The Energies of Taijiquan - Part 3 Nasser Butt

The Energies

Author’s Note: In the third part of this article on The Energies of Taijiquan, I will continue giving brief descriptions of the main energies. I have left the introductory comments published in Part 1 below to avoid repetition.

Outlined below are the basic descriptions of the energies - which I’ll be serializing over the next few issues. I have not placed them in any specific order, [although, obviously some would be learned or developed before others], I have pretty much listed them as they exist in my notes. My teacher taught eclectically and my notes reflect that and our conversations - but that does not mean that there is no order!

Further, in some instances, I have added a bit of extra detail, although not in all cases, to give the practitioner food for thought with reference to their form and what it may mean. I was not spoon-fed by my teacher - I was nudged and cajoled by my teacher to work things out systematically and logically through progression.

Establishing connections between the various threads of one’s training is critical. If you are unable to establish connections and or identify common threads then you may well fall short in skill! This is not the fault of the art nor of the teacher - provided, he or she, have taught you correctly - it is the fault of the student of not having practiced or trained diligently, or progressively!

The entirety of Taiji’s Long Boxing is based upon The Thirteen Dynamics repeating themselves endlessly and ceaselessly, linked via transitions and transmutations leading to a higher understanding.

Finally, the list below is not definitive, nor exhaustive. Different schools may use different terminology to describe the same thing, or may even interpret it differently. You do not have to subscribe to it. It is simply a record of what has been passed down in our line descended from Yang Shao-hou and like all mighty rivers there will be many tributaries, and side branches!

Before proceeding onto the next group of ‘energies,’ I’d like to advise the readers to familiarise themselves with The Treatise of Wang Zongyue - also, sometimes, referred to as Great Pole Boxing: The Theory.

Wang’s treatise is essentially the ‘bible’ of Taijiquan and any serious practitioner who does not repeatedly turn to this document for the entirety of their practice will be at a loss.

Not only does the treatise give us the precise rules for our practice and development as a beginner - it evolves with the practitioner as his or her understanding develops further.

Neutralizing

Neutralizing is a critical skill in Taijiquan and is sometimes referred to as ‘Awareness Energy’ - i.e. knowing yourself and your own energy and your enemy, his energy, movements and the changes in actions.

Based upon the Taiji Classic:

Stand like a level balance, Lively as a carriage wheel - Depress one side and the other follows.

Its foundations are sticking and yielding, along with understanding and realizing the errors of ‘neither coming away, nor crashing’ in. Like in all the energies, p’eng energy plays a critical role in neutralizing.

Neutralization is a subtle skill and should not be mistaken for retreating - which is actually evading. You must recognise and move smoothly with your opponent’s energy regardless of the direction they take. Timing plays a critical role in neutralizing - too early means that you are unable to draw him in and too slow means that the

neutralization itself remains incomplete.

You must weigh and measure your opponent on the scales [balance] and yet not allow yourself to be measured. Whilst measuring you must follow simultaneously. The skill of neutralization is based upon the waist and the legs, and not on the shoulders or hands.

The waist is the axle and the two shoulders are joined and wait for the wheel to move horizontally from side to side. The wheel moves in an erect position. The smallest touch from any direction causing it to turn. This is how the skill of measurement is developed [especially through the practice of Da Shou], and is called the directional measurement of awareness energy.

The higher the skill of neutralization, the smaller the circle of neutralization! The poorer the skill the larger the circle and if the student does not study progressively over several years, trying to physically reduce the circle too soon will cause stiffness to develop in the upper body.

Drawing In

Drawing In consists of two components:

1. 2. Luring your opponent into action when he is not doing anything. Enticing your opponent to move along a path of your choosing when he is in motion.

It occurs between neutralizing and seizing and makes use of the whole body - including the hands, waist and feet.

The idea behind drawing in is to get your opponent’s energy to conform to your own by guiding that energy. There are many methods to drawing in successfully, the key is to neutralize the power of your opponent until it is almost but not fully spent and then draw them in at will.

