You Can Leave Your Hat On - Taiji to Jianfa

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Leap from Taiji to Jianfa. You landed on the other side ready to learn. Do you adhere to the age-old advice to “empty your cup” before you begin? For me, I would rather heed the words of Randy Newman as he said in his song - “You Can Leave Your Hat On”. Your Taiji hat, that is.

Jianfa is not just another art to learn. It is an extension of the art we have been training in. But something funny happens when we pick up a jian. It is exciting and fun, fast and powerful. While it grabs our attention, all our other skills take a back seat. In a short time, your Taiji dissipates when the jian is in your hand.

Let’s remember why we made the leap. Many Taiji students learn weapons forms but don’t get proper training in techniques or applications. The form is like an empty vessel and practiced without intention. For serious students, this is not acceptable. The Jian is part of our Taiji, not a completely separate art. We want to learn the way of the sword while using the most important principles of open hand Taiji.

As I think about my training in both Taiji and Jianfa, I find there are some very important common elements. They are mutually beneficial. Just as Yin complements Yang and vice versa, so too do our open hand and weapons techniques. Here are a few of the topics I find most interesting.

It Is All About the Waist

The waist is the commander. I’ve heard this so many times in both Taiji and Jianfa. The principle is the same. In both arts we learn to keep our spine straight. It becomes the axis around which we rotate our body which turns like a wheel. Training this rotation was among the first skills we worked on in my Taiji classes. When there is an incoming force, you turn your body to redirect it away from your centerline. The same is true in Jianfa but perhaps more dramatic. When a blade is coming fast the most important skill is to learn to turn quickly to move your body off the target line. We call this Willow Bends. The jian is used simultaneously to deflect the opponent past his intended target into emptiness. This is not a hard parry with a lot of force. The goal is to turn your body enough to remove the threat of injury while leading their weapon away with minimal force. As is often said, “use four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds”. That only happens when you turn.

Receiving is Releasing, Releasing is Receiving

I have heard the expression “Receiving is Releasing, Releasing is Receiving” so many times during my push hands training. At first it seems confusing but it is quite simple. Just like the concepts of yin and yang cannot be separated, the act of receiving an incoming force lines you up structurally to immediately release energy back to your opponent. You turn your waist, sink downward, channel any force in your structure to the earth, and lead the opponent into emptiness. There is no dualism. It is all one concept.

In Jianfa, there is the concept of dan xing (單形 / 单形) which can be translated to “single form”. It means that there is no parry-riposte like duality in Chinese swordsmanship. Deflecting and cutting are one and the same action. In fact, cutting has four parts:

• Deflection: When being attacked, you turn your waist as you sink your weight typically into the rear leg (coiling down). Your jian deflects the opponent’s weapon just enough to lead it into emptiness. Contact with your opponent’s blade is instantaneous. As we are deflecting, we are also looking for one or more targets on the opponent to immediately counter cut.

• Alignment: The instant the deflection is made, we orient the edge of our blade to the plane of our cut. Fortunately, Jianfa uses the flat of the blade for deflection so it is quite often already aligned and ready to go. If we are using a thrusting cut, we must align the entire length of the blade with the direction of our target.

• Cut: Continuing in one single motion, we push from the earth (spring up) and deliver our cut as we turn our waist. If we keep our joints loose (Song 鬆), push off the ground, turn our waist as we deliver the cut, you can feel the blade accelerate as you transfer energy through your skeleton all the way out to the tip of the weapon.

• Control: Always maintain control of the tip of your weapon. Your sword is your shield. Do not overswing to the point where you are no longer protected and give your opponent many targets to choose from. Over swinging also greatly reduces the number of combinations you can attempt. The control phase of cutting is reinforcing the “releasing is receiving” nature of weapon work.

Connecting to Your Opponent

In taiji push hands (Tuīshǒu 推手), we are taught to connect to the opponent, stick with them, and follow their movement. We listen via touch (Ting Jin 听劲) to stay aware of force, direction, and distance so we may counter their intention or find a weakness to deliver ours. In Jianfa, especially from the Wudang lineage, you see many many practitioners doing an exercise called “sticky swords”. It is very much like push hands but now our sensory feedback is coming further out from the point where the swords make contact. The goal is the same: use feeling to sense what the opponent is doing and where his weaknesses are.

“Sticky swords” is good for sensory training with a weapon, but when it comes to real sparring, it loses effectiveness. Why? Because real combat is fast and dangerous. By trying to stick to your opponent’s blade you wind up in a permanent defensive mode if he does not want to do the same. Also, when you are in contact, your opponent will sense your intention and disconnect immediately to cut the nearest target, usually your arm. We tried this a number of times in our training and found the world of combat is too fast to be successful.

You can still connect in Jianfa, but in a different way. You connect your center to his through space. Just like the moon connects to the earth through gravity, you can imagine a barycenter between you and your opponent and stick to that. It is almost like a dance. It does require additional training.

• You must develop a dynamic root. Your footwork needs to be very agile without sacrificing stability and balance (see post on Golf Balls, Legos, and Root).

• You must be effective at turning your waist corresponding to your angle with the opponent.

• You must learn to gaze panoramically at your opponent and his weapon rather than focus on any one point (see definition of Eye Method (Yan Fa, 眼法), in the post on Phones, Sunglasses, and Shen).

• You must develop the attributes of calm and courage. This is the most difficult aspect of sparring. You should not retreat on every attack. Maintain your position and learn to use your deflections. Allow the blade to come close to you. If you deflect too far out, you are moving your arm into his range and will get cut by a combination. Do not get anxious. Rely on training from your basics and trust in your development.

Final Thoughts

There are so many more topics to cover but I thought these were some of the most important ones to address first.

As you can see, there is much in common between Taiji and Jianfa. Do not neglect your current skills just because you are now armed. Fighting disciplines complement each other and many principles are the same. And if you are like me you will love the new insights Jianfa injects into your Taiji. Wear your Taiji hat with pride. There is no need to take it off when you grab a Jian. Joe Cocker’s cover of Randy’s original is a great reminder that “You Can Leave Your Hat On” even as we move in new directions.