Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 192

Advanced Level Bā Jìn 八勁 – Part 1

Today, all styles of Tàijíquán 太极拳 come from Chén Shì Tàijíquán 陈式太极拳 – Chen Style Tàijíquán, but no matter what style of Tàijíquán we practise, all of them have Bā Jìn 八勁 – Eight Jin. What are Bā Jìn? In Chinese Bā 八 means eight and Jìn 勁 is power, but this power that is internal. In Chinese internal power is called Nèi Jìn 內勁. Internal means that the power comes from inside the body, and this means that it comes from the Qì 氣 and the mind, and then it comes to the outside. This means that every time we Fā Jìn 發勁 – Release Power it comes from the mind, the Qì, the breathing and then goes to the area to Fā Jìn, which might be a punch, a kick, elbow, shoulder, or any other area.

The Bā Jìn are Péng 掤, Lǚ 履, Jǐ 擠, Àn 按, Cǎi 採, Liè 裂, Zhǒu 肘, Kào 靠. These pair up with, Péng and Lǚ making up one pair, Jǐ and Àn making up another pair, Cǎi and Liè making another and finally Zhǒu and Kào making another. Many people think of them as just techniques, but they are Jìn, and this means they have more than one technique, they can have 10 to 20 or even more, like with Péng Jìn 掤勁.