually talking about here is the quality of Jin we are trying to release. Peng is the quality of our body instead of the Jin we release. Lu, Ji, An, Cai and Lie are only the names of some of the Fa Jin techniques. So what kind of quality there should be in the Jin we release? There are 6 qualities that can/should be in the Jin we release. They are: 1. Surprising and snappy (惊弹.)
The best example I can give is a fish. When you hold a live fish in your hands, the fish would suddenly jump and snap. If you hold the fish very tight, it would even make you jump. When we Fa Jin, we want to be "snappy" and sudden and able to release and stop releasing at any time. 2. Circular and spiraling (螺旋.)
You can see the circular and spiraling movement in all the drills and the forms we practice. 3. Explosive and expansive (崩炸.)
The Cheng Zhuang (lobster posture) is the foundation of being explosive and expansive. If you do what we do when we hold the lobster Zhuang only faster then you know what it is like. 4. Hooky, wrapping and sticky (攀裹.)
Using body shape (or changing of body shapes) to hook on, wrap around and stick to your opponent when Fa Jin. The best example is in the move named "White Crane Spreading its Wings" when we use our hand and forearm to hook on our opponent’s neck. 5. Drilling and digging (钻翻.)
Drilling and digging is essential in breaking our opponent’s defense. 6. Swallowing and spitting or waving.
(吞吐 or 翻浪.) It is for this we practice a lot of caterpillar body work. In circular and spiraling movement, half of the circle is to swallow and the other half is to spit. The Jin that contains all 6 qualities is called Liu He Jin (6 combined Jin 六合劲) and to release Liu He Jin is the essence of Tai Chi training. Every move should contain Liu He Jin and that is the highest level of Tai Chi as a martial art. In order to be able to release Liu He Jin, we need to have Peng Jin built into our bodies. Peng Jin ensures that we have both solid defense (unyielding and rounded arms) as well as a loose and soft body (Yao Kua AKA waist and hip area) at all times. The loose and soft body makes it possible that we can move to the most critical position and release maximum forces at will. Therefore the most important piece of practice for the acquisition of Liu He Jin is again Zhuang Kung. If you are in the stage of spontaneous and subconscious movement, it is a good time to try to recognize Liu He Jin in the movements your body makes. The other drills essential are the drills we have practiced, such as making Tofu, drawing various circles, single-arm push hands, long and short Fa Jin’s. The drills I wrote on the mirrors last year are some important ones and the ones our body is capable of doing. We will do a lot more as our body gets more and more “Tai-Chi-ized”. These drills, no matter how simple and how basic, should be practiced again and again at all different stages of Zhuang Kung. Each time you will do them in a totally different way and you will get different things out of them. It is very important. |
