Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 138

Wáng Zōng Yuè’s Tàijíquán Poem 王宗岳太極拳論 Part 1

Wáng Zōng Yuè was from Shānxī Rén 山西, a person from Shānxī 山西人. No one really knows when he was born and when he died, but his poem of Tàijíquán 王宗岳太極拳論 is very famous. Anyone who seriously studies Tàijíquán will have heard his name and know about his poem, and in fact, all the Tàijíquán classics use his poem. He wrote many books on Tàijíquán. His books contain very similar knowledge to the books written by the Chén Family Taijiquan and so some people believe that he went to Chénjiāgōu 陳家溝 – Chén Village, and spent some time there. This was around the time of Yáng Lù Chán 楊露禪 (1799 -1872), the founder of Yang Style Tàijíquán and also the time of Chén Cháng Xìng 陳長興 (1771-1853), who was Yáng Lù Chán’s Sīfú 師父 – teacher. So, some believe that Wáng Zōng Yuè leant Chén Shì Tàijíquán 陈式太极拳 – Chén Style Tàijíquán and then wrote his books.

One of his famous passages is:

虛領頂勁，氣沉丹田。不偏不倚，忽隱忽現。左重則左虛，右重則右杳。仰之則彌高，俯之則彌深。進之則愈長，退之則愈促。一羽不能加，蠅蟲不能落。人不知我，我獨知人，英雄所向無敵，蓋皆由此而及也。

For posture, we need to relax the head and the shoulders with Qi supporting the whole body.

Qi sinks to the Dāntián, no leaning to either side.

The mind should be in the present and also absent (empty).

When our weight is on the left, we should not totally commit ourselves – we should be able to move in any direction easily. When our weight is on the right, we should do the same.

When we move upward, we are in the higher position, when we move downward, we are in the lower position. When we move forward – we can go further away. When we move backward, we should be able to move quickly and further away as well.

The energy in the body we should be balanced – with not even the weight of a feather or a fly out of balance.

Other people do not know me, but I know everything about them.

A person like this is a hero and invincible. This is what we know from this.