Overall
movement: Fully open and close the articulations and spaces of the entire body,
then settle to the middle way.
Footwork:
At first continue to stand without moving the feet. Bend the legs slightly in
part 4. From part 5, bend the legs to sit down slightly and open the hip joints
to turn the toes out until the feet are almost 90° to each other. During part
6, close the hip joints and knees and push up to raise the heels (bend the knees,
do not let the body rise) and land with the heels out, the feet again almost
90° to each other. During part 7, lift the toes slightly to open them until the
feet are parallel and settle into the short horse stance (kaibu). Do not let
the body rise and fall during the sequence. Be sure to open and close in the
hip joints to move the knees and feet, so that the knees remain aligned with
the feet. In the final position the crotch area is rounded, the hip joints
released, and the knees and toes aligned.
Part
One: Bend the arms slightly to raise the hands enough to make movement easy.
Open and shunchan the chest, shoulders, and arms to rotate the palms to face
forward. Continue to coil, circling the index fingers, hyper extending the
wrists on the thumb edge, pulling the hands quite far back to open up the
chest. Circle the hands until the movement turns to nichan and the fingers
point forward. At the end of the movement, the thumbs rest again on the thighs
and the palms press down slightly. (This part can be omitted, moving directly
to place the thumbs on the Feng Shi point, but you miss out on the full opening
of the chest.)
Part
Two: Nichan until the palms face back, and circle them up and around to in
front of the shoulders, closing the chest and gradually changing to shunchan.
Breathe in and pull in the belly. Touch the tip of the ring fingers together,
then the tips of the little fingers, then the blade of the hands, around the
edge to the thumbs, then the tips of the index fingers, and finally the middle fingers.
Continue to rotate the arms while bringing the hands together, so by the end of
the move the fingers point up (the palms appear to be in a Buddhist salute, but
centres of the palms are not touching). Breathe out and settle into the belly.
(You may just touch the tips of the middle fingers and rotate to continue
directly to part three, but you miss out on the Buddhist salute.)
Part
Three: Coil to turn the fingers to point to the chest, then push the palms away
from the body and up, keeping contact with the tips of the middle fingers until
the very last. When the fingertips arrive at head height, push well forward to
open up the upper back, then separate the hands and open them out, continuing
to nichan until the coiling becomes shunchan as the hands circle down and in,
to in front of the body, palms facing each other. (You may circle the hands
well back to open up the shoulders, or you may keep within more usual range.)
Breathe in as you push out and breathe out as you lower the hands, lowering the
Qi and
relaxing into the belly.
Part
Four: Close the chest and coil the hands in so that the palms first push
forward, fingers down, at about waist height. Roll the belly in.
Part
Five: Keep the wrists flat and continue to close the body in to nichan the arms
to curl the palms in. Bring the thumbs in to touch the meridian points in the
belly, palms down. Then slide the thumbs out to meridian points just above the
hip bones, then out to the Feng Shi on the side of the thighs. Sit down and
open the hips, knees and feet as the rest of the body settles and then opens.
Part
six: Close the hips and knees and roll the belly in and over. Keep the thumbs
on the Feng Shi point, coiling the arms to turn the backs of the hands to each
other. Continue to coil the hands until the palms are forward, so that they
appear to be pushing forward at the side, but the pressure is in the backs of
the hands. The thumbs release from the legs during the roll. Push into the
ground, roll up the back and open the heels as the backs of the hands press
out.
Part
seven: Close the body down again to roll the hands over and all the way around,
so that the palms do almost a full circle facing up, then turn to face down.
Get the thumbs back to the Feng Shi soon, and keep them on as the hands complete
the circle. Open the feet to a kaibu (short, high horse stance with the feet
parallel about shoulder width apart) once the thumbs are on the legs, to open
as the hands open out. Settle the Qi and relax the belly. This last position is the Taiji
Posture.
Fighting
applications: It is possible to create a practical use for these moves, but it
is necessary to do this for every single move of a routine? These actions open
the routine and set every part of the body up for what will come. This style
uses full completion of shunchan and nichan to blend one into the other just as
yin and yang blend into each other, uses opening and closing of the body, and
uses the pushing into the ground and rotation in the hip joints. The opening
move develops this ability to open and close, and to shunchan and nichan the
whole body. This type of movement will later be used in absorbing and releasing
methods. This ability to fully roll from yang to yin and back without apparent
movement will also be used to readjust the body around a fixed point such as
the wrist, so that when grabbed you can readjust and come back from a stronger
position without giving away your intention.
Internal
connections: Let the opening and closing of the chest bring the breath in and
out, rather than breathing in and out to open and close the chest. Bring Qi up the back and down the front
during part one. Lift the anal sphincter lightly as the hands circle back
during part one. During part two, contact is made on the final meridian points
on the edges of both hands, completing the Qi flow to both sides of the body. The
order of the fingertips touching (ring, pinkie, thumb, index and middle) pairs
the channels according the six levels. There are three yang channels; Tai Yang
(outer), Shao Yang (pivot) and Yang Ming (inner) and three Yin channels; Tai
Yin (outer), Shao Yin (pivot), Jue Yin (inner). The fingertip order is Shao
Yang, Shao Yin, Tai Yang, Tai Yin, Yang Ming, Jue Yin, pairing channels that
have a similar Qi
dynamic – Shao Yang and Yin, Tai Yang and Yin, Yang Ming and Jue Yin. During
part five the thumbs come in to touch onto meridian points on the belly and
then follow a line out, touching on the stomach meridian, to get back to the
Feng Shi on the thighs. Part four, the thumbs touch the Guan Yuan (3 cun below
the naval), but more importantly, connect to the dantian and then spread out and down to
settle the Qi
out into the hip joints (the root of the thighs) and down into the legs.
This
action can act as a reminder to release tension in the hip joints, or 'song
kua'. Being able
to release the hip tension is the key to all the stance and stepping in Chen
and other styles, especially internal styles. For power to come through the
legs to the body core, and for the body to settle into the legs, the hip joints
must be comfortable. The same goes for the shoulders, they must be settled and
released so that power can flow from the body to the arms and back.
About
the name: Going from Position of Chaos towards the Taiji Posture, the moves
take all parts of the body past their normal positions, then settles them into
the smooth and released taiji posture. This makes the taiji posture feel
comfortable and natural. Instead of starting out by trying to sink into the
taiji position directly, the opening rotates the joints to each extreme so that
they ‘want’ to settle into the taiji position. Also called Three Openings and
Closings of the Dantian, this reminds you to fully use the body to complete the
opening and closing actions of the arms – do not simply move the arms. The
movement of parts 4 to 5 is also called 'full yang and full yin inside the
sleeves', meaning that the hands change between palm up and palm down hidden
within the long sleeves of a gown. The body must be able to coil within itself
such that similar actions remain hidden within the body during the whole of the
routine.
Additional comments: Open and close fully, taking the joints past the normal positioning of taiji. This over cranks the joints then replaces them into the position of taiji, as if telling the body what its limits are to remind it how and why the taiji position, or the 'golden mean', is natural and comfortable.