[Reprinted] How to Practice Tai Ji Chuan-Zhang Shaotang

Because the popularity of Tai Ji Chuan is not the traditional strong practical Tai Ji Chuan. Tai Ji Chuan is popular because people need to keep fit. Some so-called "national standard routines" and simplified Tai Ji Chuan belong to this type. Because most people are pursuing a healthy body by practicing Tai Ji Chuan, and many of them have achieved this goal. There are not many people who practice Tai Ji Chuan's pursuit of martial arts and actual combat ability, and most of them are descendants of traditional schools in Tai Ji Chuan. The real content of Tai Ji Chuan's actual combat ability training lies in various schools of traditional Tai Ji Chuan. Of course, some schools have lost the specific content of cultivating actual combat ability so far. In a word, the real thing is lost. There are two reasons: one is conservatism. Second, we don't pay attention to the cultivation of combat and offensive ability. Over time, those real and good contents have been lost, which is very heartbreaking. This problem exists not only in Tai Ji Chuan, but also in other kinds of boxing. This is a common problem of traditional martial arts. Only a few traditional Tai Ji Chuan factions have truly grasped the essence of Tai Ji Chuan.

To practice Tai Ji Chuan, if you want to have the ability of attack and defense, you must first practice hard. How can we work hard? First of all, we should choose the correct practice method. So what is the correct practice method? According to my personal experience of practicing Li Pai's Tai Ji Chuan for ten years, it's hard to practice the Tai Ji Chuan routine by rote. Even if you have it, you won't use it. If you meet a master who really knows martial arts, you will be defeated. Routine is the main practice method of traditional Tai Ji Chuan, but not all. Specifically, the contents of Tai Ji Chuan include: 1. Basic skills training; Second, the practice of routines; Third, the practice of Gong Zhuang (Li Paichuan has thirteen tai chi pile); Fourth, the cultivation of internal strength; Fifth, the practice of auxiliary techniques, such as rope exercise and ball rubbing; Sixth, the practice of pushing hands; Seven, opponent practice (that is, actual combat training);

First of all, the practice of basic skills must not be ignored. As the saying goes, "if you don't slip your legs when practicing boxing, you must be a daredevil." Traditional Tai Ji Chuan requires very high basic skills, and the ligaments must be straightened, so that the movements can be done properly and some difficult movements can be made. Since we want to pursue the ability of fighting, we can't practice the law like those old people in the park. So basic training is the foundation. Followed by routine practice, commonly known as "food shelf", the basic skills are practiced, the movements are done, and the shelf is cooked. You can't practice death on the shelf. The so-called dead practice is to beat down the routines and keep the order unchanged. You can't practice like this every day, even if you are old. I didn't want to practice a set of boxing at first, so I practiced simple one-handed routines, such as Li Pai's "eight-door maneuver" and "three-push maneuver". The eight-door maneuver is to give up, hit, squeeze, press, pick, push, elbow and lean, and each maneuver is a punch. After repeated practice, you begin to get started. At this time, for example, lifting the top and hanging the hips, pulling the back with the chest, sinking the shoulders and dropping the elbows, and covering the hips to protect the buttocks. What is "head hanging"? How should I relax? These all need to be understood. In addition, we should understand what infinity, Tai Chi, Two Instruments, Four Elephants, Yin and Yang, Five Elements and Eight Diagrams are. These are not superstitions! But the essence of China's ancient philosophy. If you master these, you will understand a lot of truth, which is very helpful for you to master boxing theory in the future.

Then talk about the routine (dish rack). Routine practice can't always be a shelf. You should practice three kinds of shelves: high, medium and low. Low shelf pays attention to the next set of kung fu. As the saying goes, "the lower plate lays the foundation, the upper plate practices technology, and the middle plate practices Datong", and the lower plate is a low shelf. It takes a lot of effort and painstaking efforts to practice low-rack. Practice low frame, some legs should be close to the ground and slowly wrapped. It takes more than an hour to practice Li Pai's Taiji Five Elements Hammer. If you can't relax, you can't persist. Besides, this kind of exercise can also make you relax naturally. At first, you may not be able to hold on. After practicing for a while, you will feel very relaxed. After practicing for two hours every morning, you will feel energetic, energetic and energetic. You must have at least one year to practice the next set of kung fu before you can practice the next set of kung fu. After practicing the next set of kungfu, your waist and legs will be greatly improved and your whole body will be relaxed. It's called kung fu. If you can figure out what Yin and Yang are, you will improve your kung fu. Yin and Yang are both sides of things, and they are also a classification method. In Tai Ji Chuan's practice, Yin and Yang are accumulation and development, opening and closing, breathing and sucking, left and right, combining rigidity with softness, and-.

