The Deadly and Deceptive Hands of T'ai Chi Ch'uan

[ChangWuJi]

The Deadly and Deceptive Hands of T'ai Chi Ch'uan

 

by Master Erle Montaigue

 

"Chang San-feng was an acupuncturist who also had a penchant for the Chinese fighting arts. He was well versed in the Shaolin arts but wished to find out the most deadly of all ways to protect one's self. Being an acupuncturist, he knew that certain points which when needled or struck a little more than for the healing art would have certain effects upon the body. So in experimenting, he and two others worked out through trial and error and many bodies later, which of these acupuncture points worked the best and which were the most deadly. He also worked out which points actually worked with other points to set up these deadly points and which were the best combinations of points to use. He worked out which direction of strikes worked the best, either with the flow of Qi or against it or twisted or straight in.

 

When Chang San-feng was finished, about ten years later, he knew that he had founded the most deadly fighting art of all and became a little paranoid that someone would see him practising and so learn this deadly art and use it back on him. So, had to have some way to teach his family and students and at the same time hide the meaning of the movements from those who would want to harm him. So he hid the movements in a dance of slow, sometimes fa-jing (explosive), movements. This he called "Loose Boxing" or Hao Ch'uan. This art was then handed down form generation to generation with only those in the inside circle ever learning the real meaning of these deadly moves. The name was later changed to T'ai Chi Ch'uan or supreme ultimate boxing, because it was simply that.

 

So nowadays we have this slow dance like form or kata, one that not many know the real meaning of. Many still insist upon each posture being used for a basic application, leaving aside the inner meaning or point striking meaning. We have people insisting that push hands is the crux of the fighting art and that if we are able to uproot someone, then we are able to defend ourselves. So what if we are able to uproot! He comes back with a blade and cuts us! The push hands was only ever meant as means of learning balance and timing and not for self-defence or tournament. There is push hands and then there is advanced push hands. This is where we learn about the dim-mak strikes and how to use them at close range, this is the real reason for push hands, not for pushing but for striking.

 

Here, we learn about the deadly strikes and how to use them at very close quarters over very small distances. We learn about fa-jing and how to put in the adverse Qi and how to knock someone out over one inch. We learn how to "shake" the body to bring out this explosive energy and then to put it into one of the hundreds of points on the body either to cause an energy drainage, an energy build up or a neurological shut down.

 

Applications

 

Ordinary applications? Not the ones that we are all told about. The ones that we are shown when we ask how T'ai chi is used for self defence, "you should take this posture and train in it for 3 years" or " he does this and so I should do this to counter" etc. But rather the whole unique way that T'ai chi treats self-defence and fighting. This unique way of fighting is so simple and so easy to use that people usually ask, "why weren't we told this before, its so simple". One very good reason for the old master's reticence in this area is because back in those days, we had to use our fighting system as an integrated self defence system and those who did not have such a system usually perished. But nowadays it is illegal to kill people or even maim and injure slightly so these deadly techniques become a curiosity and an interesting thing to learn.

 

My main teacher, Chang Yiu-chun (1899-1986) was a student of the "other side" of the Yang family, the Yang Shao-hou lineage or the Old Yang style before it was changed by Yang Cheng-fu to the softer version we have come to know as T'ai chi. I once asked Chang, while learning the dim-mak of

 

Taiji, what about edged weapons and the defence against such. He laughed and said, "you want to know about knife fighting, ask the older Chinese martial artists, we had to defend ourselves against such weapons as that was all there was then. Then the gun was invented and we somehow lost some of the real meaning. Now, these techniques are coming back because criminals are again using edged weapons in attack because the gun seems to be more criminal than a knife, these arts were invented to defend against edged weapons". Chang always carried a knife and could have it out and into your vital points in seconds. This is the real Taiji, a totally integrated fighting system.

 

The Twelve Deadly Palms

 

Here we have probably the most deadly of all the palm techniques as each "technique" attacks to very deadly points, the premise being that if you are able to touch your opponent then make it stick! And if so, then keep on striking until it is over. In days of old, these palms were given one per year and the advanced student had to train in that one palm method for the whole year, so it took 12 years to learn the whole system.

 

No.1 Here we must learn a dinky little punch that is only (as far as I know) inherent in the T'ai chi system. To train in this punch we use the hard mitts as follows. You move your right palm in a flowing manner past the mitt, turning the waist to your left bringing your palm to your left. Now, you should shake your waist, which has the effect of whipping your right fist out at great speed and power to make contact as using only the last three knuckles as the contact point. Now for the next punch inherent in the T'ai chi system and used by Bruce lee to great effect. Here we hold a loose palm, and only close the fist upon impact. We again shake the waist with the fist beginning only a short distance from the mitt. The palm must whip right over onto its back so that upon impact the fist is turned over, striking with the last three knuckles. This should not be a push but rather a wack giving of that sound, a bit like a tennis ball rebounding off a wall.

 

Now to put this first palm technique together. You firstly combine the second strike with the first strike onto two mitts, striking the first mitt held in your partner's right hand with the upward turning fist and then rebound straight back into the left mitt with the first punch. This should only take a split second to execute as we are using the rebound from the first strike for the second strike and then we will also use the rebound from the second strike for the third. To train with a partner,

 

your partner throws a left straight. You should know when this is coming by the movement of your partner's body. You don't bother to block this attack but rather use your body movement to avoid it as you attack to his jaw at a point called "the mind point" with your first punch. This doesn't

 

even have to strike this point as the punch alone will take his chin and put it onto his shoulder! Immediately, your same fist will come back and rebound onto his neck to a point called "stomach 9" this is the classic knock out point and is very dangerous. The last attack is performed with the palm of the right hand. Using the rebound from the last attack, your right palm now attacks to a point called "small intestine 16" using the knife edge as you step in with your right foot. This series is one of the most economical movements as you have simply done an "S" shape with your right palm. You practise this on both sides of course. The other eleven techniques become deadlier and more complicated. Just like the great fighting systems of old, T'ai chi is also one of the greatest."

 

 

 

 

[Jiggy9]

Thanks for the info ChangWuJi

[mastertae]

awesome...Bruce Lee was taught tai chi from his father before doing wing chun...thought that was interesing too...that bruce's actual first martial art was tai chi!

[Aikidoka]

I think you're a bit obsessed with Bruce, mastertae you mention him in every post

 

Remember, he was a good martial artist, not a god.

[mastertae]

lol...i know...if he were a d he'd stil be alive

[Jiggy9]

"Dont confuse the finger for the moon"

 

Well he said something like that, know what that means Mastertae??

[mastertae]

it is also said that obsession is ok...but dont let the obsession control you...

[Jack]

Jiggy, the only quote that I know of that roughly fits that was from Enter the dragon where he points to the sky and says "look" and the guy he is with looks at Bruce's finger... he then says something along the lines of 'Don't look at the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory"

[Drunken Monkey]

well, actually i think it was something said to him by yip man...

[Padawon]

what is tai chi focus on