Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

What Does the Term "Tai Chi Energies" Really Mean?

You read and hear about different types of "energies" or "jin" in the internal arts. For example, people talk about the "Eight Energies" or the "Thirteen Energies."

Four primary energies (jin) of Taijiquan are:

1. Peng (Ward Off)

2. Liu (Roll Back)

3. Ji (Press)

4. An (Push)

Rounding Out the Rest of the 13 Energies are:

5. Cai (Pluck-Pull Down)

6. Lie (Split - often pronounced like the name Leah)

7. Zhou - (Elbow)

8. Kao - (Shoulder - often called Bump)

9. Teng (striking at an upward angle from the bottom to the top)

10. Zhe (winding, spinning to the ground)

11. Kong (Empty)

12. Huo (lively and active while maintaining internal principles) 

13. Five Moving Directions: Front (Forward), Back (Backward), Left, Right, and Middle (maintaining your balance - your Center)

 It's important to remember -- despite what some teachers will tell you -- the Taiji "energies" do not involve some invisible energy in your body called Peng, or Liu, or whatever.

It's a lot more accurate to translate each of these not as energies but as "methods."

Each is a different method of dealing with an opponent's force.

If a punch is coming toward you and you intercept it and guide it away with your hands, you are using "Liu" energy. That is your method of dealing with the force of the punch.

Peng jin is involved in every movement. It is a crucial method that helps your structure. The ground path and Peng Jin are involved at all times in Taiji. You can't do the other methods (energies) without Peng (pronounced "pung").

The Taiji energies represent a cultivated, refined skill -- a refined method of handling force. 

If a baseball player Aaron Judge can step up to the plate and send a fastball into the stands for a home run, we don't say he has "Bat Jin." But maybe we could. It wouldn't be a scientifically real "energy" in his body, though. Instead, it is a skill resulting from hard work, a lot of practice, and timing.

It is a cultivated skill.

When Caitlian Clark shoots a 3-pointer from the logo, we don't say she has "Three Energy." We don't think she has some special, scientifically real "energy" coursing through her shooting hand. She has done it through many years of dedicated, hard work.

And that's what gongfu is -- a skill gained through time and hard work.

Aaron Judge and Caitlin Clark both have gongfu in their respective endeavors.

Athletes who have practiced a lot and have refined their skills make it look easy, just like skillful martial artists do.

The enegies of Taijiquan are practiced in the form and in Push Hands, and your goal is to call on your refined skill with each of the energies to defend yourself against an attacker. But it isn't woo woo. It isn't about "cultivating chi." It's a great martial art as long as you train it to be one. The people who become highly skilled at using Taiji principles for martial arts are the people who avoid the mystical woo woo and work instead on refining the skills and methods for real-life self-defense. 

-- by Ken Gullette 

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