Tai Chi enthusiasts try to improve their inner strength so as to realize the dream of “my life is determined by myself and not by God” and “longevity and eternal youth”. However, since the secret of inner strength has rarely been circulated in the world since ancient times, although people who practice Tai Chi know the word “inner strength” and have been pursuing it, they are confused about the essence of inner strength and how to better practice it. Even some famous Tai Chi teachers are evasive and ambiguous about it. The most interesting thing is that foreigners are also interested in the secret of inner strength, but their research is mostly based on Jin Yong’s martial arts novels, which is far from the real inner strength.

The inner strength has been “not passed on to others” since ancient times

The author once heard a senior brother talk about his experience of learning inner strength from Tai Chi master Li Jingwu: I went to Li Jingwu’s house every week to learn boxing. After a few years, Li liked me very much and taught me how to practice inner strength and told me not to tell others. When I came back to practice on my own, a friend who also learned boxing from Teacher Li saw me. Because I couldn’t save face, I taught him. One day, I visited Teacher Li with this friend, and as a result, this friend unknowingly asked about the set of internal power mental method. When Teacher Li Jingwu heard it, he immediately scolded me and asked me to leave his house immediately and not come back. From then on, I never saw Teacher Li again.

The author’s master is called Wang Yongquan. He started practicing Yang Style Tai Chi from the second generation of Yang Style Tai Chi, Yang Jianhou, at the age of 7. Because this set of boxing contains rich content of internal power mental method, he was asked to keep this secret. He can teach boxing, but not internal power mental method. Teacher Wei Shuren once recorded such a story in his book “The True Story of Yang Jianhou’s Secret Tai Chi Internal Power”: At the end of 1957, well-known people in the martial arts community of Beijing gathered at the Sports Committee to hold a martial arts association meeting. At the meeting, Cui Xiuchen, Wang Xialin, Sun Jianyun and others all asked the master for the true meaning of Yang family Tai Chi Kung Fu. At that time, the master said uncompromisingly that the secrets of the Yang family could not be disclosed at the meeting. Since then, friends in the martial arts community have known that the master cherished the unique skills of the Yang family and was unwilling to reveal them to the outside world.

In fact, the habit of not easily imparting internal power and mental skills is related to the rules of “transmitting boxing but not skills, transmitting skills but not secrets”, “teaching apprentices, starving the master to death”, “not passing the skills to the six ears”, and more to the fact that these internal power mental skills are hard to come by.

What is the internal power mental method

So, what is the internal power mental method? Since Tai Chi originated from Taoist culture, the expression of its internal power mental method is mostly related to the vocabulary of Taoist culture and the ladder process of Taoism. Generally speaking, Tai Chi is a fusion of Tai Chi boxing, Tai Chi skills, and Tai Chi Dao. The Tai Chi boxing here refers to the physical movements, the Tai Chi skills refer to the inner strength and the Tai Chi Dao refers to moral cultivation. In other words, the real Tai Chi or Tai Chi culture should include the above three aspects. If you only practice one aspect, it means that you have not got the true meaning of Tai Chi. If you only practice Tai Chi boxing without the inner strength and the mind (Tai Chi skills), you are just describing in the air, without the profound connotation of spirit, intention, and qi and the inner experience of kung fu; if you only have the inner strength and the mind without the changes of the boxing, then life activities lack the material carrier; if you only practice moral cultivation without the nourishment of the boxing (yang side) and the inner strength (yin side), it is not easy to achieve the ultimate goal of Tai Chi practice such as “extending life and eternal youth”.

We should understand that spirit, intention, and qi are the core connotation of Taoist culture and the content of cultivation of Taoism, which is the expression of the unity of things and principles and the unity of principles and methods. For Tai Chi, spirit, intention and qi are also the three elements of the internal strength of traditional Tai Chi. Therefore, if we give a definition of internal strength, we can understand it as follows: the mind method is the path and training method that conforms to the laws of life activities and the development of things; the internal strength is the energy and introverted experience accumulated through training with these paths and methods. Or it can be expressed as follows: internal strength refers to the energy accumulated by the spirit, intention and qi that are mutually conceived with the physical movements (yang side) of Tai Chi, and the mind method is the strategy and path to accumulate energy.