Dishes and shelves should understand yin and yang, what is double and what is heavy. "Boxing Classics" said: "Double is stagnation, and weight is spirit." The so-called double means that yin and yang are not divided, and the weight is that yin and yang are separated. Tai Ji Chuan's every style should be divided into yin and yang, and his movements and breathing should be coordinated. All joints should be flexible and coordinated, and five bows should be prepared. The upper body can't be trained into a flat plate, and the joints of the whole body should be coordinated when moving. In this way, over time, you will practice hard and kung fu will come out. The combination of putting on shelves, standing piles, practicing internal skills and practicing auxiliary skills will have a multiplier effect. At this time, combined with practice, you will have a deeper understanding, experience and mastery of Tai Ji Chuan's powerful method, and lay a good foundation for the cultivation of actual combat ability. As I said before, you can't practice routines on the same shelf, that is to say, a set of boxing can't always be practiced mechanically in sequence. If you are proficient in routine practice, you must disrupt the order and connect formulas at will. This exercise is to make you master the usage of Tai Ji Chuan flexibly. Tai Ji Chuan of Li School pretends to be "single practice" and talks about "single practice" and "four essentials", namely "reason", "potential", "qi" and "machine", which can also be said to be four kinds of practice methods. Mr. Li Ruidong said, "A single man of practice is a man of practice alone, so don't be greedy, but try to master it. Or choose one or two types of specialized training, which is called training potential; Even three or five styles are practiced urgently, which is called practicing qi; Or follow the trend and practice at will, which is called a practice machine; Or practice according to the imagination of the situation. This is called practical reason. In short, we must practice four things alone. "

Beginners should never be greedy when putting on airs, let alone try to learn a long routine as soon as possible, because in this case, haste makes waste, and proficiency is very important. Li Pai's practice method is that after practicing each formula, beginners should stand on this formula as a "stake" for a period of time before practicing the next formula. Only in this way can you quickly practice the "internal skills" you want, otherwise you seem to learn quickly, but in fact your kung fu is much slower. When you have mastered every formula, it is not too late to practice the whole set of boxing. When a routine is proficient, it is necessary to disrupt the order and practice at will. If Li Pai's single practice four is step by step, it can't be chaotic. Mr. Li Ruidong said: "Husband is based on creating momentum, that is, taking luck as benefit, taking qi as life and taking opportunity as reason." "And practice has special rules. Without practice, the situation is unstable. If you don't practice, you will be out of breath. Without practice, the machine is ineffective. There's no point in not practicing. Everything is in an orderly way. It's not true to practice emotion and reason, and it's unreasonable to practice machine without spirit and vitality. Scholars should think deeply. "

After practicing kungfu to a certain extent, the teacher should personally explain Guan Qiao and "Hand Tactics". There are five characters in the hand tactic, which is the key to open and close the door (I can't disclose it here casually, lest the practitioner blindly adopt it and lead to deviation). Li Pai and Tai Chi Chuan pay attention to "five hands, five steps and five directions, five tones in the mouth and five stars on the head", which is the outer five elements. In addition, there are "five elements of internal strength". What about the tactic? That is, the flexion and extension of fingers are consistent with the breathing of the mouth. By doing this, you can achieve the so-called "internal and external communication" and "breathing psychic", which means that you have entered a brand-new realm and your kung fu has also reached a higher level. Mr Li Ruidong said, "If you don't know how to practice, it's like a dark room without lights. Although you have worked hard all your life, it is difficult to succeed. " In the past, boxers said that "Liu Er didn't pass" meant that the technique could not be passed lightly. At this point, a single effort can't be used in actual combat. You must practice in pairs. The teacher will give his disciples "hands" and "eyes", explain the size and cents, and often give them "hands". Disciples should always practice each other, that is, double cultivation. Constantly experience and summarize. This kind of dual training is definitely not just pushing hands, pushing hands is just one of the links. Only through this kind of practice can we have actual combat ability. Practitioners should train hard for at least four hours every day, and at least three years of training can achieve the purpose of actual combat. Some people used to say that "Tai Chi will never come out in ten years", but it was actually not a saying from Tai Ji Chuan, but was said by an outsider, which was incorrect. Li Pai said that "three years of small success, five years of great success", can initially carry out actual combat, and the effort to release people outside Zhang is only a small success. So what is Dacheng? Practicing Tai Ji Chuan is very successful, that is, it has considerable reaction ability and is very sensitive. In other words, the purpose of "returning to nature" has been achieved to some extent, which means that people's innate conscience has been developed. If a small achievement is "erudition", then a great achievement is approaching a "god". At this stage, there is no problem in actual combat. However, it is not easy to practice this step well. You must choose the right way, you won't take detours with the guidance of a master, and you must work hard, not only to practice kung fu, but also to learn the theory of boxing, and you must understand something. In short, there will be no pie in the sky. I've always been opposed to any quick work, and I'm also opposed to teaching our Tai Ji Chuan law to others by correspondence. That is not only greedy for money, but also misleading children. But now that there are videos and CDs, some self-learners can try it if they are savvy. It depends on the actual effect. If the effect is not good, it is impossible.

