What does it mean to be natural?

Anyone who has trained with Chen Xiaowang for any length of time will have heard him say that “natural is the first principle”. But what does it mean to be natural?

A couple of weeks ago I travelled to a remote village or “kampong” in North Borneo where I had hoped to see some of the fantastic wildlife in its natural habitat. Over a few days I got up close and personal to many different species - orang utan, proboscis monkeys, crocodiles, hornbills… Two animals in particular really made me think about what it means to be natural. After a day on the scary Kinabatagan River I returned to find the village in uproar. A herd of about 30 wild elephants on its annual migration was doggedly trying to get at the villagers’ crops. One of the villagers told me that they had put up electric fences a few years earlier, but now the elephants had worked out that all they had to do was push the supporting posts down to get over this hurdle. For the last few years the local officers of the WWF had been using shotgun-like explosions to scare them away, but this year it seemed as if the elephants had worked out that the noise was not going to hurt them. Each time there was a bang they would run a short distance trumpeting like extras in a Tarzan movie but, a few minutes later would resolutely return. They were learning, adapting to their environment…in short, being elephants. The other thing I loved was watching the behaviour of the village's domestic dogs. Unrestrained, alert, purposeful, living in a dog’s world. Contrast them with the repressed dogs in the West. Straining unsuccessfully at the leash to sniff at passing dogs, humanised and neurotic (check out the "dog whisperer" Ceasar Millan!!), chased with pooper scoopers and used as fashion accessories.

Think about how modern life unconsciously conditions our behaviour. Unlike traditional societies who follow the rhythms of nature we are ruled by the clock. Like the aforementioned dogs, humans are, by nature, social animals. Contrast this with the breakdown of the extended family network, the ever-increasing number of isolated single people, the emphasis upon individualism rather than community or tribe, materialism rather than living in harmony with our environment. Suddenly the simple instruction to be “natural” doesn’t seem so simple. Taijiquan requires a search for real internal and external equilibrium. Physical strength allied to mental balance. If we are to really be natural, we must be prepared to work at stripping away the layers of conditioned thinking and behaviour. [FIRST PUBLISHED 1/10/2010]

Taiji - Lost in a digital world

Everywhere we are continually bombarded with messages - twitter, facebook, texts… all of which of course have to be attended to immediately.  In a recent post internet guru Seth Godin highlighted Allison Miller, aged 14 who sends or receives an astonishing 27,000 text messages a month. Broken down that’s about about sixty an hour, every hour she's awake.  In Godin’s own words: “Some say that the problem of our age is that continuous partial attention, this never-ending non-stop distraction, addles the brain and prevents us from being productive. Not quite. The danger is not distraction; the danger is the ability to hide”.

What has this got to do with Taiji? People today often comfort themselves that the busy pace of life today makes it impossible to train like the teachers trained when they were young in China.  Of course, they would like to train more but life is just so busy…  Someone put this to Chen Xiaoxing when we were training in Chenjiagou and he was clearly irritated at the suggestion that things were easier in his time, dismissing the idea out of hand.  He spoke of the back-breaking work they had to do when all farm work had to be done by hand and laughed that even when machinery became available, they were to poor to afford it.  Then came the Cultural Revolution where he toiled in a brick factory. But they still found time to train.  As he put it, most people today work about 8 hours a day.  Beyond that the individual has the choice to do what they want with the time.  Chen Zhaopi, teacher of the “Four Buddha’s Warriors” of Chenjiagou put it very simply saying that: “Besides having the direction of a good teacher, the main criterion is whether the person himself is willing to put in the hard work”. 

Developing skill in the traditional way takes time, patience and perseverance. So turn off your laptop, switch off your mobile phone, log out from your facebook account, stop stalling and get on with the real work. [FIRST PUBLISHED 12/01/2011]

Chen Xiaoxing: “Train every day if you really want it!”

Where do I look when I'm practicing Taijiquan?

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,

Slovenia Taijiquan Documentary

Just back from a week of full on Taijiquan activities in our Slovenian branch. Since 2011 we have been working closely with Biljana Dušić and Dragan Lazarevic to help in the development of traditional Chen Taijiquan in Slovenia. It’s great to see the progress year by year as students begin to deepen in their understanding.

On the final evening we enjoyed a film evening at Ljubljana’s Kreativni Center Poligon - a quirky collaborative creatives hub situated in a giant former tobacco factory. Biljana Acted as compère announcing the showing of a documentary film made in Tolmin during the final international camp of GM Chen Xiaoxing in August last year. Many of our school members were at the camp, so as soon as we get a copy of the film we’ll share it with you.

Camera team Tina Lagler and Blaž Miklič did a wonderful job catching the essence of the camp with their atmospheric film. The work was commissioned by the Slovenia Chenjiagou Taijiquan Association and produced by Tatjana Tomažin Dakić.

After the showing, there were lectures by Davidine and David. Davidine spoke about the three main philosophies that influence Chinese culture - Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. David on Taijiquan’s creation and its connection with Chinese traditional military texts and historical figures.

Warsaw Asia and Pacific Museum - Taijiquan Lecture

On the evening of 8th September, after six days teaching at Marek Balinski’s Chen Taijiquan Akademia, Chen Ziqiang gave a lecture at the Andrzej Wawrzyniak Warsaw Asia and Pacific Museum. The museum was established in 1973 and includes wonderful side arms, rich textiles, numerous shadow theatre puppets and masks, musical instruments, sculptures and paintings of contemporary artists – Indonesia, Mongolia, India, Nepal, Tibet, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, China, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu are especially richly represented within the museum’s collection.

 Chen Ziqiang’s talk focused on: the requirements of Taijiquan practice; some common mistakes people make in their practice; the different reasons for and the benefits of training Taijiquan. The lecture was translated from Chinese to English by Davidine and then from English to Polish by Tomasz Jurewicz. He spoke about the three main areas people benefit from practising Taijiquan – health, self defence and character cultivation. He also spoke about the main requirements of Taijiquan practice that need to be followed regardless of which area you are interested in. Some of the lecture’s content can be found on this website under the “Conversations” tab.