Wang Peisheng creative interpretation of some Taiji principles

Master Wang’s Creative Interpretation and Application of Some Taijiquan Principles in Self-defence Master Wang makes it a point of emphasis and has set an example to his students of how one should use one’s mind and learn from experience of success and failure after having studied carefully the theories set in the Taijiquan classics, listened Read More

Walking the Circle

The body is like the movements of a swimming dragon, a wild goose ascending the emptiness, a tiger crashing, a turtle diving, or a snake slithering, turning the circle at will in connected and united postures, angled or crossing, advancing or retreating while talking and laughing. Dong Haichuan (The founder of Bagua on walking the Read More

Song of the Real Meaning

真義歌 No shape, no shadow. Entire body transparent and empty. Forget your surroundings and be natural. Like a stone chime suspended from West Mountain. Tigers roaring, monkeys screeching. Clear fountain, peaceful water. Turbulent river, stormy ocean. With your whole being, develop your life. 無形無象。全身透空。 忘物自然。西山懸磬。 虎吼猿鳴。泉清水靜。 翻江鬧海。盡性立命。 When practicing taijiquan you must let go of Read More

The Dantian of Xingyi

THE ELIXIR FIELD The elixir field is the source of the active aspect, the mansion of energy and power. If you want to be proficient in the art, you must first strengthen your elixir field, and if you want to strengthen your elixir field, you must first practice the art. The back-and-forth of the two Read More

Yang Banhou Explaining Taiji Principles

太極法說 EXPLAINING TAIJI PRINCIPLES 楊班侯 attributed to Yang Banhou [circa 1875] [translation by Paul Brennan, Sep, 2013] 目錄 CONTENTS 八門五步 [1] The Eight Gates & Five Steps 八門五步用功法 [2] On the Training Method for the Eight Gates & Five Steps 固有分明法 [3] Our Innate Ability to Distinguish 粘黏連隨 [4] Stick, Adhere, Connect, and Follow 頂匾丢抗 Read More

On Constant Purity and Tranquility

The Wonderful Scripture on the Constant Purity and Tranquility, Spoken by the Ultra Supreme Elder Lord The Elder Lord said: The Great Tao, being formless, creates heavens and earths; The Great Tao, being emotionless, runs the sun and the moon; The Great Tao, being nameless, eternally nurtures all beings. I do not know its name, Read More

Ancient Life Cultivation Methods

15 Advisable Actions It is advisable to comb your hair often. It is advisable to rub your face often. It is advisable to move your eyeballs often. It is advisable to rap on your ears(occiput) often. It is advisable to click your teeth often. It is advisable to swallow your saliva often. It is advisable Read More

The Origin of Five Animal Frolics

Hua Tuo said to Pu, “The human body needs physical labor and movement but not to the extreme. Movement aids digestion and activates blood circulation. Thus it can prevent disease, just as a door hinge does not rot. Ancient immortals practiced ‘bear—hanging’ and ‘turning the head like an owl’ to stretch and relax the waist, Read More

Book of Balance and Harmony

The waning and waxing of energy and matter are the movement and rest of things; rising and retiring by day and night are the movement and rest of the body. Everything, including the advance and retreat of the person, the arising and vanishing thoughts, the fortune and adversity of the world, the success and failure Read More

Commentary on the Mirror for Compounding the Medicine

Precelestial breath, Postcelestial breath. Those who obtain them always seem to be drunk. The precelestial Breath is the original and initial Ancestral Breath.1 This Ancestral Breath is in the real center of Heaven and Earth within the human body. [Placed between] the Secret Door and the Gate of Life, hanging in the middle, it is Read More

The Natural Mechanism of Turning Attention Around to Gaze Within

Bai Yuzhan said, “The path of inner refinement is extremely simple and easy; just get the fire of the heart to descend into the elixir field. The elixir field is the chamber of water, while the heart is fire. When fire enters water, then water and fire mix and true yang is produced. Therefore people Read More

The Wisdom of Dao Yin in Baopuzi

Dao Yin treats the condition ‘not yet sick’, it releases inharmonious energy. The movements must be practised in order to circulate energy without discomfort in the hundred joints. Without movement, blood remains blocked in the three places. Dao Yin uses this great rule to maintain health and is a subtle and complex technique for eliminating Read More

The Ten Chan Pictures

(1) In the Wild Troubled by all kinds of thoughts and desires, people are liable to get nervous anal disturbed in daily life and with their natural character con-fused and the ability to sustain themselves lost, they are quite ill with vari-ous worries and diseases. The poem reads: Displaying its horns, the buffalo bellows aloud, Read More