The Pre-Heaven Power Method
Pre-Heaven Power class at CTMAA
More details on the Pre-Heaven Power Method can be found on the site of the American YiZungYue Internal Martial Arts Association.
Introduction
The Pre-Heaven Power Method, or Shian Tian Jin Fa, developed by Grandmaster Pan Yue, is a systematic method to teach the optimal human body mechanics in the movements of martial arts or other sports. It is "Pre-Heaven" because it only exploits the potential ability inherent in our body but unnoticeable to most people. At CTMAA, for all the movements we execute, including those in Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) or Tai Chi weapons, Baguazhang (Bagua Zhang) or Bagua weapons, Xingyiquan (Hsing I Chuan) or Xing Yi weapons, and Wudang (Wu Dang) fists and Wudang weapons, are all based on the Pre-Heaven Power Method. In other words, it is the internal power engine of all the movements. In general, the training method for the Pre-Heaven Power Method can be divided into four stages:
- The first stage consists of six basic standing stakes to establish the optimal body structures.
- The second stage involves the testing of the structures with fixed step and moving step fajin movements. Click Fajin Testing Exercises of the Pre-Heaven Power Method demonstrated by Master Wei-Chung Lin to watch the YouTube video which demonstrates the fajin testing exercises.
- The third stage involves sensitivity training based on the body mechanics learned at the first stage. Click Response-Hands Exercises of the Pre-Heaven Power Method demonstrated by Master Wei-Chung Lin to watch the YouTube video which demonstrates the exercises for sensitivity training.
- The last stage involves free sparring based on the body mechanics obtained at the previous two stages.
Stage 1: Standing Stake
Stage 2: Fajin Testing
Stage 3: Response Hands
Stage 4: Sparring
Characteristics of the Pre-Heaven Power Method
1. A systematic and Comprehensive Approach to Internal Power Development
The Pre-Heaven Power Method is an evolving body of knowledge on optimal body mechanics developed by Master Pan based on his study of human anatomy and interaction with students. He is able to pass down this knowledge to many of his disciples and establishes the fact that the optimal body mechanics, including the fajin techniques, can be passed down to students with a step-by-step procedure. The process of internal power acqisition is no longer a mystery but a teachable subject just like any other discipline.
The method to exerting power, or fajin, is an important aspect of body mechanics and is considered as an important skill in every martial arts style. Traditionally, the ability of fajin is mainly based on individual talents. A student tries to imitate the fajin movements of his/her teacher. Even there are some methods to train one’s fajin ability, it is usually limited to only a few movements. Moreover, the internal power is often mistakenly considered as the mysterious Qi power. In the past, according to the literature, some masters were able to generate amazing power and rebound opponent several feet away. However, due to the lack of knowledge, they usually explained this away with “Qi power.” A student may spend his/her whole life trying to imitate the fajin movements without any success. It is a common mistake to think that practicing qigong can increase the internal power. It is true that practicing qigong will increase your energy. However, qigong alone will never give you the power as illustrated by a skillful Pre-Heaven Power Method practitioner since the determinant factor is structure rather than Qi.
2. True whole body integration “from toes to fingers”
It is described in the Book of Tai Chi by Wang Zhong-Yue that “the power is rooted at feet, started from legs, coordinated at waist, and propagated to fingers.” Many Tai Chi practitioners think they understand this and have put this theory into practice. But, in fact, they don’t. This is because they are still influenced by the doctrine of the traditional Chinese martial arts training that the posture of the feet should be “five toes firmly grasping the ground” or "Yongquan sucking the ground". According to this traditional paradigm, the feet are tightly glued to the ground and this forms the foundation for upper body movements. Once the lower body forms a solid stance, the focus of attention is the hips and waist. Therefore, it is said that “the waist is like the axis of a car.” The power is then generated by the movement of the waist and hips.
Even if one pushes off the ground with feet and then moves the hips and waist, one still faces the problem of whether the power generated by interacting with the ground can be transmitted to the end points without loss of energy. In other words, the issue of establishing a channel in the body to transmit the energy losslessly still needs to be solved. This is not an easy task since there will be many obstacles in the body if these critical points are not properly aligned.
Under the method of the Pre-Heaven Power Method, Dan Tian is no longer the source of power generation. Instead, Dan Tian is just one of the important transition points in the energy transmission path from the feet to the hands. For a practitioner of the Pre-Heaven Power Method, the most difficult bottleneck in passing the energy through the feet to the hands is actually around the hip area. Once the body moves in an integrated manner from the roots to the end points, the movement, especially from the waist, becomes smaller compared with those methods which generate power based on the waist movements.
