I assume you know the Taijiquan position “Single Whip”. And you are be familiar with that strange position your back hand gets into: the Beak Hand or Hook Hand. In Chinese, it is called Gōu Shǒu (钩手).
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The meaning of Grasp the Bird’s Tail (揽雀尾 Lǎn Qùe Wěi)
One of the most important movements in Taijiquan is to Grasp the Bird’s Tail. Actually it is a series of very basic moves: Peng, Lü, Ji and An.
Continue readingWhite Crane Spreads its Wings: how does a crane fight?
As far as I know, the move “White Crane Spreads its Wings” is part of many different Taijiquan forms, e.g. Yang style long form (108). And it truly is a nice movement. I like the openness of it:
The significance of 108 – a magical number
Do you have a favorite number? Mine has been 13 for a long time and recently I added 108. As you may know, the long Yang form is also called 108 form as it is supposed to have 108 movements. So I had a closer look at the significance of 108.
Continue readingWhat is a Pipa?
You probably know the movement “play the pipa”. Some call it “strum the lute” or “play guitar”. And I asked myself, what does this music instrument actually look like? What is a pipa? Well, here it is (you could actually buy a Pipa on Amazon*):
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