Story by Rose Oliver 2006 – Published in Tai Chi Magazine
Photos by Mr. Wang Ming Bo and Rose Oliver
Master Liu, who was born in 1939, began training in Wu Style Taiji over 40 years ago with Pei Zhu Yin and also studied with the late Ma Yue Liang for almost 20 years.
Master Liu, who’s recognized as 5th generation lineage of Wu Style in China, describes Wu Style’s specialty in comparison to the other styles of Taiji, as the movement and rotation of the Dan Tian and the ability to remain soft, pliable and alive, whilst sticking and adhering to the opponent; not giving him a chance to maintain his own balance and stability to use against us.
To really understand Wu Style Taiji, we must first understand two important Taiji principles:
“Hou Fa Zhi Ren”; “If the opponent doesn’t move, I don’t move, but if and when he does move then I move first; that is because my heart /mind and intention are so in tune with what someone else is doing that I am able to move faster than him”; and “Rou Hua Wei Zhu”, or “We must dissipate the opponent’s force, not by taking it into the direction of our own body or centre, but by dissipating it to the outside of our body, i.e. to either side of us, or down to the ground etc, but always paramount in this action is that we remain soft and relaxed whilst dissolving his strength, not offering him any resistance or force”.
These two basic principles are crucial, because if we do not master them, we cannot hope to comprehend the remaining theories in Taiji; these are part of Taiji’s basic foundation.
During the Cultural Revolution, some martial arts masters fell foul of the doctrines of the times and were punished, sometimes by having to parade through the streets, subjected to the jeers and/or possible violence of the crowds. One could not fight back or oppose this action, one simply had to give into it and accept it, so this “acceptance” helped to foster a sense of calmness and quietness of spirit. One doesn’t battle against ones environment; one flows with it and accepts it.
Many of the old great masters perfected their art in Taiji due to adversity, not despite it.
So, Master Liu says, as practitioners, to realize the above two principles we have to first cultivate a still and tranquil heart; then you can be in harmony with your situation, not struggle against it.
Master Liu began training with Pei Zhu Yin in 1964, up until Master Pei’s death in the 80’s.
Master Pei introduced Liu Ji Fa to Master Ma Yue Liang in 1980 and from then he also trained with Master Ma regularly.
Liu said that when he first saw Pei Zhu Yin training his students in push hands, there was no evidence of wrestling and grappling, as is so often seen in parks and competitions.
Pei’s students were bounced around with no apparent effort; his movements were very small, compact and alive, just like a ball rolling around, plus he seemed able to read the opponent exactly, so he was able to bounce them away without using physical effort or force. Master Pei often said that it’s not that we can’t use “jing” or power, rather that we shouldn’t need to.
Most important is that students get a proper feel for the movements, so that they can make them into their own. This way they can actually use the applications themselves.
For this to happen, Pei would say that students needed to study continuously for three years to gain a good foundation.
Master Liu said that in his first three years’ experience he developed a sensation that he was standing in water, so that his feet felt they were floating in water, rather than grabbing the earth in a tense way. The feet should rest lightly on the earth and the underneath surface of the foot can then roll and move on the ground in a lively fashion, according to the situation or pressure one receives, rather than be solidly stuck on or into the ground.
The practitioner should have a feeling that their root spreads out over a large area, whilst the root can also sink down into the earth to utilize the earth’s power.
However, Liu stressed that this is not like a peg or stake that is just stuck physically, one dimensionally into the ground, but is more the practitioner’s intention allowing the root and weight to seep and sink into the ground surrounding the body.
He likened this idea to when we stand in a lift that takes us downwards; the lift sinks down but our body doesn’t actually move downwards by itself, but we still have a mental and physical sensation of our weight dropping down.
When we move, then every part of our body, both internal and external, plus the energy our intention, all must move. There should be no part of us that isn’t involved in the movement, additionally it should be a natural reaction, rather like that of a cat stalking and then pouncing on a mouse. The cat’s breathing, body, mind and energy are all moving in harmony. If the cat was tense or agitated, then of course it would not be successful in its endeavours!
Another important factor is that we should also fully understand our own anatomy, how the body works and the joints, etc, move and integrate; this will also help us to achieve a flowing and natural set of movements and assist us in our applications and push hands techniques.
Master Liu studied Tuina (Chinese acupressure massage) and acupuncture for many years, as a way to understand not just his own body, but also to know how an opponent would move. This way he said, you can not only cure a person’s physical problems, but you also know how to neutralize and control him; particularly in relation to “Chin Na” or locking techniques.
In Wu Style Taiji form and push hands, the dantian is key to all movements; so training the dantian takes time, patience and correct instruction.
In push hands, it can be hard for players to be able to ‘listen’ and understand their opponent at first, because they themselves are too tense and rigid; plus their own body has no central, controlling unit. Thus, the body doesn’t move in harmony, or evenly or smoothly (‘jun yun’). So the player often restricts and defeats himself by wrapping himself in knots, basically locking up his own joints/body.
To make the body soft and relaxed we first have to picture a piece of clothing. If the clothing is just laid down folded up flat, there is no energy within it, it’s lifeless.
