Tai Chi: First Principles to Correct 4 Common Mistakes 

Hai Yang, I'm a young American who has been deeply interested in ancient Chinese Culture/Worldview/Philosophy, after discovering the Tao Te Ching. Just like you highlight here, there is a deep void of accessible and accurate translated material on pretty much all of Chinese culture. This deeply saddens me, especially with the Cantonese language dying. I am worried that a lot of ancient Chinese wisdom, culture, and philosophy will be lost if not accurately translated into English within this generation. Your videos are a HUGE source of enlightenment, and I want to express my deep gratitude. Please consider translating and publishing your own versions of Chinese culture. I'd love to read your translation of the Dao De Ching, and I'd really love a book that accurately outlines and describes the major themes of Ancient Chinese worldview and philosophy.

As a dedicated follower, let me state that this particular lecture was a milestone.

Deep bow and salute. I'm glad you are making videos again. I appreciate and respect your style and practice, it is very authentic. please keep making videos, you are an important voice.

I am overwhelmed by this gift of knowledge you share with us. I am learning so many concepts Which I try to include in my practice. 非常感谢。

A great thanks for your time and effort to explain . It has helped a lot to understand better my Chen Taichi practice.

Thank you master, a very precious lesson :-)

Thanks so much, Sifu! You are giving me much to work on and think about. I really appreciate your teachings.

For anybody who was wondering, in Chinese, Neo-Confucianism is called 理学 which means the study of 理. Yang Shifu mentioned 理 at the beginning of the video along with 道 which is Dao .

Thank you Master Hai Yang. Your lectures are concise and illuminating.

There should be more focus on the principles in teaching in general, and MA in particular. Your efforts to raise the standards are highly appreciated!

thank you very much! not having a teacher, these videos are a godsend!

Thank you so much for making these videos. I think from now on, I will always remember these characters: 天人合一。 What a great visual for such an important goal!

Thank you for teaching these principles. I found these detailed and essential information particularly useful to look back into every time one practices.

Another great video, thank you Master Yang.

Thank you for your wonderfully clear explanations. Firstly, I must commend you on your use of English, which is not your native language. I've been learning and teaching Taiji in Spain for about 2 years, previously I learned and trained in Tai Chi Chuan in London. It is a challenge in itself to translate from your own native language to explain such subtle concepts and principles. You are doing and excellent job, a you would make an excellent Taiji ambassador for your balanced and informed approach to the art. Regarding your 4 principles mentioned in this video. I have a few comments which maybe you could comment on, or address in a future video: 1. The sinking with relaxing ('sung') is a common problem, I agree, I'm always working on this principle. However, you seem to demonstrate the physical sinking only, but I feel it internally whether I lower my posture or not. It also has a lot to do with my feet and connection with the ground (rooting) which I have been working on with a another teacher for about 3 months now and it's really opened my eyes to this principle. 2. The upright head alignment principle requires more work than people imagine. Many people often start Taiji with various skeletal and muscular issues, let alone emotional tension and other things, that often need some help and correction before we can make these adjustments correctly. A Taiji teacher of mine refers to this as "correct sitting" - as if sitting on a small ledge or the edge of a stool. It seems to require special attention to the complete spinal column as well as the head, but particularly the sacrum and tailbone (which tends to stick out) and the cervical vertebrae that might already be leaning forward (especially with the advent of IT equipment and mobile phones causing people to develop potentially chronic problems of cervical and lumbar alignments). The relaxation aspect can also be difficult to achieve if there is mental tension or the joints are stiff. So meditation and relaxation of the mind can help the first part. Loosening and stretching exercises can help with the second part. 3. You mention at the end that this is just the tip of the iceberg, which is true. My focus on principles tends to be guided by Yang Chengfu's 10 principles and particularly as taught by the schools and teachers connected to the lineage from Zheng Manqing. I do practise some basic Chen style, 18 movement essence form only, but I have very little experience in that style. So for me, some of the other most neglected principles for improvement, which I too am guilty of, are the separation of substancial and insubstantial (in my opinion, a life's work in itself) and the smooth continuity of movement to generate correct flow of power/energy/chi (another very difficult concept to explain, for me it has to be experienced and felt to know what that means - that too is another lifetime's work). Finally, your 4th principle about seeing and hearing is very interesting, this is something I was taught in my early days of martial arts training in Kung Fu, I can remember clearly the day I learnt a very good lesson in a one vs three sparring session. The guy who got behind me delivered a very painful kidney punch that took weeks to recover. My mistake was that I was too focused on who was attacking from the front. I never made that mistake again! Something one of my first, but longest time, Taiji taught me was developing what he called 'skins', a kind of sensitivity/perception exercise to feel the presence of someone behind or to the side of us. We can use our hearing in a better way, we can also employ perimeteral vision techniques; but developing response to intuition and spirit is an absolutely vital element in any life or death situation - whether it might be a health issue or a personal attack situation. Techniques etc may or may not work, surprise can catch us unprepared and far too slow to react. Or we we react, but damage could be significant before we gain control or escape with our lives.

