When my Sīfú 師父, Chén Xiǎo Wàng 陳小旺, demonstrated being stabbed with a knife, he just stepped to the side to avoid it the knife, and caught the wrist of the hand holding the knife, and then used his Chán Sī Jìn 纏絲勁 – Silk Reeling Energy and a little power to twist the attackers wrist and make them drop the knife and fall. It looked very simple and very stylish.
Sīfú has spent his entire life practising his family skill and has reached a vert high level. Now, everything he does follows the principles of Tàijíquán 太極拳. His warmup begins by spiralling from the head, then down to the waist and then the legs. Everything follows the Chán Sī Jìn. Even when he sits on a chair, he will keep a circle in his upper body.
Then Sīfú taught us some Tuī Shǒu 推手 – Pushing Hands applications when we are stepping. The technique he taught is called Small Ghost Pushes the Mill and it is applied when both partners should step, but one does not step and catches the position to make their partner lose their balance.
Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 291
If we keep developing it, then we will become spiritual and wiser. If we develop our Qì in our physical body, we will have more power for martial arts.
Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 290
This is why we must have a good Sīfú 師父 – Teacher who has higher level skill than us. Whatever we learn, if we want to be good, we need a teacher so that we can learn the proper skill. So, we need a good Sīfú to teach us the proper skill and then we can go and practise ten thousand times and get it right.
Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 289
The other side of Tàijíquán is the fighting skill. The fighting skill also has a theory and follows the principles of Yīn 陰 and Yáng 陽. This means that when we are fighting, we can use the soft skill and the hard skill.
Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 288
First thing we notice is we start to feel healthier and so for most things we feel more positive. Then we look good and our spirit is strong…
Previous Blog articles by Grandmaster Tse
