Recently, a systematic review was published attempting to ascertain the different types of emphasis by T'ai Chi modalities. A lot of research on T'ai Chi is published, but usually the research doesn’t distinguish the approach a teacher chooses. In my experience, I have observed some T'ai Chi instructors focus on performing the form in competitions, some train to win medals in push hands, some focus strictly on health, and some focus on neijia, or internal martial arts.
While all methods of teaching T'ai Chi share considerable overlap and most would be recognizable to the lay person as T'ai Chi, it is only when you delve deeper into T'ai Chi that you will be able to see the subtle differences between these general approaches. I have encountered T'ai Chi schools that focus on the performance of forms, and I have found them to be less substantive although more athletic, less internal and sometimes even rigid. For them, T'ai Chi is a more of an athletic dance than a martial art. There are many examples of this on youtube (click here). You can usually spot them when you see the practitioner raise their leg straight over their head. There is a ballet like aura to the movements, with a hushed silence as they slowly demonstrate their athletic prowess, albeit it in slow motion. I have also been to classes where it is purely a therapeutic movement with little or no demands on the body. Even though I enjoy T'ai Chi and love to see it performed in many ways, it is when I feel that internal body subtly moving do I completely become engrossed in the class.
So what is Neijia?
Wikipedia’s definition is “Neijia is a term in Chinese martial arts, grouping those styles that practice neijing, usually translated as internal martial arts, occupied with spiritual, mental or qi-related aspects, as opposed to an ‘external’ approach focused on physiological aspects.”
I disagree with parts of Wikipedia’s definition. While I would agree that neijia is classified as internal martial arts, I would not equate the external with physiological. It makes neijia seem elusive and mysterious. Neijia is, in fact, physiological but in a deeper way than just using large muscle groups. I would characterize external martial arts as using force and tension rather than relaxation or song (attentive relaxation).
I have trained with a few teachers that have emphasized the internal over the athletic dance style. In a blog post I wrote last year called “The Importance of Naturalness in T'ai Chi,” I discussed my experience with Gao Fu at a workshop, where she illuminated the path of neijia for me through zhan zhuang (standing meditation) and chan ssu jin (Silk Reeling Energy/Spiral Exercises). After that 5-day workshop, I became totally enthralled with neijia and rigorously searched for a teacher until I found Fong Ha, in Berkeley CA. The main part of Fong Ha’s teaching is zhan zhuang, and what blew my mind was that I am decades younger and many inches taller than he is, but I could not even budge him. He would stand on one leg and allow me to push him as hard as I could, and I failed to move him even an inch. Then when he was finished playing with me, he would shift a little and I would stumble off balance like an infant. Fong Ha and his teachings were elaborated on in the three-book series Warriors of Stillness by Jan Diepersloot. Those books introduced me to Fong Ha’s teachers, who have developed amazing internal abilities, like Master Cai and a few Yi Quan Masters, who were taught by Wang Xiang Zhai. Wang Xiang Zhai is an important figure in the resurgence of neijia because he developed an internal system of boxing that relied on standing meditation (zhan zhuang), which allowed him to push over an opponent with little external movement. While no videos exist of Wang Xiang Zhai, I have found one of a Tai Chi master doing push hands using neijia. (To see the video clip click here) Here is another more recent video clip of someone I have studied with here.
Neijia, the phenomenon
Something happens in T'ai Chi when you perform it ever so slowly and also while you are thoroughly engaged in standing meditation, which I believe is unique to T'ai Chi. For sure, there are many types of bodily awarenesses like being “in the zone” or feeling things happen in slow motion, but I have not experienced in other types of exercises what happens in T'ai Chi. In T'ai Chi, there seems to be a special focus on balance, specifically proprioception, that I believe is unique. Proprioception is defined as “is the sense of the relative position of one's own parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. It is sometimes described as the "sixth sense." So, for the T'ai Chi practitioner, proprioception is not an afterthought like it might be in some other exercises, where your focus could be on jumping over a hurdle or swinging a racket at a ball. Of course, those exercises would facilitate proprioception, but what sets T'ai Chi apart is that the main focus is on proprioception. You turn your focus inward and work on using the mind to direct your center and its relationship to the ground and to other people, as in the case of push hands. Then something interesting happens: you start to see your body in a different way, not simply like outstretched arms reaching for something while keeping yourself upright but like a network of cables and fibers that are stretching and calibrating from your toes to your fingertips and everything in between. You feel whole. You feel connected but separate simultaneously.
What I have found is that the dance-like approach is closer to an external form and doesn’t feel like my whole body is fully engaged. I have to add that there are no studies I know of that research the benefits of one modality over another. It would be an interesting study but difficult to gather that many participants. So I can’t say which one is better with any credibility; however, what I can say is that being fully engaged is deeply fulfilling to me on a quality of life scale. I do think the athletic dance approach is more aesthetically pleasing, and I believe that makes people feel like it is the better approach. What I think gets lost following that path is the resistance you get from an outside force like push hands, which allows you to sense another’s intent. Then your body develops an ability to calibrate to external forces because you are directing and dispersing the force throughout your body using your intention via the network of fibers called the fascia. Having that force applied to your structure allows you to listen to it and is what I believe makes it an “internal” approach. Simply stretching your body and assuming an athletic, albeit slow or static position, doesn’t necessarily mean you are directing it with your intention. When you use your intention, it deepens the quality of the movement and thus improves your mind-body connection.
I haven’t done much yoga, but I know many people draw a distinction between true yoga and gym yoga, criticizing gym yoga as being merely external and athletic, while true yoga is more internal and contemplative. I think the same distinction is drawn between internal T'ai Chi and the more external athletic dance approach. I would like to see a study using functional balance as a means of evaluating which of the different approaches is more efficacious. I know which one I would wager on.
