The six principles
every form returns to.
The Tai Chi Classics — chiefly the Taijiquan Lun attributed to Wang Zongyue and the treatises preserved in the Yang and Wu family canons — set the theoretical floor of the art. Every family style claims them; every honest teacher returns to them.
- 01 / 06陰陽
Yin and Yang
Every movement is the alternation of full and empty, opening and closing, rising and sinking. The Taijiquan Lun opens: 'Taiji is born of wuji; it is the mother of yin and yang.' No posture is purely one or the other.
- 02 / 06用意不用力
Use intent, not brute force
Yong yi, bu yong li. Strength is directed by intention through a relaxed structure (song). The classics warn that hard force locks the joints and breaks the flow of internal energy.
- 03 / 06立身中正
Centred and upright body
Lì shēn zhōng zhèng. The head suspends as if from a thread; the tailbone drops; the spine stays plumb. Without this alignment, weight cannot transmit cleanly into the ground.
- 04 / 06鬆
Song — relaxed sinking
Not collapse. The joints open; the muscles release; the weight settles. From this state, internal connection (peng) can express through the structure.
- 05 / 06聽勁
Tīng jìn — listening energy
The skill of sensing the partner's force through touch. Developed in push hands (tuīshǒu) and the foundation of all responsive technique. 'When the opponent does not move, I do not move; when he moves slightly, I move first.'
- 06 / 06連綿不斷
Unbroken continuity
Lián mián bù duàn. The form is one continuous thread. Where the hand stops, the intent continues; where the intent stops, the breath continues; where the breath stops, the spirit continues.
“A feather cannot be added; a fly cannot land.
The opponent does not know me; I alone know him.”