The author once had a long talk with Mr. Zhang Shaotang about the cultivation of Tai Ji Chuan's actual combat ability. Shao Tang has been practicing Tai Ji Chuan for nearly forty years, and has accumulated rich experience in boxing practice, with outstanding practical ability. Mr. Shao Tang said that in the actual martial arts, the inferior martial arts win by strength and speed, the medium martial arts win by techniques and skills, and the superior martial arts win by innate sensitivity, that is, the so-called no boxing and no intention, and it doesn't matter what techniques and moves. Don't want to use any moves to deal with each other, the action will naturally come out. If the opponent's moves change in the middle, you will change with them, but you can always restrain the opponent, and even if the opponent attacks you, you will fight back in time. Before your brain knows it, your action has already gone out. This is an innate conscience. The ultimate goal of practicing Tai Ji Chuan is to "return to nature". The so-called return to nature is to develop the potential things in the human body. These things are not mysterious, and anyone can practice them in the right way. Of course, starting from the basics, we still have to start from the most basic things. Basic skills must be practiced solidly. Without basic skills, you can't practice your movements properly. If you can't do all the movements, you can't practice real kung fu. Why can't some people practice kung fu for decades? One is because there is no basic skill, and the other is because the method is wrong and the boxing theory is not understood. Third, because the time has not come. Practicing Tai Ji Chuan starts from scratch and starts from scratch again. The "nothing" in front of us is nothing. Of course, if you don't practice, you won't have it You have to practice hard to have it. Where there is fist, there is skill. At this time, you have grown from scratch, and the "nothing" behind you is the sublimation of your kung fu. If you are proficient in boxing and techniques, you will be "knowledgeable" and can fight in actual combat. If you practice further, you will be able to practice your innate conscience and you will be close to "God". This is the so-called "no punch, no heart, no heart is true." This is not Wang Xiangzhai's invention. Mr. Li Ruidong has said something like this long ago. His theory does not go beyond the theoretical category of traditional martial arts, and Yue's psychological boxing theory also has such content. Kung fu practice to this point, you don't have to deliberately want to deal with any moves, you just have to reach out. When Mr Li Ruidong said, "Don't practice this trick", he meant this time. The so-called "no tricks to win"! If anyone shows off how clever a move is, then his kung fu is definitely not very high. A master will never prepare a trick to deal with his opponent in advance, but judge the situation and improvise. What is the basis of improvisation? This is your innate sensitivity. This is "no tricks". However, you have to understand that the basis of this no-move is "having a move", and if you want to achieve "nothing", you must start with "having". I said shelves can't practice routines in order. If you practice skillfully, you must disrupt the order, connect at will, and practice in the order of reason, potential, qi and machine. This is a process from "yes" to "no". I said this should be more popular, right?

