There are two ways that we are able to look at the classics.
Firstly we are able to take them as they are in their literal sense, or
we are able to take them as back up to our own evolution. I prefer to
use the later method and use the classics, as back up to my own evolution
of t’ai chi. Of course in the beginning we must follow the
teachings of a competent master
In order to learn the basic movements and some of his/her Ideas etc,
but if we stay as disciples, we stay as sheep and never evolve our
own ideas and take the art right back to its beginning and learn for
Chapter Four, The Classics: Page 62
ourselves what the old masters learnt for themselves. If we are to
take any internal martial art which is largely based upon unseen internal
forces back to it’s beginning then we must have some idea of
what the old masters were thinking. For this purpose we have their
own thoughts, the classics.
There have been many translations of the classics but the ones that
give the most correct versions are those that use as little English language
licence as possible and only use direct translations. In this
way we are able to allow the words to enter our minds and give us a
helping hand only when we are ready to receive the correct information.
This is because this person is at a basic level of understanding;
however, if this same person reads that same classic writing at a
much later time in his/her development then they may receive what
the classics have to offer. If your martial art is to be truly your own
then you must take it right back to it’s beginning and learn what the
masters learnt.

But if you stick it out, you will gain great benefits,
the least of which is great good health and
great fighting ability.
To be elated at success and disappointed at failure
is to be the child of circumstances: how can such a one be called the
master of anything if he is not the master of himself.
Never call any man or woman your master or sifu, he might be a master
but no one is your master. Be Your Own Master!
How To Use Tai Chi For Fighting: Page 61
183 184
THE CLASSICS
Chapter Four
Most classical Chinese martial arts can be traced back to their
various beginnings by some tangible means such as ancient drawings
and script. This is most true of the Shaolin derived martial arts.
On the other hand we have the internal: Chinese martial arts where
we find that not much in the way ‘of tangible evidence, drawings
etc, has been left to us. All that we have to follow for the most part is
the lineage principle where-by the Father taught the son or each
master only took on one or two trusted disciples. Some of these disciples
did however write down alt of their thoughts on the internal
arts as they learnt them and so nowadays we are left with many classical
sayings and poems, which have been translated, many times
from ancient Chinese to middle Chinese to modem Chinese, then
into English and many European languages.
The principle of the Classic is most evident in the internal martial art
of T’ai chi ch’uan where we are left with many classic sayings and
poems written by various masters since the beginning of the art.
Even today, all we are able to test our knowledge with are these classics
and many arguments have resulted in different translations as to
how certain postures or techniques should be performed etc.

PA-KUA SPARRING

PA-KUA SPARRING
I am including this technique from pa-kua because it is with- out
doubt one of the best ways of learning about fighting with- out really
hurting anyone. The wrists are in contact and it is controlled in the
beginning with each player just learning about him/herself and their
technique.
Two players stand opposite each other and join palms at the wrists
over the center of a circle. Without going into the
rather peculiar pa-kua walking style as it is not really necessary
when only taking this exercise for its learning sparring value, you
start to walk in a circle keeping your wrists over the center of the circle.
You must only have a light touch. If you are walking in a clockwise
direction with your right wrists touching, you now perform the
‘inside turn.’ This means that with your left foot in the forward position
you swivel both toes back towards the right rear so that you are
now facing the other direction. You must also change the position of
your palms in order to now have your left wrists touching. Your
right palm is seen as the block and as you turn, your left palm is seen
as an attack to his face.Who ever initiates the movement
is the attacker and the other is the blocker. The other player’s
left palm was used to block your left palm. The outside turn is next
Chapter Three: Sparring: Page 60
179 180 181 182
to learn. If you are traveling in a clockwise direction and wish to turn to
walk the other way but your right foot is forward, you cannot perform
the inside turn. You must now swivel almost 360 degrees on the heels to
face the opposite direction. Your left palm now uses the centrifugal
force when the body swings around. This too is an attack to the face or
body and a block depending on who initiates the attack.
You would never in a real situation turn your back on the opponent
without reason to do so. In order to keep this rule we do something to the
opponent’s arm before turning around. From the previous clockwise
position before attacking with the outside turn you should flick his palm
with great force to your left as you attack. From this position
you are able to use any number of attacking and defense techniques.
We are able to use any type of kick. You are able
to use punches, locks and holds or throws as .
I have only covered this technique briefly as it is
an excellent introduction to sparring. Once you
have been practicing this technique for some
time, you may break the wrists apart and do it in
a more realistic way. The circling teaches us to
come in at an angle rather than meet force on
force.
It takes a long time to use the internal arts in a
fighting way and the training to get there is hard.

