Master Yeo Tse Chiang: Wu Style Tai Chi Secrets – Part 2

The form when you train is made for you. The movement when you do is to stabilise your body system. We call it balancing. My master, Master Au, taught me it's the centre. We call it Zhong Ding, it's the centre. The meaning is the posture of your body to be upright, straight. Upright your posture, straighten your body system and your spinal cord, the spinal of the back and the Wei Li. They say Wei Li Zhong Zhen Shen Guan Di in Chinese. Your back, the Wei Li on the back there, it must be very upright, straight, straighten it. It's something like if I do the meditation and show you how the upright cord, how the upright there, to be very straight. And we call it Shen. Shen is something like our energy, awareness energy, like maybe all the energy is there. So once you have, you go up, upper it, then you have a very straight posture already. The straight posture, because many people say Han Xiong Ba Bei, you ever hear or not? Because people do Han Xiong Ba Bei, they always do like that. No, no, no, it's wrong already. Han Xiong Ba Bei is only this one. Okay, enough. Han Xiong already. So the problem is you must understand the system of your body system. If your body system, you don't understand your body system, how do you understand other people? It's very important. If you don't have Zhong Zhen, Zhong Ding, once you practise the Zhong Zhen, up to a perfect already, very perfect, even you are in like that, you're out of the centre. But we call it Qi Zhong Qiu Zhi, even you are in the out position, in the crooked position, you are going to the right centre of the posture. There is every angle, even you put something here, there is an angle that you can put it half, like you are cantilever. And how come the thing is cantilever? Because the straightness, this level thing is there. The levitation is very important. So these are all the Zhong Ding, even how people cantilever, they cantilever down there, but there is a point there to make sure that they can sit correctly. So this is all you must understand the Zhong Ding. Zhong Ding is very important. But once you understand it, you perform very well already, even if you are in crooked position, you can find the Zhong Ding also. At first, in the beginning of Qi Shi, we call it 鬼里忠正神冠底, that means, what is the meaning of 鬼里忠正神冠底? As we do the raising hand, sinking elbow and put it down. You see, this one, you must be upright straight. You see, how is it called upright straight? Okay, you may come to my back. Okay, if I do normal people practice, you see, normal people practice, you just press it down. Okay, maybe we do this way? This way. So the camera can see. Just do like this. Give me, ah, this one more strength, you see. And no, no, you don't push it, I tell you first, if normal people doing this one, they will do like that, you press down. You press hard, as hard as possible. You see, you press down again. You see, go to my leg, you see. How do my 鬼里忠正神冠底? You see, now I put it in already, to press it down. Cannot press it down. You see, you don't need the strength to press it down because you are in a straight posture. So this is all people don't understand. So what exactly are you doing there? You're creating a vertical alignment. Vertical alignment. You see my, you see, now I have a U here. Have a U. This is not, you see, touch here? Yes. You see, this one is a wrong posture. The right posture is like that. It's not like that. It's like that. So now it feels like it's expanded here. This is straight. Expanded, it's straight. It's the body, and the spinal is straight. Yes. See? So this is the correct posture. Many people don't really understand that. They always think that they are correct. But if you are in a more higher level, even this one go down, this one not in the straight posture, you still can do that. You still can do that. That's why you have a much more higher level. So many people, when they do, they're always using the hand to push you up. You see? Now. See? You don't feel the strength. Very soft, but the power is there. Yes. So are you saying that this power that you're producing now is coming from the zhongting? Yes. You see? I'll let you try again. If I don't have the zhongting, you see? Now I straight away put the zhongting. Yes. Another power. See the difference? My arms go back, go into behind already. So this is what tai chi are. So if you don't have the zhongting, even, you see, now I'm in front. How to zhongting, you see? Now, even when I go up from here, I do my first raising hand. Okay, from here. Actually, this one is to balance. The first for those beginner. The hand here, there's a balancing on this one. So once you raise up your hand, raise your hand down, you see? The hand raise up. You sink your elbow. Elbow sink down here. Elbow sink. Not arm go down. It's the elbow sink down and press your hand down. Okay? Sitting position, like a kneeling position. Kneeling. Open up your kneecap. Raising your left leg, you see? I raise my left leg. I'm in the center. I put my pelvis in and put my leg out. You see? Now I'm in the center or not. Normal people are sitting here. Normal, they are sitting here. They are not in the center here. So when you say center, Sifu, you're talking about a center directly through your groin to the ground. You see? You go to the back and press me down again. Now I sit to one side. You see? The leg problem. You see? Press again. You see? You feel my leg. Now I go to the center. You see? Yeah. It's quite strong. That's right. I don't even care. What happened, I also don't know. That's why center is important a lot. It's very important. And