Chen Taijiquan Blog
Here we add some info on our academy, some general info on the practice of Chen Taijiquan, on the Prana Bindu 神经肌肉 contents ("Dune-speak" for arcane nerve-muscle-training) of Taijiquan and more :) We hope you find some of it interesting or insightful. If not, best don't read it :) If you want to make some suggestions what topics we can cover just let us know. There will surely be technical topics, with regards to the contents of Taijiquan practice, but also didactic or educational matters which might spark our interest. Stay tuned, this is only the beginning! :)
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- Written by Nabil Ranné
Where does the Taijiquan cannon fist (paochui) come from?
The second form of Chen-style Taijiquan is called "cannon fist". It is a form which was recorded in the early records of the Chen Family which were recovered by the researchers Tang Hao and and Xu Zhen. It has traditionally been part of the curriculum of this style. In the old manuscripts there is a note: "Fifteen fists [and] fifteen cannons, use the heart [xin / centre] in boxing practice." Nowadays the road has 72 movements, some of which were supplemented by Chen Fake in order to name the postures more clearly. The form is said to have been compiled by Chen Changxing, my teacher's great-great-great-grandfather (I hope I counted correctly :) The counting, some moves and the ingrained methods will like always differ to larger or smaller degrees from lineage to lineage, family to family or frame to frame.
Why do we train this Chen Taijiquan road?
In contrast to the first form of the Chen-style Taijiquan, the second form is less aimed at the structural development of the body and building up expansive force by adhering to the three external connections (外 三合 wai san he) and so on, but it rather focuses on the expression of explosive power (爆发力 baofali) and the development of looseness, liveliness, elasticity and vibration (松 活 弹 抖 song huo tan dou). Central points such as the folding of the chest and waist (胸腰 折叠 xiongyao zhedie) are required to be known to a certain level when we endeavor to learn the second road.
Of course, I don't mean this in an absolute way. Since the second form basically has all the characteristics and principles of the first (and vice versa), the cannon fist could of course be used like the first form to optimise the body structure and to further basic training. It definitely makes sense to practise the second form slowly at times in order to train these characteristics, too. But the main focus of the second form is to train the requirements in a dynamic way, under difficult conditions we could say. It's more about testing the embodiment of those requirements than learning them in the first place.
Because of the general dynamics of the form and the jumps, explosive movements and stomping contained it develops its potential especially with appropriate practice, however, it should never seem rushed and hurried, but should always have a pleasant rhythm.
A short video from about 2014 showing the specific body method inside the form:
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This is an excerpt from the Chen Taijiquan cannon fist (paochui) form:
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- Written by Nabil Ranné
Common mistakes in Chen Taijiquan
Those who train with me know I don't want to impose my or our training methodology on anyone. So here I write about common mistakes which can happen in our training. And I think it helps to be aware of them. Of course if you train some other style or in some other lineage you might also want to read this post as it might help you to make up your own mind on how you solve these matters in your practice.
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- Written by Nabil Ranné
Vajrapani, in a 9th century representation from Dunhuang, is the guardian deity whose symbol inspired the Chen Taijiquan posture of "Buddha's Warrior Pounds Mortar" 金刚捣碓, thus linking taiji symbolism to ancient breathing methods.
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In the last two weeks I heard two of my students (with ample prior experience) describing our Chen Taijiquan frame to someone. One of them, being a Chinese speaker, used the term 丰富 fengfu, which means "abundant". The other one, an English speaker who comes to my workshops from afar, said to another student: "this frame is very rich, with so many details". When I think about this the German word "reichhaltig" comes to my mind, which means something like "rich in content".
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This question was asked by a new student who had before practised in another lineage for about 10 years. I was taken aback and flabbergasted. My main thought was: "Really? You are asking me this kind of question?" And found it difficult to answer properly.
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We have methods in Chen Taijiquan which are called seizing methods 拿法 nafa or capturing and seizing 擒拿 qinna, which also contain a range of techniques from catching sinews 抓筋 zhua jin or turning bones 反骨 fan gu among others. Often we refer to these methods simply as joint locks though their usage differs somewhat. All methods contain a range of great applications for practical usage. They can also be trained in a pretty safe environment if taught in a reasonable manner.
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To help you book a class, here is a step by step explanation of the booking process!
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The second form of Chen-style Taijiquan: Cannon Fist
By Gu Liuxin (1983), translation © CTN ACADEMY.
(Translation from: Gu Liuxin. (2005 reprint). Paochui: Chenshi taijiquan di erlu (reprint). Beijing: Renmin tiyu chubanshe. Pp. 42-44)
Note: Gu Liuxin learnt different styles of Taijiquan from very well-known teachers like Chen Fake, but also Yang Chengfu and others.
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- Written by Nabil Ranné
Maybe it makes sense to say something about my own journey before someone might want to ask me to set out on a Taijiquan journey and learn from me. So I want to share some info on how I learned what I teach.
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Online Learning - does it really work?
In the beginning we were all quite skeptical about online learning in Taijiquan. Though our Chinese family branch started this already about 10 years ago. But after teaching students abroad especially during the Corona lockdown we changed our minds and saw the actual improvement of all those who are sincerely training online.
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- Written by Nabil Ranné
Chen Zhaokui's silk reeling manuscript
(posthumously published script by Chen Zhaokui, revised by Chen Yu, translated by Stefan Gätzner and by Nabil Ranné)1
The reeling force 缠劲 is also called silk reeling force 缠丝劲 and it is one of the main contents of Chen-Style Taijiquan.
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Here I thought it might be interesting to talk a bit about different training intentions, about the Chen Taijiquan training process and to give some examples of different kinds of practices. I was inspired to write this post by one of the (fortunately rare) negative comments I got on YouTube. So I am trying to transform the negativity into something useful here :-)
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Some of you might be thinking: Who are the people offering the online classes? Nabil Ranné and Konstantin Berberich founded the Chen-Style Taijiquan Network Germany in 2009/2010 to promote the Taijiquan in the lineage of our teacher Chen Yu. He has outstanding gongfu (Chinese for skill / martial skill) and learned Taijiquan in direct line from Chen Changxing (via Chen Gengyun and Chen Yanxi) to Chen Fake and Chen Zhaokui, his father.
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- Written by Nabil Ranné
Online Learning Formats
As the Taijiquan school is kind of set up now I thought it makes sense to talk a bit on how we teach, the reason's behind it, the prospects and also the values behind our school. Hopefully you enjoy learning a bit more about our online training.