A guide to "winding silk thread"

Mike Sigman
Translation: Fattakhova Svetlana

The meaning of "Nei Jia" or "internal" martial arts is how the body is used. All Nei Jia have non-combat exercises that are designed to train this type of movement. All "styles" (Xinyi, Taiji, Bagua) are actually sets of coherent martial arts (or were originally) that use an "internal" form of movement...however, the movements of internal styles can be performed separately from martial forms.

There are different types of qigong that emphasize the basic movement style of Nei Jia: Yang style Taiji qigong, Xinyi Neigong, Chen style silk winding qigong, and others. All these types of qigong and all internal styles are quite capable of creating “inner strength”.

Because of the sophistication of the Chen-style silk thread winding exercises, and because they are becoming widely known nonetheless, let's focus on some suggested criteria to remember while doing the silk thread winding exercise routine. These instructions are for those who are already doing the silk winding exercises; you cannot learn to do them from words.

1. Concentrate on constantly maintaining a full and relaxed path of Peng to the moving part of the body; move this part of the body by “pushing” it with Pan, and “pulling” it back along with the vectors of gathering/closing/lowering the weight.

2. Always imagine that someone has their hand on a moving part of your body; someone who constantly observes the completion of the main path (Peng) and the relaxed state of the transferred energy.

3. In the beginning, make big movements with the whole body. Gradually, over several months, make the movements smaller and smaller (also imagining "observation"). Since the path of Peng passes through the Dan Tien and is controlled by this area, the effectiveness of the impact will increase with a decrease in external movements.

4. Do as many exercises as you can with your knees slightly bent (but don't go too low so that your hip angle is less than 45 degrees). This will significantly strengthen the muscles of the legs and buttocks.

5. Do exercises from your head down to your toes.

6. One of the main goals is to train the power of Peng, lowering (closing) the force and transferring the inertia of the body to the arms ... so that the arms become the "transmitters" of this force. Staying "very" relaxed and concentrating on keeping these forces in your hands will get them there. Local effort in the arms and shoulders will only hinder progress.

7. There are actually six directions of force: pushing (Peng), pulling (Peng behind and contracting), lifting (Peng vector), pulling down (vector of closing and lowering the weight), turning the waist forward (Peng connected to closing), and back rotation of the waist (Peng connected with closing). All movements are varieties of these six directions. These six directions are really just different combinations of Peng and closing.

8. In all downward or back/down movements, there should be very little accumulation in the lower back.

9. The exhalation is done along with the imaginary application of force, and during the inhalation there is an accumulation.

10. Peng should be constantly felt during the entire cycle of movements (without breaks, without stops).

These materials are subject to copyright and are protected by the laws of the Russian Federation and international agreements on copyright protection. Before using the materials, you must agree to the terms of the license agreement for the use of these materials, or you do not have the right to use these materials

Note: Since May 2014, my practice and research has been heavily curtailed and more focused on wellness. The reasons are related to health, you can read about it in the medical aspects section, and the conclusions in the article may be interesting and useful to other practitioners

Key Findings Right Away

The current understanding of the silk thread comes down to the built direct and reverse psychosomatic connections between the center and the limbs. The joints of the body form an interdependent biomechanical structure of the fifteen main centers of the transformation of motor effort, and the movement of the integral structure is determined by the movement of the lower dian-tian area as a combination of the torques of the two planes and the rhythm that determines the movement. If we track the degrees of freedom along the shoulder joint, which has a biomechanical design of the "ball bearing" type, then we can see that only two circular movements of the humerus relative to the shoulder are possible. Roughly speaking - clockwise circle and against

This is the physical essence of the movement, however, no matter which circle - there are phases of turning the palm towards yourself and turning away from yourself, which are both in the circle "clockwise" and in the circle "counterclockwise". In the process of performing the form, the phase of turning the palm away from oneself always means an expansion, a more unwinding movement of the whip of the hand from the handle of the body, while turning towards oneself is a more reeling movement. Two lateral biomechanical axes from the foot to the hand determine the rotation of all joints by the rotation of any of them, the combination of the movement of these axes in the "shun" and "ni" phases constitutes an integral movement (by the way, like the twisting of the DNA helix). This model of mine correlates with the explanation in M.M. Bogachikhin’s translation of Gu Luxin’s book, however, in his case, the really unwinding movement is called ni chan (against the move), and the really rewinding movement is called shun chan (along the way). The energetically complete contraction-expansion cycle is four-phase, corresponding to the four sides and the tai chi tu diagram

The author learned about the concept of "silk thread" from Gu Luxin's book, translated by May Mikhailovich Bogachikhin. Unfortunately, the information block was omitted in the section, so that the silk thread is the basic concept of Chen tai chi was said, but what it was was not said in detail. This was partially corrected in the second edition, but there was also no detailed explanation of the essence. Since the concept of a silk thread was declared as a key one (“nothing in the form leaves winding, not shun, not direct, but reverse”), the author started searching, and received additional information from the books of Alexander Maslov, dedicated to sin-i quan. Later it turned out that the concept of a silk thread is typical not only for Chen, but also for other areas of taijiquan and styles of the inner family.