nobody think that, they will say, no, I'm not such thing. I say, okay, that's it. That's why I always like to show my student what are right, what are wrong. Actually, the softness is, you'll find it very soft, but wherever you have it very soft, but internal, you must have energy. You don't collapse. You know when you collapse, you're idling, you don't have energy. You must put the energy on every touching point. Wherever the touch here, you must have energy from down there. Your energy must be there. So if you don't have that energy there, how are you going to understand, how are you going to read other people's body system when they come? So many people, they do practice, they say, oh, peng jing, I peng, I peng, using strength. Once you're using strength, for those with good tai chi, they just chai jing, ang jing, you will go off already. Because most people don't understand. Even last time, I also don't understand. We have one type of like using force. If you don't use force to block people, how? That's why I always ask my master, I must have the force energy to block people, then people push, I cannot push you in. No. It's not the force, it's the energy there. I always ask my students, always tell them that, how we do the, we call arm wrestling. How are we going to empty our hand to do arm wrestling? That people want to come in to push you, that time, eh? How come in fact, your hand is quite difficult to move? And they can't find like something, strength to move me. So these are the thing you must learn, understand yourself. Nobody can teach you. Only from the inside, internal understanding. If you don't understand your internal understanding, you can never proceed to another level. This is what I know. That's why we always, I always teach my students, centralise, centralise. Not 100% here, 100% there. Many people now learning is 100% and zero. Cannot, cannot be. There is no such thing, you put all the eggs in the basket, after the big eggs fall, there is no way it will remain. No, there is not. We call it yang zhong you yin, yin zhong you yang. There is the movement of yin yang, different shape. So if you can differentiate your yin yang, you are there already. When you gong tui, zuo tui, I will show you when we have something to understand, I will show you what are the thing. Then you, from there, you can, aiya, this is, maybe I'm right or maybe you're right. The square form is actually, it is very simple. All the form, when you turn, this one, you see, 45 degree and we turn back to center. Turning here 45 and turn back to center, raise your hand up, hook your left leg, bend your knee, we go, you see. From here, chin. From here, I chin. It's not, how many people do that? It's not. From here, you change your energy here to here. This is 45, this is center. You know why? We haven't told you this clearly yet. Why do we need this, this is center, this is like this? It has twisting power. The twisting power of this and this. So, a lot of people don't understand. Hey, you're twisting your body and your frame here, it's wrong already. But when the twisting power, we sit on here, you see, now I go back here, very simple to move you. Very simple, very easy to move you. You have a twisting energy. If I don't have the twisting energy, no. I do this way, you see, come, you see. Now, you stand behind me. Okay, put the hand there, you see. Now, if I don't twist, if I don't twist, I do like that, I want to turn. You see, I cannot turn you. Now, I have this energy, I'm from here, the twisting. You see, see or not? I just. Yes, a lot of power there. You don't need any strength. It's the twisting only. It's like a car wheel moving, the wheel hand, the hand will move only, the twisting. So, when you say twisting, which part of your body is twisting there? Because your hips are facing this direction. You touch here, you see. The twisting come from here, okay? Come from here. It's not come from the body, you see? Nothing, huh? This one, something. Okay, see? This from the sacrum. Sacrum, actually, we call it, in Chinese, we know that, we call it yao. Chinese say, in Taiji, we say, yao, yao. No, the yao daisho. Many people think that the yao is here. It's wrong. The yao is not here. Do you understand now, the yao? Is it, do you understand, many people talk about the yao is here? Turn your hips, you see? This is the hip movement. No, it don't come from the hip. For example, for example, you put the hand here. When I want to push you in, you see, many from this side, I want to push you in, I use the hip to push you, you see? You can't push. It's only from the sacrum. It'll come from the sacrum. You see, it's very light. It's not the strength. And it feels like the arm is relaxed, so this power can transfer through the arm. Yeah, that's why we call it no strength. That's why this is the problem, we call it A-frame. How the frame work, how the thing move. If I move this one, I can't move you. You try before, you know, I can't move you. Because when I move this, I have strength. Because I thought that the whole piece here's turning. It's not, it's not. And in Tai Chi, they call it liu tun. Liu tun is something like that. The yao movement, the yao here move. So we are in a 45 degree. Many people do this way. Many people do this way, correct? A lot of youngsters do this way? Yes. And they move like that, isn't it? So, because they thought that this one is the zhong zhen, how come your wu star is 45? Bi jian, qi jian, jiao jian, the three alignment to one. Many people use this alignment to put it here. To put it here, 100%, to put it here. The alignment is here to here. It's no, totally wrong. The alignment