Besides pushing hands! There are many kinds of faders, such as "fixed step", "moving step", "four stand", "four corners", "single fader" and "double fader". Don't think that Tai Ji Chuan can only cultivate its actual combat ability by pushing hands. It's just a link in the actual training process. Tai Ji Chuan's "listening" is trained from the practice of pushing hands. Pushing hands training can also be used to learn Kung Fu, because it is a civilized way of learning, and it is not easy to hurt people, so there are many ways to push hands to learn and compete. Some people don't even practice other actual combat methods, but specialize in pushing hands. There are many such people now, so people think that Tai Ji Chuan has only routines and pushers. Actually this is a very serious misunderstanding. There are many ways to cultivate Tai Ji Chuan's actual combat ability, including putting on airs and pushing hands, but also double training, double training and various auxiliary technologies. Among them, double cultivation is one of the most important contents, and the Li School is mainly carried out in accordance with the three essentials of double cultivation summarized by Mr. Li. The so-called three essentials are "comparison", "asking difficult questions" and "striving for the top", so I won't go into details.

Let me briefly talk about Li Pai's auxiliary techniques. Tai Ji Chuan of Li School has many kinds of auxiliary techniques, all of which are practiced with instruments. I will give you a few simple examples. First, Li Pai has a "rope shaking". The method is to use a thick rope with two hands, which is more than two feet long and weighs 36 pounds. Two iron rings are sleeved at both ends, one end is fixed, and the practitioner holds the iron ring. Second, the Eight Diagrams and Nine Palace Piles were circulated by the Li School. They are made of soft rattan, bundled into rattan bundles with a diameter of about eight inches, and planted on the ground, with nine bundles. The yogi walks through it, squeezing, and the rattan bundle is elastic. Practitioners can feel the elasticity of the human body. This is called "piling", and piling has footwork. Thirdly, Li Pai has the practice method of Tai Chi ball, which can practice and experience Tai Ji Chuan's round work and develop various forces. Li Pai's "Twelve Tactics of Taiji Ball" is: "The gold thread is connected with the wrist, and the female fish line is sticky. Zhong Qiang, an old man, plays the pearl with two dragons. The immortal walked out of the bridge with strength, and Feng Dan walked out of the shed with strength. The golden rooster collapses, and the night pearl is round. Holding the moon gives you strength, and the old monk holds a bowl to give you strength. Zhang Fei's horse is very strong, and I am sharpening my knife. " Fourth, bagging, in addition to punching all kinds of sandbags, there is another way to put books in your pockets and hang them up, so that you can practice for a long time to develop a penetrating power. Another way to practice your fingers is to make a circle with a piece of bamboo, paste it with thick kraft paper, hang it up and point it with your fingers. It is required to practice until the fingers break the kraft paper and the bamboo ring does not move. It is very difficult, and this strength is very practical. In addition, there are Tai Chi rulers and so on. In a word, it is very important to practice various auxiliary techniques with the help of instruments. For example, in rope shaking, when you "hum" a rope weighing 36 pounds and can't even see it clearly, your shaking strength is quite excellent. And after you practice the twelve techniques of Tai Chi ball, you will be very round and master many techniques. It is very helpful for martial arts and actual combat.

If you want to be a master in actual combat, internal strength is also a very important part. Take Li Pai's Toad Fishing Skills as an example. Swallowing method, that is, "toad breathing", can be directly applied to actual combat, and its power is amazing. Because this skill can't be passed around, I won't say much.

Teacher Shao Tang said that Tai Ji Chuan's operation involved a lot of skills and kung fu. So, what are skills and kung fu? Teacher Shao Tang said: Some of Tai Ji Chuan's skills can be mastered in a short time, while others take a long time to master; Some things can only be mastered after a long period of hard training, which is "Kung Fu". Kung fu and skill are both different and related. Kung fu often involves skill. Pure kung fu without skill is just stupid kung fu, but there is no stupid kung fu in Taiji Biography. Just say the so-called "four Liang"! As long as you fully master the skill of pushing hands, it is not difficult to understand. This means that the strength from the other side, as long as you use a small force, with the rolling of your arms, with the coordination of your waist, hips and whole body joints, it is easy to melt the strength from the other side. This is not difficult to master. Pushing hands is a skill, because pushing hands needs to "listen", "turn" and "push". This is not something that can be mastered in a short time. Why do some Tai Ji Chuan masters have heavy arms if they don't exert themselves? Because it was years of hard work. When we practice Tai Ji Chuan, we should understand these things and know the difference and correlation between kung fu and skills. It is very important to master all the skills as soon as possible and try your best to master them. It is very important to practice hard in all kungfu. For example, when a master of Tai Chi Chuan hits someone, the viewer hits him with one hand, which is amazing. Especially those who don't understand Tai Ji Chuan, will find this kung fu severe. A person weighing 100 kilograms will hit him with one hand. This is not kung fu. What is it? But in my opinion, this is just a skill, and it is not difficult to master. Because hitting people is different from smashing things, first of all, people can move, second, people's bodies are elastic, and third people can breathe. These three things are all available to you. As long as you master the skills completely, you can do it. As long as a person moves, he will give you a chance to use his own strength, that is, to attack each other with the other's strength. Let me give you an example. When an opponent hits you, you can melt or dodge his power. When he pulls his hand back quickly, your strength can follow him. This is called "following the trend". If you follow him in, your opponent will be shot out at once. This is that you borrowed some strength from each other; Even if the other person doesn't move, you can use his strength to hit him. When your palm is pressed against his body, it will vibrate and his body itself will be elastic. You use the rebound of the other person's body. If you make good use of it, you can also hit each other more than ten feet with one hand. There is no mystery in this. For example, opponents always need to breathe. When an opponent inhales, it is your strength that enters the "machine" inside his body.

