From the Bowu Network Translated by Joshua Hehr
Editor's Note: This year (2009) marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Wang Peisheng, a contemporary master of martial arts and a grandmaster of Wu-style Taijiquan. This journal is publishing an article from several years ago in which Mr. Wang discussed Taijiquan, in commemoration. This discussion serves as a guideline for practicing traditional Taijiquan. The training methods and training procedures are explained clearly and plainly, holding significant guiding importance for later generations in practicing Wu-style Taijiquan well.
Wang Peisheng is the chief moderator of the Wu-style Taijiquan section on the China Taijiquan Network and is an influential Wu-style Taijiquan master in China. He has deep accomplishments in Taijiquan forms and combat techniques as well as in theory. Recently, a reporter from our network made a special trip to interview him, asking him to share his views on how to practice Taijiquan forms and push hands well. These views are the crystallization of his decades of experience teaching Taijiquan, with scientific content and strong practicality. We are publishing them on our network to benefit the vast number of Taijiquan enthusiasts!
Reporter: Teacher Wang, hello! You are a renowned Taijiquan master and the moderator of the Wu-style Taijiquan section on the China Taijiquan Network. Currently, Taijiquan has spread throughout the entire world. Today I'd like to ask you to discuss why Taijiquan is so popular.
Teacher Wang: Taijiquan is a scientific sport with a long history belonging to the Chinese nation. Practicing Taijiquan can help us exercise our bodies, strengthen our physiques, fortify our willpower, and improve work efficiency. For some people who are weak or ill, it has the function of helping restore physical strength and promoting recovery from illness.
Taijiquan conforms to physiological requirements. Taijiquan is a relatively good health-preserving exercise. Why can it play a health-preserving role? Taijiquan is a gentle whole-body exercise that emphasizes mental or intentional training, with the brain consciously directing bodily activity. Practice requires that the entire body must be relaxed, with no stiffness anywhere, so that qi and blood flow smoothly throughout the body, body and mind are joyful, achieving the goal of health.
Taijiquan also conforms to mechanical and psychological requirements. These two points are mainly manifested in Taijiquan's combat function: mechanically, the emphasis in boxing is on how to maintain one's own balance while being able to destroy the opponent's balance; when destroying the opponent's balance, one must change according to the opponent's psychological manifestation. This is probably why it is so popular with people!
Reporter: Some people practice Taijiquan as if doing calisthenics—you can't see the flavor of Taijiquan. How should one practice to avoid turning Taijiquan into another form of calisthenics?
Teacher Wang: Practicing Taijiquan must involve mastering the basic essentials of Taijiquan so as not to turn it into another form of calisthenics. Most people learning Taijiquan nowadays start by practicing "the form." Often after three or four months of practice they say they've entered the path. To practice Taijiquan well, one must strictly follow the basic essentials and steps of Taijiquan, practicing step by step.
Reporter: So what are the steps for practicing Taijiquan?
Teacher Wang: The first step is to practice standing post work well—such as horse stance standing post, river-character step post, and one-line standing post. Then, after practicing these basic skills to a considerable degree, one can learn boxing forms. Practicing each individual move and posture requires several months, until each form and posture is completely mastered, then they are combined into a complete Taijiquan set.
Reporter: Are all Taijiquan frames the same?
Teacher Wang: Many people only know there is one set of Taijiquan frames, not knowing that within one set there are also high, medium, and low frames. When beginning to learn, it's the high frame, then the medium frame (also called the four-level frame, meaning eyes level, hands level, feet level, crotch level), and finally the low frame. Within these three types of frames there are also large, medium, and small divisions.
Reporter: What are the differences among these frames?
Teacher Wang: Of course there are differences! The large frame requires postures to be open and expansive, conforming to the body's requirements; the medium frame requires that movements in each posture should not be excessive or insufficient, and can be continuous and unbroken, consistent from beginning to end; the small frame requires each posture to be compact, with movements agile and swift. Among these three types of frames, the small frame is most difficult. Each move issues cun jin (inch force), so when advancing or retreating the steps are very small, and the hands must be especially coordinated with the waist and legs.
Reporter: How long does it take to learn these three types of frames?
