to the translation of Andrey Kostenko. The countries of the former Soviet Union and China are neighbors. And I hope that this book will also help build a bridge between the Chinese and Russian speaking peoples, not only for cooperation in the field of martial arts and wellness, but also for strengthening friendship in general. Now that this book is being published in Russian translation, I will try my best to help Russian-speaking people understand Tai Chi Chuan and apply it for health and martial arts.

Let's go to great success together!

Zhou Zonghua 1995

Preface to the third edition

After the first edition of this book, I received many letters from all over the world, and many tai chi teachers and students came to visit me. I am grateful for the respect shown to me, but now I feel a thousand-pound burden on my shoulders. I am sixty-five years old: "Honored Citizen". If I were to engage in other types of physical activity, it would be time for me to retire and give way to younger ones. But Tai Chi Chuan is different. If people came to me and saw that I had nothing to show them, they might think (and rightly so!) that although the book is good, the author is not able to prove that people of all ages can use Tai Chi Chuan for combat, energy production and body rejuvenation. They would say that Tai Chi Chuan is just empty talk. And so, over the past three years, I have redoubled my efforts to make progress. As a result, I have achieved a real breakthrough to a new level of understanding and practice.

I will not hide the fact that none of the key pieces of information that I have given out will cause instant enlightenment and will not give mastery. If you are not making progress, don't blame your teacher, because no teacher can give you awareness. If you do not have a teacher, you should not throw all your efforts into finding one, and, moreover, a "real" one. My teachers were not famous tai chi masters, and for more than ten years I have not had a personal teacher at all. During this time, I discovered only one real secret: everyone must develop independently. If you continue to depend on the teacher, or if you only try to reproduce and preserve the teacher's private achievements, you will not reach your limit. But if you want to go further and further, then you yourself must rethink the classical principles of tai chi, outlined in chapter four of this book, and guide every effort to put them into practice.

I knew that in order to improve my skills, I would need to devote more time to tai chi, but I did not know where to carve out this time. However, when I reviewed my daily routine, I realized that every day I spend two hours or more reading Chinese newspapers. I unsubscribed and only read The Sunday Times. This way I could improve my English, keep up with the news and have more time for tai chi. Now I don't even subscribe to The Sunday Times. You can always find time for activities that are of real value to you.

Also, I thought a lot about the early Yang style masters: how could one of them throw stronger boxers to the ground using only stomach power? And how could another, lying on his back and placing grains of rice on his stomach, throw them up to the ceiling? Of course, such virtues cannot be the result of people simply doing tai chi exercises in a soft and graceful manner several times a day. Third Master Yang showed his inner strength even at night, causing the bed to shake under him. I suddenly realized that in order to achieve the highest level in taijiquan, I need to strengthen my strength even at night. And now I only sleep two to three hours a day, resting between meditation and qigong sessions.

The breakthrough I have achieved is best seen by other people in the Pushing Hands class. I realized that true mastery is not a trick or just a good technique. This is the result of generating real, non-muscular energy, tai chi ching, and the ability to mobilize this energy with a minimum of effort. From my experience of three years, I can judge the special role of three aspects of Tai Chi Chuan, which, in my opinion, can take a good and persistent Tai Chi Chuan student to new levels.

First. Practice the qigong breathing described in chapter three as often as possible. Hold the position of the abdomen for more and more time, focusing the mind on the Dan Tian (the energy center of the body). Qi will begin to accumulate in the stomach, like money in the bank. As you learn to let go of muscle effort, you become able to tap into this reservoir of inner strength. If you don't cultivate this energy (qi), it's like writing checks into an empty bank account. You may learn how to push, but it would be considered a skill pure self-deception.

Second. Continually work on the Chang Si Ching in the Silk Cocoon exercises described in Chapter Three. You can perform these movements with each joint of the body, achieving a soft, but powerful sensitivity of the cat.

Third. Combine your Qigong and Chang Si Ching with any single form of Tai Chi Chuan. Let the movements of the body and internal energy correspond to the images of the spiral trajectories that you lay for chang si jing. For a while, this may force you to change the appearance of the form - for example, the arms in "Single Whip" will arch out to the sides at the same time, and the feet will rotate more dynamically. But eventually, when you internalize the patterns of energy, the form will look the same as it did at first. This is reminiscent of the story of the Zen master, for whom the mountain was a mountain before enlightenment, at the moment of enlightenment the mountain was not a mountain, and after enlightenment the mountain again became a mountain.

Gradually, you will learn to lower the movements of the Silk Cocoon deep into the body until they become natural and automatic. Then, when you practice Pushing Hands, your hands will be still at the same time.

the time when the whole body will manifest chan-si-jing. You will not need to repel the attack with a powerful block or step back. Distinguishing between emptiness and fullness will allow you to defeat the enemy at his first touch to you.

I want to assure my readers that the Tao or Way of Tai Chi Chuan today leads to mastery just as it did in the old days. The old legends and teachings are a living guide to devoted and persistent study and practice. Another source of inspiration is a sense of community with all tai chi adepts. In the southeastern United States, for example, one of my students, Jay Dunbar, founded a special society to help practitioners of all schools of tai chi to communicate and share their progress with each other, tai chi does not need to be jealously guarded. Generosity and generosity do not impoverish us, but they can help others to improve. Let's open the old doors wider and together create a society built on the principles of Tai Chi!

Zhou Zonghua

Preface to the fourth edition

There is a Master Key to Tai Chi Chuan. With it, if you are willing to devote your time and energy to the practice, you can continue make progress all your life, up to the limits of your physical abilities. Without this key, you can only hope to improve your technique to a certain level, and you will waste your time in undertakings, as the Song of the Thirteen Postures says. The Master Key defines the art of Tai Chi Chuan. You can practice forms, quan, and even practice different principles such as slowness, relaxation, straightness of the spine, and certain hand positions. You may even reach a high technical level; but without the Master Key, you should not call your art Tai Chi Chuan.

The master key is not associated with any particular style. It brings together all the different forms of tai chi into one family. Shapes and styles are like different rooms in the same hotel. Each room has a key that is shaped differently from the other keys, allowing the occupant to access their particular room but not others. Problems arise when the tenant begins to think that his room is the best and that the grooves, grooves, notches and ledges, sharp or rounded corners on his key are essential and should be on every other key. When external differences are given too much importance, the Taiji Hotel becomes a lunatic asylum. All tenants stick their keys in other people's doors and say: "Your room is bad because my key does not open your door, and I know that my key is fine." This happens today between some tai chi practitioners. The proponents of the various styles engage in discussion of style differences as if it were all that important. One says: "The key to taijiquan has five notches of increasing depth on the top side." Another objected: "The top side of the key must be smooth so that the key can turn in both directions." When instructors, misled by their teachers, focus on the unique configuration of their own "keys", students grow up to be ignorant. But just like a manager in a hotel has