Of course, if you fight with strength, you should also adjust your strength, so that you can be strong. However, it is not easy to practice strength, and it takes time for all parts of the body to be fully coordinated. Therefore, strength itself is also kung fu. There is another phenomenon, that is, when you hit the other person with a palm, the other person's body seems to be motionless, but the other person's internal organs can be injured, which requires considerable skill. Mr. Li Ruidong, the founder of Li Pai, was able to beat a frightened bull with one hand at home, vomited blood on the spot, broke three ribs and died of internal congestion. Of course it's kung fu.

Tai Ji Chuan's practical application is full of skills and kung fu, and no one in Tai Ji Chuan has fully mastered it. However, the more superior, the more superior. And each has different emphases and specialties. The premise of Tai Ji Chuan's actual combat is to give full play to its skills and not fight recklessly with its opponents. The most common way is to touch your opponent and control him by "touching", "sticking", "receiving" and "following". As long as your opponent isn't practicing Tai Ji Chuan and other internal boxing, as long as you meet him, you'll have a big advantage. Because generally speaking, foreign boxing is to hit people from a distance. You touch him, he can't hit you, but you can hit him and play with him like the back of your hand. If the opponent is also practicing Tai Ji Chuan, it depends on who has more skills and deeper kung fu. Because often the contest between two Tai Ji Chuan practitioners is often carried out together. This is the way to play "Sticky", "Lian" and "Follow" in the sticky state, but Li Pai has another way to play "Separation", "Sticky" and "Follow", which is the cracking method of "Sticky". If your opponent wants to touch you, you either don't let him touch you, or you leave your opponent after being touched by your opponent.

The most important and realistic form of kung fu is "Jin", which is varied, just like having frequency. There are differences between long, short, broken, connected, rigid and soft, but they are mainly divided into two types: just yang, soft yin and different meridians. Subdivided into details, there are many kinds of rigid and flexible. Li school pays attention to the main 20 kinds of strength methods of "eight rigidity and twelve softness". The eight kinds of strength are: anti-bow, commanding arrow, fierce wind, burning cannon, lightning, mountain standing and rigidity; Twelve kinds of softness are: rotation, ball rolling, gluing, magnetic attraction, wood bleaching, water flow, golden softness, softness of needle tip, winding of bottom silk and jumping beans in basket. For example, the difference in strength: for example, the "anti-bow" in rigidity is actually a metaphor of shaking strength, just like the kind of shaking strength caused by the sudden disconnection of the bow string and the rebound of the bow arm. The so-called "arrow governor" strength is like the penetration strength when an arrow hits the bull's-eye. "The wind is fierce" is a kind of long strength, which is long and fierce, just like a strong wind. Lei Zhenjin is a kind of vibration strength, and "lightning" strength is a kind of fast, violent and short strength characterized by quickness.

The softness of the needle tip is a very wonderful force. After the practice, the fingertips touch the opponent's body, and the force is like a trickle, which is introduced into the opponent's body, and the opponent will feel numb and lose his resistance. The force of rolling the ball is a round vitality, and the magnetic attraction is like the attraction of a magnet seeing iron, so we won't explain all kinds of softness here.

In a word, there are many Tai Ji Chuan methods of Li school, which are not limited to the twenty kinds of strength of "eight rigidity and twelve softness", but mainly emphasize the cultivation of these twenty kinds of strength. When you practice these twenty powers, your Tai Ji Chuan Kung Fu can completely meet the general needs of actual combat.