Teacher Wang: Learning these three types of frames requires a long time—definitely not something that can show results in a year or two. When first learning, one can only learn one or two moves, not too many. Learning too much means the postures cannot be accurate, and it's easy to slip into superficiality, losing the true meaning of Taijiquan. Besides avoiding rushing for quick results, one must also avoid using force. So people who practiced boxing in the past said, "One should not be fast; fast injures the qi. Originally having no force yet forcefully exerting oneself injures the blood. If both qi and blood are injured, this can cause internal injury and illness." If practiced correctly, even one or two moves can bring benefits. Conversely, if practice doesn't conform to requirements, even practicing the complete set several times each session won't bring results.
Reporter: What are the requirements when practicing Taijiquan?
Teacher Wang: When practicing boxing, the tongue must touch the upper palate, lips and teeth together, breathing through the nose, body centered and upright, chest contained and back extended, shoulders sunken and elbows dropped, head upright and suspended from above, crotch wrapped and buttocks tucked, upper and lower forming a straight line, clearly distinguishing empty and full when stepping, seeking completeness everywhere, the whole body light and agile, eyes looking ahead of the fingertips. Breathing naturally, upper and lower, left and right connected, without thought or worry, reaching a realm of calm mind and peaceful qi. Sinking qi and relaxing force must be constantly attended to, because when qi sinks, breathing harmonizes; when force relaxes, clumsy strength is eliminated. Each posture requires the external form to be smooth while the interior is comfortable without any forcing. Thus the chest and diaphragm can naturally open and expand, qi and blood harmonize, bringing great benefit to body and mind. Conversely, if postures are not correct enough and deviate far from principles, then qi stagnates in the chest and diaphragm, floating and unsettled—not only bringing no benefit, but illness arising from this. So learning a complete set of Taijiquan frames requires at least half a year; after half a year, without the teacher correcting in detail several times, it must take at least a year.
Practicing boxing can be compared to writing characters—the more times, the more correct each form and posture becomes; also like copying calligraphy models, the more times, the better the writing. Therefore, to genuinely practice the skill, each time practicing the form should be three times (three sets), because the first set is for stretching sinews and bones; only after one time can skill advance. Those practicing for health need not be restricted; half a set each time is also acceptable. When practicing boxing, from the first move to the last move, whether movements are fast or slow, all must be uniform—not fast then slow or slow then fast, and even more so there must be no defects, unevenness, or breaks. Each posture can continue without interruption, breathing can be natural, internal and external can be unified, and especially must be practiced naturally without deliberate thought. After practicing the entire set to complete proficiency, one can change all the postures of the complete set to the left form (reverse form)—for example, movements with the right hand change to the left hand, left hand changes to right hand, right foot changes to left foot, left foot changes to right foot, turning left changes to turning right, turning right changes to turning left. If one can practice the left-form frame of the complete set until it flows continuously the same as the right side, then the skill advances even further. Because practicing both left and right avoids the defect of one-sidedness, and when practicing the right form again one feels even greater interest. This is something that students seeking deeper mastery must know. Additionally, one can also practice with the hands separated—practicing the left hand or right hand first are both fine, because they must alternate anyway, so there's no priority, but left and right forms must be practiced repeatedly, with proficiency as the main goal. If practicing according to this procedure, then one set of Taijiquan frames can become six sets.
Reporter: Hearing you say this truly opens my eyes. So practicing Taijiquan has such rich and varied methods and procedures. If everyone could practice according to the steps you've described, they would surely practice Taijiquan well. So does learning Taiji push hands also have its unique steps?
Teacher Wang: Of course, learning push hands also has its unique steps. After mastering the Taiji forms, one can learn push hands. Learning push hands starts with fixed-step push hands, then moving-step push hands, then progressively learning da lü, blade, sword, sticking pole, san shou (free fighting), and so on. Practicing according to these rules, without several years of genuine skill one cannot complete all the above boxing and weapons.
Reporter: Could you specifically discuss the steps for learning push hands?
