Home / T'ai Chi Ch'uan / The classics

拳經 · quánjīng

What the
classics ask for.

Used in class as corrections rather than decoration — a way of naming what has just gone wrong, and what to do instead.

Corrections

What the classics ask for

The classical texts are used in class as corrections rather than decoration — a way of naming what has just gone wrong, and what to do instead.

Yang Cheng Fu's ten points give the postural checklist: suspend the crown, sink the chest and raise the back, loosen the waist, distinguish full from empty, sink the shoulders and drop the elbows, use intention rather than force, coordinate upper and lower, unite inner and outer, move without interruption, and seek stillness within movement.

Li I-yu's five-character formula gives the training checklist: the heart-mind quiet, the body agile, the qi gathered, the jìn whole, the shén concentrated.

Neither is a creed. They are diagnostic — a way of finding which of ten things has slipped when a posture stops working.