Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

Choreographed two-person sets are also considered a form of stepping
push-hands. Some taiji schools include an intricate eighty-eight-movement
set, some have shorter sets, and others have no choreographed sets, believing
this to be an ineffective training method for the time involved in learning.
In push-hands, a confrontation is balanced out, and complementing
rather than matching or superseding an opponent’s force negates an aggressor’s
action. This “yielding” is not passive. Just enough force is used to
maintain contact with the opponent, allowing for the neutralization of the
aggressor’s force. Though one gives up what is nonessential, one maintains
one’s root, center, and integrity. (It is also the total relaxation of the body
involved in yielding while maintaining structure that allows qi to circulate
fully through the body and thus to stimulate optimal health in the process.)
By blending with the opponent and matching the opponent’s force, that
is, by balancing yin and yang, the defender becomes one with the opponent.
This is accomplished by zhan nian jin (sticking energy) and ting jin (listening
energy). Utilizing these energies, a defender can sense what is going to happen
before the actual occurrence. One is also then more sensitive to and
more aware of the position and characteristics of one’s own body at any instant
in time. The result is a state of pure awareness, and without judging the
situation, one knows oneself and has knowledge of one’s opponent.
As a function of push-hands practice, taijiquan emphasizes blending
rather than speed, softness (“like steel wrapped in cotton”) and roundness
rather than hardness and linearity. Change is harnessed rather than controlled
and created. In taijiquan a defender uses the attacker’s force to unbalance
the opponent, then strikes, pushes, or in other ways attacks the opponent.
The taijiquan defender utilizes the aggressor’s energy against the
aggressor by “enticing the opponent to advance, causing the opponent to
fall into emptiness, uniting with the opponent, and then throwing the opponent
out”—Yin jin, luo kong, he ji chu.
Once an opponent enters into the defender’s space and finds momentum
allowed to continue on, it is difficult for the opponent to change
intent and action. The result is the aggressor becoming uncentered, uprooted,
and off balance, allowing for defense with minimal effort: wuwei
(effortless effort).
Taijiquan is an art of coming to terms with paradox (yin and yang) in
accordance with Daoist mystic traditions (as well as others). As Laozi put
it in the Dao de Jing (Tao-te Ching): “Yield and overcome: Bend and be
straight.” The Taiji Classics reiterate in one form or another, “Seek stillness
in motion and find motion in stillness.”
With the arrival of morning light, tens of millions of Chinese head to
parks and squares, by lakes, near trees, even in free spaces between buildings,
to practice taijiquan, other styles of wushu, and qigong. It is a com-
Taijiquan (Tai Chi Ch’uan) 627