Pushing Hands or "Tui Shou" in Mandarin (Tuei Sao in Cantonese), is to
Taijiquan what sparring is to Taekwondo. It is an exercise in which one
learns sensitivity or "listening skill" (Ting Jing) and "neutralizing skill"
(Hua Jing). These two skills one cannot gain from practicing the Taiji form.
It has been said by the late Fu Zhong-Wen that practicing the form is the
"Kung Fu" of knowing one's self and Pushing Hands is the "Kung Fu" of
knowing others. It sounds very simple but these two phrases--knowing
yourself and knowing others--are the elementary way of saying that one has
first achieved "conscious movement" and then attained to the level of
"interpreting energy". One must first know one's self before one can know
others. Knowing others is the basis for Pushing Hands practice.
Practice starts with single hand pushing, whereby two partners (not
opponents) face each other and "join" hands at the wrists. Initially making
three circles, they can then begin the mental and physical "chess game" of
trying to out-think and unbalance one another. One should never focus on
winning, however, only "feeling" what the other is doing. The Taijiquan
Classics state that one must "invest in loss". In this way one gains Ting
Jing and Hua Jing in order to know others.
After single hand play one moves to double hand play and then to moving step
and San Shou. When one attains to the level of "interpreting energy" or in
other words reaches the highest level of Pushing Hands skill then one will
be what the Taijiquan Classics call a "Peerless Boxer" or an "Invincible
Fighter". This is how Yang "The Invincible" Lu-Chan got his nickname.