7. The Dantian Changes
Overall movement: Draw and coil around at the right side,
then shift across to draw the left arm to the left while controlling with the
right hooked hand.
Footwork: Coil around the legs and feet, then step the
left foot out and settle to a bow stance, then press to roll to a ‘Chen’ horse
stance.
Part One: Push out the right hand, shift to the left leg,
turn the left palm to push out and coil it in. Continue to coil and spiral the
hands, both palms pressing out from the middle of a vertical cylinder in front
of the right foot (like the double helix model of a DNA molecule). Shift to the
right foot. When the left hand arrives on top, thread the right palm over it.
Part Two: Shift again to the left and right legs, keeping
the coiling action going in the legs, which turns the right toes inward as they
unweight in a natural action as the infinity sign continues. Close the right
hand to hook, then place the tip of the hook on the left palm and circle the
left hand stationary, keeping the palm up.
Part Three: Step the left foot out to a bow stance
distance, only stepping as far as you can control while remaining upright.
Continue to strongly nichan through the arms so that they are almost upside
down, left palm almost facing up and the right hook almost pointing up. Draw
the left arm across to align with the left foot and put pressure in the right
arm back to keep aligned with the right foot. Settle to a bow stance with the
hips straight and the front toes turned slightly in, push the right heel back
as the left arm draws across, keep 60% of the weight on the rear leg, do not
let the front knee go past the heel. Shunchan through the arms so that they
settle, the left arm finishes directly above the left thigh at shoulder height
and the right arm at 90° to the torso at the same height. Relax the right
wrist, do not pull the hook strongly down. Relax the left wrist, press down
into the palm but do not bend the wrist too much, press into the third finger.
Pay attention when stepping out to keep the stance narrow to facilitate the
following action.
Part Four: Press into the left foot to coil through the
body, turning the heel out and rotating especially in the right hip and
shoulder, to settle into a Chen horse stance with the arms aligned above the
thighs. Press the head up. Power flows from the right hand to the left. This
stance is weighted a bit towards the left leg. If you have stepped too widely
in part three you will notice the horse stance is awkward and unaligned.
Fighting applications: This movement repeats four more
times in the routine, time enough to focus on the applications. During the
first repetition focus on the feelings in your own body.
Internal connections: In part three, feel the force of the
right calf sending energy especially to the left hand, though both hands are
connected. Make sure to keep the hook in the right hand, keeping the elbow down
and not loosening off. When the left hand gets to the front, twist in to loosen
up the back so that power can connect to the right heel. Don’t just turn the
hand, but twist the little finger and pull the elbow down. In part four, feel
the force of the left foot push power to transfer throughout the body to
achieve the readjustment.
In all instances of the bow stance, the power comes from
pressing the rear calf back, which sends power up to the kidney area. It is
important to not allow the leading knee to go past the heel. This stance uses a
power transfer through the body, not a weight shift to apply force. If the
weight shifts too far towards the forward leg then the power is dissipated and
wasted into the forward leg. The hip joints must be released to allow the force
to transfer, as must the shoulders.
About the name: This movement, ‘danbian’, is usually
called single whip (dan = single, bian = whip). In our style part three is
single whip, which refers to the whipping action of the left arm. Part four
shifts to change the dan, meaning that the dantian resettles as the stance changes.
Instead of ‘single’, it is ‘dan’ from ‘dantian’, and instead of ‘whip’, it is
‘bian’ meaning change. The dantian changes while the rest of the body remains in place, so
that the direction of power application shifts within the body without being
apparent. This trains the ability to adjust the body around a fixed point
(where you are attached to your opponent) without signaling the change to your
opponent.
The changing inside the body is the chansi, or coiling
silk, power. Chansi power is like you are the silk worm, twisting and coiling,
creating the silk from inside your body and forming it outside your body. Each
move completes itself then coils back inside the body, where it changes and
coils out as another move without any break in power. You do not ‘do’ the moves
of the routine, you allow them to transform inside your body and change from
one to the next spontaneously. Some consider the coiling silk as 'reeling
silk', coiling the silken cords onto a reel like a fishing rod. This definition
also give the idea of a power that displaces as it rotates, so also works as an
image, though it does not give such an internal feeling.
Additional comments: This may also be done without the
transitional bow stance, going directly into the more normal Chen biased horse
stance. When doing the shift from the bow stance to the horse stance, be very
careful that you stay upright and motionless, transferring power throughout the
body to reposition all the segments relative to each other without travelling
through space. You need to release and settle in the hip and shoulder joints.
Switching from the bow stance to the horse stance, you
must be very aware of the placement of the pelvis and the greater trochanter of
each femur (the root of the thigh). Throughout the routine, the pelvis is
sometimes slightly tucked under and sometimes slightly rolled out, depending on
the stance and the depth of the stance. The exact placement of the pelvis
facilitates the easy movement of the femur within it and the ability of the
torso to rest comfortably vertical in the pelvic basin. The key to silk coiling
power is the ability to move inside the hips easily, transferring power
directly from the legs to the body core. In a bow stance, the best position is
usually tucked under, and in a horse stance the best position is usually rolled
out. Releasing the hips, or ‘songkua’ means to place the pelvis in the most
advantageous position relative to what the thighs are doing, and releasing all
tension to allow them to roll easily and transfer power. Chen style emphasizes
releasing the hip sockets ‘songkua’ more than of tuck in the buttocks ‘liantun’
or tip the buttocks ‘fantun’, because ‘songkua’ is the feeling, and the pelvis
placements are postures that assist in achieving this feeling. Dantian Changes
works on the transfer from ‘liantun’ in a bow stance to ‘fantun’ in a horse
stance, and focuses on the difference between them, as that is essentially the
only movement that is being done during part four.
Part three may be done as a fajin, whipping the left arm out by snapping the right heel back. Turn the
right heel at the same time as you draw the left hand across. This is not
usually done the first time the movement occurs in the routine, but may be done
later if the mood takes you.