Though the jing is soft, the damage is hard.
(Yang Jwing-Ming)
Hard & soft muscles
There are hard and soft
martial arts.
Hard systems use muscle power to fuel their strikes whereas
soft styles
use relaxed muscles and rely upon the manipulation of energy instead.
Tai chi is a soft style.
Contracted muscles restrict the energy flow, so in
tai chi the muscles never tense
and force is never resisted or employed.
Hard & soft energy
When the words hard and soft are used in a
tai chi class, they refer to
energy.
Certain applications may feel soft on impact whilst others feel more
substantial.
This can be caused by the type of strike or the location.
It can also be produced by intent or
shen.
Hard or soft can be changed by intent; your mind intensifies the energy.
Jing
Jing is 'expression' - the release of energy in a given way and/or
direction.
The appropriate jing must direct every movement in order for the tai chi to
work correctly.
Focussing upon a particular jing can make your arm feel stronger without any contraction of the
muscles; your intent combined with movement produces the jing.
This affects the outcome of the strike considerably.
The nature of jing means that only the opponent can gauge the difference
in strike - they should feel a distinct change in substance when the
intent alters.
No matter how hard the blow may feel to be, the strike must be delivered
using soft muscles and relaxed joints.
Soft meeting
Tai chi combines hard and soft energy constantly.
Incoming force must be met with softness, so as not to impede the
attacker's force.
This skill is called 'soft meeting'.
It is a
yielding method and requires the student
to be very sensitive.
Even apparently aggressive methods of encountering force,
such as 'filing' or 'growing' use softness as a means of penetrating defences.
Once the incoming force has been softly neutralised, the counter-strike is
the 'hard' of the
yin/yang balance.
This soft/hard interchange occurs very rapidly and the hard strike is
delivered with soft muscles and only 4 ounces of
pressure.
Tai chi striking typically involves the use of a method known as
fa jing which releases an intense burst
of energy into the opponent.
These strikes feel to be exceptionally 'hard' yet are produced by a
totally loose, soft body.
Fa jing cannot work if your muscles and joints are even remotely stiff.
Hard qigong
Certain schools of kung fu specialise in 'hard qigong'.
This is a unique discipline in which body conditioning, breathing and
meditation are employed to strengthen the body.
The training protects the body against impact damage by focussing energy.
Tai chi is a form of soft qigong.
Page created 1 May 2002