Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 135

Dì Gōng 地功 Part 1

As human beings, we live between Heaven and Earth, We say Heaven gives us our minds, our thinking, feelings and sensations, Earth gives us support, stability and health. In Tàijíquán 太極拳 we follow the principle of Yīn 陰 and Yáng 陽 this principle is the meaning and principles of Tàijí 太極. When we practise Tàijíquán the lower part of our body needs to be firm, the lower part means our stance, and so our legs need to be firm. This means, most of the time, our knees will be bent, we can even practise our forms in a very low position. This is like the Earth, which is solid and strong. The upper part of the body needs to be loose, gentle, light and relax, which is like Heaven. This follows the principle of Tàijí, upper body light and lower body firm – soft and hard together. The upper body being light, allows our Qi to flow and makes us sensitive, so that when we are doing Tuī Shǒu 推手 – Pushing Hands, we can feel our opponent’s hands. The lower body, our stance being firm gives us support and power. Both of these together make perfect Tàijí. When we practise Zhàn Zhuāng 站樁 – Standing Mediation individually, we develop our power and this called Dì Gōng 地功. Dì 地 means earth and Gōng 功 work. So Dì Gōng means work from the Earth and it tells us the power comes from our legs, from our stance.