Tai Chi

Tai Chi "Energies" Part 4 - A Deeper Dive Into Tai Chi's An Jin - "Push Energy"

energies of tai chi tai chi an jin tai chi energies tai chi push energy taijiquan energies Feb 03, 2026

Continuing a series of posts on the so-called Tai Chi "energies," let's talk about An Jin, or "Push" energy. And a reminder, the "energies" of Tai Chi are simply refined methods of dealing with force. A "Jin" is a way of dealing with an opponent's force in a refined way that requires a lot of practice.

You don't use brute force. The Taiji energies require skill.

The word "energy" has sparked a lot of woo-woo nonsense that has attracted people to the art who are looking for magic powers and fairy dust instead of martial art.

An Jin -- Push -- isn't really about "pushing" the way we think about pushing. It's about direction, pressure, and timing. It is a downward, forward pressure that is issued in connected weight sinking. It is expressed not with arm force, but with a whole-body connection.

Looking at the first four energies of Taiji: Peng is buoyancy, Lu is redirection, Ji is compression, and An is gravity with intent.

The two-handed push, as in most Taijiquan forms (pictured above from the Yang 24 form), is overemphasized because it's easy to teach, easy to feel, and easy to demonstrate. But just like with Ji Jin (Press), if you think of An Jin as a two-handed push, you are confusing posture with Jin.

If you push someone with one or two hands, even if you use connected, whole-body movement, even if you don't use localized shoulder and arm muscle to push, and even if you sink after the push, you are primarily using Peng Jin.

If you push someone backward with arm strength, leaning and bracing, it looks like An, and students will think, "Oh, I get it. It's being relaxed as you push someone."

Instead of thinking about An Jin as a forceful extention, think of An Jin this way: it is organized sinking.

An is not something you do to the other person; it's what happens when your structure settles and they're in the way.

So let's use the example of Walking Obliquely, and the sinking at the end which can be used to take an opponent down because my leg is behind him. Take a look at this photo:

The "beak" hand controls the wrist. Stretching his arm across my chest is Lie energy - Split - causing his center to be drawn away from his base. As I do this, I'm using Ji Jin because I press him with my body, putting him off-balance, giving him nowhere to go and no room to defend. I am grounding this from my left foot.

Here is where An Jin comes in. After I have my opponent in this precarious position, off-balance and leaning over my leg, and I am pressing forward with my thigh into his leg and his torso is going backward, I use An Jin by settling my weight, dropping my center, maintaining whole-body connection and I add NO arm force.

My opponent has nowhere to go except down. So my sinking and settling, through my body, into the ground, expressed through the connection -- is An Jin.

The same An Jin can be found at the end of Single Whip as the body sinks and settles.

It isn't a "Push" as in the two-hand push. I encourage you to go beyond the postures you have learned when you think about Jin.

Real An Jin is a settling of structure, a closing of space, an inevitable heaviness, and a downward resolution of pressure. Real An doesn't feel as much like a push as it does gravity.

I love the description of An Jin as "gravity with intent."

It is the difference between using Li (strength) in a forceful push, and using Jin (a refined method of dealing with force) and, instead of imposing your will through strength, you sink, settle, and let gravity finish it.

If contact existed, Peng stayed alive, you didn't increase forward effort, your kua, legs and torso settled, the opponent lost his buoyancy and his structure and downward resolution happened, you have used An Jin.

Here, my partner didn’t fall because I pushed him. He fell because standing stopped being an option.

That’s An.

--by Ken Gullette

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Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Tai Chi "Energies" Part 4 - A Deeper Dive Into Tai Chi's An Jin - "Push Energy"

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