The master said: “Wudang Zhaobao boxing is acquired by those with virtue, and lost by those without virtue. A coarse person acquires it coarsely, a refined person acquires it finely, and a scholar acquires it exquisitely. The spirit and principle will be revealed after practicing the boxing ten thousand times. Practicing the boxing one hundred and eighty thousand times, without moving and rotating, is really a level of skill and a level of principle.” The purpose of Wudang Zhaobao Tai Chi is: Under the charm of the body in the middle, flat, round and light, pay special attention to relaxation and softness, and through the guidance and practice of the boxing frame, use the innate cleverness to eliminate the acquired clumsy force in the human body. It is a process of seeking perfection. The ability to gather can make the five senses, limbs and bones, ten thousand trees can gather into one tree, and one tree can become a million trees.
Characteristics of Zhaobao Tai Chi: The muscles and bones should be loose, the skin and fur should be attacked, the joints should be connected, the emptiness and spirit are in the middle, and the purpose of circular movement is everywhere. In the guidance of the boxing posture, find the trajectory of the circle and practice strong elasticity and self-expansion. When practicing Wudang Zhaobao Taijiquan, one must first be open and then seek compactness. This openness should be correctly understood as being inside rather than outside. For example, when King Kong stretches out his hand and tenses his strength, it requires the openness of the inner circle. Compactness is to change from large to small, from tangible to intangible, and from form to intention, striving to achieve the saying of Wudang Zhaobaoquan that “one inch smaller, one inch more clever”. Zhaobao Taijiquan’s requirement for looseness and lightness is an eternal and endless pursuit. The master said: “Find looseness in looseness, and find lightness in lightness.” That is to say, for Zhaobao Taijiquan practitioners, looseness and lightness are an endless and never-ending pursuit. Because it is loose and soft and natural, it emphasizes intention rather than strength. When performing, there is no spirit and clumsy strength of showing teeth and claws, as if it is lazy and weak, so it is also called cotton boxing and lazy boxing. In the practice of Zhaobao Taijiquan, you must know that you should seek straightness in the curve, overlap the square in the circle, and do not bear the opponent’s force, and do not be used as a crutch by others. When moving, the upper and lower joints should lead, the middle joints should follow, and the root joints should push. When exerting force, the four upper and lower joints are important (the four upper and lower joints of tendons, bones, blood, and flesh). When practicing Zhaobao Tai Chi, you should move everything when you move, and be still when you are still. You should practice lever force and pressure force. Every move and every move will separate the yin and yang of the whole body. When you stretch your hands, you are yin and yang, and even your testicles are fighting yin and yang. You should understand that the side hands can form a force path. You should give up yourself and follow others, but you must never give up the near for the far. You should hold your chest and pull your back, and you should also know the wonderful use of opening the spine and holding your chest. You should know that practicing boxing is entanglement, and the method and principle of putting hands together becomes binding.
Zhaobao Tai Chi also pays the most attention to the famous saying “Tai Chi does not move hands, and moving hands is not Tai Chi”. It is a good way for practitioners to reach the advanced state of leading hands with the body, moving qi with the heart, and moving the body with qi as soon as possible. In the practice stage, it is not only necessary to “practice elbow rotation”, but also has the strict boxing proverb requirement of “elbows do not move”. Every posture should also be able to show the tiger’s mouth wide open, and the power and dynamics of yin and yang reversed.
In the practice of Zhaobao Taijiquan, whether it is rolling, turning, walking in circles or walking in arcs (the extension of arcs is also circles), you must find the trajectory of the circle in each posture. Because the movement of the circle conforms to the theory that the sky is round and the earth is square, and it conforms to the common sense that people should be flexible and not rigid. Look at the movement of celestial bodies in the universe, which one can not exist forever without circular movement. The activity energy of the circle is large, and the circle is more labor-saving and time-saving than all shapes. For example, the speed of the square and all shapes is large, while the circle requires less power and is more economical. The centrifugal force of the circle is large, and the circle is 3.1416 times the diameter, which means that the circular movement is more than 3 times the linear movement.
After practicing Zhaobao Taijiquan, shaking hands with others is like sawing wood, and there will be foam as soon as you saw. It is also like a carpenter hitting a wedge (one end is big and the other end is small). The more the opponent moves, the tighter it is, and the more the opponent moves, the worse it is. It is like a mill grinding millet, the circles rolling against each other, and in the circular motion, the rice bran is separated, and the opponent is thrown out by this principle. Wudang Zhaobao boxing not only requires the body to have “five bows” with two arms on the top, two legs on the bottom, and a waist bow in the middle. It also requires the training of thirteen bows (shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee, foot, neck, a total of thirteen bows). When exerting force, it is especially necessary to have three hearts plus one to assist and cooperate (the original heart, the palm of the hand, the sole of the foot and the root of the leg). So that it can reflect the flipping force and collapsing elasticity.
There is a saying in boxing that everything is sought in the crotch, so Wudang Zhaobao boxing attaches the most importance to the practice of crotch. Treat the crotch as water, as a ruler, and as a scale. Water can float a boat or overturn it. The ruler can measure the length of a person’s strength without any error. The weight can accurately measure the incoming force of others, so we focus on training the crotch and hips. Therefore, there are immortals who leave behind fitness recipes. The best position is to open the crotch. Opening the crotch is conducive to the conversion of movements and the sinking of qi. The sinking of qi can stabilize the center of gravity. When fighting with others in Zhaobao Tai Chi, you must pay attention to the point rather than the surface. (Instantaneous contact) It is inconvenient to have both the surface and the surface. If you occasionally touch the surface, change your technique quickly. It means that you win with your ability and I win with my tricks.
How to understand “piercing the flesh and not piercing the flesh” when fighting. When you first touch hands with others, you should be light, slightly like touching but not touching. This is called piercing the skin but not piercing the bones. If you pierce the bones, the qi will be blocked (that is, you cannot use force when contacting the opponent, and you cannot feel that you have bone contact with the opponent). Then once you find the opponent’s weakness and center of gravity, I will make my strength pierce the opponent’s flesh and send him out. It is to realize the self-expansion force that has been trained to show the skin and fur and attack. How can it be “not piercing the flesh”? Because Wudang Zhaobao Taijiquan requires that the muscles and bones should be relaxed and the skin and fur should be attacked, whenever the opponent touches me, I will use light listening force to neutralize his force so that he cannot succeed.
If you want to achieve the state of emptiness and penetration of the whole body through practicing Zhaobao boxing, and use the profound inner strength of pure divine movement, you must have extremely deep cultivation, so that you can achieve it when all human desires are eliminated.
The way of boxing is that the master should always talk about it, and the apprentice should always think about it. If you practice it muddledly, it is like scratching an itch through a pair of leather shoes (useless). You can’t just follow the whole learning. Punch the arm and kick the head, the weapon will make a sound (the sound of the wild horse’s mane will rush in), and the cloud hand circle must be round to the left and right before changing. As long as you can make progress, you will never use it up in your life. In front of you, stand on one leg and look up to the sky, and behind you, hold your hands and untie your belt and turn your elbows.