Tag Archives: Chi

Zhan Nian (沾黏) Jin

Sifu Hart discussing the finer points of Tui Shou.

Sticking/Adhering (沾黏) Jin is a fundamental jin within IMA.  From this Jin you can can dive deeper into listening, understanding, deflecting, and redirecting anothers Li (strength).  Sticking jin is tricky as it requires body parts to touch.  Usually IMA practitioners start with arms but once a working knowledge is understood any body part can be used.  The goal is to remain in contact of some sort to be able to use your other jins appropriately.  Your opponent will move and you will move with him, he will feel like he cannot “shake” you .  He attacks, you retreat… he retreats, you stay with him (attacking as necessary).  They are fast, you are fast… they are slow, you are slow.  This is why you must learn to listen, understand, and follow.  If you do not learn these jins, sticking energy becomes difficult if not impossible to maintain.  Yet without sticking jin these other jins become useless as well, they are all mutually beneficial and coordinate with eachother.

Another goal is to become as light as possible–Qing ( 轻) Jin.  Why light?  Being empty and light allows for you to “feel” their energy and to be able to react quickly/agilely.  Being heavy and strong makes it difficult to react quickly; not impossible but difficult and not the correct method to higher levels.  It also gives plenty of energy to the other person to “feel” and work with.  Among other things the greats of the past hollowed their chest,  rounded their backs, relaxed their shoulders and made their upper body empty (in reality this is a gross over generalization, once they mastered their body they were able to appear empty but be full and vice versa – their conceal and release became truly marvelous).  They were able to react instantly to situations and seamlessly follow, neutralize, and redirect their opponent.  Why?  Because they had mastered their sticking ability!

Most people train this method through push hands (Tui Shou).  This is a great method and preferred among many internalists.  But there are steps to this.  One must first work in a rooted position and then move to moving step (my method is restricted step then to freestyle).  It’s a great non-threatening environment to hone sticking skills and work on true lightness ability with those skills.  However to be truly great with this skill one needs to work into compliant and non-compliant sparring.  Learning to stick at a point of contact can be tricky when a punch or kick is executed (and even trickier when that punch and kick returns back to its owner).  One must learn to truly move with an opponent, blocking or evading a strike then returning with it slightly as you “attach” yourself to your opponent; with the true key being “staying” attached.  There will be several subtle movements and understanding fight distance, spacing, and angles truly become important.  If you can master sticking in a fighting environment you are your way to truly becoming mysterious.

In the end the higher level would be the touch becomes virtually non-existent.  You would stick to your opponent without them feeling anything from you.  You become like the air around them, incapable of identifying your presence but constantly feeling theirs.  Their will becomes  obvious while yours remains mysterious.   They become truly frustrated because of their inability to “touch” you and apply their yi (intent) and li (strength). It’s a lofty goal but one worth striving for.

Liu He Ba Fa 8 Methods — 5th Method: Lift

Mount HuangShan. Resting place of Chen Tuan and birthplace of Liu He Ba Fa

The 5th Method is Lifting —ti (提). “The peak hangs on emptiness (ding xuan xu kong 顶悬虚空).”   Like a thread ontop of your head, holding it up and suspending the rest of your body.  Lifting the top of your head creates several mechanisms in your body.  First it creates proper alignment within your energy pathways and structure.  Your head is suspended, lengthening your neck and slightly tucking your chin.  It straightens your spinal column and Ren meridian. It allows your shoulders to hang and hollow out your chest.  Your Saliva and energy will have a better and straighter path towards your stomach and lower dan tian.   You have the ability to tuck your tailbone underneath you, engaging your kuas, and having the ability to move  in a flowing fashion.  The energy will naturally want to sink into your dan tian and your root.  This internal alignment is good for both health and fighting.

Secondly, by suspending your head you focus your energy and shen high as well.  Your upper body becomes light and mobile as air. It feels energized and engaged.    It may feel like buzzing, or raindrops but activity occurs and it is good thing! This engagement can calm your mind and raise your awareness.  Your mind can more easily find peace through emptiness.  Eventually it allows you to connect and become apart of the grander picture.