However, if in Maslov's version the concept of a silk thread is described quite fully, then the variants found in various translated sources on taijiquan without exception suffer from vagueness of wording or strong simplification. Below in the article it is planned to review the options encountered by the author

What could not be found - a detailed description of the silk thread for the whole body. That is, there are movements of a silk thread for individual parts of the body, but not for the whole body. Usually there are descriptions of movement for the hands, which differ for Gu Luxin, Zhou Zonghua and a number of other authors. The movement for the legs is said to repeat the movements for the arms (Gu Luxin), or it is suggested to practice movements on the monad for intuitive comprehension (Zhui Zonghua), or it is said that the movements for two arms or legs are too difficult to describe in words.

During the search, the author did not develop for himself a single "picture of the world" about the silk thread, however, a number of materials were found, and explanations were received from both well-known practitioners (in particular, Roman Romanov, a student of Ma Hong), and the opinion of lesser-known practitioners. It is important that I still cannot get a complete picture of the silk thread, despite the information received, but the search for the essence is on

So, in classical and other sources it is said that winding and pulling a silk thread is a manner of movement that allows you to tie the whole body to the center and transfer force to any part of the body. A characteristic feature of the movement of a silk thread is the addition of translational movement by twisting the limb along the bone axis. Such twisting allows you to center the movement, highlight the bone axes and lean the movement on them.

Such well-known experts as the Taoist master Mantek Chia, Oleg Cherne (Inbi club) speak about bone support, both classical sources and less well-known authors speak about conduction through the bone structure, for example, Bob Klein in his book "Magic Movements - the Spirit of Taijiquan". At the same time, a rather shocking statement was heard from the students of Roman Romanov that bone support was not used. Perhaps the point here is the combination of traditional taijiquan with other directions, in particular ili quan, practiced by those who spoke

For the purposes of the study, it is necessary to determine to what extent the paradigm of not using bone support corresponds to the general canva of chen shi, and how this affects the concept of jin chansi. Zhou Zonghua spoke about the purity of style in his fundamental work, emphasizing that only the standard alphabet allows people to communicate. Already after studying the alphabet (or in parallel, but dividing and understanding), you can deal with variations. The interests of applied use, in my opinion, should be built from the position of a clear understanding of what and where it came from, otherwise there will be no clear understanding and, therefore, there will be no possibility to be determined not from the position of someone's authority, but from the position of formalized knowledge independent of specific carriers of the tradition

There are direct (in the direction of travel, "shun") and reverse (against the direction of travel, "ni") winding of silk thread, but not all experts agree with this translation, preferring the terms "shun" and "ni". Chen Jiazhen and Gu Luxin say that if you draw a taijitu diagram with your hand, the hand will smoothly move into the shun and ni phases (drawing), and the movement in the legs repeats the movement in the hands. Below is a drawing of a diagram, the transitions marked with straight lines are shun chan winding, and those marked with dotted lines are ni chan winding

It is noteworthy that the well-known follower of Chen Zhaokui, Ma Hong, ascribes to Zhaokui a directly opposite opinion about the correspondence of palm turns with forward and reverse winding. What Ma Hong says in the section "Ma Hong - Chen Family Taijiquan Aesthetics, Health, Martial Art" from the book "The Essence and Practice of Chen Family Taijiquan", a lecture by Chen Zhaokui, compiled by Ma Hong. Beijing 1992 ?: "In Chen family taijiquan, no matter big or small movements, fast or slow, always go in a circle or in an arc, any place forms a circle, twist in the phases of shun or ni, softness and hardness, speed and slowness are realized in each movement , opening and contracting, lifting and sinking, this is manifested in every part of the body, this is the most important postulate in the theory of taijiquan by Chen Zhaokui. Why is it called "twisting in the shun phase" ("straight winding")? Why is it called "twisting in the ni phase" ("reverse winding")? Many articles have been written on this subject, many diagrams have been drawn, but the comments are vague and not clear. Chen Zhao Kui gave a very simple explanation for this. He took your right hand with his right hand and twisted his palm towards the little finger, large the finger is contracted with the little finger, this is called the twisting in the shun phase; and vice versa, if the palm is twisted towards the thumb, and the little finger is contracted with the thumb, this is is called twisting in the neither phase. On your part, in the first case there will be a ni twist, in the second case a shun twist, respectively, vice versa. In one turn of the palms, the twisting of shun ni becomes completely understandable. The effort of twisting the legs in the shun ni phases is completely similar to that described above..."

However, in another article by Ma Hong "The correct position of all parts of the body in Chen style taijiquan", published in the book "Theory and practice of Chen style taijiquan. The second part", St. Petersburg, 2008, translated by R. Romanov, in the section "11. Brushes" it is said "The palms are also twisted in the shun and ni phases, in the shun phase the little finger leads to the thumb, the edge of the palm extends from the side of the little finger, while twisting in the ni phase, the opposite is true...". Of course, I could be wrong, but two directly opposite statements by one author are, of course, not obvious sabotage and obfuscation of traces, this is probably some kind of mistake ...

