Liu FengCai doing Gao BaGua
Click to enlarge |
8
Uses for Reeling Silk Power
by
Joanna Zorya
|
Chen
Xin identified 3 main uses for Chansijin in his "Illustrated
Treatise on Taijiquan", namely drilling, deflecting and drawing.
From my own study of Chen style Taijiquan I can only conclude
that this list was meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.
I have therefore expanded the list, based on my knowledge
of Taijiquan and the other main "Reeling Silk" styles: Xingyiquan
and Baguazhang.
All
applications of Chansijin are generated by long axial rotation
of the limbs, powered by pushing and turning of the torso as
a unit. The uses are arranged in complimentary but contrasting
pairs as follows:
Striking
and Throwing
Deflecting
and Drawing
Sticking and Slipping
Locking and Escaping
Striking
and throwing use short and long power release respectively.
Striking includes, but is not restricted to "drilling" and also
contains chopping and palm striking.
Deflecting
tends to refer to quite Yang "advancing and attacking" defensive
maneuvers. Such deflections would generally meet an oncoming
strike at a slightly high-impact angle (but never head-on) to
either damage or at least rebound the attacking limb. Drawing
is a much softer approach and would be used to subtly deflect
an attack and "help it on its way", slightly off course.
Sticking
refers to adherence to an attacking limb once initial contact
has been made. This would be done to cover and thwart any subsequent
attacks or to manipulate the actions of the attacker. Slipping
refers to rotating and evading the grabs or attempted joint-locking
techniques of an attacker.
Locking
refers to Qinna techniques where an opponent's joints are locked
to cause great pain and subdue or manipulate the foe. Escaping
is what you would do if you have failed to slip out of an attempted
joint-lock, once it has been put on. This should be done as
quickly as possible after failing to slip out of the lock.
|
About
the writer: