Just got back home after five weeks in Malaysia and China to a message asking for advice on the role of the eyes in Taijiquan. The question related to a conversation during which a student had asked about where to look during Taijiquan practice. “I was trying to explain to a student about where to look when doing Taiji and thinking about it I struggle following active hand. I thought then about body intention and alignment, then what about intention and gaze and of course opponent needs to be seen. What do you say about it?”
The question is interesting, and you could probably write a book on the subject without exhausting it. But there’s only so much time you can spend answering an email at the end of the day! In a nutshell the eyes have to be developed systematically over time:
1. The most basic rule is eyes have to be level and not looking at the floor. The habit of looking downwards inevitably negatively affects the body shape causing one to lean forwards. Functionally, we don’t really need to explain why it’s a bad idea to look at your feet instead of towards your opponent. You can train this through standing, reeling silk or form by paying attention to maintaining a level gaze throughout training. It might seem boring compared to learning new forms, weapons, applications etc., but this is a fundamental requirement and failing to develop it will limit the ceiling of future development. In the beginning, it’s probably simplest to work on this through standing pole training.
2. As the questioner mentioned, practitioners must train to follow the dominant hand with their eyes. To be clear, looking beyond the hand not at it. For example, during the basic front reeling silk movement, looking beyond the hand during the upper part of the circle; and looking in the same direction as the hand (while keeping the eyes level) during the part of the circle where the hand is below eye-level. This can be trained through reeling silk exercises until the idea is clear, and then incorporated into form training.
3. Building upon the previous two points, it is necessary to understand the focal point at the end of each movement in the form. For example, settling into the final position of postures such as dan bian (single whip), lan zha yi (lazily tying coat) or xie xing (oblique posture) the practitioner glances towards the extended middle finger of the open hand; pie shan quan (lean with the back) they look towards the toes of the left foot; or at the culmination of zhou di kan quan (fist beneath elbow) looking towards the right fist.
4. At a certain point we must synchronise our eyes and footwork. It doesn’t make sense to step out without checking the terrain we’re about to occupy. Like the saying "guard the left anticipate the right". In practice practitioners develop the action of glancing in the direction they’re about to step into until this becomes an instinctive habit.
5. When partner work is introduced one of the first requirements is to practice until both parties become comfortable looking straight towards their opponent when in close contact. Not in some weird, staring into each other’s eyes kind of way, but just the ability to keep their eyes level and actually seeing the person in front of them. Many (most) people feel uncomfortable at first, masking their discomfort by looking away, talking etc. this is a serious shortcoming that must be addressed.
6. Finally, in free-sparring practitioners learning to use their eyes to distinguish what is a real attack and what is a feint. And, at the same time, to subtly influence the actions of an opponent by giving real or fake signals with their own eyes. In the words of Sunzi, “making noise in the east and attacking the west.” This ability can only be trained through experience. Chen Ziqiang summed this up nicely saying, “the more you go into the situation, the wiser you become.”
Training the eyes in Taijiquan is a very deep and interesting subject. In the next Talking Chen Taijiquan newsletter, I’ll be expanding upon the subject in a bit more depth. Drop an email to chenjiagoutaijiquangb@gmail.com with the message “I WANT IT” to subscribe to the newsletter,
