Tai Chi Chuan Classical Yang Style. Jwing-Ming Yang

martial styles can also be distinguished from the ways they manifest jin (martial power); they can thus be categorized into hard, soft-hard, and soft styles. Generally speaking, the hard styles use more muscular power. In these styles, the qi is led to the muscles or generated in the local area; then the muscles are tensed up to trap the qi there in order to energize muscular power to its maximum efficiency. In order to reach this goal, once the qi is led to the muscles, commonly the breath is held temporarily to trap the qi in the muscles. Then this muscular power is used for attack or defense. This kind of jin manifestation is like using a staff to strike. It is easy for a beginner to manifest hard jin. When this power is used upon an opponent’s body, external injury can be inflicted immediately. A typical hard style is Tiger Claw, which imitates the tiger’s use of strong muscular power for fighting. With hard jin, because the muscles and tendons are more tensed in order to protect the ligaments of the joints, few injuries are caused from power manifestation. Generally speaking, external styles are more likely to be hard styles.

      The second category is soft-hard styles. In these styles, the muscles and tendons remain relaxed, and the movements are soft to allow the qi to move freely from the lower dan tian to the limbs. Just before the attack reaches the opponent’s body, suddenly the muscles and tendons are tensed. This kind of power is first soft and then hard. According to my own experience, this kind of power is like the strike of rattan. When this soft-hard power is applied to the opponent’s body, both external and internal injuries can be inflicted. The reason for softness at the beginning is to allow the qi to move freely from the lower dan tian to the limbs, and the reason for the hardening through tensing the muscles and tendons is to protect against pulling and damaging the ligaments in the joints. It also offers the attacker strong physical support for the power, which can be bounced back from the opponent’s body when the techniques are applied with enough speed and precision. Typical soft-hard styles are White Crane and Snake.

      Finally, the third category is soft styles. In these styles, the muscles and tendons are relaxed as much as possible to allow the qi to circulate from the lower dan tian to the limbs for striking. However, right before contact with the opponent’s body, the physical body remains relaxed. In order to protect the ligaments in the elbows and shoulders from being pulled and injured, right before the limbs reach their maximum extension they are immediately pulled back. From this pulling action, the muscles and tendons are tensed instantly to protect the ligaments, and then immediately relaxed again. This action is just like the whipping of a whip. Although the physical body is relaxed, the power generated is the most harmful and penetrating possible and can reach to the deep places of the body. Therefore, internal injury or organ damage can occur. Naturally, this kind of jin manifestation is dangerous for beginners. The reason for the penetration of the power is the whipping motion. Theoretically speaking, when you propel a whip forward with a speed (v), and then pull back with another speed (v), at the turning point between forward and backward, the speed at which the whip contacts the target is 2v (Figure 1-4). From here, you can see that speed in whipping is the key to power penetration. This is like a surgical technology from the 1970s in which water from a high-pressure nozzle was used for cutting. Typical soft styles are Taijiquan and Liu He Ba Fa.

      Figure 1-4. Whipping Speed

      At this point, we can superficially perceive the internal styles or soft styles and the external styles or hard styles. Consider Figure 1-5. The left line represents the amount of muscular power manifested, and the right line represents the qi which is built up. From this figure, you can see that those styles which emphasize mostly muscular power or that use local qi to energize the muscles are toward the left, while those styles which use less muscular power are toward the right. Naturally, the more a style is toward the right, the softer and more relaxed the physical body should be, and greater concentration is needed to build up qi and lead it to the limbs.

      Figure 1-5. Hard Styles, Soft-Hard Styles, and Soft Styles

Four Categories of Fighting Skills

      After many thousands of years of knowledge accumulation and fighting experience, martial techniques can be divided into four major categories: kicking (ti), hand striking (da), wrestling (shuai), and joint locking (qin na or chin na) (na).

      Kicking is using the legs to kick the opponent’s vital areas, sweep the opponent’s legs, or block the opponent’s kick. Hand striking is using the hands, forearms, elbows, or shoulders to block an attack or to strike the opponent. Wrestling is using grabs, trips, sweeps, bumps, etc., to make the opponent lose his balance, and then to take him down. Finally, qin na itself has four categories of techniques, including sealing the veins and arteries, sealing the breath, cavity press, and joint locking.

      Technically speaking, wrestling techniques are designed against kicking and striking; qin na techniques are to be used in countering wrestling; and kicking and hand striking are used to conquer the techniques of qin na joint locking. From this, you can see that all have special purposes and mutually support and can conquer each other. In order to make the techniques effective, all four categories of fighting techniques are required in any Chinese martial style.

      Therefore, in order to become a proficient martial artist, you must learn northern styles and southern styles, allowing you to cover all ranges of fighting skills. You should also understand both internal and external styles. Although the basic theory of qi cultivation for both styles is the same, the training methods are often quite different. Learning both internal and external styles will offer you various angles for viewing the same thing. Most importantly, in order to make your martial arts training complete, you should learn all four categories of fighting techniques. These four categories should be included in any Chinese martial arts style.

The Dao of Chinese Martial Arts

      As mentioned earlier, the word “martial” is constructed by two Chinese words “stop” and “weapons”, and when combined means “to cease the battle.” This concept is very important, especially in ancient times when there was even more violence and fighting between different races and nations than there is today. In order to protect yourself and your country, you needed to learn the martial arts. From this perspective, you can see that martial arts are defensive and are a way of using fighting skills to stop actual fighting. If you examine Chinese history, you will see that even after China had become a huge country and its culture had reached one of the highest levels in the world, it never thought of invading or conquering other countries. On the contrary, throughout its history, China has tried to prevent invasion by the Mongols from the north, the Manchus from the northeast, and many small incursions from Korea and the tribes to its west. Even though China invented gunpowder before the Song dynasty, it did not develop as a purely military power. If China had possessed the intention of conquering the world at that time, its military technologies were probably up to the task.

      China’s most basic human philosophies originated with Confucianism and Daoism. These philosophies emphasize peace, harmony, and the love of the human race. War is necessary only when it is needed for self-protection. From this fundamental philosophy and cultural development, we can understand that almost all the Chinese martial arts techniques were developed under the motivation for self-defense, and not for offense. However, there is one style called Shape-Mind Fist (Xingyiquan) that was created by Marshal Yue Fei during the Chinese Southern Song dynasty (A.D. 1127-1280), which emphasizes attack. If we consider the background of the creation of this style, we can appreciate why this style was created for offense. At that time, the Mongols had taken over the northern half of China and captured the Song emperor. For survival purposes, a new emperor was established and the empire moved to the south of China. At all times, the Chinese were preparing against an invasion by the Mongols. Martial arts training was one of the most important aspects of the country’s affairs in order to survive. Xingyiquan was created as a military style, with which a person could reach a higher fighting capability in a short time. Xingyiquan trains forward movements instead of backward. Although the basic techniques