Photo Yang Cheng Fu in ‘cross hands’

My previous post : #542815

In standing practice ‘Zhan Zhuang’ whichever posture you are practising it’s important to cultivate release or ‘Song’ within the structure.

So we’re not just ‘holding on for dear life’ forgive the pun!

Although we must maintain the posture as best as we can for the allotted time and suffer the discomfort and pain of doing so, we also need to progressively release (Song) the muscles and soft tissues within that structure.

So the standing ‘still’ external look of the posture is deceptive as internally there is movement happening as the tissues of the body release and stretch - ‘movement within stillness’.

Another way to describe this is that ‘the bones stay up while the flesh sinks’ . This creates separation and stretch .

Or a ‘Yin Yang differential’.

Now this is not easy to feel right away in fact it can take a long time but it’s important to keep going and not expect results too soon.

Standing practice is a painful process - ‘no pain no gain’ very much rings true.

The whole body will ache and burn particularly those muscles and soft tissues that hold tension.

So why bother with standing at all particularly as some Tai Chi schools do not spend much time on it.

Well from a purely physical point of view it can bring about quite profound benefits developing strength, flexibility, postural correction and healing.

At a deeper level of practice the esoteric nature of zhan zhuang and the skills it develops is perhaps a discussion for another post however suffice to say that Song really is the engine of Tai Chi particularly in the Yang style the way it has been taught to me.

It must be stressed that Tai Chi is not an intellectual pursuit and cannot be understood through the mental faculties alone and so some would say that writing about it is a fruitless task.

Only correct practice for a long time brings the skills and inner comprehension of how Tai Chi and standing cultivates the practitioner and this must at least in the beginning be monitored by a skilled teacher.

Having said that the writings of my teachers have been of immense value to me often confirming or validating the experience of practice and keeping me on the path when I couldn’t get instruction in person.

So I hope that these posts will at least point in the right direction and inspire Tai Chi practitioners to make standing a regular part of their practice. 🙏