Thank you very much Master Yang...your lectures are most helpful. It is very generous of you to share your knowledge. Greetings to you from Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia...🙏🏻

Your vision and hearing along with your dissertation on the raising and lowering of the had and the correct sinking and raising are paramount understandings to most people who don't live in the mountains. In the mountains you use these techniques alot like if you are resting beside a drop off you sink if you are moving downhill you rise. If you look at the horizon you raise your chin and set your head and sight. And you use your ears to listen to the woods for wild animals. As the area that 200 years ago might have been a little more wild than nowthat spawned this training they might have been well versed in how mountian people moved around. Just a observation. Its kinda like spotting a wild cat your internal instincts turn on for self preservation. Alot of these techniques are used for the same things when walking around in the woods of the mountains.

Start at 11:00 for the good stuff.

nice video and I can tell you really love this stuff.good info as well. thank you for posting.

I am hoping to teach Taiji someday. I am a very long ways off, but I do enjoy my practice. Thank you so much for these pointers and corrections. There were certainly things here that will help me correct my practice. Xie xie! 🙏

Thank you for focusing on taichi again Mr Yang! :) I really enjoyed the other videos you made recently, and was quite impressed with the ideas of Xingyi especially, but taichi is where my heart is. The system is so broad and large I'm afraid I'll never properly learn it even though I'm trying to devote a lot of time to it for 15 years now, hehe. I'm going to repost a question I asked before in another video, but I hope I'm not pressuring you to answer it: I understand you are very busy, but you are one of the few people in the world I would trust to competently answer it. Again, please, pardon my re-asking this question: "With regards to our vision following the opponent: The vast majority of the time I understand that idea and execution - but I still sometimes wonder about some movements (like movement 8 - xie xing) where the vision follows the right hand (near the end of the movement), rather than where I would imagine my opponent's body might be. Again, because I feel that way, I'm pretty sure that I am interpreting the movement incorrectly due to a lack of martial practice." More directly - can we sometimes vary where our vision is depending on where the opponent is (even if most taichi masters and teachers perform a movement with a specific fixed vision pattern)? Or should we strictly follow their vision movement as well, even if we feel that in some movements (like in Xie xing) the body of our opponent is in a different place?

Another great video. Relax with sinking... What about silk reeling? Is there relax- sinking- breath in? If so, how could we relax at silk reeling with fajing? Isn't problem the reverse diafragmatic breathe to relaxation?

Thank you for sharing 🙏🏽✨

💞🙏🙏 very informative

Thank you for video, Mr Yang. Helpful in reconizing why things seemed to work better in my practice with your outside feedback. Do all tai chi style use eatch enemy and hear behind? With chen form learning with you, that is what I did, but in wudang tai chi, the masters were very adament on eyes following the hand?

Hai Yang, Let’s say there is no Chen Style school available but there is a Yang tai chi school. Would it be helpful or wise to begin Yang style and hopefully find a Chen school someday? Or, would this be creating a confusing base for tai chi? Thanks.

Please accept my humble apologies