A Further Explanation of the Concept of Qi

Tags

Daoism, Qi, Tai Chi, Taiji

You who know me and have followed this blog would know that I am not a great promotor of the concept of Qi. I’ve never explained it as anything magic or a kind of energy or similar. My main teachers used this word never or at least very rarely sparingly. I don’t think I have ever used this term in any kind of teaching situation except in a few lectures I’ve held in Chinese thought and philosophy. What I write here though might sometimes seem a bit confusing as I still use this term occasionally. I have understood that I have written different things about the concept of Qi in different posts on this blog and thus I see the need to put the most important things together and try to explain better what Qi actually means.

One of my teachers, a Chinese who really knows about Chinese culture and history, thought that maybe it would be better to get rid of the term completely here in the west, and instead try to explain what is done in Tai Chi with a Western way of thinking, with a terminology that is used in Western terminology. I do concur. The term Qi is very much a cultural thing from a language that sometimes work quite different from what we are used to. In China, the character of Qi is something you meet often in the common Chinese language. In modern Chinese, it’s there in the word for angry. If you are angry you say that you have “too much Qi”. And “Weather” consists of the characters of “heaven” and “Qi”. And there are other examples as well. Chinese is a situational, contextual language where a term, concept or character gets its meaning through the context. A single character is often more a symbol, an idea that can be used in many different ways according to circumstance. So when Chinese teachers speak about qi in different contexts, a Chinese students can often understand what is meant, but a Western student might misunderstand. If a Chinese Tai chi teacher would say “don’t use force, use qi”, then most likely, he or she doesn’t mean to use a magic energy. Instead, the teacher would mean something like taking a better posture and relax better. He would mean this because he would be referring to certain requisites that he has already spoken about and taught the class, things together that means “having Qi”. This is hard to explain, but I tried in an earlier post:

“This was said by a person who professionally practice Traditional Chinese Medicine: “Qi is the perfect function of an indent in human body.” So what does this mean? It means that when things function as properly as possible in the body, there is qi. If there is an unbalance in the body, then the qi might be weak or stagnant. “Qi” helps us in different ways to describe different states of the body. We could speak about the “Qi” of breath, or “Qi” of a punch when the body parts needed to breath or punch collaborate in the most optimum manner. For breath, the Qi of breath would the perfect collaboration of all parts of the body needed to breath.”

What is said above is about how this term is used generally in modern language. In Tai Chi though, the term “Qi” becomes a little bit more complicated because the modern use of the term is often confused with older definitions. Tai Chi practice has at least a part of its roots in Daoist practice, as in traditional Neidan. This is the same “nei”, the same character, used for “internal” in “Neijiaquan”, or the Internal School of Boxing. We usually use the same terminology and concepts as in Neidan practice (and also mix it with modern use in medicine and in Qigong). And this leads to a certain confusion as people tend to mix up an old meaning specific to an old school of philosophy with the modern use of this term. Chinese people know how to separate these different meanings of the term, but a person who is born in another culture and is not acquainted to the different language world will certainly have problems when different meanings of the same word collide.

And then there is an even more philosophical use of “Qi”. The philosophical concept of Tai Chi, or Taiji as in Taijiquan, is not a Daoist term, but a name invented by Zhou Dunyi a Philosopher who is considered as one of the forerunners to the Neo Confucian school which was the resurrection of Confucianism in China. Zhou Dunyi used Daoist concepts to explain the universe, but his view on the world, Man and ethics still belonged to the Confucian school of thought. Qi was a part of his metaphysical view and thus it’s hard to speak about the concept of Taiji without mentioning Qi. And there was another philosopher at the same time who has had an even greater impact on the concept of Qi, Zhang Zai, a thinker who believed that the basis for Universe and everything in existence was Qi. For him, Qi was an invisible force that penetrates and surrounds everything.

So the term Qi is not very useful here in the west as a teaching tool as people tend to mix up different meanings of the character, philosophical meanings, medicine and medical Qigong with a more modern use that is a function of the modern language. I still think that the word can have a certain use if you understand the meaning of Qi as a collection of certain prerequisites for internal and external aspects of body use. In Tai Chi we deal with internal awareness and internal sensations. Tai Chi practice can certainly make the body warm. And with a lot of practice you can become quite good at warming up your body fast with small means (which I jokingly wrote about here). I usually just call this heat or steam for lack of better words. It’s not magic and not an energy, it’s just a consequence of doing things right. But this heat or warmth can be a quite good way for you to measure if you really do things right. And thus in a more modern way of using the Chinese language, there is a reason to refer to not only the heat you fell, but the whole internal body state as “qi”. But as no one else than you can feel what is going on inside of you, it’s probably better to not talk about qi at all just to avoid confusion.

