The secret of Zhaobao Taichi, “Seven Diseases”, states: “The upper method requires the upper body to be raised first, and the hands and feet must be in sync to be true.” It also says: “Don’t lean forward or backward, or lean left or right. If you advance, you will fall straight down, and the inside and outside will be combined, so that the whole body will be as one, and it will not be broken even if you advance or retreat.”

A person must maintain a relative balance, and the center of gravity must move within a certain range. If you lean forward or backward, or lean left or right, and exceed a certain range, you will lose weight. If the center of gravity of the body is lost, it will give the opponent an opportunity to take advantage. Not greedy or lacking means checking whether you are losing weight in appearance, that is, whether your body method is stable and not biased. If the hands are beyond the feet and the elbows are beyond the knees, the body will naturally lean forward, and the opponent will lead your body to a disadvantage without much effort. If the body and hands move backward, but the feet are still in the original place, this is called “lack”, and others will take the opportunity to push forward, and you will fall backward, that is, greed and lack become the cause of your failure, which is manifested in the four diseases of losing the plaque and resisting in pushing hands, leading to failure.

Don’t be greedy or owe, stick to the body, make the whole body as one, stand in the middle, first of all, you must achieve the three outer harmonies, so as to give yourself a reasonable appearance without any loopholes, so that the opponent dare not attack easily.

“Expert Martial Arts Theory” said: “The courage of Tai Chi is based on the agility of the body. It is especially important to be agile. If the body is not agile, there is no place to put the hands, and if the hands are not agile, there is no place to move the body. Only when the body and hands are combined, and the hands and body respond, then even if you can’t lead the troops to line up, you can fight and be invincible.” This explains that when pushing hands, the body moves and the hands follow, and the body moves with the hands, so that the whole body is united. Don’t be greedy or owe, and achieve the three outer harmonies all over the body, so that you can achieve something.

While achieving the three outer harmonies, you must also clarify the three inner harmonies, both of which are interrelated. The inner three harmonies are more difficult to achieve than the outer three harmonies, because the inner three harmonies are formed inside, not outside, so they are not easy to detect. Learners first seek similarity in form, and then seek the same spirit, which is called the unity of form and spirit. When the whole body is opened, the inside and outside are all open, and when the whole body is closed, the inside and outside are all united. Only when you reach this state can you talk about martial arts with others.

Tai Chi requires knowing yourself and the enemy, so that you can understand the power. It is said that “gradually understand the power from familiarity”. Before understanding the power, you must learn to be neither greedy nor lacking, neither too much nor too little. The first thing to overcome is the four problems of top, flat, losing, and resisting. Then, after understanding the power, there will be no problems of breaking, connecting, bending, and looking up. The “Taiji Boxing Theory” explains this: “If you don’t understand the power, of course you will have problems. If you understand the power, why would you have problems?” As for the problems between truly understanding the power and seeming to understand but not quite, and the transition method to understanding the power, Mr. Jiang has a detailed explanation in “Taiji Boxing Theory”. In his “On the Order of Understanding the Power”, he said: “When you seem to understand the power but don’t quite understand it, you are ambiguous and disconnected, so you will have problems. When your spirit is in place but not yet, and you can’t look up or down, you will also have problems. If you don’t avoid the intermittent looking up and down problems, you don’t really understand the power, and you can’t avoid it.”