Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 193

Advanced Level Bā Jìn 八勁 – Part 2

The first pair of Jìn 勁 are Péng 掤 and Lǚ 履. In Tàijíquán 太极拳, Péng means expanding. This means the whole body is expanding from the inside out, the Qì 氣 and the Dāntián 丹田 expands and the power for the Qì comes from the mind. The strength then goes to the external body, like to the hands, or the hips, the legs, any part of the body. The hands can be punching or pushing, or you could be striking with the elbow or shoulder, the waist could be turning and the kicking. It could even be the at the chest, back or hips, any strike that comes outwards is Péng Jìn 掤勁. In the Tàijíquán form this could be all the movements because most of them have some part that is expanding and so this is Péng Jìn.

The second of the pair is Lǚ Jìn 履勁 and Lǚ means contracting, it is the opposite to Péng Jìn. Again, it can be used in any part of the body, from pulling back, closing, stepping back. They are all Lǚ Jìn. It also includes the moment just before we use Péng Jìn or after; when we have Lǚ Jìn before we go forwards, and this means we need to go back a little bit first.

So, we can see that Péng and Lǚ are a pair and they are almost always together in each movement of Tàijíquán