Training notes

Push Hands: Wu Wei in action

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Another Classic that often gets quoted in connection with Tai Chi Chuan is that mainstay of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching (The classic of the way and its power) * . While debate continues to rage in academic circles over whether you can truly say Tai Chi Chuan is a Taoist art or not, I’d like to neatly sidestep the whole issue completely. It’s obvious that you don’t have to be signed up card carrying member of a Taoist sect to read and enjoy the Tao Te Ching. What’s more its philosophy of “know the Yang, but stick to the Yin” has direct relevance to many martial arts, and Tai Chi Chuan in particular. To say that Tai Chi Chuan hasn’t been influenced in some degree over the years by the type of thinking found in this giant of Chinese literature is simply incorrect.

In this article I’d like to talk about how one particular verse from the Tao Te Ching can help you understand how the combat strategy of Tai Chi Chuan can be applied in Push Hands practice. Push Hands is a type of 2-person sparring exercise that belongs to Tai Chi Chuan. There’s a lot of subtlety to it, but in brief, one person pushes on the other’s arms, they try and deflect the push and then push back and so it continues in a circular pattern. In a lot of classes it’s the only type of 2-person training available. Push Hands is not fighting, but it should be practiced in a competitive way – you’re meant to be actively trying to unbalance the other person when you push. If you’re both simply moving your arms around in circles then nothing is really going on. You need to help your partner out by giving them something to work with. If you don’t have any force to work with then how can you ever hope to understand that “A force of four ounces deflects a thousand pounds” (as it says in the Tai Chi Chuan Treaste)?

The problem with push hands is that as soon as the idea of actively seeking to push the opponent is introduced the whole thing can descend into a very physical pushing and shoving match. In an effort to unbalance the opponent it’s human nature to try to impose your own will on the situation, which usually results in that great sin of Push Hands: Double Weighting (using force against force). It sounds contradictory, but to be truly good at push hands you need to try to not impose your own ideas on the situation – “Fundamentally, it is giving up yourself to follow others”, as it says in The Treaste on Tai Chi Chuan. Of course, that’s easier said than done, but I’ve found that reading the Tao Te Ching can add some great insights into how that is achieved. In particular I’d like to look at verse 15:

The ancient Masters were profound and subtle.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it;
all we can describe is their appearance.

They were careful
as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Clear as a glass of water.

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

The Master doesn’t seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.

As soon as you touch your Push Hands partner’s hands you are “a warrior in enemy territory”. If you let your guard down you will be easily pushed, and this applies as much to the mind as to the body. You need to cultivate your sense of awareness. A calm, steady, but receptive mind is what is needed. Verse 15 describes the actions of somebody with this type of mind, the “ancient Masters”, whose wisdom was “profound and subtle”. They are sensitive and receptive to conditions, so they can act correctly. In fact, it’s almost as if they don’t act themselves, instead the “right action arises by itself”.

Here we see the philosophy of Wu Wei in action – literally it means “doing nothing”, but I like to think of it in the terms described in Verse 15 – it’s effortlessly doing the right thing at the right time. Essentially, you don’t do it, instead it does itself. It’s not about acting when the self-centred ego-mind tells you that you should (usually for its own gain) – it’s about having the “patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear”. The metaphor of a glass of muddy water is well used here. Once its stirred up it becomes cloudy and impossible to see through. However, by doing nothing and waiting for the mud to settle you will be able to see through it.

If you are “Shapable as a block of wood” then there’s no way you can be trying to impose your own will on the situation. Let your opponent shape you. Or, as I once heard it put, “Bow to their superiority, then show them who is boss!”

If can learn to take your ego-based desires out of the equation and learn to follow your opponent’s actions then correct action should arise naturally. When you can get that feeling into your push hands you’re really getting somewhere. This is indeed a lofty goal, but everything you need to do it is right here with you, right now, not off in some far away land of abstract thought. As the Treaste on Tai Chi Chuan goes on to say:

“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”

* The Tao Te Ching is one of the most translated of all Chinese texts, and there are hundreds of translations available. By far my favourite is the one by Stephen Mitchell that I link to here. You can also buy a wonderfully illustrated hardcover version from Amazon here. I’d recommend the hardback with illustrations.

