The first post on kua can be found here.
It looks like I’m not the only one thinking about the kua these days. A new blog on IMA called Internal Arts IA has a long interview with Joseph Chen about the importance and usage of the kua. Here’s an excerpt that I found interesting:
Kua is the joint responsible for transmission of power. The mistaken notion of dantian acting as the transmission should be amended, to recognize the primary role of kua. The dantian, ( in Tai Chi functional terms, not qigong usage), is defined as the area between the kua and the arm pit. This is one big ball. When this area turns you won’t see the kua turn. On the surface, you only see the area from the kua to arm pit turn. Therefore many people practice shoulder movement, turning dantian from the top. We must emphasize turning of the dantian from the bottom.
My primary Chen style teacher has said this many times. The kua, not the dantian, is responsible for the transmission of power. I also like how Joseph Chen separates talking about the dantian in functional versus qigong terms. Many people get used to this idea of the dantian in terms of qi, or cosmic energy production, etc. But that’s a dead-end IMO. Bringing the material back down to earth in terms of function is the way to go.
This is a long interview that will likely answer many of the questions many of you might have about the kua. I highly suggest reading and digesting the whole thing since this topic is so important and quality info on it is so rare.
P.S. I just thought of a short-cut to see if you’re relaxing the kua or not. This doesn’t totally meet the requirements, but one way to check is to place your hand in the groove between the top of your thigh and your torso (inguinal groove?). If you’re sinking the kua correctly, your upper thigh will press on one side of your hand and the bottom of your gut will press on the other. But be careful not to arch the back to create this. Maybe that will help.
3 responses so far ↓
wujimon // July 25, 2006 at 9:50 am |
Hi Chessman. I agree, the interview article with Joseph Chen covers quite a bit of material and I think you bring up a very good snippet of the article. Like you, I’m not too fond of the cosmic, energetic and tend to focus on the functional in terms of muscles and ligaments. I like your short cut as I had this same thing done to me many times during private lessons. Since then, whenever I view videos, I look for this crease. Videos of Ren Guangyi show quite a big of “folding” that just looks painful.. he has definitely put in some gongfu in regards to the kua.
Aboroth // July 25, 2006 at 3:39 pm |
Ok, wow! That article really does answer all the questions I had about the “kua”. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Chessman.
wujimon » Ren Guangyi Compact Erlu and Folding Kua // July 26, 2006 at 7:29 am |
[...] There’s actually quite a bit of discussion surrounding the kua lately. Internal Arts IA has graciously posted an interview with CZH (Chen Zhong Hua) that was 2 years in the making! Formosa Neijia has posted a series of articles on Song Kua that reminds me a bit of my thoughts on the relationship between the hips, torso and kua. Lots of good discussions and perspectives floating around so check em out [...]