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If two places of your body are in contact with your opponent’s, with equal strength, and he resists, there is double-heaviness. It is then a contest of force against force so that the stronger person wins. But if you reduce or remove your strength at one side, his strength will be led into void.

When you slightly feel the double-heaviness, you immediately loosen one side. The place which is light is Yin and the place which is firm is Yang. While differentiating between Yin and Yang, you will still stick to your opponent without losing contact so that you can yield or advance at will. Yin does not separate from Yang; Yang does not separate from Yin.

When he becomes firm, you become light; when he becomes light, you become firm. You change freely from Yin to Yang and from Yang to Yin. When Yin and Yang complement each other, there is no fixed rule and no fixed form. Everything changes according to his wish. If you can follow his wish and respond with lightness and firmness without any error, you have really understood strength.

After you have understood strength, you may be considered as having entered the gate of Taichichuan. But you must not stop at this point but practice and contemplate diligently until everything is according to wish.

Translators’ Note: The above is translated from Chen Wei-Ming, "Answers to Questions on Taichichuan," 1929, pp. 120-21. The word heaviness is a direct translation of the Chinese character Chung, which simply means "heavy". It is not confined to weight from Earth’s gravity, but covers such expression as "a heavy blow".

A few books and articles published after 1950 seem to restrict double-heaviness to the 50/50 distribution of the body weight on the two feet, which overshadowed the more important aspect described here by Chen.