ZhaoBao/HuLeiJia taiji and Taiji DaoYin, part 1

One of my ongoing projects is to find out as much as I can about the zhaobao/huleijia forms of taiji. Several things have spurred this on. First, I greatly respect the work of my shixiong (elder brother) Tim Cartmell. He has said many times that he really enjoys this form of taiji and from his descriptions, it seems worthwhile to learn about it. Second and most importantly, I ran into a teacher last year that did this form and what he was able to do really blew my mind. I’ll describe the encounter and explain about the system along the way. Forgive the rambling.

I was looking for a taiji techer last year and the hung gar teacher I was studying with recommended someone he knew that taught taiji “exercises” as welll as form. I went to the class and found out they were doing taiji daoyin — a series of exercises created by a well-known Taiwanese taiji teacher named Xiong Wei. This is Xiong here:

Here are some of his daoyin exercises. Sorry for the small pics:  

Notice that Xiong’s shin is almost completely vertical in pic 3.1. He is sitting very deeply into the kua. 

Maybe it’s not evident from the pictures, but the moves in this type of exercise are amazingly difficult. They require motions that were unusual to me even after 15 years of experience in studying various CMA. They require the use of muscles not commonly used (sound like neikung, anyone?) and in ways that all of our muscles aren’t commonly used. The exercises require an immense amount of flexibility, especially in the hips. So these things are REALLY difficult for us Westerners. In fact, Xiong said that he only tried to teach one Westerner once and it didn’t work. The guy just couldn’t pull it off. I sympathize and I can see why. In short, these were the hardest exercises I have ever done in my life.

But what do they have to do with taiji? These exercises are used by Xiong and his group to prepare people for actual taiji practice. I think Xiong thought that people could benefit from exercises that released tension and built up the body BEFORE actual taiji instruction took place. So, based on his experience, he created these exercises. Problem is, the exercises are so useful that they have supplanted that which they were designed to prepare for. In other words, most people just do the taiji daoyin with few now going beyond the exercise system. That’s too bad.

For those of you who are now interested in doing some these exercises (or at least trying them out), here’s a basic description of the basic eight (thanks to Tom for posting these):

[quote]Eight Basic Zhaobao Exercises (Xiong Wei through Lin Ah Long to Tim Cartmell)  

(1) Hip spirals: With the feet closed together, bend at the knees and hips until your body is angled forward about 45 degrees.  Put your palms on top of your knees.  You will be in a half squat position.  Rotate your hips so that you make small;knee circles; in a clockwise direction (viewed from above).  As your knees circle forward from the left, squat all the way down until your rear touches your heels (keep your feet flat on the ground).  As y our knees pass over your toes and start to circle back to your right, stand up and stretch your legs (you will still be bent forward at the hips, with your palms on your knees).  This movement is really a kind of;circular squat; exercise.  It is important your knees don’t rotate any further to the sides than the vertical plan of the outside edges of your feet.  The standard is 36 squatting rotations in each direction.  

(2) ‘Zhaobao’ Squats: Stand with the feet parallel and a little wider than shoulder width apart.  Rotate your right hip forward and shift all your weight to your left leg.  Drop the inside of your right knee and leg down onto the mat as you turn your torso to the left.  Your rear will touch your left heel, your left foot is flat with the left knee going straight over the left toes.  Your right knee will be the apex of a triangle drawn between your feet and that knee.  As you twist and drop to the left, simultaneously make a wave up the body from the inward twisting right hip and twist your right shoulder inward.  The arms hang at the sides.  Lift the right knee and repeat the squat to the right, moving through the full squat position (your thighs remain parallel to the ground during the transition).  Repeat 36 times on each side.  Be sure to keep the torso vertical at all times.  

(3) Twisting, Alternate Knee Drop Squats: Stand in a low horse stance with the feet parallel and about shoulder width and your thighs parallel with the ground.  Your arms hang at your sides and your back is straight.  Twist your hips to the left and close the right hip toward the left hip as you drop your right knee to touch the ground lightly (your left thigh remains parallel with the ground).  As you turn left, your right shoulder also closes and your right arm twists inward.  Then you turn back through the center position, lifting your right knee then repeat dropping the left knee to the mat as you twist to the right.  You need to stay in a full squat (thighs parallel to the ground) as you transition left to right.  Work up to the minimum number of reps, 36 on each side.

