I have practiced Wudang Zhaobao Chengjia Tai Chi for more than 30 years and am the 12th generation inheritor of Wudang Zhaobao Tai Chi. This article takes Wudang Zhaobao Chengjia Tai Chi as an example, intending to discuss how to improve Zhaobao Tai Chi, how to improve the realm and cultivation of Tai Chi, in order to participate in and improve together with fellow practitioners. If there are any shortcomings, please correct me.

Here, I will use an inaccurate term – “Pujia”, which means ordinary or popular boxing frame, to show the difference from Chengjia. In other words, Tai Chi that everyone can learn and practice well is called Pujia; and Wudang Zhaobao Tai Chi that has been sublimated to a high level through inheritance from the master and repeated experience by oneself is called “Chengjia”. Therefore, there is a verse in the sect: “Zhaobao three-in-one, the frame is rarely passed on.”

Initiation stage

The enlightenment stage is also called the beginner stage. You must listen to the master. No matter what boxing you have learned or what exercises you have practiced, you must learn Tai Chi: center, flat and round, light and flexible; abide by the “size”, look at the joints and set the joints, three straight and four smooth, do not raise shoulders, do not “fly elbows”, do not sit on wrists, do not hook hands, keep the center, rise and fall, elbows do not move, knees do not bend… If these requirements are met, the road ahead will be easier.

Pinching frame

The master taught you the basic Tai Chi boxing frame. After a period of practice, you can practice boxing proficiently. At this time, the master or a senior brother designated by the master must “pinch the frame” for you, from the beginning to the arrangement of each move and form, the action is fixed. The interval from learning to pinching the frame should not be too long, otherwise it will be difficult to overcome the habit of forming a movement. You must not skip the step of pinching the frame. Those who practice boxing outside can tell at a glance whether they have been “pinched” by the master.

Practice the frame and practice hard

Practicing Tai Chi from beginning to end, without stopping, day and night is called practicing the frame. This stage is very important. Even if you are a martial arts genius, you cannot bypass it. Because Kung Fu comes from practicing the frame, and the process of practicing the frame is also the process of enlightenment, and it is the foundation of practice. The following phenomena may occur at this stage:
The body changes or sends signals. This stage (a few years or longer) can be supplemented with meditation and standing, but strength training is firmly opposed. During this period, the body will tell you: the quality of sleep is high, the metabolism is good, the energy is full, the muscles are loose (loose, not lost) but the strength is not reduced, the legs are strong but the ground is light when walking; the shoulders slide down, the bones, especially the fingers, are round and full, and the minor problems in the body disappear. Sometimes there will be periodic abdominal distension like a drum, but there is no discomfort, no need to be nervous.

The stage of practicing the posture is a difficult and happy process, during which there are joy, frustration, and even discouragement and hesitation, and the posture movements will often be repeated. Therefore, you should keep in constant contact with your master and fellow disciples.

There are two other very important points. One is to learn and master the crotch and hip movement; the other is not to think about pushing hands and fighting during the stage of practicing the posture. Because the mind dominates the behavior, if you always think about how to use this move and how to fight that move, the movement will be out of shape and stiff. Don’t worry, “Practice the fist ten thousand times, and the intention will come out by itself.”

Forget the hand

The uniqueness of Wudang Zhaobao Chengjia Tai Chi is the crotch and hip movement, which can also be said to be its “key”. Other Tai Chi schools except Zhaobao Tai Chi emphasize “waist and hip movement”, but Chengjia insists on “crotch and hip movement”. The difference and uniqueness are discussed elsewhere, so I won’t go into it here.

We see some people who have practiced Tai Chi for decades, with their legs constantly jumping and arms waving hard, but their crotch and hips are stiff and their Dantian has no Qi (Qi). After a round of boxing, they are either out of breath or their faces turn red. We can tell them bluntly: “There is nothing on the body”! What is it? You can only understand it intuitively. The master once pointed out: “It is better to dance square dance than to practice Tai Chi by body movements.” I remember a saying: “Only those who have hands but don’t use them, and those who have elbows but don’t use them, are masters of Tai Chi.”

It needs to be emphasized that if you forget to practice Tai Chi with your hands, you must master the method of crotch and hip movements, and use the crotch to lead (replace) your hands, which is called “seeking everything in the crotch”. Otherwise, you can only be a “practitioner” and will never be able to enter the door of the frame.

Boxing trains people

Boxing proverb: “People practice boxing in vain, boxing trains people to achieve success.” Here it should be “炼” instead of “练”. The former is to temper, and only after a long period of polishing, or even a reborn tempering (like from iron to steel), can it succeed; the latter has the radical “系” (string) that is entangled, so Master Zheng Wuqing advocates “playing boxing”, playing like a child without worries, and returning to the innate.

Boxing trains people, which is a bit abstract and a bit “mysterious”. Much of Chinese traditional culture is hidden behind the screen of metaphysics, so it needs people with destiny to seek and explore. In the article “Gossip about Tai Chi”, Junior Brother Li Wei vividly compares it to “the driver” and “the passenger”, which is very philosophical.

People who have experienced it all have the experience that when you go through the difficult stage of practicing the racks, you gradually forget your hands, the order of the routines, the time and place, and yourself, and completely enter a state of obscurity and confusion. Who is boxing? The answer is: “I in myself.” That feeling cannot be explained clearly, only you know it, just as Tao said, “I want to argue but I have forgotten the words.” To be honest, you don’t have this feeling every time you practice boxing. You need to have the mood, body, climate, environment and other conditions to achieve this supreme state of harmony between man and nature.

At this time, in the eyes of others, we are “different”; in our hearts, Tai Chi is a part of life, and the frame is “invaluable”; all behaviors can be regarded as playing Tai Chi, making Tai Chi a part of life, and life a part of Tai Chi. Walking, walking, sitting, and lying are all playing Tai Chi, and consciously using the principles of Tai Chi to measure and solve everything.

What can be clearly said is that after reaching the level of “boxing refines people”, the microcosm of our body has entered the state of “free kingdom”. In short, after arduous practice, our Dantian Qi (qi) is full, the five internal organs are healthy, the eight extraordinary meridians interact, especially the three meridians of Ren, Zhong and Du are unobstructed (this is another important topic that needs to be silently understood and pondered), and the boxing stance, pushing hands, and martial arts are all “commanded” by the self within me. At this time, it should be the stage of Wuwei method of Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is profound and there is no end for practitioners. How to improve Zhaobao Tai Chi, someone summarized it well: “Kung Fu is like a seedling emerging from the ground, you can’t see its growth but you can see its height.” As long as you are on the road, you will gain something every day.