Greetings all,
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> My current definitions came about due to frustration with more conventional presentations. Many times I would be following what I understood to be Taijiquan principles, yet the movements (or interactions with an opponent) could not be described by one (or a combination of) the conventional definitions of the 8 jin. Too many times there were uncertainties or confusion understanding what energies were in use. While conventional descriptions of the 8 jin are perhaps reasonable to describe the finishing energy of postures linked specifically to one of these jin, other postures and transition movements are not very clearly addressed.</font>
Steve, I am very sympathetic to this point of view, especially with respect to the focus on “finishing energies.” My reasoning has been that Taijiquan is least distinctive if you focus only on the punches, open-hand strikes, kicks, and throws. What I find most distinctive is the approach of trying to reach certainty and clarity in attack and defense (baizhanbudai 百战不殆 and shenming 神明 ). Unlike, many martial approaches that encourage you to use speed, power, and fixed combinations to increase your odds of success, Taijiquan seems to focus more on accurate perception, accurate understanding, and indirect control. For me, any description of the 8 jin needs to accommodate this difference.
As for the form, according to my understanding, there are many movements that go beyond the 8 jin, and so I do not necessarily feel the need to use them to describe everything. Likewise in Push hands, certain techniques seem to involve such subtle manipulation of the opponent’s jin and such little use of one’s own jin that I put them in a category by themselves. For instance, sometimes you can put pressure on the opponent’s body in such a way that he finds it difficult to separate full and empty and cannot issue his jin. Also, sometimes you can make the opponent issue his “qi” prematurely and so is unable to use his jin against you. I suppose these techniques have names, but I do not know them.
I do not think of the 8 jins as categories of movements, but rather as fundamental strategies or typical useful energy configurations. I use the word “energy,” because I feel the physical movement of the limbs is not dispositive. The internal feel of the opponent is what is dispositive. For example, the pressure of a palm on your chest can caress, massage, rouse to action, warn, restrain, repel, shove, or injure. The difference is in the energy used, the intent, and what the recipient feels. My understanding is that in our practice, you start with a typical physical movement to begin to get an idea of what the jin can do and what its parameters are. From the practice, you get to know what it really is.
If the 8 jins are supposed to be fundamental to the art, I also believe that they must be organically linked to other fundamental principles and flow from them. To me some of the fundamental ideas and approaches that inform have to inform such Tai Chi theory are:
1. Zhu Xi’s concept of Taiji: the dynamic interplay and interdependency of Yin and Yang.
2. Using soft to overcome hard and emphasizing stillness over movement, as discussed in the Daodejing.
3. Foregoing fixed offense or defense and focusing on full and empty, as discussed in Sunzi’s Art of War.
4. Deferring/Yielding to the opponent, as captured by the Confucian phrase: “Abandon yourself and follow the other.”
5. Sticking, adhering, linking, following, as discussed in the Tai Chi Classics.
Below is a more detailed discussion of my speculations at present, based on what I have been taught, read, and felt. I see Wardoff and Rollback as linked opposites dealing with the flowing of energy and see Press and Push as linked opposites dealing with the positioning or “sourcing” of energy. Within each pair, one is Yin to the other’s Yang. Between the two pairs, one pair is Yin to the other pair’s Yang. Instead of Yin and Yang, it might also be possible to contrast flowing and positioning or movement and stillness.
Péng (Ward off)
Origin of Term: Perhaps, the word “peng” is related to certain other homophonous words that are written with different characters and that mean things like “puffy,” “swell,” “vigorous,” and “splash.”
Visualization from natural movement: Lifting a heavy bulky box, or lifting a toddler into one’s arms.
Opponent’s feeling: He cannot sink his energy to get clean contact with his center, the ground, or your center.
Bagua association: Some people associate “peng” with the trigram “Qian.” I take this to mean that “peng” refers to expansive Yang energy, like the morning Sun rising up to the heavens.
General combat situation: Your opponent tries to apply energy to you and your center, but you use resilience and roundness to tend to repel it. If you truly keep some Yin in the Yang according to the concept of the Taiji, perhaps the idea of floating or carrying the opponent’s energy away is more suggestive than “repelling.” Water can float objects, but only after it lets them sink in a little first. You can carry something, only if you yield a little to the force of gravity.
Specific combat situation: As the opponent brings his jin up from the ground and his center, you yield to it by “lifting” it to a place of advantage for yourself. The direction tends to be upward.
Typical physical configuration: You use the inside of your rounded concave forearm to lift the opponent’s arm.
Typical applications: You use it to gain control of a strike to your face or mid-section. You can also use it to throw the opponent forward or backward.
Potential areas of focus in the Yang Style form: Ward Off Left and Right, Parting Wild Horses Mane, Fair Lady Works the Shuttles, Cloud Hands.
Lǚ (Rollback)
Origin of Term: Lu may well refer to Hexagram 10 of the I Ching (Yi Jing) and mean “treading.” One idea associated with the hexagram is apparently alert continuity. Lu is also homophonous with another character that means “to stroke” or “smooth out with the fingers, as in what you can do with a beard. This is the meaning I find helpful.