Teacher Wang: Learning Taijiquan must advance gradually to succeed—this is the overall requirement. When first learning the four hands of fixed-step push hands—peng, lü, ji, an—most cannot connect them smoothly. One must follow the teacher or someone more skilled than oneself, regularly practicing circles together until proficient, then have the teacher orally explain the meaning of the four hands of peng, lü, ji, an. When the four hands can each be distinguished clearly, practiced until continuous and unbroken, the waist and legs can rotate at will, and neutralizing can be smooth, then one can learn grasping force and issuing force. At this time one needs to find a partner to mutually study and practice. First practice one type of grasping force or issuing force. Never practice another force when one force is not yet mastered, and even more so never practice several types simultaneously. Know that when one force can flow, any force can flow. If one force is not learned well, others won't be learned well either. Before practicing grasping force and issuing force, one should let the teacher or someone more skilled than oneself grasp and issue at will, observing how they lead you, how they grasp you, how they issue you, where the grasping and issuing locations are, the timing of grasping and issuing, the direction of grasping and issuing—cardinal or diagonal—all must be tested bodily as a gateway to comprehension. Never be too eager. Fixed-step push hands occupies a primary position in Taijiquan basic skills. After push hands reaches a certain level, one must not practice exclusively with one person, but should practice with many people. Because people differ—some have impetuous temperaments, some are mild-tempered, some have hard hands, some soft hands, some great force, some small force, some shallow skill, some deep skill—all must be practiced with. If one doesn't know to practice this way, then with familiar people one can grasp and issue, but with unfamiliar people one cannot. Continuing this way will never reach a high level of skill.
Next, moving-step push hands requires the three parts of hands, waist, and legs to move as one. When advancing or retreating, the sticking and adhering force cannot suddenly break. This phenomenon should also not occur when practicing da lü, sticking pole, or san shou. At least two parts of one's hands or pole must stick to the opponent. If they don't stick, then listening force easily breaks, and at the same time it's easy for the enemy to seize the opportunity to strike. Thus nervous sensation also cannot be trained sensitively. One needs to practice according to the method of the four characters: zhan (stick), lian (connect), nian (adhere), sui (follow), practicing until when issuing hands or force the opponent is unaware.
Reporter: I've heard there is also san shou in Taiji combat. How does one practice san shou?
Teacher Wang: As for san shou, it must be practiced separately; otherwise it cannot be applied at any time. Additionally, one should especially pay attention to hand methods, body methods, and footwork. Whether footwork should advance or retreat, whether hand methods should be high or low, whether body methods should be upright or angled—first seek that one's own posture is smooth and not contrary. Hand methods when issued should contain circular form; going and returning must have folding. When footwork lands, whether forward or backward, straight or diagonal, the body should be centered and upright, and have the intention of sealing the enemy's body. One's own advancing and retreating should have the momentum of rising and falling, ascending and descending. Besides these three methods, seek correct posture, skilled techniques, clearly distinguished center of gravity between empty and full, lively internal jin, able to supplement and discharge (supplement qi, discharge force). If one only seeks to understand jin, specializing in irregular push hands, even after practicing a long time, one will still be weak without seeing significant results. This is because practicing posture is easy, while internal jin is comparatively difficult to practice.
Reporter: How can one practice Taijiquan to reach a level as high as yours?
Teacher Wang: To reach a high and profound level, one must have the following types of spirit to succeed:
- Have perseverance. Practicing Taijiquan requires patience and endurance, especially requiring an indomitable spirit. When first learning Taijiquan, it's not as captivating as flowery martial arts displays, so people with impetuous temperaments often cannot persist. Learning Taijiquan should be practiced every day, throughout the year, year after year, until not practicing Taijiquan makes the body feel uncomfortable—then it becomes a habit. Never can one be extremely diligent today and not practice even one form tomorrow—three days of fishing and two days of drying nets—this will never lead to learning it well.
- Don't slacken. Whether severe cold or intense heat, one cannot interrupt. Even during tense and busy study or work times, one must squeeze out a few minutes to practice. Only by practicing constantly and continuously can one obtain its benefits.
- Be focused. People learning boxing all have a common problem: greed for quantity. Today practicing Taiji, tomorrow wanting to practice Bagua, the day after wanting to practice Xingyi. Know that the principles of various boxing arts are originally interconnected—understand one and understand all. For strengthening the body, daily practice of one set is quite sufficient. Otherwise, not excelling at any one, even learning a hundred sets is useless. Conversely, mastering one set is equivalent to mastering a hundred sets.
- Don't skip levels. When practicing skills, gradual progress is acceptable but never be too hasty, lest haste makes waste. Boxing skill cannot be rushed—practicing one day is one day's skill, learning one day has one day's achievement. Wanting to skip levels and advance is absolutely impossible. Like in boxing forms: the previous form not yet proficient, yet forcing oneself to learn the next form; posture not yet accurate, yet seeking applications; push hands not yet complete, yet engaging in da lü; blade and sword not yet refined, yet greedily learning sticking pole—all such