Tao Te Ching, An Illustrated Journey

It should be noted that his translation is by no means a literal one. However, he explains himself very well in the forward:

“With great poetry, the freest translation is sometimes the most faithful. “We must try its effect as an English Poem,” Dr Johnson said; “that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation”. I have often been fairly literal – or as literal as one can be with such a subtle, kaleidoscopic book as the Tao Te Ching. But I have also paraphrased, expanded, contracted, interpreted, worked with the text, played with it, until it became embodied in a language that felt genuine to me. If I haven’t always translated Lao Tzu’s words, my intention has always been to translate his mind.”

You can compare his translation of verse 15 above with the James Legge version below, for example. I know which translation I prefer.

The skilful masters (of the Tao) in old times, with a subtle
and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep
(also) so as to elude men’s knowledge. As they were thus beyond men’s
knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they
appeared to be.

Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in
winter; irresolute like those who are afraid of all around them; grave
like a guest (in awe of his host); evanescent like ice that is melting
away; unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into
anything; vacant like a valley, and dull like muddy water.

Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it
will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest?
Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.

They who preserve this method of the Tao do not wish to be full (of
themselves). It is through their not being full of themselves that
they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete.

Tai Chi Chuan applications practice

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Sadly, a lot of Tai Chi teachers seem to be under the impression that by simply practicing the form for many years you will somehow magically acquire all the abilities you need to manifest martial skill when required. It goes without saying that these people are simply deluded. Applications practice is something that goes on far too rarely in most Tai Chi Chuan classes, but like everything else it has its pros and cons. Chief amongst the pros are that there’s simply no other way to tell if you’re really doing a move with the right feel unless you know what that move is intended to do in application. And I don’t mean ‘know’ in the sense of intellectual understanding, I mean actually being able to do it. Even if you’re practicing Tai Chi Chuan for health reasons only, you can still make your form better by practicing the applications. Becoming familiar with the application can give you direct, first hand knowledge of how that move should work in a way that theoretical knowledge never will.

The cons of application practice are rarely discussed, but here’s one to mull over: I think it’s possible that a heavy emphasis on application practice over other 2-person exercises can give you an over rated sense of your ability to defend yourself. It’s important to remember that practicing applications from the form against a compliant training partner is not the same as doing them against a resisting and determined attacker. While no training situation can ever be the same as ‘using your art for real’, you do need to train in something closer to a real situation to get an idea of how to apply techniques against a determined attacker.

Applications practice remains a valuable part of the training. One of the benefits I’ve found from this practice is noticing how the simple introduction of a person on the end of your techniques can totally change how you do them – usually for the worse. You’ll probably notice that you stupidly throw away a lot of the skills you’ve been training so hard on in your form work. For instance, this week we were working on a simple application of the Ward-off posture, where you deflect the attackers punch with your ward-off, then use Roll Back on his next attack to unbalance him before applying a counter. While I successfully deflected the attackers punches, the application just didn’t feel comfortable when I tried it, and after a brief analysis of what I was doing I noticed that even with lots of practice I was still making basic errors. Under the threat of attack I had immediately resorting to just using my arms to deflect the incoming stirke, rather than turning the body from the waist.

In the practice of Tai Chi Chuan we must learn to use our body in a different way to the way we normally use it in everyday life, at a very deep level, so that you can still move that way when under pressure. Applications practice is a great way of upping the amount of pressure and seeing whether you’re really as good as you thought you were when fighting the air.

Threading into one

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Let’s look at the Tai Chi Classic, attributed to Chan Seng Feng. We could spend the whole post debating who Chan Seng Feng really was, and if he ever really existed, but I think its better to hand that whole subject over to a qualified academic, so here’s Henning’s take on the matter.

What I’d rather be concerned with is what he, she, or whoever, actually wrote. In actual fact, as has been observed by many, from Wile to Wells, the documents that come down to us as the Tai Chi Classics, can be seen more as a revision of popular martial arts sayings and phrases that have been passed down over the years, rather than the inspired creation of a single author.

Marnix Wells' book Douglas Wiles' book

We can look at this more specifically with an example. The Tai Chi Classic, for instance, seems to be mainly concerned with the importance of making the body a unified whole “the whole body should be light and agile, _with all parts of the body linked _as if threaded together”, how this affects the sprit of the practitioner; “The ch’i [vital life energy] should be excited, _The shen [spirit of vitality] should be internally gathered” and how this is contributes to delivering (internal) power using TCC’s particular method; “The chin [intrinsic strength] should be _rooted in the feet, _generated from the legs, _controlled by the waist, and _manifested through the fingers.”

