Suppleness and strength
To demonstrate "rotating the wrists and arms," Xiong Wei asks Ji Liancheng to spar with him. Ji, who has been studying with Xiong for more than 20 years, aims his fist toward the chest of the master, who immediately grabs it tightly. In one smooth motion, Xiong avoids the fist, locks up his opponent, and applies downward pressure with his leaning body. As his opponent lies conquered on the ground, the master's gaze, formerly benevolent, has become sharp and penetrating.
"When my opponent is still, I am still; at my opponent's slightest move, I pounce," says Xiong, whose Mandarin has a thick Hunan accent. Explaining that tai chi imitates nature, he quotes a famous Chinese expression: "If heaven doesn't rotate, it meets destruction; if the earth doesn't rotate, it collapses; if people don't rotate, they wither." Through the vibrations of continual rotation, one can deeply massage the muscles, achieving a state of thorough relaxation. But when you need to apply force quickly, rotating can also be turned into a source of great strength.
"It's like how a bullet, which finds its trajectory from its own forward motion combined with the rotation imparted by the rifling of a gun barrel, leaves a gun with great power and speed."
Xiong Wei picks up a towel to make another analogy. He grips the towel with both his hands, and then, rotating his hands in opposite directions, twists the towel along a central axis. "These fibers are like a body's meridians. After deep rotation, the movement applied to the outside layer will necessarily stimulate the muscle, tendons and blood vessels on the inside, alternately relaxing and tightening them. After a while, the body will naturally grow relaxed."
Likewise, it's not especially effective to apply pressure straight from the top or bottom when trying to squeeze water from a wet towel. The best method is twisting (rotating) it. If the angle is right, and you apply a little force intelligently, you can squeeze out the last drop. This is akin to how the "silk reeling energy" of tai chi is applied.
Xiong Wei stresses that the rotation in taiji daoyin is three-dimensional and multilayered. In the terminology of "silk reeling"-neigong ("internal kung fu") movement principles found in most tai chi schools-there is compliance and defiance, the inner and the outer, the upper and the lower, advancing and retreating. When performing these exercises, the waist is at the center, and it leads the movements of the body's nine major joints (shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, spine, neck, crotch, knees and ankles) in simultaneous rotation. The movements are startlingly powerful.
Don't be misled by the leisurely pacing and the soft lines of tai chi; once a master begins to spar, lines of strength open up from various places in the body which are very hard to defend against. The photos show Xiong Wei using the "linked hands" method to spar with a student.