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.