In the second book of the series "Theory and Practice of Chen Style Taijiquan" St. Petersburg, 2008 by Chen Zhaokui and Ma Hong, translated by Roman Romanov, there is an "answers to questions" section, on page 335 an interesting commentary is given regarding the linkage of forward and reverse winding with the forces of peng and lü , as well as all eight forces in general. Including it is clearly stated that the picture shown by Gu Luxin is incorrect. In particular, in lujin, one hand is shunchan, the other is nichan. In addition, the seven efforts are the continuation of penjin, and they have directions. Pengjin spirals outwards, lu diverts power horizontally to the left or right, jijin is directed forward or upward in an arc, an forward along the lower arc, le separates horizontally, vertically or diagonally, zhou and kao are possible in different directions. Another noteworthy point is the translation of the term luijin - stretching. At the end of the second edition of the first book of Chen Jiazhen and Gu Luxin ("Secret Techniques of Chen Style Taijiquan", M: K. Kravchuk Publishing House, 2005, chapter 5 "Excerpts from the treatises", section 5 "On gymnastics "opening hands", page 420) also provides a different from the well-known translation of lujin - fanning, which, however, immediately goes to the source, in which the usual term "passing" is used. But this is the face of another topic - eight efforts

Also in this book, the terms shun and ni appear as centripetal (shun) and centrifugal (ni) force. Thus, the author demonstrates a holistic and generally consistent view of the subject of winding, which differs from the views of other authors. Except for the inconsistencies shown

With regard to winding for the legs, Gu Luxin's book says the following: "Forward or reverse winding of the leg thread is determined by the direction of rotation of the kneecaps. Namely, when the kneecap goes from the inside of the groin forward, turns outward and turns obliquely down, winding, or goes from the outside of the groin back, turning inward and going obliquely upwards - this is a direct winding.When the patella goes from the outside of the groin forward, turning inward and going obliquely upwards, winding, or when it comes from the inside of the groin back, turning outward and heading obliquely down, winding is the reverse winding

And yet, in the second version of the translation of the book of the year by Chen Jiazhen and Gu Luxin, published by Kravchuk's publishing house in 2005, a certain semantic block regarding winding is presented. Two basic types of winding are split into several vector ones - left/right, top/bottom, inside/outside, big/small, retreat/advance. Combining three types of vector winding gives a three-dimensional ring. It is unclear where the anterior/posterior is, as demonstrated, for example, in the silk thread sequences by Chen Xiaowang. What does the author say in the section "The Essence of Jin Effort Movement as Winding a Thread"? Here are excerpts: "... to put it simply, then, observing the requirement "one has moved, everything is moving", the palm in its movement either turns from the inside out, or folds from the outside in, thus forming the shape of the great limit scheme. viewed outwards by the rotation of the index finger... Forward winding... it is basically a reflex force... reverse winding... refers to the Jin force of rolling back lu... These two kinds of winding of the thread exist in all stages of movement in tai chi and permeate it from beginning to end ... "

The interested reader can get the full material in this outstanding book. For our purposes, it is important that the material presented in the book is still not enough to build a complete "picture of the world" on the issue of winding and pulling the thread. The material is holistic and valuable, but, with all due respect, there is not enough consideration of other nuances

Here the problem of separation of concepts arises, when a certain statement is clear to the author, but not clear to the reader. In particular, the understanding of "the inner and outer sides of the groin" is quite ambiguous. On the whole, one can see that there is no holistic idea of ​​the movement of the body. Damn, what about the movement of the torso, and where is the coordination of the movement of the torso and limbs? Just one of the tasks of the site is the formalization and search for key issues that could add clarity to understanding the essence of the phenomenon and its place in the total volume of the taijiquan phenomenon. And it turns out interesting - on the one hand, the silk thread is called the essence of taijiquan, on the other hand, there is no detailed description of the changes in the silk thread for each part of the body in the projections of the form and free movement. On the other hand, in other directions of the inner family, a silk thread is noted, but the cornerstone of this concept is not declared.

The classical sources say "the movement is like winding a silk thread, it is also like pulling a silk thread. Pull a little harder and the thread will break, pull weaker and the thread will stick together." But this statement is more related to the formation of a sense of continuity and integrity of movement in accordance with another classic saying "one has moved - there is nothing moving"

In several sources there was a statement about the movement in Chen Shi "everything essential happens between the chest and the waist", and somewhere in 2011, the author came across a video posted on YouTube at the end of 2009 with Chen Xiaowang, which describes the basic changes that form the movement and related to the statement about the chest and lower back. In fact, acquaintance with this information coincided for the author with the translation of the explanation to plane models, which is planned to be reflected in the section devoted to plane models. However, the same aspect, in my opinion, is connected with winding the silk thread with the body.

At the suggestion of the representatives of the Chen clan, silk thread exercises (chan si) became available. They are partly published in Chen Zhenglei's book "Chen Family Taijiquan with and without Devices", and are also taught live by Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang and his followers (for example, the description by Yang Sibelsdorf and Andrey Serednyakov, teaching at the Yingbi Club and at Chen Xiaowang's seminars organized by the club includes an informational block of silk thread winding exercises - the author attended a seminar in 2006, there are also dedicated videos on silk thread winding by Chen Xiaowang, and in Boris Boyko's school a very similar information block is called taijiqigong). However, even here an exhaustive picture of the construction of the "web of motion" is not described. which encourages further research. By the way, here are these exercises (the author is unknown, they can delete)

At the time of writing, I consider it important to emphasize a non-obvious point in these sequences. A body in a three-dimensional volume moves along three planes at once, as a subset it is possible to fix any axis, or even a plane, but such a movement, most likely, will no longer be integral. Of course, in natural life we ​​are used to doing a lot of unrelated and incomplete movements due to the inclusion of individual muscle groups, so there are different views on the concept of naturalness. At the same time, in the process of working out my horizon of axial-volume models, I revealed the "irreducibility" of changes in the modeling volume cube. This can be seen in three variants of the main movement of the silk thread sequence. The whole body moves, but this or that space is accentuated - a longitudinal, sagittal or horizontal circle. At the same time, the complementary movement to the other side is presented implicitly in the forms for two hands and without accentuation along the planes.

