wujimon taiji blog - Latest Comments

Re: Real Gold Does Not Fear the Fire

wujimon — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:45:43 -0000

Hi Carl. Check out the Link in the post to Shukuang Press. You can order the book from there. Here is the link as well: http://shukuangpress.com/Pr...

Re: Real Gold Does Not Fear the Fire

Carlton Shelton — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:05:49 -0000

I am a former student of Grandmaster Wai Lun Choi having studied with him in the mid to late 1990's. Do you have any copies of the book left. How may I attain a copy of this or other publications/books/DVDs?

Re: Misunderstanding Double Heavy?

Joanna Zorya — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:48:09 -0000

Xavier - thanks ever so much for the information. I think I do owe it to myself to get those DVDs at some point. I greatly respect the practical and combat-literal approach of your lineage and thank you for your positive comment about my writing.

Best regards,
Joanna

Re: Misunderstanding Double Heavy?

Xsantiago — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:43:46 -0000

Hi Wujimon,

Yes, I know you did an overview on the Energy Alignment DVD. It was an excellent overview and I wish to congratulate you for it. I enjoy very much reading your posts on this, your blog. I also know that this thread is old (from the year 2006). That is why at the beggining of my first comment I wrote:

"I see that this post is from Aug/2006. Way before you went to Shifu´s workshop and before seeing the Energy Alignment Video. Anyways, for the benefit of readers who run into this post I have decided to put my two cents worth from my perspective at my current level of understanding."

Anyways, thanks for posting the link to your overview on the Energy Alignment DVD. This will also benefit greatly the readers who run into this thread. To anybody who is reading this thread, I highly recommend checking out Wujimon's overview on the Energy Alignment DVD. Wujimon also included an excerpt video clip of the Block Touching the Coat Posture (AKA Lazy to Tie Down the Coat), and an exceprt clip of the 6 Sealings 4 Closures posture from the DVD.

Peace and hope to meet you in a future workshop,
Xavier

Re: Misunderstanding Double Heavy?

wujimon — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:22:53 -0000

FYI, I did an overview of Master Chen Zhonghua's Energy Alignment DVD at: http://wujimon.com/chen-zho...

Re: Misunderstanding Double Heavy?

xsantiago — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:03:51 -0000

Hi Joanna,

I will do my best to answer your questions from my limited understanding at my current level. Shigong Hong’s teachings are exactly those of Chen Fa Ke. He followed Chen Fake for 15 years uninterrupted until he moved to Jinan during WWII. When he received his last 4 months of instructions and corrections from Chen Fa Ke in 1956, the only thing Hong asked permission to do different is to be able to perform the routines just in the same way the martial applications are done. Chen Fa Ke gave his permission to Hong to teach the routines in that manner. All of Chen Fa Ke´s teachings, though, remained intact.

In terms of Chen style in general, many practitioners have different interpretations of what Shitaigong Chen Fa Ke´s teachings were. I don’t want to get into the who is better or worse discussion since that always leads to the wrong conclusions. In my limited experience and having studied from other Chen style lineages, I have not heard those types of explanations before outside of the Hong lineage. Hong was very pragmatic and avoided empty talks on subjects that just could not be proven right or wrong (ex: qi). He only worked on what could be reproduced and measured. From the recent workshop we had with Shifu Chen Zhonghua in Puerto Rico, he went deep into the explanations of the movements and proper body alignments in order to use the laws of physics to our advantage. Concepts of lever and torque were emphasized. In Shifu´s website he has some new DVDs out called "Energy Alignment" (nothing to do with qi at all) in which he goes deep into those explanations in order to use the rotational movements of the positive and negative circle in the Yi Lu form to efficiently use force instead of raw muscle power. I would highly recommend those DVDs if you are interested in going deeper into this subject.

www.chenzhonghua.net

I hope I answered your question correctly. I must say that I like your writings about putting the Quan back into Taijiquan.

Take care,
Xavier

Re: Misunderstanding Double Heavy?

Joanna Zorya — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:27:15 -0000

Hi - that's really interesting - thanks for posting that explanation. I could see the Practical Method was different from what I'd been taught, but I hadn't fully understood how. Do you know how common this understanding is within the Chen style at all? Is it specific to the Chen Fake branch or to the Hong lineage?

Re: Misunderstanding Double Heavy?

Xsantiago — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:45:14 -0000

Hi Wujimon,

I see that this post is from Aug/2006. Way before you went to Shifu´s workshop and before seeing the Energy Alignment Video. Anyways, for the benefit of readers who run into this post I have decided to put my two cents worth from my perspective at my current level of understanding.

Here is my view from the perspective of being a disciple in the Chen style Taijiquan Practical Method under my Shifu, Chen Zhonghua. One of the basic rules of our system is the concept of Yin/Yang separation. Whatever the left side of the body does, the right side must do the opposite. Same holds for the upper and lower body. What this does is create a lever effect on the whole body. If you want to push a boulder using a lever, which will make the job so much easier, you have a fixed fulcrum point and contact point. As you push the lever arm down and create torque, the opposite end of the stick is pushed up and moves the boulder. If you try to push the opposite end and the contact end of the lever in the same direction it will no longer work as a lever and it will be impossible to push the heavy boulder in this fashion.

In Block Touching the Coat (AKA Lazy to Tie Down the Coat) the last move is a right positive circle powered by the left leg. When stepping to the right, the dantien is over the left leg in order to step with the right. Right hand does the first half of the positive circle while the left hand does the first half of the negative circle. As soon as you step and land, as in all stances in the practical method where you are stationary, the dantien goes back and remains in the center. It does not move side to side or forward or backward. However, with this center equilibrium you can power up with either leg. In the last move of Block Touching the Coat the right foot pushes the right hand out in a positive circle. The left hand just is released and comes to the waist (without moving the hand, as Shifu always says). So the final posture is right positive circle powered by the left leg and the right leg is an anchor. Center of gravity remains in the center.

