A Few Words on Zhan Zhuang

When doing zhan zhuang practice, people often place their focus on qi. This may be over-emphasising one aspect of zhan zhuang. Although standing does produce a sense of qi, it is a natural phenomenon and a reaction of the body during practice. Feeling it but not being able to control it means you cannot bring it forth and utilise it. Although Taijiquan is a practice that cultivates internal gongfu, "internal" is not only qi; the bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments etc and the viscera are also "internal" aspects. 

 

From the beginning Taijiquan practice involves all these things. So zhan zhuang first, regardless of qi, must involve loosening and extending your muscles and bones etc with correct alignment. The main areas to loosen and extend being the shoulders and kua. The sign that the basic loosening process is in place is when you are able to hang the two arms and maintain a half circle position for an extended time. The length of time you can hold depends entirely on the degree of looseness and relaxation you have achieved. The sign that the kua is released is when the body's power and weight are able to go downwards to the ground through the muscles at the back of the legs (not the muscles in the front of the legs that causes knee pain and injury).

Fixing Basic Skills...

So when people talk about Taijiquan practice and go through the repertoire of forms they can do, sweating profusely as they complete their training, what in fact are they training? Many people practise Taijiquan forms diligently everyday but are not aware of the importance of jibengong, the fundamental mandatory skill.

 

How is the form supposed to be practised? Through static posture, through simple movements, and through the coordinations of different actions - in order to extract the qualities of expanded and buoyant strength (peng jin), loose and heavy strength (song chen jin) and integration of the different strengths of the body (zheng ti jin). Once the basic skills are in place, put them in each movement and posture, according to the different form in order to experience them in different settings. The actions may be different but the requirements cannot change. Only when these requirements are encompassed in every action of every form you practise, then your practice is successful and meaningful and you are in fact practising Taijiquan.

 

 

Unlocking Taijiquan's "Genetic Code"

To get the most out of your Taijiquan practice, you must be able to unlock its ‘genetic code’, to decipher the set of rules and information encoded within the pattern and arrangement of the art. Only then can you practice its essential wisdom, its intrinsic quality and will it hold its lasting appeal. Only in this way can you get the returns you wished for when you took up the practice; to benefit from it every time you practice; to "do it ten thousand times and feel it ten thousand times."

Taijiquan requires practitioners to access the inner wisdom (capabilities) within themselves - "seek the cause in oneself."   This is the most fundamental element, and is also the only way to the essence of Taijiquan.

 

Fulfilling the Principle of Duality

Taijiquan first requires expansiveness then compactness. However the expression of expansiveness is controlled and precise. If expansiveness is overdone and not within boundary then it may be difficult to achieve compactness at a later stage.

 Compactness does not mean being tightly locked. It is an integration of all parts of the body that are capable of expansion and contraction. Fulfilling the core principle of duality - “within expanding is contracting” and “within closing is opening” - the mutual transformation being its root.

Taijiquan is a practice of reconciling paradoxes. Practitioners are often hovering between the “rights” and “wrongs” as there are no absolutes. There is only a minuscule between over-doing and under-doing. Just in the correct distribution of expansion and contraction and the body exhibits a strong and impenetrable “peng jin”. A little over is resistance, a little under is lax. “Peng jin” should be a state that is not in response to an outside stimuli. The inability to maintain this state during transitions of movements directly affects structural cohesion and transformation.

 

 

Some key points to practice...

Some key points to practice:

*To practise any movement, the body should be divided into Yin and Yang, insubstantial and substantial, open and close, that is, expansion and contraction. For example, the left side of the body contracts, the right side expands; expand on the right, contract on the left; the upper body contracts, the lower body expands; the front expands, back contracts etc..

*The emphasis of practice is not on the fixed postures of a form. It is on the transition movements between the fixed postures.

*"Song chen" (release and sink) is not about the whole body sinking. Only release and sink from below the Mingmen. Above that there is rising.

