OK, this may turn out easier than I thought. I have now thrown away two or three drafts. But rather than try to impress the readership, I think I may have actually hit on some real troubles. Not so much with me - I just need to practice a lot more and finding a teacher would also be a very good move. But I was just watching Professor Wu Dong performing the Chen 56 Forms (as posted here on Chen.quest.ion). Pondering the form I’m trying to learn, and watching my favorite exemplar demonstrate it, has made me face a couple of facts:
Short forms such as this are, to a certain extent, composed of snippets of the original long forms which are works of art, masterpieces. Not only is there abridgement (e.g., “repeated movements have been cut out for brevity”) but there is, I believe, rearrangement… a piecing-together of form elements that packs a lot of movement training into a very short timespan, but has the side-effect of diluting the martial trueness of the movements (to say nothing of the qigong potential).
Now, these modern short forms were created by masters who clearly worked long and hard to do the very best job possible in condensing their art to something that would have teaching and training benefits. And if not for Chen short forms, it’s quite possible that I personally would have remained a 98% “armchair” martial artist, doing my little kungs as I have for decades, reading about MA for enjoyment occasionally, and watching the same chop-sake movies enjoyed by millions around the world.
Well, enough about that. Let’s talk forms, and I’ll try to stay focused. “6 Sealing 4 Closing - right style” comes very early in the set, after “Lazily Tying Coat” and before “Single Whip - left style”. I spent months of experimenting and researching in getting this very cool form to a point where I could feel reasonably proud of the result; and have continued to hone this form, including some tweaking based upon the Hong Junsheng Practical Method.
“6 Sealing 4 Closing - left style” is the penultimate form in the first section of the Routine. It comes after “Hidden Hand Punch - left style” and before “Single Whip - right style”. It presages the visually simple but actually quite challenging forms that come in the second section of the routine, which require improved control of stepping and coordinating big changes in movments and energy.
The Old Frame, original “6/4″ is straightforward, neat, and martial. The New Frame variant seems aimed (I’m speculating here) at increasing both the teaching potential and the artistic potential of “6/4″. Maybe the qigong potential also(?). Well, that’s as may be. Iteration #2 of this form in my Set is something I knew I wasn’t doing very well, but I was so close to the end of Section 1 that I just forged ahead anyway. I developed a pretty good way of performing the move, although I felt the martial element was just not there. Regardless, I moved on to “Wave Hands Like Clouds” in Section II and after several months of effort felt a certain satisfaction there.
I now feel that the Competition “6/4 - left” is good movement training generally speaking, but is, all in all, “Wushu Tai Chi”. After “Hidden Hand Punch left” you do a wardoff left, then rollback right while making this kind of Wushu-looking 180-degree pivot step, ending up in Cat Stance with both hands held high and well forward. Through my studies I know what can be done with the hands, application-wise, at that moment. I am not well practiced in cat stance and that’s been a big problem here, the energy is just not right. (I do better with Empty Step with the empty foot to the rear.)
This interim posture (as seen at 3:17 in the Wu Dong video clip) is seen again five forms later in “Cannonballs in Series” (You Lian Zhu Pao). In fact, it was in looking ahead to “Cannonballs” that I realized something was badly amiss. Doing this simultaneous wardoff/strike (or feint) with empty foot forward, preparing to shovel step, has “Double Heavy” written all over it unless one is minding substantial and insubstantial very, very nimbly.
I now see that I need to go back and seriously refine the way I change yin and yang in this move, or it will remain quite hollow (even if outwardly smooth and steady). Thanks to the wonderful book Chen Style Taijiquan with Feng Zhiquiang and Chen Xiaowang, I have a lot of good insights into “6 Sealing 4 Closing”, both the internal aspects and martial application aspects. And I’m now more aware of how this classic Chen form has been altered, all the way up to the version I practice, which teaches a lot of movement but honestly isn’t something I would care to test in combat. These are issues that I’ll have to work out - or move beyond - if I wish to progress. Which ties in to the very strong pull I feel towards the Chen Practical Method. If we watch Chen Zhonghua demonstrating “6/4″ we see martial capability personified. Not to crush the opponent; but to control and resolve, calmly and efficiently. His esthetics are expressed through his method and goal rather than as broad, graceful movements that look beautiful and impressive.
If anyone has read this far, I am grateful for your time. I’m not soliciting free instruction, but any comments are welcome of course. And if anyone has information on just what the Chinese mean by Liu Feng Si Bi, (other than “60 + 40 = 100 percent”) I and perhaps many other people would be most interested. What is “close” in this context? What is “seal”? What is the distinction, which seems rather minimal in english? (Certainly evokes a sense of finality though!) P.S. Actually there’s a good discussion of this over at Chenwired, “form names”. When Hong Junsheng’s exposition on form names is translated into english, I’ll be happy to take that as the final word!