Take care and hope to meet you in a future workshop.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

wujimon — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:05:34 -0000

Greetings, Tim. You are correct that free style is a nice way to go. I often freestyle just walking around ;) However, I generally do not freestyle during a form. If anything, I will pull a piece out and just drill that piece. In a way, that's like a short form too :) Thanks for your comment ;)

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

Tim Koloto — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:45:31 -0000

I would agree that short forms do have there place. I would like to add that free styling is also a nice way. The movements after a while do become part of you and you them at some point you leave subtracter behind a just fly. Try it! Some times even as I am in the middle of a form I'll bust out and flow and move and feel then I may come back to where I as and continue all with out a stop or a break in the reel. (p.s not for beginners )
Love your Blog.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

pmbrazil — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:23:35 -0000

You are very welcome.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

wujimon — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:42:14 -0000

Hi PMBrazil. I am glad you provided some background because I was getting ready to comment on the video to ask who created the short version. Thank you for sharing your video.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

pmbrazil — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:47:47 -0000

Hi Wuji. Just to give you some background; my motivation for putting this short version together was to have a short version for beginning students to have a quicker sense of accomplishment (learning the long form can take years), having a form for the group to do together at demos, and for individual practice when you want to experiment or just don't have time for the long form. Also, I would like to clarify that I put the form together out of necessity since practical method does not have any official short form that I know of as do some other versions of Chen Taijiquan. In that respect, Master Chen Zhonghua would be much more qualified than me to put an official version together for our style. That said, this version meets my needs and at a certain point I think that it is a natural progression to be able to "put the pieces together" in many different ways once you understand how they fit together. In that sense I hope that the video might inspire other practitioners to explore this as well.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

gwinston99 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:39:54 -0000

Wujimon - I held off on the sword for 30 years, but I can tell that what I was taught is true. Traditional weapons are not "practical" for combat use today, but we continue to train with them because they improve our empty hand. Truly moving your hand with your mind intent and tan tien is challenging enough, it is harder when the hand is holding a 3 lb. wooden sword, but this does serve to give greater feedback. When you go back to the empty hand, something has changed.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

wujimon — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:53:07 -0000

Greetings, Gregg. Like you, I enjoy taking my time with forms. I am not a "forms collector", and therefore have really no strong need to add more forms to my repertoire. In fact, I have been working on the first 13 moves of the Chen Practical Method Yilu for like the last 6 months now ... ;)

You're a bold man for attempting to do weapon forms! I love the taiji jian, but have basically vowed not to really practice it until I am able to control my own body, let alone trying to add an extension of my body ;)

I'm glad you enjoy the blog ;)

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

wujimon — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:49:53 -0000

Greetings, mrinal. A lot of teachers have short versions of forms. I believe at the more recent world-wide taiji event, instructors of each of the 5 main styles taught a 13 form version of their respective styles. Even to this day, one of my favorite short forms is Chen Xiaowang's 38 form.

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

gwinston99 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:30:11 -0000

I also have limited time to train - I often practice a portion of the Yang long form, but vary the movements I am working on. I have been practicing the same form for almost 30 years, and started the public Yang Jian Form about 10 months ago. I am really taking my time with the form. I only learned and practiced the first half-dozen or some movements the first 3 months, and even now I am only now up to about the first third of the form.

I agree that the quality of the movement is the most important thing. Working with a weapon, I wanted to become one with the weapon. The Tibetan meditation master, Chogyam Trungpa introduced the concept of "spiritual materialism." In my 30 years in the internal martial arts I have witnessed a lot of that.

Thanks for your thoughtful writing on this blog. I enjoy reading it.

Gregg Winston
"The highest form of victory is winning without contending." ~ Sun Tzu

Re: Practical Method Yilu – Short Version

mrinal — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:44:29 -0000

and here is zhu tian cai's 13 step short form:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
he has done it twice over in this video.

Re: What Does Chen Style Taiji Look Like?‏

wujimon — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:38:38 -0000

Very interesting to note that a lot of things can easily be "lost in
translation". For me, this is one of the great strengths of teachers like
Chen Zhonghua, Stephen Hwa, and Fong Ha to name a few. They understand the
native implications and have a very good command of the english language to
properly translate.

Re: Empty Your Cup

wujimon — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:35:38 -0000

Wow, great point about emptying oneself for the form and activity at hand.
Be in the now! ;)

Re: What Does Chen Style Taiji Look Like?‏

RickMatz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:26:10 -0000

The character he shows for "neutralize" turns up as "change" (more or less) in my dictionary. I find it interesting how words are actually employed by a native speaker vs mere dictionary usage.

Re: Old Imperial Yang Style of Yang Jianhou?

cezarykwiatkowski — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:28:09 -0000

on page www.neigong_yang.republika.pl there is more information on Yang Jian hou tai chi, there id also available eBook Imperial Yang

Re: Old Imperial Yang Style of Yang Jianhou?

cezarykwiatkowski — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:25:37 -0000

on page www.neigong_yang.republika.pl are more information like 3 gate, 3 rings, she yi qi,

Re: Empty Your Cup

RealTaiji — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:03:46 -0000

Yeah...emptying to someone who offers instruction is one thing, and a valuable thing.

Emptying to the form itself, or to space in the room, or to body's inherent rhythms...hmmm...there a key in that, I think.

Re: Counting Breaths in Zhan Zhuang

wujimon — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:29:05 -0000

Hi CS. Thank you for sharing the brochure. I like how you outlined the
various modes that can be used for meditation. They seem so simple, yet the
practice is not easy.