Ward Off Left by Yang Cheng Fu (1883-1936)
Peng Ching is outward expanding and moving Energy (Jing, Ching). It is a quality of responding to incoming energy by adhering to that energy, maintaining one's own posture, and bouncing the incoming energy back like a large inflated rubber ball. You don't really respond to force with your own muscular force to repel, block, or ward off the attack. Ward Off is a response of the whole body, the whole posture, unified in one's center, grounded, and capable of gathering and then giving back the opponent's energy.
Peng is often referred to as a kind of "bouncing" energy. It is also considered the fundamental way of delivering energy and embodied in some way in each of the other Eight Gates.
"When moving, receiving, collecting, and striking, Peng Ching is always used. It is not easy to complete consecutive movements and string them together without flexibility. Pen Ching is T'ai Chi boxing's essential energy. The body becomes like a spring; when pressed it recoils immediately."
- Kuo, Lien-Ying, "The T'ai Chi Boxing Chronicle," p. 44
"Peng is a form of Jing that responds to incoming energy
by adhering or sticking to it, and then bouncing the incoming energy back like a
large inflated rubber ball. It is the primary Yang or “projecting” energy force
in Tai Chi, and can be equally defensive and offensive. Peng is expressed by the
entire body as a whole, unified in your center and grounded. When one standing
in the correct Peng posture, it is almost impossible to move them. The
first energy is Ward Off, expressed as you Step Forward into the left Bow
Stance, round the left arm forward and float the right hand to the hip.
Peng puts a curved barrier between you and your opponent; creating a buffer zone
that prevents the first shock of an incoming attack from penetrating your
defenses. This buffer zone also gives you the critical microsecond to avoid
being overwhelmed by an attack, giving you neurological space to to deflect,
absorb or counter an attack. Peng energy can be compared to the type of
force that causes wood to float on water or a balloon to inflate, or a garden
hose to fill with a torrent of water. It has a “bounce off” sensation, like the
feeling of rebounding off of a beach ball or Yoga ball. It is Peng that enables
the Tai Chi fighter to hit opponents and cause them, as the Chinese like to say,
“to fly away.” magine a young mother standing on a crowded beach pier,
searching frantically for her child. After a moment, she spots her toddler
climbing up the pier railing, some 60 feet above the ocean. As she rushing to
grab her child, anyone in her way would literally be “bounced away” by her
singularly-focused forward energy. This is Peng."
- Tai Chi
Transformation
"One exercise style I enjoy practicing at home, and often
in my Taijiquan classes (2000-2017), is straight line repetition drills.
For example, do Ward Off Left, then Ward Off Right, then Ward Off Left ...
alternating and repeating in a straight line direction till the end of the room,
then turn, and go back to the other side of the workout space doing alternating
Ward Off Left and Right. Those who have practiced
Hsing Yi drills
are familiar with this style of movement. I did this exercise style with
Brush Knee Right and Left, Kick Right and Left, Fair Lady Right and Left, etc.
This can get vigorous with more speed and/or explosive moves. Also, you
can do Ward of Right and Left to the four cardinal directions, as with Fair Lady
Works Her Shuttles to four sides."
- Michael P. Garofalo
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