Exploring different perspectives on the topic and implementation options raises a number of key questions. The very first thing, in the words of Yingbi - taijiquan is a sphere, and its essence and possibilities of application are determined by the direction in which this sphere is rolled. That is, in a normal language, the essence, content, and features of building a movement will be different for milking dough in a fitness center, for witchcraft classes, for using taijiquan as an applied art. Accordingly, the principles of building a movement and various aspects will differ. Given the lack of a publicly available complete engineering model for building movement in taijiquan in general and in silk thread, declared as the essence of style, research is doomed to building multiple models to highlight the essence

The decisive questions for the topic at the moment, in my opinion, are questions about bone support and its analogues, about the admissibility of opening joints as part of the process of accumulating tendon force when winding tendons on bones with twisting (joints partially open - more than necessary for bone connection) and without twisting (a joint with an articulated structure does not open, while maintaining control of the leading bone), on variants of the projection of the integral movement of the "body as a closed self-propelled system" (Chen Zhenglei's term), on the variants of the projection of changes in the energy volume on the physical body, on the use of direct and reverse connections between consciousness and body (my term), about the components of the phenomenon and providing fuel (my term) for elaboration and a number of other issues. Thus, a particular question becomes a part of a much larger flow and is already studied from the standpoint of global algorithms for thinking and feeling (my term), applicable to various phenomena and life situations, when taijiquan is a small but important - like an accent - part of the volume of Life

Returning to the topic of the silk thread, the indicated list of questions is certainly not complete, but the answers to these questions in one way or another influence the explanation of the features of the silk thread and the formulas for constructing the movement as a whole. Since any teaching is less than Life, it makes sense not only to reveal the essence of the silk thread, but also to compare the results obtained with other flows, primarily those involved in the "inner family", as well as with "everyday" reflections and the dynamics of scattered and collected ones accessible to the body ( integral) movements

It is the attitude that chan si is the essence of taijiquan that prompts the search for a complete engineering model of the movements of a silk thread with the whole body and possible options and combinations of such basic movements. Published explanations for such a formulation of the question, of course, are not enough. And, of course, there is the question WHY. Why does forward and reverse winding exist, why is such a movement considered the most correct in taijiquan, why does it cover or does not cover the entire range of the natural movement of the human body - well, we are talking about Taoism as the root of taijiquan and the concept of "zi ran" as one of the important concepts Taoism...

If you do not get answers to these questions, then you need to admit that either there is no detailed model - the formula for the movement of chan si in taijiquan, or that the concept of chan sijin is not the essence of taijiquan. Such inconsistencies, the absence of key points and the mass of water are constantly found in sources. However, unfortunately, even such a forced screening in search of grains has to be recognized as a tool. But life is not given to us at all in order to spend it on dismantling with a phenomenon that should be formalized and available in the form of a tool to enhance the generic flow - the essence of the living

If we look aside the requirement that "translational movements of the limbs must be accompanied by twisting around the bone axes", as well as "the joint behind the joint is pierced and strung", and "the joint rests on the joint", then when considering a biomechanical model, where the joints and surrounding tissues act as hinges and levers with certain degrees of freedom, we can conclude that the movement of one part of the body leads to the control of adjacent ones, where just "the joint rests on the joint." But the question arises which particular joint is considered, and whether there is an opening of the joint or, on the contrary, articular interconnection is carried out

In addition, the question of the idea arises - the movement is inertial, when the limbs are thrown and the weight of the body is dangling, or it is supportive, when external changes are dictated by the developed control of the inertia-free movement of the accumulated sensations in the body. The question also arises - either the body moves in such a way that the bones and joints, as well as the tendon-muscle and ligamentous straps consistently control each other, or the summation of the efforts of various members of the body occurs, where the bones and joints line up for maximum support, and the tendon-muscle formations use this reference to create a force vector

Of course, all these questions can have half answers, when the truth lies in the middle and both statements on the question are true. But without answers to these questions, it will not work to build a model of movement and saturate it with a support in the form of a comparison of various options and an answer to multiple WHY

Quite interesting is the study by Wu Dai and Wudeng Shuxian "Selected about chansijin taijiquan Yang" translation into Russian (C) E.V. Turyshev. This study states that the terms shun (forward winding) and ni (reverse) were originally only one of the pairs of winding (according to the book of Chen Pingsan), while Gu Luxin and Chen Jiazhen interpreted the interpretation somewhat differently. I (the author of the site) see behind these conclusions only the facets of one concept, although there are also discrepancies. On the one hand, this is a reflection of the voluminous Chinese model of worldview, which is pointless to climb into with oaky linear European logic, on the other hand, it is a confirmation of my conclusions about the absence of a publicly available "engineering" model of movement, a standard covering both biomechanical and neijin aspects. Who said that "engineering" of internal efforts is impossible? So the absence of a standard can be considered both as a harm and as a benefit. But that's a different story...