You can also hear Mr Yang Hai in the interview below (Chinese w english text) speak about the differences between Qi in philosophy and health arts and for martial arts. No one explain it as clear and concise as him. His explanation starts at approx 6.50 or earlier  at 6.00 if you want to hear him explain the 5 different types of Qigong.

More on Internal vs External Martial Arts

Tags

Bagua, Internal Kung Fu, neijia, neijiaquan, Tai Chi, Taiji, Taijiquan, Xingyi

It’s somewhat wrong to call Tai Chi Chuan an “internal” art. Tai Chi focus on internal aspects and is commonly understood as Neijiaquan, this is true. But still, the concept of internal arts is a bit misleading. The discussion on nei (internal)  vs wai (external)  is actually a bit confused. A common question amongst practitioners of Chinese Martial Arts is about if there are internal and external arts. This is a false dichotomy, still, the term “Neijiaquan” is still a valid concept. Bagua, Xingyi, Yiquan, Liuhebafa and a few more arts are indeed related to Taijiquan, but they are related in a very special way. They share a history together and have often been practiced together. So what is the confusion? I have written about this problem before, but wanted to add some thoughts as I promised in this post about the same subject.  Are there internal arts or not? What is the false dichotomy about? Well, let’s see… First,

the question:

“Are martial arts either internal or external?”

is not the same as:

“Is this an internal martial art?”

There’s a difference here and they should be responded differently. A martial art can belong to the tradition of Neijiaquan (, the Internal Arts Family of Pugilism, commonly abbreviated as IMA,) but a martial art is not external art or an internal.

Martial arts are not divided into internal or external, all Chinese martial arts are both internal and external in various degrees. Much of modern wushu practice, as pure sanda practice, is mostly only external, but all traditional martial arts are both. So martial arts are not internal or external. But there is a special tradition in Chinese martial arts and certain styles that are born from this tradition, a family of styles.

Internal Martial arts, or Neijiaquan, is a definition on Chinese Martial arts that

• Are based, and have a strong focus, on Neigong (internal skills practice), internal practice mostly developed from Daoist practice.
• Have a terminology based on Daoism and Neidan.
• Focus more on internal aspects than external.
• Blend health practice, meditation and martial arts practice together.

They also tend to:

•  Use whole body connection and whole body movement to generate strength rather than from isolated limbs and isolated muscle strength.
• Generate strength from softness and from emptiness.
• Approach the attacker not directly strength against strength, but rather from an angle and the distance is carefully cared about.
• Trying to hide the body mechanics and attack from a neutral posture.

There are a few misconceptions about “internal arts”. One is that Internal martial arts goes from soft to hard and external ones from external to internal. This is partially wrong. So called external, non Neijiaquan arts can have a very strong focus on internal concepts right from the beginning. And certain schools and lineages of IMA starts off with external, apparent expression as well as focusing on hard conditioning. They don’t necessarily go towards hardness. Traditional Tai Chi does not go from soft to hard, it teaches how to generate hardness from softness and teaches how to fight while maintaining stillness.

The common denominators often used to distinguish IMA as Qi, Yi or internal practice are also not enough to distinguish “internal” from “external.” All Chinese martial arts are concerned with Qi, on a deeper or more shallow level. Yi, or intent, as well as shen and Yanshen are all very common concepts in both traditional and modern Chinese Gongfu. But in IMA, or Neijiaquan, we have a certain view on Qi and Yi that is slightly different from other martial arts as we interpret these concepts not in a general manner or in the way they are understood in Traditional Chinese Medicin, or in modern Qigong, but rather in an older way, the way these concepts are understood in Daoist practice as Neidan and Daoyin. We don’t really aim for developing or circulating Qi in general, instead the arts of IMA has an aim to develop, use and refine Post Heavenly Qi, or Xiantian Qi. It’s rather difficult to describe this briefly, but you can find more about it in this post. And more about Neidan in this post.

