Longfei Taijiquan Association of Great Britain

Master Wang Yanji's Spring Seminar
Longfei News Letters - Volume 1, Issue 2

A delegate's view by Simon Ward and Eric Foxcroftrong

Master Wang Yanji from Jarfalla in Sweden is a man of average height, however his stature as martial artist and his sheer physical ability is great indeed. Although relatively unknown in this country I feel it is only a matter of time before he is appreciated by a much wider audience.

On the occasion of Hertfordshire Longfei Taijiquan Association's Tui Shou seminar at the end of April, Mr Wang was in his usual good humour. We started with a short introduction from Dick Watson, Chairman of Hertfordshire Longfei Taijiquqan Association, and a commendation for the party of Longfei Taiji students present who recently entered the Tai Chi Union of Great Britain's (TCUGB) British Open Push Hands competition. Among them was Jonathan Ingleby from Hebden Bridge (a student of David Nicholson, who heads the Longfei organisation in Yorkshire) who won a gold medal in the 60 kilo fixed step competition and a bronze in the moving step.

The first exercises performed by the class were of a nature that could be practised at home, in training for pushing hands and are particularly useful when no partner is available. They primarily strengthened legs and involved a sitting motion, whilst keeping the shins and back as upright as humanly possible. Another exercise started in a bow step with the arms being brought up, weight shifted to the front foot as the arms were brought forward, the hands then turn over and are brought back down as the weight shifts into the back foot. This exercise helps with the use of 'Split' and in breaking wrist locks.

Mr Wang also demonstrated some techniques from Chinese Wrestling or Shuaijiao. You may ask why such techniques were shown to us at a pushing hands seminar but as push hands competitions can appear no different from street fights, with diverse methods from Judo to wrestling techniques used, a wide repertoire is necessary. Furthermore, he said that if one were to push hands in a Beijing park or in a competition in the UK, then one should have the attitude of fighting for one's life, thus the attention would be fully present and 'listening' would take place.

During the push hands practice which followed, Mr Wang said that single pushing hands can train the waist for the next step, which is double pushing hands. In solo practice the waist movement can also be developed by standing in 'riding horse' posture, holding a chair in front of you by its back legs and turning from side to side.

After lunch outside in the spring sunshine, the practice continued with Mr Wang explaining one theory of push hands that it is similar to a car with brakes on one side only. Therefore if one side is stopped the other side carries on and in that situation the car would skid.

In pushing hands, push one side and the other will continue to move and the person may become unbalanced. This idea does seem to relate back to the Taoist essence of Taiji - in order to contract a thing, one should surely expand it first, in order to weaken, one will surely strengthen first - in other words, to get your opponent to move to the right, push him to the left first, and to get him to move up, push him down first. In fact this appeared to be a very subtle point of Mr Wang's Taiji forms themselves. In a recent seminar in Glagow Mr Wang demonstrated the twenty four step form. He could be seen making very slight movements to the left before going right and so on.

Whilst practising pushing hands Mr Wang said later on that no one should worry about losing face - learn from the other person! In fact Mr Wang's seminars have the ambience of serious training in a light-hearted way. No-one got too serious! Mr Wang has a very endearing sense of humour, and is very keen to share his vast knowledge of internal arts with all who wish to learn. He did once receive criticism from an elderly Chinese gentleman who said that he should not be teaching Westerners internal arts. But he is very open, taking the attitude that understanding Taiji belongs to no one single man, it comes from all, and belongs to all. He said that we are all one family, not just Taiji practitioners, but all martial artists.

The second day started with Chi Kung, in the standard 'hugging the tree' posture. Mr Wang explained that the posture should remain constant during your practice, however weight could shift slightly from leg to leg. He said that in practising this posture one should start by holding it for about five minutes at a time, building up to about fifteen after the first month.

A technique that Mr Wang uses for pushing hands involves holding both the opponent's arms (so you are in a similar position to the one described above, with the arms open but relaxed). As the opponent pushes on one side you counter on the other, and thus they spin round. In push hands practice you can often tell if muscle power is used instead of Taiji principles - the person huffs and puffs! But Mr. Wang's demonstration of this technique was very smooth - he used the energy you gave him, spinning on his centre to deposit you behind him! However, he made sure that no one fell awkwardly or was hurt.

Despite his limited command of English, Mr Wang was able to communicate ideas of a detailed and subtle nature and this skill was enhanced by the services of our interpreter Diana Choy. However, what he passed on to us seemed to be just a small part of his knowledge and we look forward to learning more from him on his future visits to this country.

So I left the hall into the afternoon sunlight uplifted and refreshed by the inspiration given to me by a great man.

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