Formosa Neijia

So sorry about the server problems. Hopefully they are cleared up by now.

Here is the second part of the article about Ye Xiao-long and his ideas on being straight and stretching. Those of you involved with huleijia or Xiong Wei’s material should find this stuff invaluable. This article will greatly help you.

Ye’s ideas can lead to a new type of training for some of you in that his ideas go far beyond the simplistic discussion I see on doing taiji forms. People talk about peng and other bodily requirements to death, but Ye’s ideas on straightness and stretching goes deeper than that. If you try to incorporate his ideas into your training, you may be better able to understand some of the stranger methods that you sometimes see in zhaobao or huleijia taiji styles. I know that stuff seems bizarre to some people, but there really is a method to the madness. Strange that it takes a Yang style guy to explain it, but here it is anyway.

He emphasized that stretching is not synonymous with being straight. He said it is a very powerful feeling of sitting, while doing the form, but not just relaxed.” “If you can feel you have a chair while doing the form and are sitting straight and power is stored in he hip and waist area, then you are beginning to have stretch and straightness.”

At the same time, he said, there is a feeling of your entire energy being directed into the earth. `Anytime you move, it is like screwing yourself into the earth. In China we call that having a root in the earth. And the root into the earth has no end. A lot of people think they have root, but they do not have a good root.”

Xu said that Ye’s root is very strong because be is very straight and can root deeper than other people. “You feel you want to go down to get lower than his root but you can not, even though he looks high on the outside. But internally, he is more straight and his energy is really good to the earth. If you feel your whole body has energy to the earth, like it is screwed in and locked there, and you feel like you are sitting in a chair, then you have a good root. Ye tells his students to have a real good chair and that they should sit in that chair as they do the form. But to do this requires a great range of motion between the joints and bones and ligaments so they have the ability to shrink and expand.”

Xu said that a Chen style classic said the whole body can gather 1,000 pounds of power inside your body but this cannot be achieved with muscle; it requires becoming straight and developing a large range of motion inside and strength of the bones, ligaments, and tendons.

“After 20 to 30 years of power stretch, Ye still feels that every time he can dig out new things when he does it.”
In push hands. Xu said Ye has the ability to internally absorb an opponent’s energy and gather his own power. He uses the opponent’s incoming energy to trigger his own power.

Training for push hands, Ye said, is a way of testing your own ability to be straight when you meet force and to gather the opponent’s force to concentrate your own energy and get real power to throw him out at the right moment.
Technique is not as important in push hands as the quality of one’s kung-fu, Ye said. The important thing, he said, is to be solid, rooted and connected. Xu said Ye puts the same quality of serious, slow and concentrated movement
into his two-man training.

“Mostly he still focuses on straightness and rootedness because it is not possible to use the waist effectively without root. If the rooting is not good, then the waist is not good, even if your waist is big and strong. He says the root is more important than the upper body power because you can have more power at the bottom and then he upper part of the body can be more alive and sensitive without a reduction in power”

“The human body is like a tree,” Xu said. “The leaves are like fingers, the branches are are like arms, the trunk is like the body, and the root is like the feet. If the upper part of the tree is heavy and the bottom is weak, then a wind will blow it down, no matter how big the tree is. This is the same for a 300-pound or 400-pound person.

“If they don’t have a root, they will fall down. The method for getting the root is the power stretch with concentration. Ye concentrates on the horse stance and cat stance, changing from stance to stance to keep the body straight, and to keep the internal power in action with the concentration of power”

Xu said that Ye noted that most people doing T’ai Chi are like a puppy when they do the form, very relaxed and loose and no power inside.

But Xu said that when Ye practices, he is like a python on a tree-very concentrated, powerful and serious. But the python is still relaxed. If the python is not concentrated, he will fall down. Xu said this is a kind of invisible power, or jing.

Another step in two-person training that Ye uses is to feed the student jing. “You feel his jing slowly come and you have to move with him, forward or back. All the time he feeds you the internal strength. He is like a tiger hanging onto a deer. The deer feels there is no way to escape. This helps you to root more solidly. Ye said that without this step,
a person cannot become a great fighter.”

Another method that Ye emphasizes is that of “three through,” which he considers one of the most important T’ai Chi Ch’uan dynamics.

The “three through” involves passing the jing continuously through the joints, such as the jing moving from one arm through the shoulder and upper back to the other shoulder and arm. The arms and upper back become like one
unit, as if a snake were there. This also involves the power stretch and concentration.

“Whenever one arm moves, the other arm will move because the power is connected,” Ye said. In the same way, the two are connected across the lower back and act as one unit, transferring power from one leg to the other through the lower back and hips.

In a similar manner, Ye said, the left arm can also be connected to the left leg and the right arm to the right leg. And if properly developed, there can be a link between the left arm and right leg and right arm and left leg. He said this will enable the power, qi and blood to go everywhere in the body and will link the power from the bottom of the feet with the palm.

Xu said. “It is said that when you practice kung -fu you try to reach the level of your bone, ligaments and tendons linked with all the energy connected and going through your body. Then all your qi and blood will move freely everywhere and the feet and palm power will be connected in harmony.”

Another principle that Ye emphasizes is that of zhong ding, or central stability or equilibrium.

It exists as a dynamic part of every movement, Ye said, and also has a spiritual quality. The concept of zhong, he said, has the idea of a sinking motion, the kind of sinking of energy to the bottom of the foot that produces spring shaking power from the earth.

“Every movement has to be able to issue power and this enables it to do that. Part of this is also that the hip is constantly moving up and down inside as part of the sending of power to the earth, which produces ‘earth bouncing’ power.”

He said the center must be straight, otherwise you can’t send energy to the earth and your power will be broken and you will be unable to gather power to the maximum.

Xu said that zhong also means that with each movement he is going from empty to full and that when he fully uses zhong ding, he screws into the earth and then relaxes, without losing the power connection.

If one applies these concepts, Xu said, then you will feel the form is becoming more difficult.

“It is difficult because your level of practice is getting better. If you feel that every day the form is the same or gets easier and easier, then you have trouble because your level of practice is not improving.”

As it gets more difficult to do the form, Xu said, the form quality will be better, the power will improve and you will feel your power, even though you will also find weaknesses that you have to overcome. Xu said that it a person’s range of motion is not great enough inside, they will have to use muscle to help instead of bone, ligament and tendon power, which is stronger and more efficient. But if a person has great range of motion and bone, ligament and tendon power, then they won’t need muscle to help.

Xu said that although he does Chen style and Ye does Yang style, the basic principles are the same. “It is not important which style you do. What is important is the quality of one’s practice.”

When Ye uses his T’ai Chi skills for fighting, Xu said, he brings to bear the invisible power cultivated from his power stretch and circular motion rather than linear motion. He connects to his root, and can make small sticking movements.

The invisible power from his power stretching means that his opponent cannot see his ability to move his energy and joints in defense or attack.

“The circular motion is used to clear away attacks or defenses for him to use his own attack. The use of the waist is to come hack toward the opponent while rooting and moving the hips. When he uses his sticking ability, he gets in close, meets the opposing force and neutralizes it so that it can do nothing.