Liu He Ba Fa 8 Methods — 3rd Method: Shape

The 3rd Method is Shape (xing形); “Change image, copy and imitate–hua xiang mo fang (化象模仿). ” Shape is important.  To copy your sifu’s form and movement leads you down your own correct path.  You have to trust their skill and intent, but once you get the form down, with correct movement, you can start applying the harmonies and ideals, framing it to you and your will.  This involves shape – structure, motion, and intent.  With solid structure and fluid motion you will begin to move effortlessly and quickly.  Your body will get used to the intent you would like to apply and can change to it quickly.  It will mold into your own will and it will become powerful.

Shape includes the ideals of the 12 animals and 3 levels of Liu He Ba Fa.  You must learn to coil like the dragon, be fierce like the tiger, be nimble like the swallow, graceful like the goose.  You must understand what each animal  represents energy-wise and understand what it inspires (we will discuss each animal in later posts).  The levels involve high to low stances, being swift like air, flowing like water, and yet deeply rooted into the earth.

You are not on some animal spirit journey but understanding how they should move and what they bring to the form is important.  You must study the individual movements and what the intent is with the particular animal.  Coil, pouncing, seizing, being swift and nimble– All different characteristics that must be analyzed and understood.  The animals and levels bring necessary ideals which create health, mobility, and mindset.

Liu He Ba Fa 6 Harmonies: 2nd Harmony– Heart (mind) Combines With Your Intention

2nd Harmony: Combine your Heart (Mind) with your Intention – xin he yu yi心合于意

Focus is important, but more importantly what are you focusing on?  Are you focusing on your day at work, your family, or the task at hand!   It takes 200 days of consistent practice to learn the external movements properly (according to some experts).  What does that movement really mean though?   What is happening both inside and out?   This understanding takes MUCH longer.  The intention of each movement  needs to be thoroughly understood to apply the correct energies and applications.  Without the focus your mind can be pulled away, causing hesitation, inconsistences, and ultimately bad habits.  You need to be fully in the moment of what you are doing and where you are at.  Without it you are mindlessly doing an external form (which can still get a person physical benefits but does not reach the full potential of the art).

 

Also this is where 10,000 repetitions can truly compound.  With intention– with focus, it will engrain in a person’s inner conscious;  it has the potential to become second nature.  To fully open to the intention of each movement; to open to the energy and animalistic nature (yes there are 12 animals within this art) of it has profound results.   You become one with the form and the form becomes one with you.  Liu He Ba Fa has many variants among the main form but if you look deeply into that practitioners inner intent you can see if they have the essence of it.  Are certain moves fierce like a tiger, does it coil like a dragon, and deeper still do they demonstrate the 8 methods such as follow and return.  If their intention and focus is engrained in them, they will display these principles thus demonstrate Liu He Ba Fa.

[15] Simplify Things by Using Your Whole Body.

What’s one of the overarching themes I have explained throughout these principles?  Connectedness!  Now on surface level of this statement its pretty straight forward.  Your body–every fiber, muscle and joint– must be connected to accept and deliver the maximum amount energy.  When one part moves it all moves in some fashion (even at a very microscopic level) and when one part is still it all must be still.  External energy is maximized with this principle.  You can become truly fluid and move like the wind when all parts are truly connected.

But wait there is more!  Internal martial arts deals has an inside to deal with.  You must learn to connect all these parts together as well to generate and build energy then refine spirit.  Without these concepts your internal martial art is merely an external shell of a form.

Without unifying everything your results will be modest at best.  Some people learn to move well, and are truly beautiful and can generate decent amounts of power but they do not work internally so they can never break that glass ceiling of  power generation.  Others work only on internal aspects but let they body go to hell so they can barely move or are sluggish and slow.  This power generated is still modest and in most aspects worse than the external people.  Yin and Yang must balance.  It’s concept, like explained earlier, is easy to say but very hard to actually implement.  Your body, internally and externally, must be connected to generate the true potential of internal martial arts.