Will learning Tai Chi turn you into a super fighter, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound?

Nah, you need to be from Planet Krypton to be able to have this ability.

If you are thinking of learning Tai Chi to become a fighter you are better off learning anything but Tai Chi. This is not to say that Tai Chi can’t make you into a fighter. It is that the way Tai Chi is taught today we don’t train like a fighter.

Instead, what Tai Chi is good for is to slow down your movements, allowing you to work more closely on things that you might not be aware of, or refining things that you are already competent in but can become even better.

If you want to learn to use Tai Chi as a combat art, then you should learn some other art first before jumping into the Tai Chi pool. This will make it easier to get into it.

Unless you are born into a Tai Chi martial arts family and start your training young it would not be easy to be a pure Tai Chi practitioner. You should read this very informative writing on the experiences of my Dong style uncle Master Dong Zengchen on his learning and practice of Tai Chi.

Pushed to the Limit: One Hundred Years of Traditional Taiji Training

I have met Master Dong through my Dong style teacher, seen him up close doing resisting push hands with one Singapore student who worked as a contractor and had quite a bit of strength, and even had him give me a flying trip into the wall – he is certainly the real deal when it comes to Tai Chi as a martial art.

Note – a long, long time ago, Master Dong’s disciple, Chip Ellis, had sent me a small red book with the same title. However, the author was Rachel Porter. I will need to dig up my copy to see if the contents are the same or different from the article above at wuweitaichi.com. I do remember that the small red book was a very inspirational read.

Coming back to the 22 form, its practice can help unlock and acquire certain understanding and skills. I am sure many of you know of The Tai Chi Classics. Master L said that the Classics are the writings of the experiences of past Tai Chi masters.

If Tai Chi was originally one family then it makes sense that whichever style of Tai Chi you practice the Classics should make sense to you. While I can’t say I understand everything written in the Classics, I would say that a of the writings made a lot more sense, not just a few sentences here and there, but a whole bunch of them.

On the physical front, the 22 form has helped me to move in a certain manner in relation to the principles embedded in the form. For example, I had read about how Yang Chengfu placed two fingers on Cheng Manching and sent him flying.

I wondered how this could be done. A lot of times in push hands the teacher would break the student’s balance first before pushing him at an angle in which his balance is off. Or in some demonstrations the teacher would bend his arms and move closer to the student so as to be able to compress and release, to send the student flying.

However, this did not sound like what Yang Chengfu did. Or maybe I was reading too much into it. Then I read about the workings of a traditional bow. Here’s how Google AI puts it :-

A traditional bow functions as a simple energy storage device, converting the archer’s physical effort into potential energy stored in bent limbs. When drawn, the wooden or composite limbs bend, storing energy; upon release, the string pushes the arrow, turning that stored potential energy into kinetic energy to propel the arrow forward.

Does this not sound a lot like compress and release, except that if what Yang Chengfu did is what I imagined it to be then it would be a very small, barely perceptible, quick compress and release. This can only be possible if there is a biomechanical action that could allow me to do so. The only person I have seen who can issue power with movements that are confounding is GM Wei.

Fortunately, there’s a few videos of him out there doing many ways of fajing. Most of them would not make sense. I wouldn’t be surprised if some would label it fake, except there is a tiny issue – try to imitate how the person who got fajing jumped off the ground. You will find that you couldn’t imitate it. Other fake fajing action like hopping and jumping back can be imitated easily.

So unless what GM Wei showed is fake, then I am barking up the wrong tree. Master L did show me how he fajing once. He did a technique as he moved towards me. His fist did not hit me but his arm contacted me and I felt as if a strong wind had lifted me off my feet and dumped me a few feet backwards.

By then I knew that the only way I could make sense of anything is by getting a really good grasp of the principles. Not just a few selected principles but all of them that are within the 22 form. This is because many of the principles are related. So you cannot cherry pick what you want and dump the rest.

Did I solve the puzzle of how to do quick compress and release?

Yes.

The solution was in a few different principles which are used together.

What are the principles?

Compress and release as taught in the transition between Brush Knee, Twist Step.

Open and close as practiced when changing from Press to Push.

Opening the 5 bows as found in the Single Whip.

And of course, the Elongated Wrist found in practically every technique.

Last, but not least, the 9 Crooked Pearls.

There, that’s the secret.

Now all you have to do is to practice it until you can do it yourself.

In the transmission of Zen Buddhism what matters is not the methods or the techniques but the engagement of the heart in the transmission.

What this is telling us is that in our pursuit of Tai Chi do not be obsessed with the style, the school, the lineage, whether the form is old or modern, how many awards the teacher has.

Instead, what is important is the depth and clarify of the transmission from teacher to student, and of course the willingness of the student to embrace the teachings, and diligently practice until fruition.

Sometimes learning Tai Chi is like a series of lucky encounters.

If Yang Jianhou had not been born to Yang Luchan, he would not had the chance to learn this wonderful art.

If the 4th Prince had not been interested in Tai Chi, he would not have engaged Yang Jianhou and his son, Yang Shouhou to teach in his palace.

If Wang Chonglu had not worked as the head housekeeper in the 4th Prince’s household he would not have met Yang Jianhou and the opportunity for him and his son, Wang Yongquan, to learn directly from Yang Jianhou would not have been opened.

If Wang Chonglu had not showed his sincerity by selling his asset and giving the sizeable amount of money to Yang Jianhou to demonstrate his sincerity and appreciation of their skills, the Yangs would not have taught them their secrets of their style.

