Tag Archives: Ba Gua

Push Hands (Tui Shou), Xing Yi

The energy of Shù (束)

Golden Chicken Frames Upward from Xing Yi Shi Er Hong Chui by Master Pei Xi Rong, translated by Joseph Crandall @ http:\\smilingtiger.net.

Shù or binding is a useful technique in martial arts. It incorporates connecting, accepting, leading, and restraining. It is considered one of the 5 yang energies in Xing Yi (and Xin Yi Liu He). Its also seen throughout other internal/external martial arts and is used for defensive purposes.

Well great Sifu I appreciate that info but so what? Why would we not want to constantly be leading into emptiness and using their own energy against them melding Yin and Yang together. Well there are just realities in the fighting world. Transformational energy is an extremely difficult task and while one of the most important tricks in your bag it should not be your only trick. Binding can create an opponent to lose their advantage and get them out of “their game.” It allows you to obtain an your own superior position and follow up with a strike they may not be prepared for. This example can be expertly demonstrated through the chicken form Rooster blocks up to Rooster flicks its feathers. Once you block you grab an opponents wrist and sink down. *Note your arm can slightly wraps around your opponents and your whole body must sink in a fast, firm, and stable manner. This will disrupt the opponent’s energy and momentum. This essentially “binds” them from attacking again at that moment. FYI this can then be followed up with Rooster flicks its feathers by issuing Zhǎn (展) energy and exploding up.

The importance of binding in internal martial arts is in the game-changing effect of disrupting your opponent and providing an advantage to yourself. The energy must be quick, strong, and rooted. The whole body must be incorporated. Shù primarily works in the linear up and down pathways (yet there are always circles within the linear). Connecting to the opponent is also important. Whether delivering a strike or intercepting one a fundamental principle in any IMA system is connecting and understanding their energy. Then one can use many different principles to bind an opponent. One can lead an opponent to emptiness or one can pluck and jerk an opponent. Another key is the move must get your opponent close to you. Why close? Because your are contracting your energy. Internally binding shrinks and gathers. You must put the energy into the joints and store it. This will enable an effective binding as you become strong like a tree or steel. Joints must be aligned, the body must be upright, the dan tian sunken, and the root must be firm. If executed correctly it cannot be broken or moved.

Now this energy must be practiced. Santi training or any gathering practice is beneficial to this type of training. Actually conducting standing training that exercises the muscles in this position is most beneficial though. It will be tense at first and most martial artists will only be able to hold positions like this for short periods. You will train low positions with arms close to your body. The energy will be focuses inward and sunken. Overtime the tension will ease as muscles learn to “relax” in this flexed position. Its also key to keep the joints properly aligned and “stacked” on each other. Your three sections will be connected and combined. Without the properly alignment and connection the muscles will not have a frame to relax into and injuries can occur. You will also not maximize the capability of this position to make it unbreakable and truly strong. Now its also key to remember to practice releasing and expansion methods or your body will become too “tight” and will not be able to issue energy properly. This can be saved for a later lesson though 😉

Neijia, Xing Yi

What is Guo 裹?

Master Liu demonstrating Guo Zi Quan from his article, “Xing Yi Quan Ba Zi Gong,” Wu Long Magazine, 1984.3 #30, translated by Joseph Crandall, Smiling Tiger Martial Arts.

The importance of being having whole body power in Internal Martial Arts cannot be understated. To have Fa Li (power) one must have Guo 裹. Most IMA individuals understand Guo in terms of wrapping Jin. It’s a horizontal energy (oversimplified term, all directions are present to ensure centeredness) used for defense and offense. It takes an opponents incoming energy and wraps around it, cutting it off or better yet absorbing it to re-issue.

Great Sifu you defined Guo, so what? Why is it important?

Guo can be fundamental to absorbing and issuing. All fighting arts look to “suck” in their opponent and take advantage of the position. Blocking is easy but true masters in their chosen art can off-balance their opponent, using their opponent’s strikes and aggressiveness to their advantage. It is circular, coiling, redirecting. You must connect with your opponent, overturn and coil around it, lead it into emptiness. It allows you to gain the upper hand or superior position for the attack. It allows you to gather energy in your joints to release quick and sharply like an arrow.

Some masters will talk of Guo at a deeper level. They will associate Guo with connection and togetherness. The wrapping methods of Guo require the practitioner to connect the Sānjié (三節) or three sections through coordinated movement. The wrapping methods need to be coordinated in the legs to root and absorb, the waist to maintain centeredness and twist as the arms to overturn and accept, and the head to be upright to allow for the energy to sink and gather. When all of this is coordinated it will maximize the effectiveness of your Jin. Now as you get older this Jin will be harder to accomplish as joints and aches will get in the way of coordination. This is one reason to remain soft and supple; to ensure things can connect smoothly and work in harmony. If you do not practice consistently and work towards song/suppleness you will become “scattered.” This will show in your wushu and is something you want to delay in old age as long as possible. Discipline, consistency, hard work — the mantra of the wise, the mantra of wushu experts who can obtain and maintain Guo well into their old age!

16 Principles of Tai Chi

[16] The Issuing of Your Whole Body Reaches to Every Hair.

