Qualche anno fa He Jinghan, maestro principalmente di Bagua di Taiwan, scrisse un buon articolo che venne tradotto in inglese e che quoto di seguito.
YM
======
He Jinghan:
The Essentials of Horse-Riding Stance Translated by Miroslave BakosThe horse-riding stance is the most stable of all basic standing positions. Although there are numerous different styles of Chinese martial arts that emphasize distinctive aspects of the horse-riding stance, regardless of the style, almost all of them consider the horse-riding stance the first lesson of practice. Many traditional systems require students to practice the horse-riding stance for three years before allowing them to progress to a further stage. The purpose of this is to develop stability of leg stances and only when a student can stand well, he will be qualified to commence learning other skills of martial arts.
How does the student achieve the stability in the horse-riding stance? How does he make the stance to be the root of correct movement? How does he generate power from this stance to support movement and not let legs take the burden of the body?
Each Chinese martial arts style has various forms of standing in the horse stance: wide, narrow, high, low, fixed, mobile, and so on. On first impression of their appearances are different, but the essentials are similar. This article contains the photographs of:
Chen Ziming - Chen family taijiquan
Chen Fake - Chen family taijiquan
Yang Chengfu - Yang family taijiquan
Sun Lutang - xingyiquan, baguazhang, taijiquan
Yin Yuzhang - baguaquan
Gong Baozhai - baguaquan
Guo Cuiya - Shaolin quan, Wudang quan
Wan Laisheng - ziranmen, Natural Style
Lin Shirong - nanquan, Southern Style
Chang Dongshen - shuaijiao, Chinese Wrestling
Wei Xiaotang - babu tanglangquan, Eight Steps Praying Mantis Style
an unknown martial arts practitioner with very compact posture - bajiquan, Eight Extremes Style from Ningjin in Shandong Province.
Although these people lived in different times, places and practiced different styles of martial arts, their horse-riding stance shows the same principles and presents something that is possible to call the truth of the horse-riding stance.
The lower leg is the main part of the stance. It should be vertical to the ground as much as possible. Knees optimally should not go past the ankles. When standing in the sipingma or four levels horse stance (see the posture of Guo Cuiya), knees should not go beyond the toes, and both should follow in the same direction. If we imagine a line between the knees, with the ground forming a second line, then the space between the lower legs should form a quadrangle, and the power of the stance is thus connected with the ground through the rear and inner sides of the lower leg. Knees should not bear too much weight and power should be distributed evenly, rather than having the inner side of the leg to bear more, the outer side less; or the front side bearing more, and rear side less, etc. Especially it is important not to produce power using the knees, as the knees should maintain stability and transfer power.
2. If the lower leg may be considered a pillar of a building, then the upper leg is the crossbeam; and they determine the height and width of the horse stance. However, the inner sides of the upper legs form an arch. It is well known that the arch is the strongest structure capable of propping up force.
For example, the physical structure of the arch bridge propels power upwardly in the most efficient way. If we want to achieve this same aim in the human body, the muscles around the kuan (hip joints) must be relaxed, making them closely united with the pelvis so that the hip joints are opened up and extended to either side of the body. At the same time, the big tendons of the inner sides of the legs must be connected through huiyin (acupuncture point between the anus and sex organs). The power of those tendons connected together rises upwards through the huiyin, so that both legs can be united, and this is called dangjin. The stable arch of the lower body is based on the stable quadrangle and dangjin generated by this arch will generate upward power, and this power not only prevents dissipation of “lower qi” from the lower belly but also by having a stable pelvis (wherein stability lies at the top of a steady and powerful arch) penetrates upwardly through the spine and reaches the whole body.
Therefore, the horse-riding stance does not mean that the body “sits” on the legs, and that both legs bear the weight of the body. On the contrary, the propping up structure of the shape of both legs goes through the pelvis to the body. In this way, both upper and lower parts of the body are united and during movement both parts will not burden each other.
3. When we try to perform the above-described movements, we feel that the center of gravity of the body drops backwards, but in fact if we can sink the lower yao (the middle and lower back, which is commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as the waist) the chest cavity will shift forward (the chest vertebra naturally pushes to the top and tends to become a straight line), and if we can put weight on yaoyan (the two points above each kidney), relax and sink our buttocks so that the belly cavity will be located at the top of the kua (the inguinal crease, which is also commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as the hips), in this way the body naturally obtains balance and every area has its own respective propping up force, and so we finally achieve stability and agility. Now if we can examine the postures of the masters in the photographs, we can better understand these principles.
Chen Ziming: Center of gravity is slightly inclined to the left, the left lower leg is vertical to the ground, but the right lower leg and knee is not collapsed inwardly to the left. If his trousers were removed, it would be possible to see his dangjin, which would be rounded and propping up.
Chen Fake: Jian (inner shoulder) and kua are maximally relaxed but dangjin is still very full. No wonder he was able to revive the Chen family taijiquan.
Yang Chengfu: Standard posture, the arch is obvious.
Sun Lutang: Dangjin is perfect. It is possible to clearly see the relationship between dangjin and the posture of the body.
Yin Yuzhang: Kua is sunk to the lowest possible point but lower leg is still vertical. It is possible to see his jibengong (basic skills) are very good.
Gong Baozhai: Although this is a pianmabu (inclined horse stance) in this instance inclined to the right, dangjin still props up, maintaining the power of the left leg.
Guo Cuiya: His posture is based on strict practice according to his saying: Yao lian gong, zi zhan zhuang - "to practice martial arts, it is necessary to start with standing practice". That is the simple truth.
Wan Laisheng: It is very rare to see an instance of a young practitioner of previous generations of martial artists. Wan Laisheng's photos of jibengong in his book Wushu huizong (Collected Works on Martial Arts) are worthy of our study and reflection.
Lin Shirong: He belonged to the southern styles of martial arts, but the basic requirements for his mabu posture are no different.
Chang Dongshen: To throw another person, one must already be standing firmly. Although this is shuaijiao (Chinese Wrestling), the basic horse stance of this style is the same as that of other styles.
Wei Xiaotang: His posture is slightly over-wide, and the lower legs are not vertical, but the knees are not collapsed inwards and the outer edge of both feet are also not turned out. Because dangjin is perfect, it is connecting both legs. Keeping the propping up power of the arch is in accordance with Wei Xiaotang's saying: Jiao kou xi wai fen - "feet turned in, knees turned out".
Bajiquan posture from Ningjin, Shandong. It is very surprising that in a small village in the very north of Shandong, there is such a careful and neat posture. This may be a case of Li shi er qiu zhu ye - "when art and manners are lost in nobility, it is possible to find them among the common people". The same may be applied to martial arts.
My own experience in practicing martial arts is that when facing a problem, I try to return to the jibengong (basic skills). The more basic skills are practiced – and practiced deeply – the more likely it is that future progress can be attained. But those basic skills must be practiced correctly because even the smallest mistake can have serious consequences in future practice. I hope this article can help people with the same ideals in the study of martial arts.
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/hejinghan-bagua/article?mid=156&prev=158&next=63&l=f&fid=5
