Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 234

Qínná 擒拿, Die 跌, Dǎ 打, Zhì 擲 – Part 4

If we use Qínná 擒拿 – Grabbing and Controlling well, then we can break our opponent’s joints, therefore, we must control this skill and use it to just control them so that they will not attack us anymore. We should not use force as this might result in breaking their fingers, wrist or even leg. So, we must be able to control this. We learn martial arts to self defence and to protect others, we do not lean it just to cause damage to other people, and so use it when we have no other choice.

We can also use Qínná to make a Die 跌 ( it does not pronounce as English die, it pronounce in Dit)– Falling skill, that is to say make the opponent fall, and this might actually cause them less damage. Once they fall and are under control, then they will be no injury. They will not try to attack us again and so we win. This method is used a lot in Tuī Shǒu 推手 – Pushing Hands, where we make the opponent fall, which is often the best way. So Qínná first and then Die second. Having said this, Die is not always used with Qínná. Instead we can hold their arm (without locking a joint) and make them lose their balance and fall, this is Die, or we can sweep their legs – this is also Die. We can even step into their centre and use our waist to make them off balance and fall. If the opponent punches us, we can use their force to make them fall etc. In the Tàijíquán 太極拳 form the movements Dān Biān 單鞭- Single Whip and Liù Fēng Sì Bì B i六封四閉 – Six Closing Four Sealing can be used a Die techniques, but when you look at the form closely, we can see that almost 80% of it can be used as Die.