Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 221

Shísān Gān 十三杆 – 13 Long Pole – Part 5

5. 披 Pī
In martial arts terms, Pī means chop, but in general it means to drape, like you drape a cloth. For the long pole, Pī means to chop down. When we use the long pole, we flick the tip down at an angle, this is Pī and it is like chopping down with a Dao (Broadswrod). When we do Pī, we need to use the whole body to create power. If you can do this well, then it is very powerful. Just training like this will build good Gong Li 功力and then during Tui Shou you will be very hard to defeat.

6. 崩 Bēng
Bēng is the opposite to Pī. Bēng means to flick up vertically. This means Pī and Bēng are pair like Yīn 陰 and Yáng 陽. We will usually practise both together. In the 13 Long Pole we start with Bēng, then Pī and then Bēng again. Bēng is first because it uses more energy. Any powerful technique that starts low and comes up requires more energy than hitting down, like Pī. Pī can easily knock the opponent’s weapon away, but if they attack our head from above, we need to use Bēng to block and flick their weapon away and this require more power. So, training Bēng with the long pole is good for us as it will prepare us for when we need to use that technique.