Peng and An

[Anonymous]

Liu {push forward} is yang so the body opens and gi {rollback} is yin and so the body closes.Makes perfect sense.What confuses me is why in peng which is yang the body sinks and in An which is yin the body rises.

[Anonymous]

…..I think you’ll find that lui is usually translated as ‘rollback’ and ji as ‘press’. My understanding is that: lui is ‘greater yin’, i.e., almost all yin; ji is ‘greater yang’, i.e., almost all yang; peng is ‘lesser yang’, i.e., mainly yang with some yin; ahn is ‘lesser yin’, i.e., mainly yin with some yang.

[Anonymous]

I was taught that Lu (Liu, your spelling) is rollback and is absolute yin whilst Peng is ward off and absolute yang. They are two opposites of the pakua (Heaven and Earth)
Ji (gi as you’ve spelt it) is press and I’m not sure which element it relates to on the pakua (I think it’s water which would make it yin).
Peng is about rising and buoyancy, a bit like pushing a beach ball down in to water, it bounces back up and is difficult to compress. So I am not sure that the body ‘sinks’ externally when performing peng. My understanding is that both Peng and An (push) are yang postures which have an element of rising up in them as they can both be used to disrupt an opponent.
As far as I know the only time the body rises during the form is to issue the kicks or to stand back up again following a lower posture such as snake creeps down or needle at sea bottom. I was taught that the rest of the time you should stay at the same height.

I am talking from experience of Yang style Tai Ji Quan by the way and please feel free to correct anything I have said if you know better.

J

[Anonymous]

hi raminder
basically,
peng is up and out
ji is straight out
liu is down and in
an is down.

but a part of it is that you are doing the energy to the other person. so with An, it’s not so much that you are condensing, or going down, but rather causing the other guy to go down.

hope this helps…

[Anonymous]

This is a very interesting question. I think I agree with Colin Hughes. According to Fu Zhongwen’s in Mastering Yang TC, Lu/Liu should never be down, but always back / in. Otherwise it becomes Pull Down, I think. Therefore the right forearm should (from Yang cheng Fu perspective) be at 45 degrees, rather than angled down. However, I am not clear on this myself.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Colin and Richard.

Peng is up and out, lesser yang. (like a force field)
Ji is straight out, greater yang. (like a laser or a bullet)
An is down, lesser yin. (like a weight pressing into the ground)
Lu is in, greater yin. (absorbing)

In my experience, my capacity to generate peng is directly connected to my capacity to ground and root. The more aligned my downward connection with the ground, the more full the expression of peng. This is my internal experience. The capacity to express these energies externally with a partner requires that I first generate them internally. The down creates the up. The inside becomes the outside.

“Where there is something up, there must be something down. Where there is something forwards, there must be something backwards. Where there is something left, there must be something right. If one intends to move up, one must simultaneously show a contrary tendency (downwards),”

http://www.beholders.org/body/martial-arts/121-taichichuanprinciples.html

[Anonymous]

i am enjoying the program. i have always completed An with the body being down and peng body up hands up with the reasoning that as i was going down/up my internal energy was rising/falling respectively. However i like the feeling of the body rising in the last part of An and it could add to An in a reverse sort of way. Is this an example of the same operating system different program? I have only studied up to lesson 12 and dont want to confuse myself… there is an element of taking away in the last part of press?… to ask just one example. I can see the added energy in there. Should i keep this energy to this form or try to apply behind the door to other forms?

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