My Tai Chi training with Chen Yingjun

Chen Yingjun, Grandmaster Chenxiaowang’s son, is my current Tai Chi teacher. He is more a friend to me than a teacher and we usually enjoy a good laugh between the serious training sessions.

The training begins with Zhan Zhuang or standing meditation. This is very important to collect qi or vital energy. In the beginning, one should only start with a few minutes and gradually build up. I remember that I was filled with boredom and footpain by just standing for 10 minutes. Now I am able to stand for 30 min on a daily basis.

My body became more relaxed on the inside and the outside, my mind more focused, my legs became stronger, I naturally had my head straight up, my shoulders sunken, my lower back and gluteals relaxed, the body weight into the legs, distributed evenly on the foot soles with slight more strength on the heels.

I could virtually “listen” to my breathing as the energy expands from my dantien(center, below the navel) to my lower back(acupuncture point mingmen). In fact this is natural when you breathe deeper while using the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Physically the air does not enter the abdomen but only the lungs. Breathing air into the abdomen is just a guided imagery to activate the diaphragm or chief breathing muscle which is located above the abdomen. Rooting and balance in push hands is a result of zhan zhuang training, said GM Chenxiaowang.

Chen Yingjun just corrects very little, a bit here, a bit there, but the points are so important that I could correct a myriad of other mistakes. Just like his father, he would wander with his fingers along my spine. When I told him his father would always give me the pizza, he laughed and said that I needed a pizza diabolo(with much chillies).

His father GM Chenxiaowang always asks what type of correction you would like. He compares it with food. A soup simmered gently on low flame but takes longer to cook(light correction), casserole cooked on medium flame and takes less time(a bit more postural correction in high stance, more challenging) and a pizza, cooked fast on high flame and too hot to handle. He adjusted my body like modelling a piece of clay: the back straight, head up, shoulders need to be sunken, the strength focused in the lower body and legs, the hips flex and relaxed, knees bent. This was the pizza pepperoni

After wandering with his fingers through the spine, he would press my chest and pull my back over my chest. Remember Yang Cheng Fu. He would put me up and then down again while forming my posture like a clay model. Like his father, he uses his whole body including one knee into my hip area. I found that in time my body was rooted and I was not easily thrown off my feet during push hands. My joints felt like an air bubble protecting my body so nobody could push me.

It felt like he corrected me a lot more in the beginning and he told me that after the pizza I was so piping hot that I would need some sweet dessert. I don’t have much time to see a teacher all the time and Chen Yingjun told me that he sometimes didn’t see his father for years. ” Remember the corrections I gave you and the feeling you got afterwards.” he said. This is called”Pavlovian solution” in psychological terms. You get a correction and you feel something. Usually I feel like:”This is the right position I need” when Chen YIngjun corrects me. When I remember this feeling again, I remember the correction and vice versa.

Then we proceed to several forms and he corrects not by negative criticism but by showing a martial application. So I will feel why I did something wrong. He punched me and I tried to deflect with the transition between “leisurely tying coat” and “four blocking six closing”. I dragged his arm down with my arm and of course it didn’t work. Then I sank my elbow with the waist as the main drive, exactly like the spokes of a wheel driven by the hub. In addition I supported it by sinking the knee. In my mind there was a little sentence telling my body to do all these actions. I could force him to the ground, of course when he does not attack seriously.

We discussed the punches and fa jing(sudden power discharge). All the force should not be executed with the arm alone but driven by the lower body(dantien centre area below navel) and simultaneously shifting weight from one leg to the other.The punching arm should be hard as steel at the point of impact but it is only a lead from the dantien and legs. So Tai Chi Chuan is not a gentle exercise at all. I never considered it like that. Low stances result in a good cardiovascular workout and I seldom don’t sweat when I practice Tai Chi.

“The whole form is in your mind and your mind tells the body what to do, exactly like a general working out a strategy and giving orders to his army.” he said. My form became more purposeful and implied when I did what he said.

As he told me to forget about myself and follow the teacher, I thought he meant monkey sees, monkey does. But I still tried to do it and followed him without thinking too much about it. Just after extensive practise on my own, I realized that the movements I copied from him enabled me to listen into my body. I just began to feel and understand what was happening inside my own body, where the energy went, how it related to silk reeling circles and what martial purpose the movement incorporated.

It was as though I was able to submerge into his body and feel what he was going through. He was much, much more powerful and his skills were incredibly deep. I could perceive some of his internal journey but this was just the upper layer of an immense depth. I was beginning to discover the deeper spiritual aspects by just copying and executing the movements. A monkey who sees cannot do this, can he?

We had a few breaks inbetween, especially when I booked 2-hours-sessions. HIs lovely wife Li Na brought us grapes and green tea. I always regret when I have to leave Sydney because I would be completely training on my own. Then I would hear his words again:”Remember what happened in the lesson and the feeling you got afterwards.” It seems that I naturally adjust my body to the corrections made during the sessions.

Advertisement