Sun Style of Taijiquan

Guidelines for the Practice of Sun Style Taijiquan Traditional Long Form

"According to Master Sun Jian-yun, the learner must observe the following specific guidelines in the training of Sun's Style of Tai-chi Chuan:

1. Consecutive Forward or Backward Steps

This is a movement occurring repeatedly in a major portion of the postures. Whenever the learner makes a move forward or backward with one leg, the other leg will do likewise. It is a striking feature of Sun's Style that the game always goes together with consecutive forward or backward steps. That is, whenever the foreleg moves forward, the hind leg will follow suit, and vice versa. As the two legs are moving to and fro most of the time, Sun's Style is well known for nimble feet and agility. However, if there had not been any check measures, nimble feet and agility would have led to imbalance where the body might not be maintained upright and the player tends to stoop down or lean backward.

2. Symmetric Exertion of Strength.

There must be counter strength exerted in every movement. Whenever the learner make a move forward, he must exert backward strength, and vice versa. This is the check measure to redress the above tendency of imbalance. As pointed out by Master Sun Jian-yun in her book "Sun's Style: Tai-chi Chuan and Sword-play (1997), "When making a consecutive forward move with both legs, the player's center of gravity being in motion is likely to creative imbalance where the player may bend forward. In order to maintain good balance, the player should push the sole of the front foot backward upon touching the ground so that the center of gravity will shift to the hind leg upon its touching the ground subsequently. The same principle also applies to consecutive backward moves."

3. San-ti Stance:

This is the fundamental posture from which a variety of postures are derived. The learner must master its application throughout the game and understand how it is adapted to the derivative postures. Grand Master Sun Lu-Tang has time and again stressed the importance of this posture, saying "San-ti is the prototype of all postures of Xing-yi Chuan." Such a saying is in fact true of Sun's Style Tai-chi Chuan. No wonder Master Sun Jian-yun pointed out emphatically, "San-ti posture is the foundation of the whole framework of postures in Sun's Style Tai-chi Chuan."

- Sun Jian-yun and Paul F. N. Tam. Sun's Style Tai Chi Chuan. Translated by Peter Chen and Leung Ming Yuen. Pubished by Peter Chan and Company, Hong Kong, 2003. 141 pages. Plum Publications. p.3-4.