The Pre-Heaven Power Method is perhaps the only existing method that implements faithfully the transmission of energy described by Mr. Wang. The power is initiated by squeezing the ground with the balls of the feet. Since human beings evolve to walk with whole feet contacting the ground (as opposed to the animals such as lions or cats), they no longer exploit the full potential of the balls of the feet in exerting power. The balls of the feet no longer play an important role in our daily lives. The training of the balls of the feet is the most important part of the Pre-Heaven Power Method. Since this is an inherent talent potentially existed in everyone of us, the method is “Pre-Heaven” in nature. The training also focuses on establishing the power channel in the body to transmit energy in a lossless manner and the body mechanics to relax the forearms. After you master the Pre-Heaven Power Method, every movement you make is truely based on integrating the whole body from the balls of the feet to the finger tips. In other words, you maximize your potential to generate power in every movement.
3. Fajin is independent of breathing
A movement based on the Pre-Heaven Power Method is always initiated from the balls of the feet. After the feet squeeze the ground, the “borrowed” force is transmitted to the end points without the help of exhalation. In many styles of martial arts, sudden exhalation is indispensable in fajin. The faster one exhales, the more explosive the exerted force. A typical example are the techniques of shouting "Heng" or "Ha" when doing fajin. Fajin based on exhalation is a relatively inefficient mechanism compared with one based on the Pre-Heaven Power Method since a larger amount of energy is consumed in the process. In a real fight, it may be difficult to prepare every move with inhalation and then strike in exhalation. Moreover, the sudden exhalation is an unnatural way of breathing and in the long run may be harmful to health. Once you master the Pre-Heaven Power Method, you can fajin at will in any posture without the help of exhalation. There is no need for any preparation movement (such as breathing in and/or move the arm back) before fajin and there is almost no delay between the moment you intent to fajin and the fajin movement itself. The fajin movement is triggered by squeezing the ground with the ball(s) of the foot (feet) immediately after the foot (feet) contacts the ground. Any passive arm movement corresponds to a unique way of squeezing the ground with the balls of the feet. As a matter of fact, one can even talk and fajin at the same time with ease. Fajin is no longer something you need to practice and develop in every movement which exerts power. It is as easy and natural as any movement you do in your daily life.
4. Fajin in an Effortless and Continuous Way
The practice to trample on the ground to facilitate a fajin movement is common in many styles of Chinese martial arts. Although trampling the ground enables you to exert more power, it is impractical or difficult to apply this method in a real fight. Trampling on the ground can be considered as a “coarse” version of squeezing the ground with the balls of the feet. The objective is to "borrow the force" from the ground.
Trampling on the ground to enhance the issuing power is a simple method which can be learned easily. To master the mechanism of squeezing the ground with the balls of the feet may take many years training. However, the mechanism allows one to fajin continuously and efficiently. It is obvious that continuously trampling on the ground is simply impractical in a real fight. The amazing fact about the balls of the feet is that they seem to possess “local intelligence” after they are well trained and become versatile. A high-level Pre-Heaven Power practitioner is able to direct his/her arms simply by thinking about it. The balls of the feet will squeeze the ground in a certain way to achieve this automatically. Once the intent is there, the movement follows instantly with the help of the balls of the feet. The potential is enormous and beyond the understanding of most non-Pre-Heaven Power practitioners. The motion generated from continuously squeezing the ground with the balls of the feet is smooth and curved. In sparring, since the trajectory of a motion is always a continuous curve, the motion will continue until one hits the target.
5. A Reality-Based Training Method
Since martial arts deal with interaction with opponent(s), it is very important to make sure that the power generated by your movement can propagate efficiently and effectively to the opponent. Just feel powerful or show some seemingly powerful movement (e.g., whole body shaking) when you practice a solo form is not enough. In the Pre-Heaven Power Method, you always train with partners so that the movements are constantly tested and you get feedback from the results of testing. Moreover, training with a partner is different from training with a punching bag. The punching bag works to a degree, but it's hard to practice some variations of fajin against it. For example, some variations incorporate an uprooting move, which is hard to simulate on a bag. Also, projecting force on some angles is probably a little tricky to set up on bag. Since different partners will contact you and react to your movement differently, it is very important to practice with multiple partners to verify your skill. At every stage of the Pre-Heaven Power Method training, the correctness of the body structures and the effectiveness of the movements are tested against multiple partners.
More details on the Pre-Heaven Power Method can be found on the site of the American YiZungYue Internal Martial Arts Association.