The Core Elements of Tai Chi Chuan

By: Jordan Misner

There is almost an unlimited variety of Tai Chi Forms and even among the primary forms within traditional Tai Chi Chuan there are unlimited variations in execution and arrangement of the movements. 

The 13 postures (also called energetics or gates) are core elements of tai chi chuan.  These 13 can be further divided into 8 basic hand energetics and 5 basic footwork elements. Each of the 8-basic postures have a related trigram from the I Ching (Book of Changes) and the 5 steps are correlated to the 5 elements. 

The 8 gates/energetics/postures (Ba fa):

·       The 4 primary hands

• Peng (ward-off) – Heaven (Chien) 
•  Lu (roll-back) – Earth (Kun)
•  Chi (press) – Water (Kan) 
•  An (push) – Fire (Li)  

·       The 4 secondary hands

• Tsai (pull-down) – Wind (Sun) 
•  Lieh (split) – Thunder (Chen) 
• Chou (elbow strike) – Lake (Tui)
• Kao (shoulder strike) – Mountain (Ken)  

The 5 steps/footwork (Wu ba):

• Chin (advance) –Fire
• Tui (retreat) – Water
• Ku (step left) - Wood
• Pan (step right) - Metal
• Ting (staying center) - Earth

There are many people who have written about the trigrams and their relationship to the 8 energetics, however these concepts cannot be deeply understood until there is some understanding of the cosmology of the postures as they relate to heaven, man, earth and to substantial and insubstantial.

In ancient Chinese cosmology heaven and earth are connected by man, who stands between the two with feet on earth and the top of the head in heaven. This trinity also exists within man as the upper portions of the body represent heaven, the mid-section represent man and the legs and feet represent earth. The waist of the body (containing the dan tien) connects man’s heaven (upper) and earth (lower). In ancient Chinese cosmology heaven is round and earth is square (the 9 kingdoms), in tai chi chuan the same concepts apply. All the tai chi movements exist within a sphere supported by footwork that occurs within a square. 

The 3 lines of the trigrams may also be equated in this concept as the top line relates to the upper gates (heaven), the middle line to the middle gates (man), and the lower line to the lower gates (earth). Within this configuration each line is either whole or broken and represents substantial (yin –broken) or insubstantial (yang – solid). Earth (rooting) being much more substantial than heaven in tai chi chuan. So how do these relate to the postures?

Looking at Peng (ward-off) – Heaven (Chien)    we see there are 3 solid (yang) liines representing the lower, middle and upper gates as well as how the energy presents within the posture. Peng energy is an uprooting energy and one of the two primary energies due to the solid nature of the 3 lines. The other primary energetic is rollback represented by the 3 broken lines. This also tells us the nature of the gates as being filled with an upward heaven bound unity. Attempt to distinguish in your practice, which of the 3 gates is yin or yang in each posture. This concept applies throughout the form even to very small details in how tai chi is practiced. 

Many practitioners attempt to simplify substantial and insubstantial down to double weighting usually talking about how weight should be distributed in the stance and yes at the lowest level of tai chi this is true. However, at the higher levels these concepts become much more than simple weight distribution. One can be double weighted in any part of the body creating a handle for your opponent and limiting the practitioners effectiveness as well as the benefits of the practice. 

These concepts also apply to the use of yielding, softness and no force in tai chi chuan. I will try to go into more detail on these concepts in my next article. 

Jordan Misner teaches classes for Wind River Tai Chi Chuan (Internal Martial Arts for Health and Enlightenment), which are held at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center.