*When there is a place in the body that cannot be released, stop thinking about that place and let go of the place above or below the place of tension.

*Always keep three places insubstantial, the middle of the palms, the chest and the centre of the feet.

*What is the right way to “release and sink”? Sink is not dropping like a stone. It should be like a light piece of paper falling to the ground. The left side sinks, the right side rises, then the right sinks and the left rises. Like this, it falls to the ground.

*Only on completion of one posture and all the movement criteria are in place, do you start the next posture. Be strict and disciplined.

*All movement begins and ends at the "midline" of the body.

*One way to loosen the shoulder, sink the elbow, and sit the wrist: first, relax the whole hand. Use the intention to open the shoulder joint. Imagine opening a valve in a water pipe, let a stream of water slowly flow through the shoulder joint into the upper arm. When the upper arm is filled with water, the elbow sinks under the weight of the water. Then let the water continue to flow through the elbow joint into the forearm. When the forearm is also full of water, open the wrist joint and let the water go to the palm. Open the hukou and let the water finally flow to the fingertips.

Select one key point to practise at a time. However a key point is only a means or a tool to help us achieve the requirements of Taijiquan . When a key point is understood and realised we should forget it and let it occur naturally.

Training Taijiquan Power

The power of Taijiquan is not just about strength. It is a comprehensive and integrated quality. It is strong and soft power generated by the coordination between internal consciousness (intention) and external movements. This power is changeable and flexible. Therefore, the improvement of power cannot only rely on training methods that increase the body strength. Training involves a holistic approach; not only to increase strength, but also to incorporate consciousness. In Taijiquan it is the consciousness that expedites power.

 

There are often misunderstandings about power training in Taijiquan, that it comes from fast and hard movements. In fact, contained within the process of form training in taijiquan are the potentials and intentions of power that are not often obvious. The theory says: "Taijiquan is a needle hidden in silk floss; gentle yet firm”. That is to say, although the external movements are gentle and slow, the internal support force is strong. The power of Taijiquan is embodied in the slow and gentle movement through the coordination of the different parts of the body under the direction of intention/consciousness. This is the kind of internal power training required.

 

To improve the overall skill of Taijiquan, the most fundamental is to improve the integration of the body’s frame and movement with the mind’s intention. That's the reason why through the generations Taijiquan masters practised the routines for a lifetime.

 

 

Stages of Zhan zhuang

Zhan Zhuang (Standing Pole) occupies a very important position in traditional martial arts practice. What are we actually doing and how do we practise it?

Zhan Zhuang is a training method by which to know oneself. Invariably the human body become “deformed” (out of its natural form/structure) because of incorrect use throughout life. The average person has such a poor sense of their body that they cannot feel, let alone command and control the different parts. In particular, they cannot differentiate and separate flesh, tendons, and bones, so that when expressing energies, the flesh, tendons and bones tense up together forming a stiff mass. Zhan zhuang is a static practice through which to experience and understand your own body frame and structure, so as to improve the body's capability and functionality.

The first step of zhan zhuang is to learn to fangsong (relax and let go of tension). Through fangsong, allow the “deformed” body to return to its natural state: qi and blood calm, neck insubstantial and the jaw drawn in, chest empty and the abdomen filled, back rounded and the waist relaxed, the buttocks level and the hips seated so that the ability of the mind and consciousness to perceive the structure and sensations of the body is gradually improved.

Having learned how to fangsong and to improve the ability to understand and feel the different parts of your body, you are ready to express strength, as you are now able to tell whether you are using tendons and bones or using muscles to do so.

The second stage of zhan zhuang involves stretching the tendons and pulling the bones. Because the tendons, bones and flesh are now differentiated, during zhan zhuang the emphasis is on training the tendons and bones - the tendons are stretched to the correct tension, the bones are braced whilst the flesh is relaxed. If the first step is not complete, and you cannot distinguish tendons, bones and flesh, it is not possible to practise the second step.