• With direct winding, the movement and energy flow coincide, with reverse winding, they differ. Source - silver medalist in the All-China Tuishou Championship
• With direct winding, abduction from the body occurs, with reverse winding, it is brought to the body. This applies to arms, legs, everything in general. The source is a specialist from the transmission branch from R. Romanov (Ma Hong and Chen Yu). This echoes the translations of classical sources, but what about the torso, what to do with it
• The above version is from the translation of M.M. Bogachikhin, echoing other sources. This option is ambiguous and does not fully describe the correspondence between movements and types of winding.
• Storyboards of matching movements from the chan si jin sequence and winding types - incomplete description, sources - Inbi and the videos they sell with Xiaowang
• Variant of Zhou Zonghua speaking about turning the palm from the center and towards the center

We return to the topic of winding in general and the energy background in particular. There are the following approaches:

• the energy is unwound into the limbs from the dantian and rewound back, filling the entire body on its way in a spiral
• the energy is unwound into the limbs from the dantian and rewound back, passing along the tendon-muscle meridians, which, in accordance with the theories of traditional Chinese medicine, are the paths of jin - the essential energy of a person. For those who have noticed the confusion with the concepts of jin and jing, let's say - which are the ways of movement of the tendon force jing. This results in different paths for the unwinding flow and the rewinding flow. By the way, Xiaowang in his videos on winding says the same
  A special case is the variant of the movement of energy along a large orbit, a macrocosmic circle, voiced in Yi Li Quan, when unwinding occurs from the ming men point up to the back along the outer sides of the arms and down the outer sides of the legs, and returns along the inner sides of the legs and arms, chest and stomach in diantian in front. Moreover, the left and right halves of the body can twist the energy in different ways, generating combinations of movement. The study of any internal direction is permissible, because they have a single root of understanding the biomechanical and energy structure of the body, and, according to many patriarchs, they talk about the same thing, and often merge, like in Sun Lutang
• the whole body is a kind of "big dantian", "external cocoon", being a protective structure for the inner cocoon, in which the interaction of energies generated by the internal organs and glands, and correlated with the teaching of the Five Primary Elements, takes place. At the same time, the energy in this outer cocoon does not shirk anyhow, but moves in accordance with its properties, having correspondences in the roughest energy form - the physical body of a person. Jin moves along the tendon-muscle meridians, Shen - along the bone-articular axial structure, Qi fills the entire body. For example, references to an external cocoon are found in Oleg Cherne, the founder of the Inby club

For example, on the Inbi website, in the section devoted to the review of silk thread, it is said that there are two main types of winding - shun chan, when the energy is unwound from the lower cinnabar field and ni chan, when the energy is twisted inward into the lower cinnabar field. Such an interpretation, of course, has the right to life. But. But there are inconsistencies, perhaps due to the fact that you need to take into account some nuances. For example, with the fact that Zhaokui, according to the translations of M. Bogachikhin, showed the difference in forward and reverse winding as the rotation of the palm inward and outward, but rotation in one direction can be both untwisting and twisting

At the time of writing, I consider it important to note a non-obvious thing - an indication that the rotation of the palm outward is a direct winding and the rotation of the palm inward (downward) is a reverse winding correlates with various sources, in particular with the books of Zhenglei and Luxin. However, when leading with the body, when ensuring communication between body members, while complying with the principle "joint after joint is strung and pierced", with biomechanical coordination of movements of body members, while maintaining helicity, and so on. Turning the palm inward corresponds exactly to the withdrawal from the central axis of the body outward, and turning the palm outward corresponds to the pulling of an external object to the central axis of the body. In some source, I had to meet just the opposite position regarding the types of axial spiral rotation of the hands and the types of winding shun or ni

It turns out again that different practitioners can and do understand different things by winding. But let us note this physiological fact of discrepancy. In practice, it is enough to try to make the given forms of a sequence of silk thread to see that support from the body, which allows the removal of external force, is possible when turning the hand along ni chan, as described by Zhenglei and Luxin, and according to shun chan, with the provision of holistic leading by the center, it is possible " pulling" on yourself. If you look at the forms of Yang shi, in particular at the famous "sparrow", then yes, in what corresponds to shun chan, you can see the reflection of Peng, however, except for Chen, no one talks about the defining accent of winding silk thread, and even talk about a holistic movement it is possible with a big stretch, tk. on the horizon of biomechanics, individual muscle groups work independently, without "stretching" the sensation of effort through the entire biomechanical structure. In general, alignment, in my opinion, is the better, the closer we are to Chenshi. Wu Yang and Wu (noisy) seem to be getting worse with this, and Wu Yuxiang (Martial), according to the available materials, only started with the Yangs, then continued with the Chens

Again, I'm talking about the lack of a fully detailed methodology for building movement. All this lends itself to formalization - both numerous qigong techniques and ili quan can be an example. But it is in tai chi that "keepers of secrets" usually huddle. Returning to the Inbish variant, he actually speaks of accumulation and splash, that is, of rhythm. And the rhythm is completely insufficient for an unambiguous description of the movement, I have already gone through this ...

It is important in this context that for the purposes of applied use "to stuff energies into the dantian and jam the enemies", it is of course tempting. But there is a rule for the summation of efforts, when the physical, energetic and banally applied should correspond and mutually reinforce each other. In the context of considering the body as an energy structure, this moment begins to sound very loud, and the study of energy and the subtle study of physics begin to merge, and the separation of energy and physics begins to fade away. Another well-known specialist in Taoist practices - Oleg Cherne (Inbi), who organized annual camps and regularly brought Xiaowang to Russia - even at the beginning of the 2000s, drew attention to the inadequate expectations of modern followers of Yang Shi, who believe that by feeding the dantian and not paying attention to the body, in twenty years they will "destroy everything"

Linking with the physical is found in all serious researchers and practitioners, starting from the patriarchs - Xiaowang (talking about low pillars, heavy five-meter poles and clubs), Chen Yu (according to information from those who studied with him) and Ma Hong (operating, for example, with heavy stone mortars, which is clearly seen on the video materials prepared by him), and descending to less and less well-known practitioners. It's another matter that the fuzzy bullshit is not everything, and this, of course, is not the essence, but an important part of the mosaic ...