So, not all arts that claim to be “internal” can be completely compared to an art as Taijiquan. Southern Styles, even though some schools are very soft and have their own take on internal concepts, are not Neijiaquan as they do not share enough of the history and tradition. Some Wing Chun schools claim to be internal. They can continue to do so. But still, they do not belong to Neijiaquan. Aikido also have claims on being internal. It does share a whole lot with IMA, but is not a member of this family. So again, when people speak about an art is internal, they might have valid reasons for doing so, but this still doesn’t mean the art belong to Neijiaquan.

What is it like to fight with Tai Chi Ch’uan?

Tags

Self-defense, Tai Chi, Tai Chi Combat, Taiji

What is it like to fight with Tai Chi Ch’uan(Taijiquan)? I don’t mean in a technical sense, or ask about what techniques or methods you could use in this art. You can find plenty of material about ideas on fighting methods and techniques everywhere. That is in my own opinion of less interest. What I mean is: How do you feel when you fight with Tai Chi? Is your combative mind different when you practice Tai Chi as your first and foremost art of combat? I think so. And I will try to verbalize my own personal experience on this matter and try to share some light over how this art can affect a person’s ability to deal with violence.

But first of all, I am not a typical fighter and I don’t look at myself as anything even close to a fighter. And already for a long time ago, all urge to prove myself has been gone. I don’t like violence and as I have a family to look for now, I would never accept any kind of challenge. (And I don’t even know if I could fight as well today when too much is in stake.) But when I was younger, sometimes I looked for trouble just to test myself, to see if I had anything like fighting skill. There were a few events. I can not boast about many fights, but there has been a few. Except for Tai Chi, I have practiced other styles as well, but I can honestly say that no other style taught me fighting better than T’ai Chi Ch’uan. And no other teacher was better to teach fighting skills than my Tai Chi teachers. Does this kind of statement seem odd for a person who studied shaolin, free fighting and briefly even a style like Muay Thai/Thai Boxing? When you think about Tai Chi, is it slow movements practice, usually performed by elderly people, or cooperative push hands practice you think about? Or do you associate the art with real combat skills? I sincerely doubt that it is the latter. Will you be even more surprised if I say that I really started to understand how to deal with fights when I gave up anything else that I had practiced?

So why then can someone say that he had learned more about fighting from Tai Chi than from any other art? Instead of speaking about things like mind and Yi, I could at one level use two words to answer this question: Timing and distance. Sounds like nothing special? I might would like to add a few other words as well just into the soup, as angle and leverage. And of course, relaxation, stability and how to not forget how to breath. But timing and distance might be the most crucial abilities for general fighting skills, for whatever form of martial art you speak about. In Tai Chi anything you can come to think about in terms of two man practice comes down to timing and distance Regardless if you speak about application, push hands or free practice as sparring or anything else you do, and it’s right there. But this leads to other things, like relaxation and footwork. Or maybe it’s the opposite around. What is unique in Tai Chi, is that softness and relaxation always comes first, everything else second. But still, if you don’t have the correct timing, you won’t be able to relax into applying a technique or a method. And if you don’t have a good footwork, you can not control the distance, something that is crucial for timing of application. So, if you don’t have the correct timing and distance whatever you do, you won’t be able to relax properly. In other words, due to the fundamentally extreme focus on softness and relaxation, you can not cheat with other basic things that is necessary for you to make your art work, as timing and distance. So there is a certain way of combining skills in Tai Chi, skills that affect each other in a special manner, due to the main focus of the art.

The thing is, when it comes to Tai Chi as a combat art, is that these basic concepts of timing and distance is not only something that is always joined together with relaxation and balance. The key is that this unification of qualities will be drilled right into your bones. Things like acting proactive and keeping agile will become second nature, just like being relaxed and keeping balanced are. And the only thing you need to achieve this to become second nature, is Diligent partner work as applications practice, free push hands and sparring. With Tai Chi basics continuously in mind when practicing, you will teach your own body that it functions better under pressure when it can be relaxed and rooted. Eventually you will naturally breath deep, drop your strength down to the feet, and calm your mind even when you compete in fighting or fight for real. You will keep on teaching yourself this, drilling it into your own body and mind, to a point when instantaneous relaxation and balance will become your natural reaction to a threat as encountering violence.

