My Tai Chi Practice Experience (10): Separation of flesh and bone

Regarding the "separation of flesh and bone", it is said that it is the relaxation practice of Wu's Taijiquan, and its explanation is: the separation of bone and flesh refers to the idea that the muscles of the front chest and back flow from top to bottom like flowing water to the fountain point under the foot in the case of standing in the middle of the body: at the same time, the bones have the consciousness of upward movement. In this way, the bones rise upwards and the muscles sink downwards, as if the flesh and bones are separated. Long-term practice. It will produce a feeling of looseness of flesh and bone separation. After muscle loosening. The limbs are very soft and the inside is very strong, which is the practice method of accumulating softness into rigidity. Another explanation is that the separation of bone and flesh is the feeling of bone rise, meat drop, and joint loosening when punching, just like the boneless grilled chicken, as long as the chicken skeleton is lifted up and shaken, the chicken will fall off the bone. Having this feeling means that your muscles are not tightly wrapped around the bones and are already in a relaxed state. Finding the feeling of "separation of flesh and bones" is to find the golden key to open the door of Tai Chi Chuan's "rigidity and softness". In short, there are many more explanations for "separation of flesh and bones", and I will not list them here.

In fact, the "separation of flesh and bones" is not only Wu's Taijiquan, but also the inner family fist such as shape and meaning. Since there is no authoritative literature to discuss it, the explanation for this can only be a different theory. It feels like most of the explanations are in the clouds, abstract and mysterious, and not marginal. To understand the "separation of flesh and bones", it is still necessary to start from "returning to the innate".

Of all the animals, only humans have a pair of muscular calves, and the calves of other animals are almost all only bones and no flesh. If humans do not adopt the mode of walking upright, they would not have needed to grow a strong muscle on the calf. After standing upright, the weight of the whole body is concentrated on the two hind limbs, and it is not easy to grasp the balance by orthopedic support alone, so it must be assisted by muscles, and after millions of years of evolution, there is a tight lump of flesh on the calf. In this way, the problem of standing balance is solved, but due to the tension of local muscles and changes in the relationship between the crotch and spine, some of the innate energy is also lost.

Fortunately, our ancestors invented pile gong and relaxation in the process of practicing, by relaxing the muscles, adjusting the standing posture, and returning to the bone support mode. This return does not matter, the muscle of the calf can suddenly be loosened, the original bone and flesh synergy support has become a pure bone support, and the flesh and bone of the calf have a feeling of separation. Once this state is practiced (which is a real state rather than a feeling), it is equivalent to a partial return of the innate energy, and the inner kung fu is complete. Therefore, the inner fist that emphasizes muscle relaxation must be loose in the calf in the end. Once the calf is loose, the bones in all parts of the body are loose, including around the eyes, deep in the cheekbones and even in the nerves in the brain. At this time, the whole body no longer has muscles and tissues that do not listen to commands because of tension, and it is easy to achieve heart and mind, intention and qi, and qi and force. Only here can you practice tai chi.

Therefore, the so-called "separation of bone and flesh" should be a state and feeling after loosening the calves, and it is impossible to separate the bones of the whole body like the boneless grilled chicken. Today's Tai Chi, just like buddhism says in the end of the Fa era, there are too many fake and real things, no matter who they have not practiced, it is all based on imagination and nonsense. Taijiquan has fallen to this point today, the most important thing is that there is a problem with the inheritance, and there is no authoritative, standardized, systematic thing left. But after all, there are still some truths scattered in a voluminous variety of fallacies and heresies, and we can only combine our own practice experience to find out and connect these scattered pearls. Everyone must learn to distinguish between good and bad, true and false, and those things that only say that they are natural and do not say why they are so, and that they cannot be combined with their own practice experience, are most likely fallacies and heresies. Comrades must not fail to look into it.

More than ten years ago, I did not dare to speak falsely. Today, I made up my mind to say some experiences because after more than ten years of hard work, I did have some real experiences, and if I didn't say them, I was afraid that in the future, with the increase of age, my thinking would degenerate to a certain extent and I couldn't say it.