The strategy of adjusting the body and mind of internal strength mind method

The practice of internal strength mind method is mainly to temper the body and mind of spirit, intention, qi and form. This tempering is not carried out casually, but through a certain program of physical and mental adjustment, the mental state (state of consciousness) and physiological state (physical movements) are adjusted from the state of “five horses torn apart” and “torn apart” with distracting thoughts to the state of inner tranquility (one heart is quiet), single-minded consciousness (focus on one side), smooth flow of qi and blood (qi spreads throughout the body), and relaxed body (relaxed, steady, slow and even). How to do this? First of all, it should be clear that this is a long-term process of physical and mental cultivation – “cultivation” is to correct, modify, and repair the physical and mental state that does not meet the requirements of Tai Chi boxing theory, and “cultivation” is to cultivate, nurture, and breed the physical and mental state that meets the requirements of Tai Chi boxing theory – this process must be carried out throughout Tai Chi training. Among them, physical and mental adjustment is a prerequisite for practicing internal power and mental methods. The strategies for physical and mental adjustment of internal power and mental methods include at least the following aspects.

1, Create something out of nothing.

    Many people know the saying that Wuji gives birth to Taiji. But what is Wuji and what is Taiji? The so-called Wuji means “nothing”, and the so-called Taiji means “something”. Wuji gives birth to Taiji means “creating something out of nothing”. In addition, the “Wuji” mentioned by Taoists also means the body. The body, the Wuji, is in a state of stillness and motionlessness, which is “nothing”. If this “nothing” moves, for example, our heart (brain) issues an order, the so-called “heart is the order” – the thought (intention) moves, this is the movement of Tai Chi, that is, the body has “something”, this “something” is the change and movement of spirit (the starting point of spirit or intention), intention (intention) and qi (internal qi and external qi). This is creating something out of nothing. This “creating something out of nothing” also refers to the process in which Tai Chi enthusiasts produce a special energy and a new substance through long-term practice and understanding – what the old Tai Chi masters said “something on the body”, or “Kung Fu is on the body” – the process of guiding the production and accumulation of this special substance through the pretense of cultivation or intention modeling is also a process of “creating something out of nothing”. Creating something out of nothing is the general outline of Tai Chi internal power training.

    2, Spirit is the master.

      Tai Chi emphasizes that spirit is the master. Spirit refers to the starting point of a person’s spirit and intention. For example, the process of doing any Tai Chi must be loose and open. The idea of ​​”loosening” and “opening the air” are all dominated by the spirit, that is, the mind plays a leading role in this aspect. To dominate means to play a leading role–to let one’s spiritual temperament and the starting point of the mind be the master and issue instructions. The spirit is the master, who is it? One aspect is to dominate the movement of the mind. That is, in the process of practicing boxing, only the mind is in charge and not the qi. The qi is stimulated by the posture. When you start practicing Tai Chi, let the spirit be the master, and develop such a thinking habit, then there will be a day when you can reach the state of “reaching the level of the spirit”. If you do not develop the habit of “spirit as the master”, but “body as the master” and “qi as the master”, then you will really “a slight difference leads to a thousand miles of error”.

      3, Adjust the virtual and the real.

        The key to adjusting the virtual and the real is to distinguish the virtual and the real-the center of gravity is the real. How to adjust? Mainly work on two aspects. First, adjust the virtual and the real from the physical body. 1. First, adjust the center of gravity of the two feet (towards the middle) to balance the left and right of the body; 2. Use the feet to adjust; according to the specific situation, put the center of gravity on the soles, soles or heels to balance the front and back of the body; 3. Adjust the virtual and real through the balance of the whole body. Different movements have different postures to balance each other. Second, adjust the virtual and real from the mind. Where the mind is placed, the qi will follow and concentrate there, and this is real; in the opposite direction, if there is less qi, that is virtual. Where the mind is is real, and where the mind is not is virtual–pay more attention to this issue during the exercise. In addition, when exercising, if there is a force to move forward, the mind should move backward; if there is a force to move backward, the mind should move forward.

        4, Round and flexible.

          Generally speaking, round has several meanings. First, in the composition of the movement, there should be a round content in the process of each movement. Second, the various parts of the body should be round. If it is not round, it is easy to be stiff, and once it is stiff, the qi will stagnate and it will not flow. This is the so-called “round empty method”. How can we achieve roundness? Adjust your body shape according to the requirements of Tai Chi, such as “armpits are like holding a hot steamed bun”, “tighten the waist, gather qi and hold the crotch”. The connotation of continuous connection mainly includes three points: 1. Continuous connection of movements – continuous connection of movements has two meanings. On the one hand, no matter how the posture moves, it should be continuous during the operation process, that is, the movement should be uniform; another meaning of continuous connection is that the transition between movements should be continuous. 2. Continuous connection of qi – every time you do a movement, you can’t just think about the body, you have to consider qi. 3. Continuous connection of mind. In order to refine the qi of both hands, Tai Chi mainly adopts the method of closing and opening the hands while thinking that there is a ball on the side of the hands, which will expand and fall off when you let go. In this way, continuous connection of mind is easy to develop.