It’s interesting to compare this classic to another body of older writing, the Ten Thesis commonly attributed to General Yue Fei of the Sung Dynasty. In the first of the ten thesis he emphasises this same notion of unity through what he calls “threading into one” (notice a direct comparison here with the Tai Chi Classic’s “as if threaded together”, and again later on “The whole body should be threaded together _through every joint _without the slightest break.”

From Yue Fei’s Thesis of Integrity:

“Although the postures cannot be classified, the Chi, however is, one. About what one means; from top to the bottom of the feet, internally there are viscera, bowels, tendons, and bones. Externally, there are muscles, skin, the five sensing organs, and hundreds of bones of the skeleton, mutually combined and become one. When struck will not open, when hit will not decompose. The top wishes to move, the bottom automatically follows. The bottom wishes to move the top will automatically lead. The center section moves, the top and the bottom will coordinate. Internal and external are combined, the front and the rear mutually required. This is what is called threading into one.”

So, you can see where these ideas come from, and also that they are not unique to Tai Chi Chuan. But to return the practical considerations, how should we ‘thread ourselves together’ during the Tai Chi form? And what does that really mean? The answer is to do with timing and co-ordination. As the Tai Chi Classic goes on to say:

“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.”

If you go to strike in, say, any of the punching moves in the form, or do one of the ward-off movements, without co-ordinating the body correctly your motion will be ineffectual. There are plenty of martial arts that can use the arm in isolation to deliver effective strikes, however Tai Chi Chuan is not one of them. To do things properly in a Tai Chi way you need to move your body as a single unit into the strike – power comes from the ground up through the legs, not from just the arm, as it says earlier in the Classic:

“The chin [intrinsic strength] should be _rooted in the feet,
generated from the legs,
controlled by the waist, and
manifested through the fingers.”

To do that you must co-ordinate the body correctly. If your body has become disordered – say, you move your weight forward in your stance to early, ahead of the punch, then you can’t do this. And as I said in my previous post, the source of the problem is usually found in the legs and waist.

Lee’s Modified lists 10 essential co-ordinations for Tai Chi Chuan. The basic external ones being:

Shoulders co-ordinate with the Kwa (inner thigh area)
Elbows co-ordinate with the Knees
Waist co-ordinates with the Neck (turn them together when turning the body)
Tailbone co-ordinates with the Head (keep them in alignment together)

He doesn’t add the popular ‘hand and foot co-ordinate’ saying, but you can add that one in as well if you like, so that his theory aligns with the popular ‘6 Harmonies’ theory using in Tai Chi Chuan, XingYi and Bagua.*

As you perform your form you need to check that you are co-ordinating the body in this manner correctly. It helps to have some feedback from your teacher at this point, but you can also observe yourself to some extent through your feelings. Does it feel like the power is coming up from the ground and into your hands on each of the moves? To get this sort of feedback you need to be very honest with yourself. If you delude yourself that you’re doing it perfectly then you may be in for a shock when you try to apply your power on somebody else, and it has little effect!

* It’s my personal belief that he left out ‘hand and foot co-ordinate’ deliberately, since Tai Chi Chuan’s way of moving doesn’t always land the hand and foot together in the same way you see in the 5 Elements of XingYi, for instance – quite often in Tai Chi Chuan you step out with an ’empty’ foot, then move your weight to it once it is in position. However, if you consider this transfer of weight as the co-ordination of the hand and foot, then the same theory could be said to apply.

Wrist usage in Tai Chi Chuan

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Following on from my last post about using the waist, I’ve been thinking about wrist usage in Tai Chi Chuan. According to the Classics, all movements in Tai Chi Chuan are controlled by the waist. “The waist is the commander of the whole body. If you can sung the waist, then the two legs will have power and the lower part will be firm and stable”, wrote Yang Cheng-Fu in number 3 of his 10 Important Points.* However, what about the wrist?

Try as you might I don’t think anybody can direct their wrist and hand movements solely by turning their waist. At least, I can’t. The arm can be directed by the body, sure, but the wrist needs a certain amount of autonomy. The key thing is that the movements of the wrist need to be natural and not over exaggerated.

Moving the wrist in Tai Chi Chuan movements relates directly to the Chan Si Chin, the “Silk Reeling” exercises found in certain style of Tai Chi Chuan. Silk Reeling helps you understand spiral movement, and the way that the wrist moves directs the arm in terms of the physical side of spiral movement.

Having this awareness of ‘autonomous, yet influenced by the body’ wrist movement throughout the form might help you develop your Tai Chi Chuan practice, so give it a try during your next practice session.

