INTERNAL MOVEMENTS OF THE LEGS

Chansijing, the “silk-reeling” employment of the musculature that is always referenced by the term “internal” (internal strength, internal force, internal movement, etc.), is a critical facet of the Yang Style of Taijiquan. In a previous talk, the different movements of the arms were explored, covering the basic changes of yin, yang, peng and an. Now this principle and terminology is extended to the legs, this extension the source of the phrase from the Classics: “whole body movement,” meaning, of course, whole body internal movement. In the traditional Shaolin-type styles of the Orient, Internal movements of the arms were usually paired with rigid, powerfully rooted positions of the legs, with rapid “broken” transitions connecting them. Taijiquan represented the replacement of these rigid positions with continuous “winding” changes, causing Taijiquan to be referred to as “continuous, not broken.”