It can be also achieved by luring through ‘feigning,’ or more importantly by ‘sacrificing’ yourself to follow your opponent - by using awareness energy and feeling the sinking of your weight on one side in the direction of the movement if your opponent adds strength in any direction. If the energy moves inwards, then the wheel rotates, allowing you to draw in your opponent. If the energy move outwards then ‘pull’ to move a thousand pounds with four ounces!

The action of the wheel is hidden during the uneven sinking and can occur in any direction.

Seizing

The skill of seizing is subtle and is carried out just before issuing. It is not merely a movement of the hands alone… it is a movement of the entire body rooted in the waist and the legs and driven by intent. Its skill and subtlety lie in the transitional motions - i.e. footwork, orientation and manoeuvring. This is why critical attention must be paid to transitions in Long Boxing and all its associated training methods.

When seizing, one must seize upon the active joint and with such a subtlety that by the time the opponent realises it is already too late. A good practitioner can ‘seize’ an opponent by merely adjusted and adapting his body to his opponent’s movement in an instant without the need to issue - in other words ‘check-mate’… the opponent already knows they are done for, no different to a lioness cornering her now helpless prey! This requires many years of practice and good instruction and particular intention must be paid to the centre of balance and the position of the head, so that the practitioner is not crashing. Beginners must adhere to the knees holding the line with the toes ‘rule’ and not allowing the weight to shift beyond the knee. Later when one has mastered and understood the skills of the Post and the function of the ‘sweet spot’, and developed the power and dexterity of the legs through the Large Roll Back - the knee can move beyond the toes without the weight following.

Like neutralizing, the opponent must be weighed and measured on the scales - the height and weight must be equalised for a successful measure. And just like in neutralizing, the smaller the circle of the practitioner, the greater the skill and the greater their ability to disrupt the circle of their opponent. The skill of the circle - its size and ability to disrupt the opponent’s circles - are the two sub-divisions of the aspects of seizing known as the formed and the formless respectively.

Issuing

Issuing energy is a vast subject which would require an entire tome in its own right! It is far too complex a subject to verbalise, however, I shall list the major components as bullet points below.

Issuing is a component of our attack or striking energy, without which there can be no attack!

If neutralizing is to be considered defence then issuing is offence - a fundamental component of combat. In combat, like yin yang itself, the two must co-exist in order to avoid defeat.

Issuing is based on understanding three critical fundamentals or essentials:

1.

2.

3. Opportunity - This arises from your opponent making an error [i.e. over-reaching, lost balance, have revealed their intent too soon, or simply having got ‘stuck’ during execution etc.]. Direction - The key is to follow and issue in the direction in which your opponent’s energy is coarsening - regardless of whether that is up, down, forwards, backwards, left, right, straight or curving! Timing - Timing is critical. If you are too early then your opponent will not yet be in the right position, leading you to err through crashing or resisting. Too late and your opponent recognises your issuing and is able to neutralize it easily. The exact right moment is when your opponent’s ‘old’ energy has been spent and the ‘new’ energy has not yet begun [an important component developed through Da Shou], they are in retreat or simply got stuck!

However, the above three, although indispensable, are not the only components of issuing successfully.

First and foremost, you must understand the pathways of energy and the notion of what forms the ‘root, branch, leaf’ network of the whole body, the upper body and the lower body - ‘The Body Tree’:

1. 2. 3. The Whole Body - The foot is the root, the torso is the branch and the head is the leaf. The Upper Body - The shoulder is the root, the elbow is the branch and the leaf is the hand [wrist]. The Lower Body - The thigh is the root, the knee is the branch and the leaf is the foot.

When you understand the ‘tree’ - its network of roots, branches and leaves - then when seizing and before issuing you must control all the sections of the root of your opponent. This is the real meaning of ‘destroying the root’ 1 or ‘uprooting’ your opponent - not simply making them move as we see in the silly ‘pushing hands’ competitions!

The plough, axe, shovel/spade and stump-puller methods of The Wudang Hand Weapons - the precursors to Push Hands, along with Joining [Pushing] Feet, all develop these essential skills.

Alternative view of two images showing the devastating’ turkey’ wing choke hold based upon ‘double p’eng’ & ‘ji’ controlling and destroying the root of the whole body and the upper body simultaneously. With Idris Mohammed Ali

1. Understanding the ‘Body Tree,’ controlling and destroying the root of your opponent, and issuing form a major component of the 35 Weeks In The Erle Montaigue Training System and the 35 Weeks Additions as well as Houses 2, 3, 5 & 7 of The 12 Houses of Yang.

