Neijia Primer Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 10

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Nei Jia Primer In This Issue: EDITORS NOTE Follow Us BAGUA TAIJI ?PUSH ?HANDS XINGYI SHUAI EDITORS NOTE       “Shan” translates as mountain. ?Forget the mountain top experience when meditating upon nei jia principles. ?Rather, contemplate the solid base of the mountain firmly rooted upon the earth. ?This is the place from which any dragon man or woman springs when applying martial techniques. ??   “Long” translates as dragon. ?But, not the dragon of European mythology. ?The long is a composite animal made up of such characteristics as the belly of a frog, the scales of a snake, the legs of lion, tallons of an eagle, the horns of a deer. ?The long is a metaphor for the many diverse cultural and ethnic ?groups found among the Chinese people as a whole. ?No wonder the long became the symbol of emperors. ?   The peril of immortality that the dragon is chasing in my school’s logo above reads: ?”stillness in motion.” ?In this issue of the Nei Jia Primer I attempt, as I have in the preceeding 9 issues, to link classical principles that transcend any one style or internal martial technique. ?My hope is that the composite nature of our respective internal martial practices may yield palpable feeling tones in our taiji, bagua, and xingyi dragon-like applications.   CALLING FOR MATERIAL… please feel free to submit not only your comments and suggestions, but material intended for publish in the Nei Jia Primer. ?Reach me at: ?msmall@main.nc.us   ?   It’s an honor to have had?Master Sam Masich?request that our Nei Jia Primer newsletter be added the Sam Masich Internal Arts Library (SMIAL.) ?Check it out at: ? ?http://www.sammasich.com/index.php?content_id=1215&main_menu_id=3 Follow Us ? ? ? BAGUA ? Rise, Drill, Overturn, and Fall   This mantra for my Swimming Dragon bagua practice amounts to four things –extension, extension, extension, and extension. ?That is, when boring my bagua palm upward I, firstly, outreach forward on a horizontal plane. ?Doing this, I press my shoulders forward extending through my elbows and then through my wrists to my fingers. ?This can be referred to as moving from my roots through my branches to my leaves in my upper limbs. ?   My lead palm rises?(Tiao)?as I suspend my elbows in front of me. ?This naturally sprials my forearms as in the photo above. ?Over time a palpable feeling tone has developed for me at the beginning of this rise, drill, overturn and fall process. ?I feel the simultaneous bowing and pressing of my arms almost as two separate processes. ?   Drilling?(Huo)?more pointedly spirals the chansijin energy that comes as I rotate my ulna and radius within my forearm(s). ?I like to manifest?jin?that feels like a?vasular “flush”?in my forearms, when drilling through the bowing of my arms.   Overturning?(Fan)?comes at the end of my drilling, for instance, when my lead hand rotates counter clockwise as my supporting hand rotates clockwise. ?It sometimes feels like a flick of my wrists because of the extension of my limbs. ?   Falling?(Dai/Ling) is manifest when my whole-body-linking includes the inclining of my torso. ?Folding at my hips while extending and outreaching, as discribed above, allows me to feel that my bagua “palm” runs the length of ?my entire body. TAIJI ?PUSH ?HANDS ? Fair Lady Works Shuttles ? It’s best to work with both hands in front of your torso?in tui shou’s fixed or restricted step play. ?In the application of Fair Lady, otherwise known as “Four Corners,” subtly transform your horizontal circling onto a diagonal line, and lastly into a vertical expression. ?You may find the nei jia qualities of rise, drill, overturn, and fall as set out in the bagua section above in this application.   Use the hand placed on your opponent’s elbow to lead them in an over extended manner, well onto their front leg. ?Turn them by drilling upward with your lead hand. ?You’ll find that raising their elbow with your hand not only blocks their vision of your stepping or relignment, but also unbalances them backwards. ?The mere overturning and fall of your bowed foreward arm may be enough to uproot them and you may not even need to use your lower hand to strike their centerline. ? XINGYI Stepping While Issuing   Keep your stepping strategy one inch ahead of your opponent’s stepping. When stepping into?santi?or?ma bo, bounce your rear leg up pushing your front leg forward in order to relentlessly put your opponent in an urgent situation. Shoot your front leg forward keeping it close to the ground so that you feel that you are jumping downward. Never jump upward. ?   Issuing intrinsic power comes with increasing your speed, firstly by: 1). Accumulating or storing?jin?in your bowed arms, wrists, and legs. This is the process of “cheu” or curving/bending that lead to “yuan” or rounding your body.?2). Let your bowed posture(s) coordinate your entire body. You may feel you are widening your core and shaping yourself into a wedge. Let the roots of your body–your hips and shoulders, move first and your hands and legs immediately follow.?3). Issue your pressing?ji?jin?in smooth and relentless manners to neutralize your opponent. ?Vertically separate your upper body from your lower body in the ?sinking of your qi –?an, in order to let high and low match your opponent’s timing. You may find it easier to anticipate when your opponent is about to move. ?Then mover quicker in one whole-body-linking manner to issue a constantly pressing energy. SHUAI Dragon Body   The dragon body?convention of what can be called “planing across hands” uses spiralingchansijin?energies?along horizontal, diagonal, and vertical planes, or any combination thereof, and it is instrumental for applying the proper bio-mechanicsneeded for throwing?your opponent. ?(See photos above). Plane across your opponent’s hands in order to set up a throw by splitting their incoming force along ever shrinking spirals, and watch your opponent pause in the uncertainty of knowing where he is headed.   I often felt this whirlwind pressure at the hands of Master Chang Tung-sheng, when it was my honor to train with him. To avoid being thrown by him, I had to stop telegraphing my muscular strength?and instead use combinations of my eight internal?ba men?energies. ?I came to use?beng jin?or expanding energy first and then my?an?or sinking energy when attempting to neutralize his attacks.   A strike or intercept would usually precede Master Chang’s throws. It felt like he simultaneously?folded or locked my joints?in manners that?scattered my energies and unbalanced me. I began practicing bagua as well as xingyi in addition to taijiquan in order to cultivate my dragon body’s ability to more immediately?link with my opponent’s internal energies. Over time I found it easier and easier to bind?or tie up my opponent. ?So, I cultivated my nei jia dragon body energies to?more readily discern his structural misalignments, regardless of his preferred style of martial arts. ?I slowly began expanding my opening moves upon engagment by simultaneously leading?my opponent along varying levels and through varying distances. That meant, for me, extending my?beng?jin,?or upward expanding energy, in clearly defined high, middle, and low, as well as in long, mid-range, and close-up quadrants. ? ? ?

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