is from here. The side view see the nose and the kneecap and the toe. The alignment is from one side see, not from center see. Center see, you can't. Other side you see the alignment. So these are all the thing that you must understand. So even when you do this, okay? You come here again, go to the back. You see, many people come to here, they go to this way. You press me down, same, press me down, you see? I press. Yeah, you see? You see, I'm one side. Now I go to the center here to press. No, cannot press you down in this position. You see, it's very simple. The zhong zhen is very, very, very important. My master teach us, last time we don't know. What's so important with this zhong ding? Many in Tai Chi book, zhong ding, zhong ding, very important. And they don't understand yet, they go 100%. So all wrong already. So how do you maintain your zhong ding when you're in the leaning position? You see, the maintain zhong ding, you see? From here, okay? You ask a very good question. Because when we turn the time, normal we turn people, you see? I show you again. People turn to the hip. When I turn the hip, you see? I turn this hip to here. You see my leg here turn or not? You see this side? When I turn the hip, see? This side is going backwards. You see? You see here? It's only here only. See? The 45, here. These are the important part of the square form. So understanding the form is very important. If you don't understand the form, many people say, oh, I do the form very good. No, no, no. It's not like that. It's totally not like that. That's why I always teach my student the right way. So don't go wrong. After you go wrong, many people go for 20, 30 years. Ah la ma, now then you say this is the correct way. Because you're habit to that way already. Once you're habit to that way, you want to go to the wrong right way. It's very difficult. It's very, very difficult. That's why when I train, I train this way. When we train, we train this one. Don't move the body here. Just put it out. Just put it out in the center. Just put the leg out in the center. So this center will always very important. Many people, when they sit, they always come here and put the leg out. Or after they go down, they will change to here. You see all changes here and changes here. Or you see the changes, 100%, 100%. My 100% changes is here, center. See, the center rise, very important. So that's why you want people to press you on the way or you don't need. That's why people say when you are doing Tai Chi, you are like carrying heavy thing without any strength. This is Tai Chi. We talk about the pushing hand. Many people like to push hand in this situation. And they push, they always like to push you. You see? See or not? Unforced. You see, when he push me, you see, I relax everything. Just the relaxation only. Just put it in. Relaxation only, you see? It's very simple. Secondly, when he push me, you see? Push, you see? Now I use my, this one, to lock him. You see? To lock him here. See? Come down again. To lock him because I will lock the waist. So he will pain, so got to go down. So if you lock in here or you just let go and relax here. Just go in. So sometimes people might, you push me. You see, ah, when I go here, push again. I go here, you see, my leg up, okay? Now this leg up. Okay, secondly, when he push me here, you see, my this leg up, I can kick him with the sitting leg. So normally people don't go for the sitting leg. I'm sitting here already. You see? The Zhong Zhen, why? The Zhong Zhen, I move my leg to, my Zhong Zhen to this one, I can kick him anytime. So this is the pushing hand, how you going to do. So some, they do pushing hand is, they doing this way, push here and push the hand. Push him. You see? We have this, okay? Pushing hand. You see? Now he push in here. We have this locking arm, okay? And he push it in me here, you see? Push it in me here. I relax. The relaxation. The two hand push me. I sit it. See, I absorb his strength. See? Absorb. You see? Absorb his hand. So these are the pushing hand. Then, you see, how you move your opponent. So I just want to ask you, when you're doing the push hands, are you also maintaining the same condition what you showed earlier? Yeah. You still maintaining grounding, everything's the same? You come. Touch here. Sure. Touch here. You see, when he push me, if I like that, he cannot ready. See or not? When he push me, I have this. You see? It's the same condition and expansion that you showed with the Nei Gong and the meditation. Yeah. All the same condition. Yes. And you have to maintain this condition throughout, right? Yes. You're floating already. You see? You push me. Push directly towards you. Directly towards me. Yeah. You see, when I do it this way, come push. When I do this way, come in. You see? You hear it. When I do it this way. It's changed. Changed, huh? Yes. See? Do you talk about Peng Jin in Wu style? Is it something that's emphasized? Many people say about Peng Jin, you see? Now I do my Peng Jin, huh? You push me, now I do Peng Jin here, huh? Okay, you push me. I Peng, Peng, Peng, you see? You see? Strength. You see, huh? Now I don't have the correct posture. Put it in. Open. Very long. Yes. So the Peng Jin is related to the condition and the Zhong Ding. Everything is related. Even when I'm like that, Qu Zhong Qiu Zi, when I out balance, twisted my body, I still have the center rise. You see, when you push me, you touch here. Ah, touch the sacrum. You see, if I don't have the sacrum, I don't have the sacrum, I like that. Put in there. You see, go in already. I must have this. Yes. Same. Same? Same condition. It's very interesting. This is Wu Sta.