However, if the clothing has space within it, as in a piece of clothing hanging on a clothes hanger, dangling down, then this clothing has energy inside.
So the body has to feel like this image; the bones are the hanger with the rest of the body, muscles, organs, etc, just hanging down, empty inside but at the same time full of energy, not tense or rigid.
The abdomen and the chest must breathe together; the diaphragm must become flexible and relaxed, this way breathing is full and complete, so the full capacity of the lungs can function in inhalation. Many people who practice sports can only breathe through their chests, or just use abdominal breathing; but in Taiji, we should learn how to simultaneously utilize the abdomen and chest during breathing, so they can open and close together.
Master Liu demonstrates this phenomenon by allowing students to push on his dantian and chest. When one presses his chest or abdomen, he uses his energy “qi” and dantian to simply dissolve your force into the surrounding area, not resisting your force with his own body; it’s like pressing a soft sponge or ball, that just absorbs your force and collapses inwards and then using the breath, ‘the ball’ re-inflates and bounces you away.
If you push against his chest with one hand and his dantian with the other, he will bring his chest and dantian together by using his internal movement and breathing, prior to refilling these areas, and just shooting you way by releasing his breath and energy.
His dantian can fold, collapse, re-inflate and he can make his chest cavity sink inwards and downwards so it can “slot” inside the dantian, but it can also reappear as soon as your force is successfully dissipated, thus bouncing you away.
Master Liu said that this flexibility and use of the dantian and chest is not only paramount in push hands and for dissipating an opponent’s force, but is also significant for a person’s health, especially for the internal organs like the lungs and heart.
The abdominal cavity should be like an accordion, which can open and close, expand and contract in stages, evenly and smoothly, but never becoming stiff or tense.
This opening and closing of the abdomen though, is not the head bobbing up and down, nor is it the waist or back rounding out or curving over, it’s the qi or energy and the internal organs filling and expanding and shrinking and contracting, in a soft and relaxed manner.
The chest and abdominal cavity must be alive and supple, which means that the lungs and abdominal organs can move and are flexible. The two lungs can expand/open and contract/close in differentiation to each other, which helps to make the bones, such as the sternum and ribs, softer and more flexible and pliable.
When you push on Master Liu’s chest, he can deflate and inflate his lungs in opposition to each other, but his chest bones never feel rigid at all; it’s rather like pushing on a rubber ring, one side empties and the other inflates. Then the dantian and breath work together to shoot you away!
This level, of course takes time, patience and correct instruction to perfect, but first we must understand the principles of how the body works anatomically, and then we can follow and control the natural movement of our own bodies. Liu says that you must never lose contact with your adversary; your body must be flexible and alive internally. If somebody pushes on your chest, then the dantian can absorb the force, rotate and dissipate their power, before rotating around again to bounce them off.
In Wu style push hands, one must keep one’s potential force contained within oneself, so it can be released at the practitioner’s own discretion when the time is right, but at all other times one must stick to the opponent, following and controlling his actions. This is what is known as sticking and adhering, “Zhan, Nian”.
Pushing hands with Master Liu is very reminiscent of pushing hands with the late Master Wang Hao Da, whom many people in the US and Europe were very familiar with.
One was bounced around with ease, but kept stuck to Master Wang’s hands and energy, so one couldn’t escape. Master Liu has this same quality, and like Master Wang has a wonderful, happy, aura about him, always laughing and playing with you, rather like a grandfather playing with their favourite grandchild.
To train the dantian we practice making circles and rotations, allied to the breathing and the relaxation of the chest cavity.
In the form itself, the dantian is constantly turning, and opening and closing. So in Wu style push hands, the player basically just performs the movements of the form. The correlation between push hands and the form are very much closer in Wu style than they are in many other styles of Taiji, where practitioners often descend into grappling and wrestling, which bear no relation to their own Taiji form movements.
To begin to cultivate the dantian, we must have a quiet mind that is able to listen to what’s happening inside. We must try not to think of our worries and problems, but focus on the body’s internal movements and connections.
We use slow quiet movements as well as vigorous ones and at first we use the movements of the hands as we learn the form, to lay down a map for the internal movements of the dantian.
Initially, beginners will obviously not have a dantian that they can utilize; it has to be developed over time, so the teacher will give precise instruction of how the hands, arms, feet and legs move and of the individual postures of the form. Then the practitioner can start to imagine how the hand movements correlate to the movements of the inner body.
Later, as the sensation and ability of the dantian grows, the practitioner will “move” the arms less and allow the dantian to control the body’s external movements.
Then in the form we can think about how the dantian relates to the whole body opening and closing.
We can also do seated exercises, concentrating on dantian circles and rotations, rather like the types that Master Wang Hao Da used to teach, sitting with the tailbone on the edge of a chair to practice, which helps free up the internal abdominal area.
The circles can follow the micro and macrocosmic energy circulatory system, plus we can also make energy circles from the hip bone points to the perineum, which is fundamental to maintaining good health and helping to rejuvenate the reproductive and urinary systems.
