Tai Chi Energies Part 1 - A Deep Dive into Peng Jin

internal strength peng jin tai chi energies taiji energies Jan 18, 2026

I’m putting together new videos for my website on the “Energies” of Taijiquan. The word energy is often misunderstood, in my opinion. A lot of mystical nonsense is often triggered by the word "energy" in the world of Tai Chi. A better word, in my opinion, is "method." Each “energy” is a method of dealing with force.

The first—and most important—is Peng Jin (often translated as Ward-Off Energy).

Peng is required for all the other energies/methods to work, and Peng relies on the ground path at all times. Without those two things—Peng Jin and the ground—you don’t really have Taijiquan. Without them, movements are empty.

They are working at all times and in all movements, even in what people sometimes call “transitions”—though we know there really are no transitions. No matter what you are doing in a Taiji form, a self-defense application is present.

Peng Jin is not necessarily a force you apply; it is a structural state you maintain. It gives you an expansive feeling inside. You are open, you are relaxed, you are song, and you are connected.

Peng is the body’s ability to receive, transmit, and return force without local collapse. Someone pushes you, grabs you, or tries to take you down—and no part of you collapses.

One of the first things I teach new students is how to establish and maintain the ground path, and how to set up Peng Jin in the body.

Peng should be present in your movement at all times. When force enters, it is distributed, grounded, and either redirected or reflected.

If someone pushes, you maintain song—a relaxed, connected state. When tension appears, Peng is broken.

If pressure increases suddenly and your body becomes more connected, Peng is alive. If you become less connected, Peng was imagined.

Even when you yield to force, you maintain Peng, because yielding without Peng is collapse.

If your leg sags inward during a movement like Buddha’s Warrior Attendant, Peng is broken. In Chen style, the legs are not meant to be “wobbly.” Unfortunately, this is a lesson some have forgotten—or never learned. But you are not one of them.

Chen Xiaowang said:

“Peng Jin is everything flowing, nothing broken.”

I would add this:

Peng is what happens when force comes at you and nothing collapses, nothing resists, and nothing rushes.

If you can accept force without deciding what to do yet, Peng is present. You can listen (feel the opponent’s force) without fear, until what to do becomes unavoidable. You listen while maintaining your structural integrity.

This is our goal as we work on forms, push hands, applications, and self-defense. We put it into action through increasingly realistic push-hands training that naturally evolves into close-range self-defense—all while maintaining Peng, using our internal strength to give our bodies a buoyancy that resists our opponent's strength and allow us to feel the force, adapt to it, neutralize it, and when our opponent goes off-balance, we counter. These steps require some of the other Taiji "energies" (methods) and we will discuss them in the next few blog posts.

And remember: nothing in Taijiquan is metaphysical.

It is made of physical skills.

You can do it.

--by Ken Gullette

Try Two Weeks Free and Get Step-by-Step Training in Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua from Basic to Advanced Skills with No Mystical Mumbo-Jumbo

More than 850 Video Lessons and Downloadable pdf documents -- and You Get It All During Your Free Trial!

Click this Button to Learn More and Watch a Video!

Okay! Let Me See More!

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Tai Chi Energies Part 1 - A Deep Dive into Peng Jin

Try Two Weeks Free and Get Step-by-Step Training in Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua from Basic to Advanced Skills with No Mystical Mumbo-Jumbo

Author - Instructor

Stay connected with news and updates!

Two Step