According to an ancient taijiquan treatise, the ‘ba men jin’, or ‘indirect power expanding to eight directions’, refers to the following:
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peng (to ward off attacks with a spiralling movement of the arms or hands),
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lu (to roll back attacks with a spiralling movement of the arms or hands),
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ji (to press with the back of both palms or forearms to the front with body moving backwards at equal distance),
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an (to connect opponent’s attack with both hands and follow it as it approaches you; if necessary, you can counter-attack when your opponent comes to the end of his/her reach),
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cai (to pluck opponent’s forearm or hand in a circular movement of the plucking arm as if you are gently holding and then plucking an apple from a branch),
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lie (to separate one part of the opponent from another part which has been immobilized as if you are splitting his/her body),
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zhou (to strike with an elbow, either forward, backward or sideways), and
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kao (to strike or push with shoulder or upper back, using the weight of your body).
However, this is only one aspect of the ‘ba men jin’ which describes the different sources of ‘jin’ and the different ways of attacking your opponent. However, the above-mentioned taijiquan treatise goes on to say that ‘ba men jin’ requires that your power should cover the four directions and the four corners or oblique directions, ie, east. west, south, and north as well as south-east, south-west, north-east and north-west. This requirement follows the principles of the eight trigrams as laid down in the I Jing (The book of Change). The eight trigrams, each of which is formed by three parallel lines (the lines are either continuous (whole) or broken (open)), represent the four directions and the four corners as follows:
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kan, li, zhen and dui (these are the names of trigrams) represent the four cardinal directions, and
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qian, kun, gen and sun (these are the names of trigrams) represent the four corners or oblique directions.
In order to find out the workings of the trigrams, it is important to have an understanding of YIN YANG which I have explained briefly in previous chapters. YIN Yang represents two opposing ends of a continuum. It is postulated in The Book of Change that Taiji (tai chi)is the state before a matter develops into YIN YANG. When the YIN YANG of a point extends at both ends, it becomes a line; when the YIN YANG of a line extends sideways, it becomes a plane and when the YIN YANG of a plane extends upwards and downwards, it becomes a three-dimensional body. You should then try to transfer this three-dimensional ‘ba men jin’ to your taijiquan practice.
What is important in this concept is that when we practise taijiquan, not only should we move our arms, body, legs and feet along ‘the imaginary surface of the mass of air in front of our body’, we should also imagine that there is a centre within the mass of air so that we should always extend our limbs outwards as if we are embracing an inflated balloon. This is the only way to enable us to reduce the use of muscular power and to develop elasticity, viscosity, and resilience in every part of our body and limbs.
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