          Secrets of the inner strength and mental method

          For thousands of years, the secrets of the inner strength and mental method of Tai Chi have rarely been written down. Things that have been written down can never clearly express the feelings of the body and mind and the unique experience of the body and mind. These feelings and experiences are the laws of changes in postures caused by the internal qi that is caused by the inward use of consciousness. These laws are what the boxers call the inner strength mind method. Now, let’s briefly describe some of the contents.

          1, Whole body as one.

            Whole body as one is one of the most respected Tai Chi realms by traditional Tai Chi boxers. Whole body as one means to always maintain the integrity of the whole body, without losing one thing while ignoring the other. Any movement must have a front and a back, a left and a right, and you can’t just think of one aspect. How to achieve whole body as one? Tai Chi predecessors have left many methods.

            First, the body is like a bell. It requires that no matter whether you are sitting or standing, you must cover your whole body with your mind like a bell, so that the qi of the whole body will be in order.

            Second, the combination of inside and outside. The traditional health preservation method requires that the whole body moves when it moves. How to achieve this? The main method is to have the internal three combinations and the external three combinations. The inner three-in-one requires the organic combination of spirit, intention and qi. The outer three-in-one mainly uses the mind to connect the shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, hands and feet. Once the mind is connected in this way, the feeling will be different if the Baihui is raised again. In addition, the methods of combining the inside and the outside include stacking 3 circles, etc.

            Third, one body has five bows. The five bows of “one body has five bows” are: one bow of the spine, the upper bow tip is from the big vertebra to the occipital bone, the lower bow tip is the coccyx, and the bow back is from the middle of the spine to the yangguan (this bow back is a little longer); one bow of the upper limbs, the shoulders to the spine and the hands are the bow tips, and the elbow joints are the bow backs; the lower limbs are stretched bows, the hip bones to the ilium and the feet are the bow tips, and the knee joints are the bow backs. Each bow tip is not a point, but is spread out. How to achieve “five bows in one body”? The key is to use the five bows to replace the body.

            2, Combine the inside and the outside.

              With the improvement of Kung Fu, the “external three harmonies” and “internal three harmonies” have a foundation, and the internal and external harmonies must be achieved. How to achieve the internal and external harmonies? You can use the method of mind shaping, imagining that your body is a big round balloon, and there is a cross with horizontal and vertical lines intersecting each other in the ball. The cross is at the center of the circle, which is like your center point. The “four ends are flat” required when practicing boxing means that the four ends of the horizontal and vertical lines of the cross must be balanced. The key to leveling is: the horizontal line of the cross marks that the two shoulders are level, ensuring that the body does not tilt; the vertical line of the cross is vertical between the Baihui point and the coccyx, so that the connotation of “empty neck” and “loose coccyx” can be reflected. The intersection of the cross lines on the front side of the thoracic spine is the center point of the body, which is the key point that must be paid attention to when practicing Tai Chi. The internal and external harmonies require the combination of body shape and internal strength to play the special functions and effects of Tai Chi. However, this combination is a difficult process, and it can only be achieved through serious research and hard training.

              3, Loose and open.

              Some teachers say that looseness is “like the layers of a thirteen-story pagoda”, and some teachers compare looseness to “loose like ash”. The secret method of the old six-way Tai Chi boxing taught by Wang Yongquan is to practice “three-way Qi circles” – this is a secret method to directly practice looseness and open. If you practice the three-way Qi circles frequently, you will gradually “have Qi all over your body without stagnation”. Not only can you feel the three-way Qi circles on your body, you can even feel the three-way Qi circles of the other party (this is only the primary level of the spirit). You can use these three-way Qi circles when rubbing your hands. For example, use your own Qi circle or your own mind to touch the other party’s shoulder circle or hip circle very quickly, and the other party will be bounced to a distance that is far beyond the reach of clumsy force. Of course, we are now practicing the three-way Qi circles mainly for health preservation. How to practice the three-way Qi circles? Use the method of “mind shaping” – use your mind to create an image of the three-way Qi circles – when you have a foundation in practice, you will naturally feel it. At the beginning, it can only be imagined (consciousness guided by consciousness), then the qi factor is strengthened, and finally it naturally forms a diffuse circle of “big without outside, small without inside”.

              Due to the limitation of space, the author can only briefly sort out and explain the core of the inner power mind method. The richer connotation of the inner power mind method must be implemented and reflected in the process of boxing and walking. In addition, in addition to the above general principles, the inner power mind method also has special content of refining the spirit, qi and mind.