DA-LU

DA- LU
This principle of da-lu can also be used in a fighting way It says in
the classics of da-lu or the ‘four corners’; “with erroneous technique
one has no choice but to use the four corners to help return to the
framework of squareness and roundness.” This means that ‘pull
down, split, elbow stroke and shoulder stroke’make up for deficiencies
in our technique. If we happen to be pulled off balance because
we are deficient, we must go with the force using a step to the corner
then re-direct the movement to bring us back into the opponent and
use either elbow or shoulder. So if I am attacked as shown
I should take a step with my left foot to the side in the direction
of the momentum and push back at an angle using elbow or
shoulder. The classics say that this is only used if my cardinal line of
defense (the folding technique) is not yet perfect. So T’ai chi gives
some techniques to save ourselves until we have learnt the right way
of using the principles.
BEGINNING SPARRING
It is not an easy matter to begin to fight. Human beings on the whole
would really prefer not to fight but sometimes we have to through no
fault of our own. This is why we use the excellent training method of
T’ai chi and pa-kua sticking hands. These methods allow us to ‘get
the feel of fighting’without feeling as if we’re threatened in any way
or in some sort of competition. It allows one to relax and find the
correct way rather than just fighting and therefore staying at one
level. Slowly these training techniques become more and more like
free sparring until eventually you break the contact and you are free
sparring before you know it. It is very important not to go into sparring
too soon. If you try sparring and you just tense up and have a
feeling of competition then stop and go back to basics, you’re not
ready for it. However, if you try it and you really feel at home and
not under any threat, then you are ready for free sparring. In the beginning
just keep it very easy and don’t try too much to knock your
partner’s head off, just use each other to learn. Start with
semi-contact, i.e.; you are able to strike certain areas with a reasonable
force without really doing any damage. As you become more at
ease, put on the gloves and try some more substantial power. The
most important thing even in non-contact is not to use less power in
order not to hit someone. You must use as much power as possible
so that your partner is able to know what a powerful attack is like. So
many martial arts schools fiddle around with a flick here and a flick
there and when someone puts in a full powered attack they don’t
know what hit them.

Now I am able to bring this same fist back into a
yang mode and re-attack as in. Notice that I have
also blocked the arm that has blocked me downward with my other
palm. This sort of technique takes only a split second and is an excellent
training device.
THE METHOD
Two people stand opposite each other and one throws a punch as already
shown, the punch is blocked as shown. The attacker should allow
his arm to automatically fold up and become yin. In order not to
get into the habit of pulling your fist back using your own muscles,
the b locker should not always block the punch, making sure that the
attacker does not pull his arm back on purpose. It must be the momentum
of the block that causes the arm to fold up. You can do this
with the attacker blindfolded, this way he doesn’t know when you
are going to block and has to rely upon his own feeling.
Next, you should try to block the attackee’s blocking arm downward
with your left palm and re-attack with your right fist as seen in
. The right palm should come up underneath the left one,
which blocks downward from the top. This is the principle of continuous
punching. What ever portion of the attacker’s body is used to
block your attack you re-block it and re-attack usually with the same
fist until you have broken through all of your opponent’s first and
second line of defense and are able to attack his third line, the body.
You can play around with this forever and always learn from it. Just
keep on blocking the hand that has blocked you and re-attack. You
must remain relaxed so that your attacks can become simultaneous
and sub-conscious after much practice. The classics say of the folding
principle: “If the elbow is caught, circle it back and strike with
the back of the fist for equal success.” OR, “The method for breaking
locks lies in the wrist.” This tells us that the folding principle
also works with locks. If we are grabbed on the wrist and pulled
downward, we shouldn’t try to use force to pull our palm free, we
should relax the wrist and turn it in the direction of the least resistance,
usually against the thumb. Then we should re-attack usually
with elbow or shoulder. During push hands if your wrist is grabbed,
simply turn it over relaxed. Your timing must be perfect otherwise
you will be caught. If you stay yang, this gives the opponent something
to hold onto on order to control your body. Try for yourself.
Hold your arm tense and ask some one to pull or push your palm.
Your whole body will be con-trolled through your arm. But if you
relax your arm, your opponent has nothing with which to control
you and in this short time you have already re-attacked. You don’t of
course leave your arm yin so that he can re-attack it, staying yin is
Just as dangerous as staying yang, you must change from yin to yang
Chapter Three: Sparring:
How To Use Tai Chi as a Fighting Art:
in order to re-attack. If your wrist is caught (because your timing
was off) you should relax it (fold it) and come in using either elbow
or shoulder stroke to his mid-section or chest. People Just don’t expect
us to ‘go with the force’ so they are usually taken by surprise
when you barge inward with shoulder.