Thus, the concept of winding a silk thread is supplemented in the form of the concept of paths along which energy moves in the body, and the task of building a complete engineering model is supplemented by the requirements for storyboarding the movement of energy along paths inside the body. Moreover, in accordance with the principle, everything has moved - there is nothing that is not moving, for each phase of the movement of each form and free movement there must be a storyboard for each part of the body and each channel. However, the most famous European official student of Xiaowang, Jan Sibelsdorff, indirectly speaks about this when he writes in his book that the instructor must show on himself and talk about the subtle movements of dian tian in each form when teaching a beginner. But again, there are no such materials in public form

However, there is an opinion among Chinese specialists in taijiquan that this art is more than three thousand years old, that the Chen clan is not its ancestor, but received a transmission from one of the carriers, Jiang Fa, and adapted the art, merging it with its pro-Shaolin direction "Cannon strikes" (according to one of the sources, the Chen family was known as "cannon-strike Chen"), and the force of spiral twisting is not at all inherent in taijiquan as a leading feature (although it is present even in external directions), and is a later introduction of Chen Xin. Regarding the last statement ... Russian specialist - sinologist A.O. Milianuk, who, as far as I know, is practicing Yang shi taijiquan, translated Yu Zhijun's book "Low-amplitude complex of Yang style ..." M.: Steelservice, 2008. In this book, in chapter 4 "Scientific foundations ..." on page 232 it says " As for Taijiquan theory, excluding Chen Style Taijiquan, usually everyone uses the following treatises: Wang Zongyue "Judgment of Taijiquan", Zheng Sanfeng "Judgment of Taijiquan", "A sincere explanation on the practice of mastery of the thirteen positional foundations", "Recitative of the thirteen positional foundations" "," Hand-to-hand combat recitative "..."

Further in the same book, starting from page 572, appendix two contains the abstracts of the report by Professor of the Beijing Institute of Engineering and Technical Information Yu Zhijun at the IFES RAS conference in 2005 "Shortcomings in the study of the history and development of taijiquan in China on the wave of politicization." In these materials, the theory that it was Chen who created taijiquan is conclusively rotten. For complete information, I refer the interested reader to the book. Here I will give excerpts from the justifications - the reason: "The second reason ... in the work of Chen Wangting, 22 paragraphs are copied from the works of Qi Jiguang, out of 32 positions of pao chui 29 are taken from Qi Jiguang, the fourth part of paochui is entirely taken from the Shaolin hongquan complex, spear methods Chen taken from the "24 Postures with the Yang Family Spear" and "Eight Mothers", the methods of the stick are taken from the Shaolin Shest Fengmobang, Chen Xin's treatises "Judgment on the Ten Major Requirements" and "Words on the requirements for the use of martial arts" in its entirety written off from the xingyiquan treatises "Judgment on the nine requirements" and "Methods of hand-to-hand combat" ... "

Further, in the same place it is said with my abbreviations "the third reason ... Chen Xin put forward as the theoretical basis of his fist technique of building he tu and lo shu, which completely changed the" doctrine of the origins of the yin-yang mechanism of tai chi "... he spun the circle of tai chi into a spiral and first put forward the concept of the so-called "spiral twisting power (chan si jin)", while declaring that "taijiquan are just ways to use the principle of spiral twisting", and this is actually evidence that Chen clan taijiquan does not use the basic theory of "teaching about the mechanism of taiji", and therefore cannot be the art of taijiquan, it can only be "chansiquan" ... This type of fisticuffs was created by Chen Xin, and it has nothing to do with either Chen Changxing, nor especially to Chen Wangting..."

Well, these are serious statements that require a separate study. However, isn't Chen Xiaowang considered the world's number one taijiquan. This is ambiguous, for example, there is information that Xiaowang refused to fight with a taijiquan speaker Chin, also known as Yi - Li quan. And aren't Chen's old-style classic sequences the most built and finished? It’s really hard to argue with this, given that the choreography of the classical sequences of different families is very similar, and the comparison of the sequences of lao jia Chen shi, Yang shi and Wu Yuxiang, in my subjective opinion, confirms that part of the transmission story that says that the founder of Wu Martial first studied with the Yanovs, and then with the Cheneys. Of course, this can be attributed to the merging of the transmission received by the Chen with the outward direction they practiced and the more biomechanically emphasized attitude. However, to get the result, you need to drink "from different sources", and in my opinion the question of the primacy of this or that clan should not overshadow the task of pulling out the essence in the form of replicable and effective technologies from under a variety of husks and information that does not form the backbone

Now let's move away from Chinese interpretations and look at alternatives. According to researchers, if the word "energy" is replaced by the word "biomechanics", and the word "qigong" is replaced by the word "breath", then traditional Chinese views will become much clearer. I do not quite agree with this formula, since it does not contain the concepts of direct and reverse controlled psychosomatic connections that result in controlled sensations, but there is a grain of truth. The Chinese say, some say that within the forward and reverse winding there is a right / left upper / lower large / small and then only five rings, others say that the forward and reverse windings are a separate ring, along with those previously listed. There are also the terms winding and winding, which carry different semantic meanings in the Russian language. What's next?

