Zhu Datong, the inheritor of Yang Style Tai Chi, has accumulated decades of experience in Yang Style Tai Chi, and has studied, refined, and sublimated Yang Style Tai Chi. He has summarized the following practice essentials:
Relax your feet, ankles, knees, hips, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hands; slide your hips, wrap your crotch, tighten your abdomen, suck in your left and right groins, expand your chest, round your back, suck in your left and right shoulders and chest sockets, and relax your neck; relax your head and mind. The above is “Nine Relaxations, Ten Essentials, and One Void Spirit”.
“Pull, Relax, Ten Essentials, and One Void Spirit” summarizes the external standards and internal practice requirements of Yang Style Tai Chi in a concise, intuitive, vivid, and comprehensive manner.
However, “Nine Relaxations and Ten Essentials – Empty and Flexible” seems simple, but it is actually profound and difficult to operate. Sometimes, one part of the human body is loose, and the other part is tight; one part is flexible, and the other part is stiff. When practicing, one often loses sight of the other. In this regard, the author has simplified and refined four essentials with years of hard work. Beginners of Yang Style Tai Chi can achieve the Yang Style Tai Chi realm of “Nine Relaxations and Ten Essentials – Empty and Flexible” of Teacher Zhu Datong by grasping and practicing these four essentials.
Four Essentials for Beginners of Yang Style Tai Chi
Ten toes do not exert force
This is the first essential. Using ten toes to exert force in Tai Chi is like drinking poison to quench thirst. If you exert force, your knees will be stressed, and if you exert force for a long time, your knees will be injured. If you exert force on all ten toes, the center of gravity of the body will lean forward, and leaning forward will not be centered and comfortable. When Teacher Zhu was sending people out, he was wearing a pair of slippers. I stood by and saw with my own eyes that his ten toes were flat on the ground, without any strength at all.
Not putting any force on the ten toes can effectively protect the knees. People who practice Yang style Tai Chi know that knee injuries are a major problem in Yang style Tai Chi. As for how to protect the knees, many Tai Chi practitioners have proposed various training methods to avoid knee injuries, such as not letting the knees go over the toes. Not putting any force on the ten toes can effectively protect the knees.
But many Tai Chi “masters” finally injured their knees and suffered terribly, but they dared not say it in front of many students and apprentices, and they had to mention protecting the knees. Let me ask: How can the body’s center of gravity not go over the toes? When boxing, how many people can not go over? This is a problem that needs to be solved first.
So today I will tell you clearly that not putting any force on the ten toes is a hard standard. If the ten toes are not putting any force on the body, the body’s center of gravity will naturally not go over the toes, and the body weight will naturally be placed on the muscles at the three toes above the knees. Imagine that if the weight of more than 100 kilograms is placed on the muscles instead of the kneecap, what will the effect be? Will it still hurt the knee?
Single-leg center of gravity
The single-leg center of gravity is actually to practice emptiness and reality. Emptiness and reality are the external manifestations of the yin and yang of Yang style Tai Chi. Yang style Tai Chi that is unclear about emptiness and reality is Yang style Tai Chi that does not understand yin and yang. In the “Yang Style Tai Chi Boxing Manual”, it is said in the “Empty and Reality Secret”: If you practice boxing without understanding the theory of emptiness and reality, you will practice in vain and never achieve success. “Three tips facing each other” is the standard of single-leg center of gravity.
So in the process of Yang style Tai Chi boxing, you must insist on being full and solid under your feet, and being empty and clean. The two legs must be clearly distinguished between the real leg and the empty leg, and they cannot be vague. Calculated on a ten-point scale, if one leg is 10, the other leg must be 0, and one leg cannot be 9 or 8, and the other leg cannot be 1 or 2.
Of course, this refers to the fixed form, and it is impossible to be like this during the movement conversion process. When practicing, if you keep the center of gravity of one leg firm and the emptiness and reality of the feet are clear, you will have a clear distinction between yin and yang and a pillar-like body shape. Tai Chi sages said: The emptiness and reality should be clearly distinguished. There is emptiness and reality in each place, and there is emptiness and reality everywhere. If you don’t solve the problem of the center of gravity of one leg, you can’t solve the problem of emptiness and reality in Tai Chi, so how can you talk about pursuing the true power of Tai Chi?
The buttocks should be slippery.
Slipping the buttocks can be said to be the most important requirement and standard of Yang Style Tai Chi! Why? Learning Yang Style Tai Chi, there is no Tai Chi practitioner who does not mention the requirement of slipping the buttocks. “Slipping the buttocks, empty waist, upright waist, upright top, center and comfort”, which requirement can be separated from slipping the buttocks?
But many people want to ask: How to slip the buttocks? Slipping the buttocks is really important and difficult. It is indeed important to say that it is important, but it is not difficult to say that it is difficult. The difficulty is that many Tai Chi teachers themselves don’t know what slipping the buttocks is, so how can they teach students? My Tai Chi teacher once vividly compared slipping the buttocks to: sitting on a long bench with half of the buttocks exposed. Looking for this feeling of buttocks sliding is the feeling of buttocks sliding. Those who are new to Tai Chi may wish to give it a try. Of course, after the buttocks slide, you must also master the upright and comfortable posture. How to stand upright? Just sit the buttocks on the center of gravity line of one leg, with the front “three tips facing each other” and the back “point-line combination”. What is point-line combination? It means that the heel point is in line with the coccyx and spine. In this way, the center of gravity of the body is correct, that is, the body is upright, and only then can there be comfort and the development of Tai Chi; without the pillar-like body shape, upright and comfortable posture, how can there be Yang-style Tai Chi?
Fourth, no force on the body
Tai Chi master Wu Tunan, the old predecessor, taught the secret of Tai Chi and said: “Never use force when punching. “This statement may seem simple, but it is actually the truth of Yang Style Tai Chi.
In this article, I do not emphasize the word “loose and soft” because I am talking about beginners of Tai Chi here. If I emphasize “loose and soft” to beginners of Tai Chi, they will often not be able to correctly understand “loose”.
“Loose and soft” actually exists in everyone, and everyone can do it. However, the “loose and soft” in Yang Style Tai Chi is different from the “loose and soft” we usually talk about. The “loose and soft” we usually talk about is the “loose and soft” without the hard work of Tai Chi. It is the human body mixed with various forces without analysis.
That kind of “loose and soft” ” is a short, instant, and unrestrained “relaxation”. Therefore, in order to master Yang Style Tai Chi very well when practicing Tai Chi for the first time, we take not exerting force on the body as the standard at the beginning of practicing Tai Chi. If we insist on not exerting any force on the body when practicing Tai Chi, we will be able to master and develop Tai Chi internal strength very well.
These four key points, from feet to legs to buttocks to top, are simple, easy to practice, clear, and are hard indicators. The four indicators must be met at the same time when practicing Tai Chi. With these four indicators, practicing Yang Style Tai Chi is very easy and self-checking. Through several years of hard work, you can naturally reach the standard of “nine relaxations, ten essentials, and one emptiness” for the whole body, and then reach a higher level.