* Of course, there’s more to it than this – your mind actually controls what the body does, so the waist may be the commander, but it is itself under the command of the mind. As it says in the Mental Elucidation of the 13 Postures by Wu Yu-hsiang “The Xin (relates to ‘mind and ‘sprit’) is the commander, the chi the flag, and the waist the banner.”

Using the waist in Tai Chi Chuan

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You know how it is when you can tell a section of your form has gone to seed, but you can’t put your finger on exactly why? While doing the form this morning I was having major problems with one particular move. Which one is of no consequence, all that’s important is that it just didn’t feel right whatever way I did it. My form felt week and uncoordinated in that one particular spot. So, what is a student to do when they get stuck like this?

Luckily, I have a video of my teacher doing the form, so after failing to find the fault myself I simply popped open my laptop to watch how he approached that move. Immediately I saw my problem. He does the move with a lot more waist turning than I do. In fact, he does a lot more waist turning on all the moves compared to me, not just this one. The waist and legs are of utmost importance in TCC. In fact, it should have been the first place I looked for the solution to my problem rather than turning to a video, since the Tai Chi Classics already tell you that this is where you should be looking first to correct errors in your form. The Tai Chi Chuan Treaste (attributed to Chang Sang Feng) says it quite clearly:

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.

That seems pretty clear – if your movement feels uncoordinated or generally wrong to you then first look to the legs and waist for a solution to your problem. The emphasis on the waist echoes on through out the rest of the Classics. In the “Song of the Thirteen Postures” (Unknown Author) the first two lines are: “The Thirteen Postures should not be taken lightly; the source of the postures is in the waist.” And later: “Pay attention to the waist at all times; completely relax the abdomen”. From the Five Character Secret by Li I-Yu it says: “The ch’i is like a wheel, and the whole body must mutually coordinate. If there is any uncoordinated place, the body becomes disordered and weak. The defect is to be found in the waist and legs”, and also Yang Cheng-Fu recaps the whole matter neatly in his 10 Important Points:

“3.) Sung [Relax] the waist. The waist is the commander of the whole body. If you can sung the waist, then the two legs will have power and the lower part will be firm and stable. Substantial and insubstantial change, and this is based on the turning of the waist. It is said “the source of the postures lies in the waist. If you cannot get power, seek the defect in the legs and waist.””

On a purely physical level it’s the turning actions of the waist that generate Sung Jin (Relaxed force) in Tai Chi Chuan. For example, regardless of which style of Yang you do, after raising then lowering the hands most Yang forms start with a turn to the right accompanied by a ‘Ward Off’ movement with your right arm. For that movement to actually ward something off it needs to have power in it, rather than just being as soft as a noodle. But it needs the right type of power to avoid using just brute force. It’s the turning action of the body to the right that initiates the arm movement and puts the correct type of power (Sung Jin) in the arm. Rather than it being a separate movement powered only the arm muscles independantly, the movement is done by the whole body forming a unified shape. Still with me? Good. If not then read that again, and maybe watch a video of somebody who is good doing Yang style, like this guy.

The rotation of the waist is usually done in the horizontal vector and is most evident on the transitional movements between postures in the form*, but the waist is also the commander in forward and backwards motions which don’t involve rotations to the left or right, like the Push posture.

Integral to the idea of moving from the waist is the idea of empty and solid. If you consider the waist to be a like a wheel, which is what the Classics advise, then when you turn it to the left the upper body also turns to the left, and when you turn it to the right then the upper body also turns to the right. In Push Hands if you feel force applied to one side of your body you need to turn the waist, taking that side away from the force, effectively ‘emptying’ it, but at the same time ‘filling’ the other side. It is crucial that you fill the other side of your body at the same time as you are emptying the side that’s being pushed, otherwise your movement will be disordered and you will be pushed over. This can be trained in the form practice too, even without a partner to push you, using a simple mental awareness that whenever you turn the waist you are effectively emptying one side of the upper body as you fill the other. Imagine a fluid being transferred smoothly around your body if that helps. The principle of empty and solid is much further reaching than just this simple example, but it can really help you understand why the Classics stress that “the source of the postures is in the waist”, and later admonish you to “Pay attention to the waist at all times”.

If you’re looking to correct your form, then that’s the place to start.

* In effect, there are no fixed postures in any TCC form, but if you’re teaching it to beginners you have to stop somewhere. Once you’ve learned the form it needs to be smoothed out, so these fixed positions all dissolve into one flowing movement. That’s easier said than done though, since the process of smoothing out your form to a good enough standard to start incorporating other principles can easily take over a year.