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The following is translated from Tung Ying-chieh’s "Taichichuan Explained," by Wu Ta-yeh and Wu Teng Shu-hsien.

In Taichichuan movements, the arms and legs must be light, limber, and pliant. There is an airy, or lofty feeling, with an illusion of slightly elevating yourself into the air.* The movements are smooth, methodical, expressive, lively and without stagnation. From the beginning to the end, the whole series is connected without interruption as if it were done with one breath.

All parts of the body should be lively, but not flighty; agile and not frivolous. Liveliness means lightness with strength, which is different from aimless drifting. Agility implies thoughtfulness and dexterity, and must not appear rootless.

After having achieved liveliness and agility, one must pay attention to continuity. Continuity means movement without stagnation, just like the crashing flow of the massive rivers.

*Translators’ Note: A sharp distinction must be made between physically raising the trunk and the airy or lofty feeling with an illusion of slightly elevating yourself into the air.

You do not raise your trunk by applying strength at the balls of the feet to raise the heels, like ballet or ballroom dancing, which is contradictory to the sinking down of your center of gravity and energy.

You always stand very firm on your feet, which serve as the solid and stable base, and keep your hips low. But you elevate your spirit to the top to loosen the joints at your neck and spine and to make your upper body light.

In making foot steps in your advanced stage, you steady your body with your strong, springing leg and raise the thigh of the moving leg as if the moving thigh is attracted toward your chest.

Springing Action

Both the springing action at the strong knee of your stationary leg in preventing your hips from moving up and down, and the way you raise the thigh of your moving leg as described above give you an airy, or lofty feeling.

You feel your body light, flexible, and agile as you effortlessly glide through the movements. With your springing strong legs and the keeping of your upper body light, you always get such airy or lofty feeling when you are going to, or are just about to make a movement. It shows your preparedness.

When you apply the strength which spirals up from your strong, springing legs through your hips and waist to your forearms, your anchored, supple, and controlled arms and hands move effortlessly and gracefully in the air, also as if they are attracted toward your chest.

Drawn by your shoulders with the strength spiraled up from your legs and waist, your arms move steadily through the air, but they are controlled and not drifting aimlessly. You get the airy feeling at the arms, which move lively.

The Self-Defense Advantage

All the above are the results of your becoming skillful in the interplay of the coordinated lightness (Yin) and firmness (Yang) at different parts of your body so that, in lightness, there is firmness, and in firmness, there is lightness. You become agile, and this is an advantage in self-defense.

Therefore, the airy and lofty feeling applies only to your very advanced stage when you have plenty of kungfu in this exercise. Beginners should not prematurely and artificially seek such lofty feeling.

A premature attempt to do so may result in the up and down movement of the hips and this interferes with the continuity of the smooth, internal energy flow. Prematurely, seeking lofty appearance at the hands may result in weak or drifting movements of hands and arms.

The airy and lofty feeling with an illusion of slightly elevating yourself into the air is especially emphasized in the Hao style of Taichichuan.

Hao Yeh-ju (1877-1935), the second generation of the Hao school, make use of the concept in his discussion of differentiating the lightness and firmness in legs, which is one of his 13 essential points. He also used this concept in the hands.

This explanatory note has incorporated Hao’s concepts.