What I am speaking about is nothing intellectual or something that someone told me or taught me. This natural reaction to become relaxed and rooted is exactly what I have experienced myself. When I have met a threat like a violent person, instead of tensing up, I have become relaxed. Instead of breathing faster and shallow, I breathed deeper. Instead of being worried or afraid, I calmed down and felt secure. This is not something I have consciously practiced to achieve. Somewhere in time, it was just there, as a natural response to the threat and violence at hand. And I can assure you that I myself was very surprised when my body and mind instinctively reacted this way. I had good control over each situation. Sometimes, I even saw that my calmness could affect the other person and made him insecure. Upon touch, I never thought to do this or that or planned to do anything. One thing of my concern before “touching hands” has been about distance and angle, to always gain a superior positioning. But yet, when I touched hands, I didn’t think, but merely acted accordingly to my opponent’s movement or to what I felt.

So if you asked me about how it is to fight with Tai Chi, I would say that it has very little to do with applying different techniques from a wide range of things you have learned. It’s not about consciously choosing or planning this or that. It’s more like letting go and let your Tai Chi do the fighting for you. If you practice well and diligent, your learned skill sets will be there, just as much as you let them be there and as you don’t interfere them with things like trying to show off or becoming aggressive.

Maybe all of this above might have things in common with many experienced fighters of different fields (though I am not particularly experienced in other forms of fighting, so I won’t say that anything is for sure.). But if you would ask me about how it feels to fight with Tai Chi, I would say that for me, personally at least, it has been quite an odd feeling of security, a feeling of being in control and in charge. Although interesting enough, nothing of this is something that I plan to experience again.

What is push hands?

Tags

Body method, Push hands, Relaxation, Tai Chi, Taiji, tui shou

What is push hands? There are a few different answers depending on who you ask.

Push hands can be:

• A two man exercise in Tai Chi
• Movement patterns/drills
• Either drills or free play
• Static or moving exercises
• A way to prepare the practitioner for free fighting
• A way to prepare the practitioner for self defense practice
• Competition

Push hands is the exercise where two person stands in front of each other. One person pushes or apply pressure on the other person’s arm or body. The receiver must evade and neutralize the movement from the “attacker” completely relaxed without tensing up, at the exact same speed as the partner and without using force or going against the other’s strength.

The name “push hands” in Chinese is “Tuishou”. An earlier name was “Dashou” or “striking hands”, which implies that once there was more than just pushing. But Push hands is an exercise for interpretation. In higher stages of free play, the boundaries between the exercise and free fighting becomes blurred.

Personally, I enjoy free push hands play at a level of cooperation or collaboration where you help each other solve the different problems that can arise and together discuss or suggest solutions for those tricky situations that may rise. This way, both learn and become better together as the partners play and practice. The fine thing about push hands is that you can take away aggression and competitiveness out of the plan and focus on building a solid foundation based on the qualities of things like stance, balance and timing, while keeping away other things from interfering. The real benefit from a self defense perspective is that you will teach your bosy that it becomes faster and more responsive to action if you are calm in mind and have a balanced body. “Getting into balance” when encountering a fight or threatening situation might very well become the natural response of your own body, instead of the common way that people tense up, lose their control and even panic. From push hands you will truly learn things about yourself, as well as teach yourself, that more common or ordinary martial arts practice can not teach.

Suggested reading on free push hands: https://taichithoughts.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/how-to-master-tai-chi-free-push-hands-five-important-points-on-strategy/

On Tai Chi shenfa and shoulder movement in forms practice

Tags

Shenfa, Tai Chi, Taiji

Most people regard the shoulders and use them in form practice as ”Dead body parts”. This has much to do with an over-emphasis on relaxation in conjunction with a misunderstanding of the ”Han xiong ba bei” principle, or ”hollow Chest, raise back”. Many people teach this concept as a stationary position. But on the contrary, it should be understood as a movement. Even on a Taiji qigong basis, stationary, unmovable shoulders are wrong. In Taijiquan qi theory, it’s still movement that leads and directs qi. If you want to really bring out your qi through the back and into your arms, the shoulders plays a vital part, but never as dead body parts. They should be kept alive, relaxed and in movement just as any other body part. And also, the movement of the shoulder area should be functional and used in form just like you use them in real application. Here are two exceptional videos that demonstrate use of shoulders in both form and application.