(4) Body Waves: Stand with the feet a narrow shoulder width apart.  Bend over from the hips and hang the torso forward.  Bend the knees a little and curl the lower back under, make a wave up the spine which brings the body into the upright position, continue the wave through the head, causing the torso to arch back as far as possible (but keep the chin tucked, the head does not whip back).  Push the pelvis forward and swing the torso over from the hips and repeat (36 times).  

(5) Wave Squats: Stand with the feet a narrow shoulder width apart. Hang from the crown of the head and slowly lower the body into a full squat (your rear touches your heels, your feet remain flat on the floor).  The lower back will curl under at the bottom of the squat, but keep the torso as erect as possible.  Now bend the upper body slightly forward and lift from the hips, your rear leading the upward motion, continue to stand as the wave from your hips moves up your spine and ends with you standing erect (the wave is smaller than in Exercise 4).  That’s right, 36 times.  

(6) Bow Step Hip Circles: Stand in a very extended left bow step (left shin vertical, left thigh parallel with the ground, right leg extended to the rear with the leg straight and foot flat on the ground).  Put the palms on top of the left thigh above the knee.  Slowly make circles with your hips in a clockwise direction causing your left knee to make a smaller clockwise circle.  Then circle the hips/knee in the opposite direction (36 times in each direction).  Repeat in the right bow step.  

(7) Butterfly Squats: Sit in the common butterfly stretch position (bend your knees and put the soles of the feet together in front of your crotch).  Then lift the body up so you are balanced on the outside edges of your feet only (soles of the feet pressed together).  Then, keeping the soles of the feet pressed together, straighten your legs until your legs are straight (the soles of your feet must remain pressed together, you balance on the outside edges of the feet only.  Be careful: there is a great stretch on the outside of the ankles.)  Squat up and down in this fashion, balancing on the outside edges of the feet with the soles pressed together.  

(8) Three Levels Horse Stance: Stand with the feet shoulder width apart (not too wide).  Lift the arms to the front until they are shoulder level with the palms facing downward (as in the opening move of Yang Taijiquan).  Keeping the torso vertical, squat down into a quarter squat.  Hold the position.  Squat lower into a half squat and hold the position.  Now lower the body into a full squat (t highs parallel with the ground, keep the shins as vertical as possible).  Hold the position.  Come back up to the half squat and hold.  Then to the quarter squat and hold.  Finally stand up and drop the arms to the side and rest in the Wuji posture.  Hold each position for the same amount of time for example, (going down) quarter squat for one minute, half squat for one minute, full squat for one minute (coming up half squat for one minute, quarter squat for one minute, for a total of five minutes.  One minute in each position is a minimum.   Enjoy!

Tim’s Zhaobao taijiquan is from the Hu Lei Jia branch . . . which descends from Cheng Qingping’s teaching in Zhaobao village:   Chen Qingping (in Zhaobao village) – Li Jingyan (Hulei Jia) – Yang Hu – Chen Yingde – Wang Jinrang – Xiong (Hsiung) Wei – Lin Ah Long – Tim Cartmell.   The “Zhaobao” styles mentioned in the past year-and-a-half on this forum generally refer to lines coming down from He Zhaoyuan, another student of Chen Qingping.  

Tim has always referred to his style as “the Zhaobao style of  Chen Qingping”–which it is, as further developed by Li Jingyan, Chen’s student, and subsequent generations.  It is qualitatively different in terms of training and fajin expression from the Zhaobao Da Jia and Xiao Jia which have received some forum attention since last year. [/quote]

I want to emphasize these are just the first 8, there are many more where these came from. Notice that these all focus on the lower body. He also has whole sets that focus on the upper body. Also, the exercises increase in difficulty. To be honest, when I took this taiji daoyin class, I wasn’t able to do a single rep of a single exercise correctly! Yes, I was embarrassed.

I have lots more to say about this class that I took and the teachers that I’ve found that teach this art. In order to not bore the reader to death with long posts, I’ll try to break this topic up into smaller bites.

More on this later.