Further - you can wind silk (or yarn) on a spindle, or you can rotate the spindle, holding the thread in the center. But what is the thread here and what is the spindle? Isn't this the point? Taking into account the opinions given in the translation of Milyanuk that chen shi is not a true taijiquan, but a compilation, including from Xing Yi. To put it mildly, this is a controversial statement, although argued by its author. But only Chen shi is focused on winding, while twisting around the bone axes and linking the joints (at least in the form of the Shaolin concept of six correspondences) is present even in external styles. However, in stringing movements along the three axes of the Euclidean space onto the axis of rhythm (expansion/compression, it is also repulsion/pulling towards oneself), there is a real biomechanical meaning of twisting effort. And one could take the point of view that direct and reverse winding is actually repulsion and dragging on oneself. However, practitioners say, and Malyavin's book with the term "the nature of liquid-filled bodies" echoes them, that the reflection force is always present (while the classics warn against the disease of emphasis and forceful opposition)

For this reason, the essence of the term direct and reverse winding can be considered as a synthesis of the repulsion force (with a plus sign, or direct) or dragging on oneself (the same repulsion with the opposite sign, reverse), regardless of the sign, accompanied by a reflection of an external influence on one or another direction of the incoming external force. This does not fully correspond with the statement that direct pressing is reflection, and the opposite is transmission. This statement is criticized by Ma Hong, but he also says that reflection is direct winding, and transmission can be both direct and reverse. The position of the Chin (I Li) family is interesting, speaking about the Yin side of the body parts and the Yang side. The actual turn at the point of contact by one side or the other can be considered a reflection (yang sides) or transmission (yin sides)

I also take into account the context of my research on the basis of physical movement in forms, which, over time, reduced to a combination of the rotational movement of the cube of the body structure in two arbitrary planes out of three possible in Euclidean space with the rhythm of repulsion and dragging, now four-phase. In this context, all forms are built, and the movements of the forms completely fit the constructed model, which cannot be said about early research. So, in this model, the movement is volumetric and in certain planes and at certain angles it is reflective, while in others it is dragging

If you look from the point of view of physiology, then the integral movement of the biomechanical structure of the body, determined by the rotational moments of any two planes out of three, is determined by three axes, and hence the bodily volume in the Euclidean space, and only rhythm can be added to this horizon. However, in any case, the movement will entail the rotation of the limbs around the bone axes and the spine in the part of the pelvic and shoulder girdle relative to each other. At the same time, the hand, turning at least along shun, at least along ni, will be able to perform both reflection movements (penjin) and transmission movements (luijin). Moreover, if lu is one of the manifestations of peng, then how is this consistent with the attempt of some authors to present the rotation of shun and neither as a clear correspondence between pen and lu? And there the authors do not say "equal", but say "mostly"

For example, in the "defense with the arm and strike from the shoulder", the initial actions with two hands down with a leading rotation corresponding to the rotation along the ni in both hands, most correspond to the effort of exactly the reflection (in my opinion, although additional efforts are introduced in Chen shi, and we can talk about the force of downward rotation - a whirlpool), which is in no way consistent with the correspondence of pen (reflection) - shun (direct winding), nor with the geometry described by Malyavin in his book. Again, isn't it possible to do, for example, pushing (ji jin, compacting the body structure) to the right, left, up, or back? By the way, when studying and decomposing forms into repetitive phases, the seemingly simplified forms of other directions, in fact, containing the same phases without unnecessary redundancy, appear somehow differently.

The process of searching is shown above, at the moment my understanding of the silk thread is based on linking with the revealed formula for building a movement and is scheduled for publication. The final magic pill has not yet been reached, although understanding has become much greater ...

Imagine that you are unwinding a silkworm cocoon. The thread is very thin, and if you pull it a little harder, it will break. At the same time, if you pull too slowly, the thread will sag, stick to itself and become tangled. So, you need to pull very smoothly.

This is the basis of one of the basic principles of Chen and Wu style taijiquan - winding silk threads. The principle is universal: it is preserved in individual qigong exercises, and when performing long sequences of movements - forms, and in pair work. But the most interesting thing is that in ordinary life, winding silk threads is extremely useful. It helps to move smoothly and be well aware of your body (and this ability has). Dancing, playing musical instruments, any sport - all this will work out better when you master the silk threads. In Chinese tradition, it is believed that such exercises improve the body and help improve health. There are many ways to wind silk threads, you can start with this:

The exercise only seems simple. In fact, you need to try to keep track of many things at the same time, namely:

• All movements come from the dan tian, the area inside the body, two fingers below the navel. The dantian moves - and only after it is the hand, not before. Try to feel it by stopping the movement of the dan tian. The hand should also stop immediately.
• Head hanging. We imagine that our whole body hangs on a thread emerging from the crown of the head, like a bunch of grapes on a stem.
• Twisted pelvis, "coccyx tends to the nose." You can check how it turned out by putting your hand on your lower back. Lumbar lordosis, that is, deflection, should straighten.
• Between the knees there is an imaginary tight ball, the knees do not fall inward in any of the phases of the movement. At first, this is difficult to follow, so you can, for example, stick small strips on the inside of the knee. When the knee starts to fail, the tape will stretch and remind you of the mistake.
• There is also an imaginary ball in front of the chest. This means that the sternum deepens a little towards the back, and the back itself inflates like a sail filled with wind. The ball must be retained during arm movements: the arm must not come close to the body. Pay special attention to your elbow. To work out this and the previous point, it is useful before actually winding silk threads.
• The shoulders are relaxed and do not rise. The arms do not rise above shoulder level.
• The gaze follows the palm.
• At each moment of time, the palm is strictly opposite the central axis of the body. The case for this is constantly rotated a little.
• The movements are very smooth, as if in water. Otherwise, the silk thread will break.

