Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 291

“Liàn quán bù liàngōng dào lǎo yīchǎngkōng 練拳不練功到老一場空 – Practising Kung Fu without Internal Training, we will get nothing when we are old.” This is what is special about all traditional Chinese Kung Fu and is not particular to Tàijíquán 太極拳. Internal training is Qìgōng 氣功. Qì 氣 is energy and Gōng 功 is work. Whenever we work on our Qì we are doing Qìgōng. Internal training is training our Qì, and we can only develop our Qì if we train internally. When we relax, we can feel our Qì flowing and the more internal training we do the more Qì we will develop. This is what keeps us healthy, and then if we develop even more, it will make us strong. 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. It is all about Qì. Each time we practise our Tàijíquán we must relax, have a good posture and move from the waist. If we want to Fājìn 發勁 – Release Power, we must use the internal body and then to the external strength. The power comes from the internal body, to the external body reaching to the bone, muscle and tendons that is proper power in a healthy way.