D_Glenn wrote:The term Silk-Pulling (抽絲 Chou Si) is a process that refers to the saying 抽絲剝繭 ChōuSīBāoJin (a cocoon can only be unwound one layer at a time/ a painstaking step by step process) and only with meticulous study and attention to the finer details will a result come about.
In the Internal Martial Arts this 抽絲 Chou Si process is following the rule of 'One part moves, every part moves' and 'Using the Root to move the Tip'. The Root of the arms and legs is the Dantian (abdomen, waist, Lumbar Vertebrae and Sacrum). The Dantian should be the first thing to move in every attacking or defending movement.
The result of 抽絲 Chou Si (Pulling Silk) is a power or quality of movement called 纏絲勁 ChanSiJin (Silk Thread Power).
In order to obtain Chansijin one needs to learn to use their Dantian in both of it's Methods of Movement.
The first method is called 轉換 Zhuanhuàn (Turning Changing or Transforming).
D_Glenn wrote:This is using the muscles of the abdomen and the Muscle-Tendon connections to the rest of the body. The Dantian can turn on a horizontal plane and also a smaller degree on a vertical plane but these combined are used to turn on the diagonal. In other words it's able to turn in every direction. To learn this method of the Dantian and developing the connections to the rest of your body requires years of 抽絲 Chou Si (Pulling Silk) and always using 'One part moves, every part moves' while also trying to make every move have a type of winding, drilling, spiraling up and spiraling down. The major joints of the body should move with fluidity and circularity so that the connection is never broken. This method is learned by moving in a various speeds of movement but it's obviously not going to be connected when moving fast because the connections haven't been established. So more time should be spent using slow movements in order to train it. And test the connections by moving at faster speeds.
D_Glenn wrote:
The Second Method of the Dantian is called 胸腰折疊 XiōngYaoZhedie (Chest Waist Folding). Only by using speed can you learn this quick and very brief movement. But this can be done with fast spurts of movement while you are moving slow to learn the First Method.
D_Glenn wrote:This method can be looked at as moving the whole Dantian up and down on it's vertical axis. Which is controlled by moving the Lumbar and Sacrum to roll the Tailbone under to move the Dantian upward. Then using the lumbar and sacrum to pull the Tailbone back, which will drop the Dantian Down. When the Dantian is moving upward the Chest and ribcage should concave in order to bring the Diaphragm down. When the Dantian moves down, the chest and Ribcage should expand and raise the diaphragm back up. This is likened to a Chinese Accordion which is a small octagonal shape that is squeezed and pulled from both ends towards it's center to make sound. This method is learned by using big obvious movement at first. But over time the movement is refined and reaches the point where it's not really noticeable to outside observers.
D_Glenn wrote:
These Two methods should ideally be learned at the same time as they're two parts of the same whole. The First Method is using soft tissues to move the skeleton. While the Second Method is using the skeleton to move soft tissues. One's Chansijin cannot really be complete without having these two methods intertwined. You can't make thread out of a single strand of silk. You need two strands to wind together into a thread.
D_Glenn wrote:
Always practice 'One part moves, every part moves' and the metaphorical Thread of Silk that runs through your body can be thickened and made stronger until you will reach a point where you no longer have to move in a spiraling winding fluid manner because the thread has become like a Steel Cable (鋼絲 Gāngsī). This cable is made of steel threads/ wires. It has a flexible springy quality (彈簧 Tánhuáng) and it can bend a lot but always springs back to it's original shape. You no longer need to follow rules like 'Using the Root to move the Tip' because you can, for instance, have your arm swinging before the Dantian, but they will always sync up in harmony at the moment of contact with the opponent. The Dantian Methods will always be there because you have made your Chansijin like a steel spring. Like a guitar string.
Steel Cable Power (彈簧鋼絲勁 TánhuángGāngsījin) can bend without breaking and bounce back. It is flexible and strong in any position it's put in. Once you have this quality developed you can make strong bends in the sections of your body, or move them in any order (tip before root, middle before the tip etc.) and still manifest the strength and connections of the Six Harmonies (六合 Liù Hé), at any moment in a fight.
D_Glenn wrote:The point is to share what I’ve been taught and what I know, having ingrained this into my body over the last 27 years.
To really get to the Gangsijin quality of one’s body you need to learn both the FaLi mechanism of the lumbar and the rotation of the waist. They both should be what moves first. Then link the movement of the arms to that. Here’s a clip I filmed in 2011. You can see the FaLi and the rotation working in harmony.
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"a part of your body that rotates"
GrahamB wrote:If the daintien is a thing in your body that can rotate, BUT if its rotation is pulling the limbs around then is it really separate? This would be different to “normal” movement.
And if the view is that the dantien is not rotating and is the centre around which the body rotates… isn’t anatomically speaking the spine the centre of the body around which things rotate?
Bao wrote:GrahamB wrote:If the daintien is a thing in your body that can rotate, BUT if its rotation is pulling the limbs around then is it really separate? This would be different to “normal” movement.
But then it's not moving or rotating separately from the rest of the body, it's still the center that leads the other movement, right?
What I am opposed to is the separation of dantian from the rest of the body.
And if the view is that the dantien is not rotating and is the centre around which the body rotates… isn’t anatomically speaking the spine the centre of the body around which things rotate?
Sure, that's a way to look at it. IDK, but maybe it's better to speak about center of the mass? Consider that the body is also made of organs that are mostly at the from of the body. If you consider the weight and mass, the center of the body should be somewhere inside of the belly?
Trick wrote:Hara would be the whole stomach area, while Tanden would be the point otherwise called dantian
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