Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 141

Wáng Zōng Yuè’s Tàijíquán Poem王宗岳太極拳論 Part 4

In Wáng Zōng Yuè’s Tàijíquán Poem 王宗岳太極拳論 he says, “左重則左虛，右重則右杳。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.”

So when our weight is on the left, we should not over ourselves and be able to easily move in any direction. This is quite correct. Whenever we put our weight on our left side we should not put all our weight there, otherwise we are taking a gamble and we will either win or lose. Our thinking should be that in Tàijíquán 太極拳 we should only win. So we will never take this gamble and put all our weight on one leg. It is the same as the common saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” So we must take precautions, just in case we miss and then we will still be able to balance ourselves. Therefore we will keep some weight on the other foot or make sure that we can still change direction on the committed foot. Always have a plan B. In fact, even if we win, we should not put all our weight on one leg. When our opponent is in such a bad position this is the time when they will use extra force and fall over, at this moment they are still dangerous. It is the same when we are thinking about the right foot.

This is the principle of Tàijíquán, we must always be able to change. Whether we are really fighting or doing Tuī Shǒu 推手, we must always be able to change. In our forms, we stand on one leg and also put all our weight on one foot. This is for training and there is no one there to push us. It is the same with kicking, we only kick when we know it is safe because standing on one leg is too dangerous.