Taijiquan is composed of a wide range of styles, and many variations
are evident even within each particular style. Yang Chengfu outlined the
Ten Basic Tenets of Taijiquan. Though his formulation of these tenets post-
dated Chen-style taijiquan, they still apply to the earlier Chen style and to
all styles subsequent to Yang Chengfu’s Yang style. These ten basic tenets
are in essence a summary of the Taiji Classics.
Styles vary in the depth of the stances, the size of the movements,
flourishes, and the appearance of the release of power. In Chen style, for
instance, emphasis is placed on the explosive release of power, referred to
as fa jing.Despite these differences, the basic characteristics and tenets are
a constant.
Kicks tend to utilize the heel of the foot rather than the ball of the
foot. Hand strikes more often employ the palm, compared with the fist in
most hard styles. Though the fist is an important weapon in taijiquan as
well, the fist is closed loosely. The theory is that energy gets locked up in a
consistently tightly clenched fist and steals energy from the punch. The
view is that for every show of strength, there is resultant weakness. For
strikes, more of the body is employed in taijiquan. For example, one of the
essential actions of taijiquan is kao(bump) energy. Utilizing this force, one
may use the shoulder, back, entire torso, or hip as a weapon.
Taijiquan was originally called the Thirteen Movements, but this does
not refer to specific techniques of blocking or attacking. These are instead
thought of more as eight energies and five directions. The energies are peng
(ward off), lu(roll back), Ji (press), an(push), cai(pull down), lie(split),
zhou(elbow), and kao(bump).
The first four of these energies are referred to as the “essential ener-
gies.” The latter four are the “four corners,” referring to the directions of
the compass, northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest. The remain-
ing five directions are advance, retreat, gaze right, look left, and central
equilibrium.
The jing (power) of these techniques is manifested by the propagation
of qi (internal energy) from the ground, into the leg, gathered at the dan-
tian,passing up through the spine, and then manifested out through the re-
laxed weapon, be it the hand, elbow, shoulder, sword, or other channel.
This energy travels in a spiraling fashion, often referred to as silk-reeling.
Ultimately, the body acts as a whip with the handle of the whip being the
foot, rooted to the ground.
This root, as it is called, is the foundation of a taijiquan practitioner’s
stability or balance. It is accomplished by relaxing all of one’s weight into
one of the lower extremities, thus allowing gravity to do the work of sta-
bilizing the body. The Chinese character for song(relaxing) is best inter-
preted as “sinking.” It is by sinking into the lower extremity that root is es-624 Taijiquan (Tai Chi Ch’uan)