Internal Power for Hsing Yi, Ba Gua or Tai Chi. Earth  (Heng Chuan - Wringing). Earth is solid and grounded, often thought of as wringing because of its expanding twisting path, similar to the motion required to “wring out” a wet towel.. The main organ for transmitting the energy is the spleen, which lies below the diaphragm on the left.   Chi Gung (Breathing/Energy exercise) - Wringing the Chi.  Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, place the thumb of the right hand into the navel and spread the fingers evenly, as if holding a tennis ball. Place the little finger of the left hand on the sternum, and spread the fingers evenly, also as if holding a tennis ball. Bend the knees slightly and hang your coccyx beneath the top of your head - see Fig1.   Using natural breathing (relax the Dan Tien and allow it to expand when you breathe in, and deflate as you breathe out), take a deep breath in and whilst breathing out, push the fingers into the body, pushing the spine back and deflating the stomach muscles (round the shoulders forward and down, and allow the knees to bend more, the little finger of the left hand and the thumb of the right hand should touch) - see Fig2.   Take another deep breath and expand the stomach whilst separating the little finger of the left hand from the right hand thumb as much as possible, arch the back forwards and pull the shoulders back and down - see Fig3.   Repeat Fig1 to Fig3 as many times as you wish in order to work the spleen, and warm up the body.   When you have exhaled and deflated your stomach again, focus the mind on the spleen area, as if it were a loaded spring - see Fig4.   Drive the energy stored in the spine and spleen outward into the left elbow and the right fist (which suddenly punches forward and twists to a palm up fist), the left fist should twist to a palm down fist, at the same time. Expand the spleen area and allow the right shoulder to go forward whilst still settled in its joint, then relax and settle back to a comfortable position - See Fig5.   For martial purposes reverse breathing should be used, but the movement of the body should be smaller (train from large jings to small jings i.e. When you have warmed up with large gentle movements, you can practice for martial power in application with smaller movements of the spleen area, whilst still trying to maintain the same feeling of power, using reverse breathing.

In the above posture, I am about to emit a spiralling jing related to Water of Hsing Yi, but I am performing Chen style Tai Chi. Thus demonstrating that these Chi Gung methods can be applied to many arts.   Use in other martial arts: Earth, as described above, can be applied in many arts e.g. Tai Chi - the punch in Black Dragon rises from the water White Crane - White Crane expands it’s wings Hsing Yi - Heng Chuan

My students, some of whom already had Dan grades in other styles, have dramatically increased their internal power by using these techniques.This will convert the internal stored energy into forward power, in a whole body expansion. The right fist acts like a coiled spring twisting forward and transmits the energy outward, the left elbow strikes back and twists to a palm down fist. The whole movement is like wringing a cloth dry.   John Read has taught Martial Arts for 38 years and is a National Judge for the BCCMA and is the Chief Instructor for the East Midlands Wushu Association. He has also judged at International level, and teaches Hsing Yi, Tai Chi, Ba Gua and other styles to private students, and at his Nottingham club.   For further information see www.wushuuk.com or phone 0115 9223999. John Read 25/May/2004

To learn more about Hsing Yi see: http://www.theuni.freeserve.co.uk/ or mailto:wushujohn@googlemail.com