Upper Body: Shoulder = Root

Upper Body: Hand = Leaf

Whole Body: Torso = Branch

Upper Body: Elbow = Branch

The ‘Body Tree’ with its network of Roots, Branches & Leaves

Lower Body: Thigh = Root

Lower Body: Knee = Branch

Whole Body: Foot = Root Lower Body: Foot = Leaf

Using double p’eng in breaking and controlling the root of the upper body via the leaf [hand/wrist] and the branch [elbow] and the lower body via the branch [knee] - producing a devastating throw whilst breaking the wrist, elbow and shoulder.

With Woz Levins

Further, whilst issuing we must take into account the distance and once again, using the body scales, we must also account for the opponent’s height, size and weight.

As a general rule, if he is short issue to the upper body, if he is tall - then issue to the middle or the lower body [likened to chopping down a tree]. Likewise, if your opponent is top heavy, issue to the upper body and if he is bottom heavy then issue to lower body. If both top and bottom are equal than issue to the middle!

As per the rules of Taijiquan, when issuing you must issue with the whole body, ensuring that the four cornerstones are working harmoniously and smoothly, and that the power is released wholly as if you are throwing something away without any intention or doubt of keeping it - in other words, you give yourself up to the movement.

There are two ways of moving our internal energy whilst issuing:

1. 2. Front to Back [‘innate to acquired’] - energy sinking to tan-tien and from there to limbs. Back to Front [‘acquired to innate’] - energy sticking to spine and moving from there to your limbs.

Do not focus on power. The act of thinking will hinder the release of power. The more unconscious you are of the power the heavier it will be received. If the release of power is not smooth or fluid, then this is most likely due to the error of ‘triple pausing.’

The three points of pausing are:

1. 2. 3. The Arms - consisting of the shoulder, elbow and heel of palm. The Torso - consisting of chest, belly and tan-tien. The Legs - consisting of hips, knees and heel of foot.

Once again, at the highest level of skill, the circle will become smaller with half of the circle being used to neutralize and the other half to issue - attack and defence existing within the one sphere.

Issuing in Taiji separates into many sub-energies, which include:

Emptying

Tangling

Extending

Dividing

Stirring

Taking

Exchanging

Outward Reeling

Lifting Binding

Crushing

Rolling

Stiffening

Rousing

Collecting

Concluding

Inward Reeling

Borrowing Breaking

Inching

Sinking

Interrupting

Twisting

Provoking

Sheathing

Folding Rubbing

Severing

Drilling

Shaking

Giving

Grabbing

Sneaking

Joining

There are more sub-energies, however, it is not in the remit of this article to list them all and describe them exhaustively, I will, however, give a very brief description for a few of the not so obvious ones below:

Rolling

This is when a large circle changes to a small circle. We use the spiral from the large circle to the small. An example of rolling is single whip, which can be used to devastating effect in any direction, and where each part - the fingers, knuckles and wrist - articulates turning downward like a wheel. It also develops the skill of understanding how to allow impactive forces to move around the joints instead of through them, thereby avoiding injury - especially to the wrist or hand.

Releasing Energy

This is the converse of rolling where the small circle changes to the large circle and we use the outward spiral of the change.

Sneaking

This is when the attacking component is obscured by another limb or body and it sneaks out from under or around the part to strike. It is most commonly used in close quarters and/or when switching gates. In the small San-shou, the component of ‘fishes in eight,’ for example, involves the element of sneaking when switching sides.

Concluding

This is when we catch our opponent off guard when there is a gap between bodies. It is a sudden release and showing of energy where we enter and strike without separating Lieh, Releasing, and Striking.

Folding

Not to be confused with the folding principle of attacking or splitting! The notion is simple - if you wish to move something up, then you must begin from below and if you want to move something down, then you must begin from above.

A simple analogy for this concept would be lifting a box up from the ground… in order to do so, you must first lower yourself!

The final part of The Energies of Taijiquan [Part 4] will continue in the next volume - Lift Hands Volume 16, December 2020