Ahh, the last principle and probably one of the most important of all.  To truly  reach a level within internal martial arts and kung fu it requires mastery beyond kicking, punching, applications, or even building a Dan Tian.  To have been a real master of internal martial arts back at the turn of the century a person had to demonstrate the capability to fill their 4 antennas or extremities (Si Shou). When your Qi is abundant, has filled your organs and Dan Tian, it will naturally express through your 4 extremities.  One such extremity is connected to your hair through your blood.  Energy attaches to your blood and follows it.  Once your blood and Qi are thoroughly connected you will feel enlivened.  You will tingle with sensations and even the lightest of touch may send your senses off the radar.  The first step of to all of this though is opening your microcosmic orbit (discussed in principle 2).  Once your gates are open and you can quickly send your energy to your headtop you will feel a tingle in your hairs.  That is natural and good – you are filling things up!  Eventually you want to make that energy shoot up and pop your hair up on your head.  Masters of old were able to wear a hat and pop it off with a thought!   Hey and  added benefit it slows down the greying process of your hair and helps male pattern baldness!

Once you have the microcosmic orbit you work on the macrocosmic orbit.  This is where your energy flows through your arms and legs.  This is when you can get the energy to every part of your body.  When all your meridians are full and energy courses through your body you will feel it in every hair.  My friend once talked to Master Yun Yin Sen (Liu He Ba Fa master in Shanghai).  Master Yun demo’d his ability to raise and lower his arm hair at will.  Now this wont fend off a dozen armed men (or even a single one really),  but it demonstrates his abundance of energy and filling of his Si Shou and thus demonstrates his mastery and dedication to neijia arts.

As with some of these principles there lies a deeper meaning.  Sure its great to be alive with energy but it’s a trap!  There is another level that one should aspire to.  You must allow that qi and shen to mix and convert.  This is the level (as discussed in several posts already) that will allow you to sense others without touch and feel.  By expressing Shen at every hair you will have reached a level that can predict and act before your opponent, sense intentions, find meaning.  Can you read someone’s mind?  No, but by sensing the energy in their movement you are in sense doing so as you can react at a subconscious level, immediate and faster than anything they can fathom.

You must be able to connect your inner and outer together.  The energy and spirit must flow with the strength of a surging river throughout your body with the ability to move like the wind at will, swirling and alive.  All of the previous steps get you to this finality, to this doorway of mastery.  Its not an easy process but through hard work and dedication; you will have obtained what few have and will have a peace only few know.

16 Principles of Tai Chi

[3] Spirit courses through your spine.

Oh the spirit!  A level many enjoy talking about but few actually reach.  Shen or Spirit is a more esoteric level and dives into the stranger side of internal martial arts.  Some discuss Shen as your vigor, emotions, or hormones, but I believe they miss the mark.   The classics talk of very few people attaining such a great feat,  Masters like Li Nang Ren (Xing Yi), Dong Hai Chuan (Ba Gua), and Yang Lu Chuan (Tai Chi) were said to obtain such a level through diligent practice, concentrated effort, and humble ability.    Shen must be produced and nourished through our intention of raising Qi into the Upper Dan Tian.  This is where the magic will happen.  Now to accomplish such a feat a person needs to follow the protocol and work first to convert essence (jing) into Qi and store their Qi.  Once they have accumulated Qi in your lower Dan Tian and 5 organs (throughout your body); you can work towards developing your Qi into Shen and bringing it into your Upper Dan Tian through the Du meridian (GV vessel).

Now a person might ask me, “Sifu, can’t I just go right to Shen development?”

“NO!”  Without the proper buildup and accumulation of resources your Shen will be weak and frail, incapable of the abilities an internal martial artist truly desires.

Once your Shen is strong and vibrant your eyes will shine and your mind will be clear.  From here the deeper levels of joining the void can be explored in which you will know and see all things, thus allowing your movement to become without  intention and demonstrating uncanny abilities.

I will leave you with this final excerpt from Sun Lu Tang’s book “AUTHENTIC EXPLANATIONS OF MARTIAL ARTS CONCEPTS” (Translated by Paul Brennan in 2013) about Li Nang Ren:

“In the same county was a certain man who came top in the imperial military exams. His body was strong and he was an extraordinary man, also an expert in boxing arts. With Li he was simple and friendly, but of Li’s martial art he was secretly unconvinced. He always wanted to challenge others, but when he was on such friendly terms, he was too shy to say so. One day they were conversing in a room, talking and laughing like everything was normal. But he began to decide to test Li after all, and with the intention of catching him totally unprepared.

When he acted, he took advantage of the unexpectedness of it, sneaking up behind Li to clutch him and forcefully lift him up. And as he extended a hand, his body was already soaring diagonally upward, his head went into the ceiling, and then he fell back down with both feet standing on the ground rather than falling down.

He suspected Li of sorcery, but Li informed him: “It’s not sorcery, it’s just that at the highest level the boxing art is a spiritual skill. As it is unperceived, it seems miraculous and beyond your comprehension.” From that point, his contemporaries dubbed him “Magic Boxing” Li Nengran.”