Fa jing?

That's just silly.

 

I stand by what I said: if you cannot punch a mitt with force from a few inches - if your good, with the tips of the fingers touching the mitt - then you cannot do fa-jing. The only way to hit from such a small distance with fource is to use the whole body in an explosive manner. Its a simple test. Try it.

In reply to the comment above about punching the air: you use the mitt because it gives you a sense of the force of the punch, which punching the air cannot, and there is no element of distance to punching the air. There is no TEST to punching in the air.

You can get in a long, low stance and push your opponent 'across the room,' but thats not fa-jing. I have seen heaps of demonstrations of such things, and it is always against a relatively compliant opponent. Someone attacks you, you are not going to have the time to get in your big, low, long stance to push the guy. You have to be able to defend yourself in a short stance, because you will be in a short stance when you are attacked, unless you walk around in a long, low stance all the time. How do you do this? By using the waist and not the legs. That is what fa-jing is, as I understand it, the ability to use the waist to generate force over a short distance in a short stance.

 

Dillon - I agree that's a hard one to swallow. Sometimes you have to trust in your teacher. He had a hard time with it as well until his teacher convinced him, as did I. Until you practice and can see results its sort of a leap of faith.

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Alien here you say : "With fa-jing punching, as I have learnt it, the source of power is the spine - the spine stores and issues enery [this is difficult to explain]. Most important here is what we call 'C-back', which refers to the shape of the spine. As for training methods, good old single push hands is best as it works the spine - in single push hands you want to be using the spine to receive and issue force. No amount of push ups, lifting weights - i.e. external training methods - can give you this sense of using the backbone. Of course the shaking of the waist is very important - i.e. the motor for the whole thing - though the waist must be coordinated with the spine. Just moving, even shaking, the waist is not enough."

Yes I agree.

now you say: "By using the waist and not the legs. That is what fa-jing is, as I understand it, the ability to use the waist to generate force over a short distance in a short stance."



"You can get in a long, low stance and push your opponent 'across the room,' but thats not fa-jing."

I never said it was.

"I stand by what I said: if you cannot punch a mitt with force from a few inches - if your good, with the tips of the fingers touching the mitt - then you cannot do fa-jing."

Why do you insist that it is only in a short jin? Granted that's a higher level and is a goal but even if its done medium or long it's still fajin. If you are trying to learn it by developing short/ compact power you are skipping a lot of steps.

"In reply to the comment above about punching the air: you use the mitt because it gives you a sense of the force of the punch, which punching the air cannot, and there is no element of distance to punching the air. There is no TEST to punching in the air."

To which I said why not test it on something larger like a kicking bag. I'm not saying that striking air is a test, that's how you practice.

If you really need a visual effect, fill a smaller bag with mung beans.



I'm going to a seminar with Chen Xiao Wang this weekend, who I guess we could say has a PHD in fajin, so any more insights I learn I'll be sure to share with you all.

Later

 

Yes, the power of the waist is issued by the spine, which is what makes fa-jing different to the waist generation of power in, say, Karate, but another major difference is the long stance of most karate, which makes their power entirely horizontal, whereas fa-jing punching employs vertical as well as horizontal power.

You can't do 'c-back' in a long, low stance. A long, low stance generates a pushing type force, a la Karate punching, and the pushing in some Taiji [there are no "pushes" in Taiji - arn is "press"], whereas a short stance, which causes the power of the waist to be issued into the spine, creates an explosive force.

If someone claims to know what fa-jing is and yet cannot throw a decent punch from a short distance in a short stance, pimp slap them.

 

I found some easy reading on Fa Jing here.

www.dynamicbalancingtaichi.co.uk/Fa jing.htm

I skimmed through the web site and it's full of quite short, clear and well written content. The images of the Hollywood stars take the professionalism out of it though.

 

How I've been taught

:Angel: I have been studying Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan in the Chenxiaowang lineage. From what I learnt from most of my teachers plus my own experience, reading thick books and trying to imply some intellectual models of TCC into my form only made it worse. On one of his seminars, GM Chenxiaowang said:" Do you believe me or the book?". He made a beautiful calligraphy on book and fist, but it has been sold and now I don't see it anymore."Principles first, then fighting. Learn principles before fa jing." he said.

GM Chen travels the whole world and it has become more difficult to catch up with him. NOw I study regularly with his son YIng JUn. We do zhan zhuang or standing meditation to collect my qi and correct my posture, increase relaxation of the joints, emptiness of mind and let go of the intellectual. Then starting reeling silk qi gong, dealing with dantien rotation, qi awareness, directing qi at will. It continues from side to diagonal stepping up to back walk where the difference between substantial and insubstantial is trained.

Double hand reeling silk teaches you to be aware of the clockwise and anti-clockwise reeling silk. When the qi flows, you will develop more jing. Jing develops through specific movements called the chan si techniques which is in the reeling silk qi gong and the form itself. Weapon also increases jing development, each weapon has its own function, trains the sharp fa jing. The first long traditional form, the first routine of the old frame, will give the student a solid foundation in principles and jing, it contains a few fa jing moves as well as other martial art applications. Where there is no jing, there will be no fa jing.

Chen YIng Jun taught me a special technique to execute the fajing move:" cover with hand, punch with red fist or yang shou hong quan". Good posture like mentioned above, open the hips, spine straight, tailbone tucked, head straight, relax mind and bodyand all the rest of the principles(obtained through form and qi gong) is the start. Turn the hip and shift weight, this happens SIMULTANEOUSLY with delivery of the punch. YOur body needs to be soft but not floppy during storing, the punch as hard as steel at the moment of impact. The Tai Chi classics already said:" Storing energy like drawing the bow, delivering it like shooting the arrow". At the moment of delivery, your body will shake exactly like a rubber band which has been drawn(or a bow).

From an empty mind, focus 50% on qi conduit, 50% free was also GM Chen's teaching

 

Fa Jing means literally to discharge, issue or expell power or energy.

The Taiji practitioner does not have to move his feet at all. All the energy gates between ur joints are closed down, and then opened through the target.

As far as I've seen, there are two main ways of doing it. One is the energy or power passes through the target, picking them up and flinging them back many metres. The other is when the power or energy goes into the taget, but doesn't come out, causing a kind of energy explosion inside their body causing massive internal damage.

If you spend time developing Fa Jing, you'll be pretty powerful!

Apparently doing Nei Gong is one of the best for developing Fa Jing.

Oh, and I agree, in Taiji it comes from the Dantien.