Silk Reeling
Posted on May 30, 2006 by G. Michael Reynolds
Can one of you Chen guys explain silk reeling as you were taught/understand it?
Filed under: General Discussion
Can one of you Chen guys explain silk reeling as you were taught/understand it?
Filed under: General Discussion
At the risk of showing my ignorance… it’s a spiralling or coiling energy transferred from the ground, directed by the waist and expressed in the hands (or any part of the body you’re using). I’m not sure if that’s any help. What I know is Yang style has it as well. Just that it’s not that explicit visually.
From my understanding, silk reeling exercises are a set of basic training movements. The reason they are basic is so time and effort can be spent on structure, intention, etc.
Shang Lee is correct in that it’s the coiling energy. One can go further by visualizing the path of the energy/intention. I was taught the visualization is as follows:
dantien
back
shoulder
elbow
hand
dantien
repeat, etc. I actually wrote a post a while back outlining the silk reeling exercises and the qi paths that I’m trying to dig up. Essentially, you can train silk reeling in any movement. The more common ones are things like “wave hands”, alternating “part wild horse” etc etc.
But in reality, I think shang lee put it right regarding the coiling energy. For yang, it’s discussed in the mastering yang style by Fu zhongwhen.
hth
I’d add that it’s also coordination and sequential transfer of force. Also, I’d say that you would add legs into wujimon’s sequence so it reads dantien-legs-dantien-back, etc.
I’ve looked into this quite a bit on the Web. About a month ago found a brief discussion that I felt had a lot of merit, despite (or because of) seeming simplicity:
http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showtopic=1358&referid=&highlight=silk+reeling
Offhand I would say, taiji is largely about turning, and in Chen silk reeling, we attempt to permit and/or cause “turnings” to permeate throughout all aspects of the movement flow. Or to put it simply: twisting.
Hong Junsheng’s “Two Circles” method/theory delineates this into a quantifiable science.
Something that caught my attention on taobums was the mention of using twisting to activate meridians. Now I’m speaking out of my own limited experience and understanding and may not have the whole picture here. I unfortunately don’t have any quotes to support this with at present. Plus I have my own questions.
The primary engine of qi movement is the electromotive force generated by the mind through the brain. The intent in other words. Where your mind aims is where the qi goes. If we were talking about using some sort of tension (in the form of twisting, which would provide tension via whichever muscles are in charge of abduction/adduction for the movement) for qi generation, we would be discussing local qi generation, which is a fairly small amount in comparison with the larger flow pulled from other sources via Grand Circulation, which I understand is the primary method. I think I remember wujimon saying something on the subject, which is that the coiling provides a longer path for the qi to travel through the body. Now what the effect that would have, im not sure. It seems to me that the longer the path it has to travel the greater the Resistance is, but I wonder if thats even a factor here.
Secondly I honestly don’t know what the particular effects of particular channels are in terms of combat. For example, i think its kind of odd that P-8 Laogong is one of the primary points on the body for releasing, absorbing, and controlling qi, but its not the end of its channel…P-9 is on the tip of the middle finger. Now Pericardium and heart are both Fire related in the 5 Phase system, maybe that makes a difference…but then Kidney is Water, the big qi point for the kidneys is on the bottom of the foot ( K-1 Yongquan) but im guessing it emits aggressive qi just fine. At least the times ive been kicked has certainly felt like it…so anyway, I have no idea what differences particular channels make, if any. i know Yang Jwingming has in his root of taiji power book a big section regarding different hand postures and finger positioning used in thing slike qigong massage, tjq application, etc. thats really the only resource ive come into contact with on that subject tho.
Wow, you’ve raised some really challenging points. Generally speaking, from what I’ve read the overt health benefits of silk reeling/twisting are to the non-qi channels such as blood, lymph, whatever (please excuse my street-level medical knowledge). If qi-in-combat details are the issue, then Erle Montaigue has written a great deal about this subject (though some people don’t care for him as an “authority”). He has ebooks on this topic, free to the public, on his website http://www.taijiworld.com
Dr. Yang, Jwing-ming is excellent of course.
Just a thought, if you really want to pursue the effects-of-silkreeling vis-a-vis qi, health, etc., you might ask http://internalartsia.wordpress.com/ a question. He’s a Chen stylist trained under Chen Zhonghua and he has a very broad MA/IMA pedigree; writes terrific stuff.