Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 146

Chén Wáng Tíng’s Poem

拳經總歌

陳王廷著(明末清初時人，陳氏太極拳的創始人)       

縱放屈伸人莫知，諸靠纏繞我皆依。

劈打推壓得進步，搬擱橫采也難敵。

鉤掤逼攬人人曉，閃驚取巧有誰知，

佯輸詐走誰雲敗，引誘回沖致勝歸。

滾拴搭掃靈微妙，橫直劈砍奇更奇，

截進遮攔穿心肘，迎風接步紅炮捶。

二換掃壓掛麵腳，左右邊簪莊跟腿，

截前壓後無縫鎖，聲東擊西要熟識。

上籠下提君須記，進攻退閃莫遲遲，

藏頭蓋面天下有，慣心剁脅世間稀。

教師不識此中理，難將武藝論高低。

Opening, expanding, contracting and closing skill – the enemies cannot sense us.

Contacting, touching, spiralling and circling skills – they make us feel our enemies’ energy.

Chopping, hitting, pushing and pressing skills are advanced,

Carrying, shifting, horizontal and grabbing skills are hard to defend against.

Hooking, pushing, squeezing and holding skills – everybody knows these.

Flashing, surprising, tricky skills – who can really avoid or defend against them?

Pretending to lose and running away – no one knows who has really lost.

Trick the enemy to come in, then strike back to get victory in the end.

Rolling, holding, grabbing, sweeping skills are stylish.

Horizontal, vertical, chopping and cutting skills are special

Intercepting, forwarding, sealing and barring skills still cannot defend the striking heart elbow.

Wind blows towards the face – we still go forward with Red Cannon Fist strike.

Double kicks to the face, sweep from below – kicking both sides of the face is very powerful.

Intercept the front and block the back – the enemy has no way out.

Pretend to attack the East, but strike the West – we must be familiar with this skill.

Attack from the top while pushing up from the bottom – this skill we need to remember.

Attack forward – defend backward – this skill cannot be slow.

Cover the head – block the face – this skill is ordinary,

Strike the centre of the chest – hit the sides of the body – this skill is rare.

A Sīfú 師父 who does not know the theory of these skills cannot judge who has a high or low level of Kung Fu.

This is the famous poem by Chén Wáng Tíng 陳王廷 and it describes how he created Tàijíquán 太極拳. To create his new style, he combined all his Kung Fu knowledge and created new skills. In particular, the first two paragraphs are talking about Tuī Shǒu 推手 , “Opening, expanding, contracting and closing skill – the enemies cannot sense us. Contacting, touching, spiralling and circling skills – they make us feel our enemies’ energy.”

In Tàijíquán our movements follow the principles of opening and closing, and expanding and contracting. These of opposites, so if we are opening, we can suddenly close so that our enemy does not realise and will lose their balance. The same is true for expanding and contracting.