Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 201

Tàijíquán 太极拳 Training

Tàijíquán 太极拳 is based on the principle of Tàijí太极. Tàijí is from the Yìjīng 易經. Tàijí is one, one of anything. Any one has two kinds of energy, Yin and Yang, like one day has daytime and night time, temperature has hot and cold, humans being have men and women or fire and earth, etc. So it means that Tàijíquán has two parts, one is health and the other is martial arts. Chen Wang Ting 陳王廷 created Tàijíquán based on fighting skill and healthy training. All the movements of Tàijíquán have two parts Yin and Yang, left and right, up and down, forwards and backwards, slow and fast. We can see this in the forms as well. There are two forms one is slow, this is the first form and the other is fast, this is the second form.

The forms require internal movement that goes to external movement and so this is a very healthy thing to practise. However, the movement are based on fighting techniques, so Tàijíquán has another way of training and this is Tuī Shǒu 推手 – Pushing Hands. In Tuī Shǒu, two people practise by contacting their hands to develop their sensitivity, to that they can feel their opponent’s energy and use it to defeat them. This is Tàijíquán training.