Chapter Three: Sparring:
How To Use Tai Chi as a Fighting
Your palms must
keep circling
around your opponent’s
until you
are able to ‘gain
the upper hand.’
You may use arm
grabs, locks,
throws, kicks as already
covered in
the section on
kicking. You may
grab both of his
palms and bring
his chest down
onto your knee. In this case if you are the attackee, you must go with
the force and never against it. So, you would come in towards your
opponent barge in as you block the knee and attack with shoulder. In
this way you use the opponent’s force against him. You can use
pushes, in fact anything Just as long as you never lose contact. Keep
your arms relaxed. Keep your teeth closed! This is good sense in any
situation whether it is sparring in the school or in a real situation.
Keep cool and most importantly don’t become angry. YOU ARE
THERE TO HELP EACH OTHER, NOT TO COMPETE!
After some time you will be able to start moving around while still
keeping contact at the wrists. Now it becomes really tricky, you
must be aware of kicks to the legs, head and body attacks as well as
throws, locks and holds and higher kicks. And this is happening, as
you are busy looking after your own balance while moving. This is
one of the greatest kung-fu training methods for all martial artists.
THE FOLDING PRINCIPLE
This principle is solely based upon your changing from yin to yang.
If you walk to the top of a hill, then you have gone as far yang as possible.
If you stay there you will be unable to go anywhere unless you
come down again. In other words you must go yin before you are
able to do any more work. It’s the same with punching and indeed
the whole of your t’ai chi training. We must be forever changing in
order to re-attack after being blocked. If I punch someone and that
punch is successfully blocked and if I leave my
arm in a yang state i.e. in the attacking state, the arm is useless unless
I do something to change it’s state to yin. This is where the folding
principle comes in. When my punch is blocked I should totally relax
it and allow it to ‘fold up’ with the natural momentum of his block as
175 176 177

STICKING HANDS

Two people face each other as for push hands but with wrists touching.
. You should start to rotate your palms as if
churning butter on a flat plane. The person whose hands are on the
top should attack to the face of the other who should block this attack
outward to either side of his head. The person
who’s hands are underneath should attack to the other’s lower abdomen
who blocks it downward and out to either side.
At no time should the wrists break contact. When this has been practiced
for some time you are then able to change the position of your
palms at will but still keeping contact. So, you might have your right
palm on the top and you wish to move it under. You would use an attack
to the lower abdomen as you do this. At the
same time your partner can block this attack and immediately
re-attack to your face or abdomen. This is the crux of this exercise;
you MUST always re-attack as close to simultaneously as possible
with the attacker’s movement. If you block with the right hand outward,
then slam it back down onto his head or, if your other palm is
closer, use that one. You must take the shortest route to re-attack. If
your partner is able to get in a good solid attack then you do not follow
up as he has defeated you but if you have blocked his attack then
you must re-attack. Then he must block that attack and also
re-attack. This continues until a solid blow has landed. When I say a
solid blow Imean one that if it were for real would knock your opponent
out and not just a light slap to the face etc.