Visualization from natural movement: Stroking a beard to make it pointy or stroking a paddle along a canoe. Look at the opponent’s outstretched arms as the “v” of the beard. You want to “stroke” them to focus the energy into a point you control.
Opponent’s feeling: She cannot stop the projection of her energy as you suck it into a whirlpool around your center.
Bagua association: Some people associate “Lu” with the trigram “Kun.” I take this to mean that “Lu” refers to the receptive energy of the earth.
Combat situation: Your opponent tries to apply energy to you and your center. You accept this energy, but focus it towards a place of advantage to you. If you keep some Yang in the Yin, you do not just accept and focus the energy toward your center, you focus it in and around your center. Just as in paddling a canoe, you pull the water in and alongside you, not directly into you. The direction tends to be inward and sideways.
Typical physical configuration: You use the inside of your rounded convex forearm alongside your opponent’s arm. Although you may stroke the energy, you do not stroke the arm itself, since this would be a violation of the idea of sticking.
Typical applications: You use it to gain control of an inside strike. You can also use it to throw the opponent to the side and/or rear.
Potential areas of focus in the Yang Style form: Rollback; Brush Knee (Left and Right); Transition into White Crane Spreads Wings; Deflect Downward, Parry, and Punch; Transition into Separate Foot (Right and Left).
Jǐ (Press)
Origin of Term: Ji means: 1. squeeze; press; 2. jostle; push against; 3 crowd; cram. I see the core meaning as reducing the space available to something in order to displace it. This is basic word of Chinese vocabulary, not really a philosophical term. I use “squeeze out” as a quick translation in my internal dialog with myself.
Visualization from natural movement: Walking through a mass of people who are dripping wet, splattered with fresh paint, or covered with mud and using the back of your arms to keep them at a distance and keep your clothes clean and dry.
Opponent’s feeling: He has no space for his energy as he is squeezed out of where he wants or needs to be. His energy is forced to reflect back on itself.
Bagua association: Some people associate “Ji” with the trigram “Kan.” I take this to mean that “Ji” refers to the energy of water bursting through a damn.
Combat situation: Your opponent wants to apply energy to you and your center, but you get inside his “sphere” and give him no space to deploy his energy appropriately. The overlap of your active “spheres” means that you will suddenly eject the opponent’s energy from the combat “circle.” The direction tends to be forward.
Typical physical configuration: You use the outside of your rounded convex forearm at a point inside the opponent’s comfort zone, e.g., on his upper arm or upper ribs. If your other arm is available, it can assist by pressing on the inside of the forearm or wrist of the other arm.
Typical applications: You use it to abort the opponent’s movement by rolling into his gaps and bouncing him away into the air or into the ground.
Potential areas of focus in the Yang Style form: Press, Transition into White Crane Spreads Wings, Parting Wild Horses Mane.
Ân (Push)
Origin of Term: An means: 1. press; push down; 2. leave aside; shelve; 3. restrain; 4. keep one's hand on; 5. monitor, check; refer to. I see the core meaning as “press on,” but also use “restrain” in my internal dialog with myself.
Visualization from natural movement: Pressing your hands on someone in bed who wants to rise, but shouldn’t.
Opponent’s feeling: Her energy is held down and cannot find leverage to express itself. Your energy covers her energy.
Bagua association: Some people associate “An” with the trigram “Li.” I take this to mean that “An” refers to the clinging energy of fire.
Combat situation: Your opponent wants to apply energy to you and your center, but her energy invariably must rise and ebb with empty and full, open and closed. You cling to the energy until you can find a place where she cannot fill and cannot open. You then seal the energy inside. The important movement is typically downward.
Typical physical configuration: You use your palms to press on the opponent’s arms or torso to trap her in a position with no leverage. The orientation of the palms depends on their height.
Typical applications: You use your palms to trap the opponent’s arm against her body and then launch her. You use your palms to redirect low hand strikes away from your body. You use your palms against the opponent’s body to lock it in an awkward pose and then launch her up, out, or down.
Potential areas of focus in the Yang Style form: Push, Single Whip transition, Brush Knee, Apparent Closure.
I could go on about Pluck, Split, Elbow, and Shoulder Stroke, but this post is overly long already. Briefly, however, I could say the following:
Pluck: Used to get more motion or position out of the opponent. You grab, as you would the cord on a bell in a tower. You get action at a distance.
Split: Used to get more motion or position out of yourself. Since you have no space to generate normal movement, you rotate something instead.
Elbow: Used to manifest energy when the opponent has tried to limit your scope to do so. You yield your hands and forearms to give free play to your elbows.
Shoulder Stroke: Used to manifest energy when all other options are limited or need to be limited. You yield everything to allow the power of your core to attack directly through your shoulder, back, or hip.
Take care,
Audi
[This message has been edited by Audi (edited 06-29-2008).]
[This message has been edited by Audi (edited 06-29-2008).]
[This message has been edited by Audi (edited 06-29-2008).]
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