Earlier I promised I’d share something about Zhan
Zhuang – the “standing meditation” we briefly did at the end of tonight’s
class. What I promised was an essay that
goes into detail about what it is, why it works and why we should do it.
Zhan Zhuang is a “supplemental” exercise to tai chi, much like our
Qigong helps us limber up and get the blood going, and qin na (joint
locking, which we’ll discuss much later) helps us make better use of the
postures and transitions. Briefly, Zhan
Zhuang is a standing “exercise” which, if performed correctly, consistently
and diligently, heightens awareness of our bodies and how they work. This awareness then manifests itself when we
practice tai chi, but also in everything we do throughout the day. We move with greater coordination, balance
becomes easier, we find out we have strength we didn’t know we had (because we
didn’t know – or forgot – how to use it) and we are better able to address
chronic aches and pains because we can sense them, localize them and work to
alleviate them just by standing, sitting & moving differently.
Tai chi develops this same exact sense, but it takes a LONG time on its own –
on the order of months or years. Zhan
Zhuang accelerates this development – a matter of a few weeks’ practice is
enough to begin to grasp the “knack” of moving in a structurally-sound,
balanced, rooted and coordinated fashion.
It really is the only shortcut in tai chi – everything else takes as
long as it needs to take.
That’s a pretty tall order, but this deceptively simple exercise delivers on
these promises. I wish I’d learned it
earlier in my tai chi career.
My all-too-brief introduction didn’t do the practice justice. It merits much more discussion by people with
more authoritative opinions – I’m just an end-user.
Here’s what I promised. It’s an essay,
rather long and a bit dry. But this dry
reading is necessary to get a full understanding of the practice and how to do
it the right way.
“Zhan Zhuang – Foundation of Internal Martial Arts”
http://www.yiquan.org.uk/art-zz.html
Notice the website’s name. You heard me
mention Yiquan in class now and then.
It’s an “internal” martial art like tai chi, but it looks considerably
different. This martial art makes much
greater use of Zhan Zhuang than tai chi does; it follows, therefore,
that Yiquan players know more about it, spend more time at it and have
brought it to a fair degree of refinement.
Well, they have, and there are videos showing what they’ve come up with. I alluded to one beginning exercise but it’ll
help if you have videos to show you, for there are several.
Chapter 2: Zhan Zhuang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiIQqtajWzg&list=PLHYYEmZxUzQbmy3mmHFV911d5Szh6s-2a&index=11
This is the first video in a playlist of short videos on Zhan Zhuang. I encourage you to watch them all and begin
to work the methods described in them, starting in the order in which they’re
presented. They are geared toward Yiquan
but they apply just as well to our art.
I strongly suggest watching these videos on a device that enables
activating the “closed captioning” with a big enough screen to follow along,
even if you don’t have artillery ears like I do. The presenter’s English is very good (much
better than my Chinese), but his accent is VERY strong.
Chapter 1 is mostly about Yiquan itself.
It’s up to you whether you want to watch it, but the first video – the
introduction – does a good job of explaining “yi” or “intent,” which is
as important in tai chi as it is in yiquan.
It’s not necessary to follow his program exactly. He suggests spending increasingly long times in Zhan Zhuang postures, up to an hour. This is unnecessary, especially if you practice tai chi at home. It’s like I said before about meditation – start short, only a few minutes at a time, progressively building up to longer periods. It isn’t necessary to go for longer than about 15 or 20 minutes in total in order to unlock Zhan Zhuang’s benefits, but to get the most out of them, we should practice tai chi in addition. Tai chi is sometimes called “moving meditation,” so having a “moving meditation” and a “standing meditation” seems to create a nice balance.