Chen style has long been available only to a select few. And the unelected tried by hook or by crook to master it at least a little. It is said that the Chen family had to train mainly at night because of this. But I didn't want to waste a day either. Therefore, they did every daily routine, observing the principles of tai chi: hanging and wringing out washed clothes, rubbing grains with millstones, and again winding silk. Even stirring porridge with a spoon, you can do tai chi - the principle is the same as in winding silk threads.

Jin chansi is the force of spiral twisting, the most unique and wonderful practice preserved in chen style taijiquan in its entirety. It is the continuous twisting of all the joints of the body in any movement, softly smoothly and continuously, which makes taijiquan a mesmerizing action for the observer and gives maximum efficiency to the performer in each movement. Taijiquan is not possible without spiral twisting.

What does the term "chansi jin" mean? "Chan" in Chinese is "winding" or "twisting". "Sy" - "silk", or - "silk cocoon". The Chinese word "Jin" cannot be accurately translated into Russian. Very roughly it means something like "a certain strength". Speaking of martial arts, this is a specific skill that can only be achieved through targeted training. To better understand what "Changsi Jin" is - "Wrapping energy like a" silk thread "", you need to consider the technology of processing silkworm cocoons.

In the production of silk, silkworm cocoons are dipped into hot water, as a result of which the caterpillars die, and the cocoons are prepared for the best processing. Then, in each cocoon, the beginning of the thread is found in order to unwind the entire cocoon. And here lies the main idea for martial arts ("No more - No less"): if you pull the silk thread too hard when unwinding the cocoon, it will break, and if it is too weak, then you will not unwind the cocoon. The person who unwinds the cocoon must subtly feel the degree of tension in the thread.

"Wilting the silk thread" is an important skill in Tai Chi Chuan. Without it, all actions in Taijiquan will be just an imitation. You can, of course, do Tai Chi without "Chang Si Jin", but about 80% of it will be just physical education! Speaking of the martial aspect, "Changsi jin" allows you to freely and instantly change the direction and flow of energies in the body. It allows you to more effectively penetrate into the opening "gaps" of the enemy. It allows you to easily catch the enemy on "tricks", "wrap around" him in order to use his own energy to redirect it to our advantage.

This is the foundation of the basics. In the legs, spiral twisting is manifested by rooting, in the hands by wrapping, in the body by the gathering and release of energy or force. Not a single "trick" in taijiquan is done without jin chansi. The legendary fa jing is based on this effort - the release of strength, the unshakable rigidity and extreme softness of the body of a fighter, and of course, the swiftness of any blow. With the help of jin chan si, the result described in the Chinese proverb is achieved - " One liang shifts thousand jinei". This can be interpreted as " One gram shifts thousand kilogram".

In terms of health effects, "Chan si jin" is literally a "horn of plenty". This is a massage and stretching of connective tissues, which thereby help to restore and maintain the body in a healthy state. Many people who have mastered the wisdom of "Changsi Jin" have even managed to get rid of chronic diseases or the consequences of various injuries. Also, "Changsy Jin" has a beneficial effect on the coordination of the body and on the nervous system. Its "winding" and "unwinding" movements are great for increasing muscle tone. If the rotational actions of "Changsi Jin" are carried out together with the "Body Integrity" method, then they contribute to the "cleansing" of the lymphatic system, restoring the circulation of Qi in the body. The practice of "Changsi Jin" is a huge potential for prolonging the youthfulness of the body, promoting health and generating energy.

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> Taijiquan for health and longevity > Chapter 2 >

QIGONG OF SILK THREADS

Qigong of silk thread or "changsi-jin" is a unique section of taijiquan. This is a practice aimed at strengthening the body and developing the ability to manifest inner strength. A practice that will change your body.

Eastern justification. The cornerstone of the practice of silk thread is the Chinese concept of jin. Jin is a spiral inner strength that manifests itself in the ligaments and tendons of the whole body. If you learn to use jin in your movements, you will become much stronger and get rid of many diseases. We talk more about "jin" and its properties in our classes and seminars.

Western justification. Today, all silk thread technologies can be substantiated from the standpoint of Western science. Silk thread works with the fascial system of the body. You can read more about fascia in the textbooks of osteopathy or applied kinesiology. There is nothing secret here - just competent work on yourself will allow you to change your body and acquire new skills.

* In fact, “jing” and “fascia” are two views of the same phenomenon, just from different angles.

* Qigong silk thread is included in the cycle of qigong practices working with the body. These practices also include iron shirt qigong. All these practices are aimed at strengthening and improving the physical body.

Qigong silk thread allows you to:

Strengthen the body (such a Chinese analogue of the gym, only here we do not use kettlebells and simulators, we use our mind),

Eliminate blocks and clamps (practice allows you to work out the most problematic areas no worse than with a massage),

To learn how to manifest hitherto unseen strength (and this without resorting to strength training).