If Wang Yongquan had not received training as a wrestler he would not have been able to take the rough and tumble of being Yang Shaohou’s demo partner, and in the process experienced first hand what the Yangs Tai Chi were like.

If Wang Yongquan had not changed his mind about breaking his oath to the Yangs to never teach what he had learned from them, this side of Yang style Tai Chi would have been lost.

Wei Shuren, a master of Chen style Tai Chi, was urged by his friend to meet Wang Yongquan. However, he refused, saying that he felt that there was nothing more to be learnt after he had learned Chen style for a long time.

If Grandmaster Wei’s friend had not been persistent, urging GM Wei for three years, then this Yang style would not have been passed on until now.

GM Wei finally relented, met Wang Yongquan who sitting down in a chair, gave him a fajing demonstration that blew GM Wei’s mind, and made him a convert. Thus, at the old age of fifty plus GM Wei Tai Chi from the beginning.

Wang Yongquan only taught this art to his last stage students. He did not teach it to his early stage disciples. A number of people also learned from Wang Yongquan at this last stage, including a lady, Wang Jie, who later followed GM Wei to become his disciple. GM Wei, was confirmed to have acquired the transmission by Wang Yongquan three years before Wang’s passing.

If not for Xie Shoude, this Yang style may not have come out of China. Xie was disciple number eight of GM Wei. Xie taught this style in Sydney. He later brought GM Wei out to Sydney to run seminar.

Due to Xie, GM Wei met a number of people who later became his direct disciples.

If Xie had not been secretive about this Yang style, students would not have voiced their concern to GM Wei, setting the stage for GM Wei to intervene and teach them directly.

Master L was one such student. GM Wei assured him that he knew what to do to address the situation. Thus Master L was able to invite GM Wei to live with him for some months and teach him privately.

Master L said that when he liked something he would spend all his time doing it, and he had the means to do so, practicing the entire day, making good progress in a shorter time.

When GM Wei retired on his 80th birthday, he announced that Master L would take over as the gatekeeper of the style. He also named Master L and Master Wang Jie as the official transmitters of the style.

As a teacher Master L taught by explaining the principles and how they are practiced in the 22 form. He did not teach how to fajing, how to push hands or how to use the techniques, at least to me. Since I had already learned how to do push hands from the Dong style I focused on improving and refining what I had.

Master L’s philosophy was the principles were like money to be accumulated and saved in the bank. If you had no money, where would you have the money to spend. On the first day I was at Master L’s place he made me touch hands with someone bigger and taller than me who had learned different arts. I guessed he must have seen what I really needed.

Funny thing though, somewhere along the line the story of how GM Wei had to relearn his Tai Chi made sense when I had to do the same too six years into the learning. That was the time Master L told me to fully focus on only Tai Chi to make the real breakthrough. This was the best advice I ever received and I am glad that I listened to him.

The moral of the lesson is that if you find something truly worthy of learning you should put your heart and soul into learning it, especially if your teacher put his heart into teaching you.

It is for this reason after many years of thinking it over I have decided to try putting it out there for those who have learned this wonderful Tai Chi but still not quite gotten into its essence.

In this section I will share with you my experience on what it means to learn the Tai Chi 22-form of Grandmaster Wei Shuren successfully.

Learning the form is more than just copying how your teacher moves. However, it is true that imitating what we see is how we begin the learning. We can be told what the principles are, what we are supposed to be doing. However, at this early stage we are still in the state of monkey see, monkey do.

In learning the 22-form we are told that intention must come first. This means you do not perform a movement without first knowing what you are supposed to be doing. Think of your mind as the director and your body as the actor. The director tells the actor what to do and the actor carries out the instruction accordingly.

For example, when we change from a fist to an open palm it is not just a matter of opening up and spreading the fingers to form an open palm. Our mind, the director, must initiate the movement by feeding the instruction to the actor, the hand.

In this scenario, our fist is holding a compressed Small Chi Sphere between the hollow formed by the curled fingers and the palm. Our mind will silently inform (you can also say it out loud if it helps) the hand that the compressed Small Chi Sphere will now expand. As it does so, our fingers will spread out accordingly with its size and expansion timing, until the Small Chi Sphere is fully formed and our finger tips are grasping it gently.

Thus, your physical movements must match the timing of your intent. In the beginning you will find that your physical movement is taking off ahead of your visualization. With some practice, you will nail the timing.

Each technique in the 22-form teaches some principles. You have to learn each and every principle properly within each of the technique. You have to learn until when you perform each of the 22-form you have the principles within your techniques.

There are many principles so being able to have every principle in each technique is a daunting task. This is why it takes a lot of practice, stretched out over the years, to train your body to be able to be able to do the principles automatically.

This is what the traditional saying of “first in the mind, later in the body” means. You first tell your body what to do. With enough training the body will just do it without further prompting. This last part is important if you want to be able to fajing during push hands whereby you have a but a split second to do so.

Because of this the principles must have already come together in the background, ready whenever you are to discharge the power and force. At this stage of your practice, the principles are no longer intellectual sentences you need to know, but a living thing that by feeling you know they are there.

In conclusion, learning the 22-form successfully means you can perform the principles effortlessly, with the right timing and feeling. As you go on, learning the 22-form successfully can also mean :-

i) Your ability to use the techniques in push hands practice
ii) Your ability to use the various fajing models of the 22-form

For the purpose of TPT, we will just narrow the focus to learning of the form successfully to mean to learn until we can perform all the principles properly.