The Complete Set of T'ai-Chi - Master T. T. Liang

The Complete Set of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan
by Master T. T. Liang

If you wish to study T'ai-Chi Ch'uan for health and also for self-defense, you must learn the complete set of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan. I shall explain the steps one by one.

1. T'ai-Chi for Health

First you must master the 150 postures of T'ai-Chi. When practicing T'ai-Chi, you must follow the ten guiding points as mentioned in my book. To thoroughly understand the meanings of the ten guiding points is not an easy matter. You must learn from competent teachers, read really good T'ai-Chi books and comprehend word by word all the T'ai-Chi Classics which were handed down by the ancient masters who had already acquired this art. Only by following this method in practice day after day, year after year, for a long period of time can you finally enjoy perfect health and obtain a central equilibrium. This is the only correct and accurate way. So the T'ai-Chi Classics said, "The principles and theories of T'ai-Chi are so profound and abstruse and the applications are so subtle and ingenious that you must find out the absolutely accurate and correct way to learn and practice. If what you have learned is not quite correct and accurate, the minimal error will keep you handicapped and you will fall behind a thousand miles. You will also lose the functional use of T'ai-Chi. Students must heed this well."

When you have mastered all the 150 postures, you will enjoy a perfect health and obtain a central equilibrium and then you can talk about the second part of T'ai-Chi, which is for self defense.

2. T'ai-Chi for Self-Defense

The aspect of self-defense is usually subdivided into three sections: pushing-hands and ta-lu, two-person dance, and weapons.

Pushing Hands and Ta-Lu. By learning pushing-hands and ta-lu, you will find out how to relax, yield and neutralize. The waist becomes like a willow tree, bending a hundred times in bonelessness. Learn how to lose, not to gain. Small loss, small gain; great loss, great gain. The most important posture in pushing-hands is Roll Back. When withdrawing your body backward at the last moment, you must turn your left hand palm upward. When you have mastered how to yield and neutralize, then you will learn how to counterattack. When practicing pushing-hands, my teacher, Professor Cheng Man-ching often told his students, "When applying Roll Back techniques, don't let your opponent's energy come to your body, and when applying Ward Off and Push techniques, don't let your energy go to your opponent's body. You have to find the insubstantial and substantial, the center gravity, and the lines from your opponent's body (there are a total of 25 lines). Before attacking you must gain a superior position in your opponent. When attacking, the energy is issued from the spine, and the whole body should act as one unit. You have hands everywhere on your body but it has nothing to do with hands. All the above mentioned secret techniques were handed down to me by my teacher, Yang Cheng-fu." "If I do not tell you, you can never acquire this art in your whole life." I have tried and tried, and found that what my teacher said is absolutely true. After you have mastered the pushing-hands techniques, your intrinsic energy will be developed. Then you must learn to two-person dance.

Two-Person Dance. The two-person dance (also called miscellaneous combat) consists of 178 postures, and each posture usually consists of three movements (neutralize, hold, strike). Let me give an example.

First Movement: When the opponent strikes with their hand, you must know the correct way to neutralize your body to avoid their strike.

Second Movement: You have to put your body into a superior position by adjusting your legs and waist and immediately hold their hand or arm, or lightly touch their body, in order to understand their balance of substantial and insubstantial.

Third Movement: You have to discover your opponent's defect, put him or her into a defective position, or find out their dead joints—then immediately strike. When striking, the whole body should be relaxed and act as one unit. So the T'ai-Chi Classics said, "The hands, feet, legs and waist must act as one so that when advancing and retreating you will obtain a good opportunity (from the opponent's body) and a superior position (from your own body). If you fail to gain these advantages your body will be in a state of disorder and confusion. The only way to correct this fault is by adjusting your legs and waist." It is a dance when one posture is divided into three movements and it is a knockout when the three movements are combined into one. When you have mastered the techniques of the two-person dance, you will know all the functional uses of the 150 postures of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan, so when you practice T'ai-Chi alone, you will have something to base it on in your mind. For example: When practicing the posture, Deflect, Intercept and Punch, followed by the posture, Withdraw and Push, you presume that when your opponent strikes your chest with their right fist, 1) you will neutralize and put your right fist on their right wrist with palm upward and your left hand palm downward on their right forearm and press down (Deflect), 2) step forward with your left leg and at the same time move your left palm to the forward left (Intercept), 3) strike the opponent's chest with your right fist with tigermouth upward (Punch). In the second posture, where your opponent pushes your right wrist to the left with their left hand, 1) you will withdraw your body together with your two hands with palms facing you to form a cross (Withdraw), 2) separate your palms and turn them outward and then with your right palm lightly touching their right elbow and your left hand touching their right wrist, push forward with hands and whole body as one unit. (Push). This is the only correct way to practice T'ai-Chi. If you have nothing in your mind on which to base your practice, your forms will gradually and unconsciously be changed to something different and the functional uses of T'ai-Chi will be totally lost. So when Professor Cheng Man-ching was teaching us T'ai-Chi, he often said, "When practicing T'ai-Chi singly you must presume that your have an opponent in front of you. This is also one of the secret techniques I learned from Yang's family of T'ai-Chi."

Weapons. After you have mastered all the techniques of the two-person dance, you have to learn the use of the T'ai-Chi weapons. The T'ai-Chi weapons are as follows:

1. T'ai-Chi Sword Dance (60 postures)

2. T'ai-Chi Sword Fencing (60 postures)

3. Wu-Tang Sword Fencing (100 postures)

4. T'ai-Chi Knife Dance (80 postures)

5. T'ai-Chi Knife Fencing (14 postures)

6. T'ai-Chi Staff (11 postures)

To practice T'ai-Chi without weapons is to strengthen the muscles of the body, and to practice T'ai- Chi with weapons is to strengthen the sinews and bones. When practicing T'ai-Chi with weapons, the body, the hands and the weapon should act as one unit so that the intrinsic energy will reach to the tip of the weapon. By practicing T'ai-Chi without weapons, your intrinsic energy can reach to a certain extent, but by practicing T'ai-Chi with weapons, your intrinsic energy will reach to the fullest extent and to the highest level.

How can you enjoy a good health for your whole life and defend yourself in times of emergency? Come on now! Let us learn and practice the Complete Set of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan.

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