Master Liu said that originally teachers would first start a student learning the Wu style fast form, to get students familiar with the fastest movements and applications, and then they would teach them the slow form. Students would really cultivate and hone their skills in the slow form so they could feel the dantian control the body’s movements.
In Chinese medicine the dantian is a specific point three fingers below the navel inside the abdomen, but in Taiji we think of the whole abdominal cavity as the dantian.
In Chinese “Dan” means a point or spot and “Tian” means field or large surface area, so the dantian has a central point that actually extends over a large space.
The motor for the dantian’s movements are the energy and breath, “Qi”, which can move freely within the dantian, under the guidance of the “Yi” or intention.
The dantian can expand, contract, shrink and become full, maintaining a yin and yang relationship; plus we can utilize both positive and reverse breathing to help move it.
The dantian can rotate in a variety of directions; for example, in “Wave Hands like Clouds”, we make diagonal circles with the dantian.
These kinds of movements are especially good for the health, as they are massage for the internal organs, building up their range of motion and stamina, in addition to giving the cardio-vascular system a complete work out.
In martial terms, if we are unable to create the correct amount of internal pressure in the lungs and dantian by closing and gathering the energy, then we cannot correctly or effortlessly issue power, “Fa Jing”.
When we push hands, we must not give the opponent a signal of what we are going to do with our external movements, rather everything should happen internally. A high level practitioner, like Master Ma Yue Liang would not even appear to move their external body at all. It was as if he had no physical body; one couldn’t feel his root, but when you tried to push him you would feel your own feet floating and become off balance.
Wang Ming Bo, who was a student of the late Master Wang Hao Da, went with Master Wang to visit Master Ma not long before he passed away, and when helping Master Ma up from his chair by supporting his elbow, he felt that there was nothing substantial resting or pushing down on his hand. It was as if Master Ma was exactly in tune with Wang’s movements and as he raised Master Ma’s elbow or added any slight pressure, as he helped him up, he was unable to feel any body weight sinking down against him. Master Ma followed and listened to him precisely and was completely at one with Wang Ming Bo’s movements.
Master Ma would say that we should also play the form in our minds without breaking the continuity of the sequence; this is an excellent way to cultivate stillness and increase our ability to maintain concentration and prevent random thoughts.
“Qing Jing Man Qie Hen”, this means that we must perform the form slowly, lightly in a relaxed and calm manner, to seek to fully understand what we are doing in each movement and to be persistent in our practice.
In Taiji, we can say 10,000 movements or principles happen at one moment, but only if we are tranquil in our hearts and minds, can we grasp the opportunity at the correct time and feel and know what must be done, and be able to do it! Pushing hands with the great masters, students often come up against this sensation, that the master completely knows them and has already defeated them, before they’ve even had a chance to think about what’s occurring or what they should do!
Master Liu says that there is one other element which is also very important in form practice, as well as in push hands. That is one’s development of our moral character and temperament.
We can sense a person’s character by their method of pushing hands, those who are aggressive or fearful, i.e. afraid of losing, will be forceful and seek to grab the earth and shove quickly at others, in order to beat them.
Liu says, if someone says your push hands is rubbish, or says you have no skill, let them say this. Don’t react in kind by trying to beat and overcome them. This way you allow them to influence your stillness and equilibrium, and you are controlled by their energy and thoughts, which ultimately results in your physical body being controlled by them too.
If you can stay calm and not react to their pressure, this is a way to develop your own tranquility and cultivate a good moral character. In life, as in push hands, we will be faced with a multitude of problems and situations, as well as difficult people; if we can maintain a good, kind, heart and spirit, uninfluenced by our surroundings, it will not only allow us to remain calm under attack in push hands, so we stay soft and relaxed, it will also help to minimalize life’s problems and pressures too.
In Chinese they say, “Da Shi Hua Xiao Shi, Xiao Shi Hua Liao”; “we can dissolve a big problem so that it becomes a small one, and we can reduce a small one so the problem can disappear all together”.
If we look at this philosophy in terms of push hands, then it is the dissipation of great force into nothingness; so the practitioner feels no threat from the opponent, but the opponent feels his power and stability are completely absorbed and neutralized and he’s left vulnerable and without a root.
Master Liu says cultivating this way of thinking in our lives makes us more forgiving and stops us taking things so much to heart, which in itself leads to a calmer disposition, as well as having great benefits for our Taiji skill and balance.
Master Liu, despite being nearly 70 is extremely spry and light on his feet, as well as being energetic and vigorous in his form movements and push hands.
His purpose in training is to improve his health and through Taiji, meet new friends and help others.
He hopes that in the future, the benefits of Taiji can spread throughout the world, so that we can all enjoy its advantages; make friends and spread health, happiness, culture and well-being.
Master Liu says his teachers were not interested in fame or fortune, and he seeks to maintain their ideology; Taiji should be about fun, friendship, art, culture, health and self-improvement.
I can certainly vouch for the fact that being around Master Liu makes one feel happier and more at peace, and through his teaching one can really get a feeling for the “artistry and culture ” within this wonderful martial art.
Liu Ji Fa passed away in 2017.