Yang Taijiquan qigong

[beiquan]

I was just reading the thread on 8 section brocade, which I practice (I learned this set from a Buddhist nun in Taiwan). I am curious -- there is a Taijiquan qigong set described in the book "Taijiquan zhenzhuan" (The True Transmission of Taijiquan) by Chen Yanlin, a book purporting to reveal the true, "secret" methods of Taijiquan as taught by Yang Zhengfu, from whom Chen Yanlin studied (this set is described in the book "Cultivating the Ch'i" by Stuart Alve Olson). This set consists of 21 postures, most performed in a shoulder-width stance, and involving movement of the arms in coordination with breathing and visualization of the circulation of the 'innate' (pre-Heaven/Xiantian) qi along the Ren and Du meridians. The set is described in the book as "Taijiquan chubu jianshen yunqi fa" -- "Basic Methods of Taijiquan for Strengthening the Body and Circulating the Qi." The author states in his description of these exercises that they will help 'not only help the practitioner in training the internal qi, but can also be practiced when one is unable to do the Taijiquan form; they will aid in loosening and strengthening the tendons and bones, regulating the qi and circulation, and increase internal power (nei jin)... many experts in Yang style Taijiquan of the previous generation were very skilled in these methods; they viewed them very highly and regarded them as a precious secret, which they were not willing to transmit lightly... hopefully those who study these exercises will not regard them as simply another method of breathing practice, such as Eight Section Brocade."

My question for the Yang style practitioners here is, have any of you learned these exercises from your Shifu as part of your Taijiquan curriculum, and can any of you comment on the effectiveness of them? Particularly, in light of some of the comments made on Eight Section Brocade that it is one of the least effective methods of qigong, I am interested in how these techniques compare.

[Ma_Xu_Zha]

excellent topic after just having read the latest Tai Chi magazine that discussed this.

whatever chen yanling may have wrote about, since there were few actually skilled martial art writers at the time, i still think that alex Yeo's translation of chen yanlings book is very resourceful.

I on the other hand have had yang taijiquan teachers teach a variety of warm up exercises, stretches and ba dua jing.