In addition to ‘ba men jin’, there is another concept in taijiquan that makes it very different from other styles of martial arts. This is ‘wu bu’ which means five steps in English. This concept is derived from an ancient Chinese philosophical concept of ‘wu xing’ which means five elements. The five elements are metal, wood, water, fire and earth. They represent all the substances in the universe and ancient Chinese sought to explain the natural phenomena with ‘wu xing’. It is postulated that these five elements mutually promote one another but also restraint one another. Metal is supposed to restraint wood, wood restraints water, water restraints fire, fire restraints earth and finally earth restraints metal. They are also supposed to promote one another and earth is believed to promote metal which in turn promotes water, water promotes wood which promotes fire, and finally fire promotes earth which in turn promotes metal.
This concept is applied to Chinese medicine and other practices and theories. The five elements also have directional connotation. Wood stands for East, fire stands for South, earth Centre, metal West and water North. When you apply the concept of ‘wu bu’ or five steps in the practice of taijiquan, you should follow the order of ‘earth, wood, fire, metal and water’. When you start practising, you should employ the ‘mutual promotion’ principle which allows you to expand your sphere of control. Since you are starting the movement from the centre, you should turn (use the principle of ‘sink and float’ instead of using your muscular power to turn) your body and arms towards the east in a clockwise direction, and then south, west and then north.
As I have said in previous chapters, you should start your movement from your feet (remember the whole process of allowing your body weight to drop to the ground and then bounce back), then your legs, pelvis joints, body, shoulders and then your arms, wrists and hands. While the pressure rises from the ground, your legs, body and arms should expand gradually from below like a spiral from the centre to the east, then south and west and then north.
While you are turning your body and limbs, there should be revolving movements in your limbs which are not caused by muscular power but by your intention of expanding your sphere of control, that is, the imaginary mass of air in front of your body.
When you are attacked by your opponent, you should decrease your sphere of control by reversing the directions of your movements while your arms are still in contact with those of your opponent. The order of your circular movements when trying to withdraw (but not to give way) your arms should be water, metal, fire, wood, and then earth. The direction of your movement should be anti-clockwise, with a downward spiralling effect. There should also be revolving movements in your legs and arms when reducing your sphere of control.
While you are reducing the sphere of your control, you should still keep the imaginary mass of air expanding outwards, so that your legs and arms are kept elastic but not stiff or too soft.
When the force of your opponent’s attack is transferred through your arms, body, legs and then feet, it will bounce back from the ground. This, plus the bouncing back of your body weight, will produce an upwards pressure which makes your whole body ‘swell’, causing your body and arms to extend outwards in the directions described in paragraphs 3 and 4 above. The force which is thus deployed to strike your opponent is called ‘jin’, which does not have any directions, and more powerful than brute force produced from muscular power.
The ‘wu bu’ and ‘ba men jin’, that is five steps and indirect force from eight directions, are called the ‘shi san shi’ or ‘thirteen postures’. Whenever we practise taijiquan, we have to apply the thirteen postures in our movements.
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