Author: Lucia

Coming up this autumn we have the 8 Powers – 8 Trigrams: The Pairs course. The Eight Tai Chi Powers are known as of Ward-Off, Roll Back, Squeeze, Press Down, Pluck, Split, Elbow and Barge, they represent fundamental ways power moves; for example, a circle that expands outwards, or a point that condenses and goes into the ground and so on. Every style of Tai Chi uses the eight powers, and one power can be expressed by many movements. In the Wudang style, powers are grown inside the body through solo practice before they are used martially; each has its own specific sensation.

The first text on Tai Chi in existence is known as the Tai Chi Classics, and it says that the Eight Tai Chi powers correspond with the Eight Trigrams of the I Ching (AKA The Book of Changes). The Eight Trigrams are Taoist archetypes; fundamental forces of nature made by combining yin and yang in different ways. They are called Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire, Lake, Thunder, Wind and Mountain.

The Eight Trigrams of the I Ching are then paired in all possible ways to make 64 Hexagrams, which represent 64 crucial life situations, each with six different stages. They represent birth, death , courtship, marriage, struggle, revolution and more; all fundamental aspects of human life that persist through the ages. As such, the I Ching is a 3000-year-old guide to life from the Taoist perspective. It can be read from cover to cover, or it can be consulted using coins or yarrow stalks in a process is known as divination. 

In this course we will learn how the Eight Trigrams represent the Eight Powers, and illuminate this connection using the natural pairs. Just as Heaven and Earth Trigrams go together, so do the Powers of Ward-Off and Rollback. These are pairs of complementary opposites, like yin and yang, that allow us to learn more about opposing elements by looking at how they define each other.

All classes will be half theory, half Tai Chi practice, and will include: a guide on how to decode the Trigrams to make the Powers, the individual Trigram meanings, how Trigram pairs work, how Power pairs work, basic skills practice to build the conditions needed to grow the powers, and also one Tai Chi move per power. In addition, there will be one class where we learn how to consult the I Ching. Whether one believes in divination or not, consulting the I Ching with a question in mind gives the opportunity for these ancient words be clothed in the familiar format of everyday life. 

The course is online, and runs for 12 weeks from Thursday 18th September 2025 from 6-7.30pm. The cost is £216, if cash flow is an issue, students are welcome to pay in two installments. Booking is here. Beginners, professionals and open-minded sceptics are welcome. If anyone has any questions, please get in touch.

 

If you are looking for some outdoor Tai Chi and Qi Gong classes in Hackney, look no further! It is May and the weather is absolutely beautiful here in London, it is the perfect time for some outdoor training. Our Tuesday lunchtime Tai Chi class has gone outside on Stoke Newington Common, you can find us underneath the big tree by the ping pong table between 12.30-1.30pm.

I’m a big fan of tree circles, and there is a beautiful one in Millfields Park, Clapton, that’s made up of 13 London Plane trees and two rogue Oaks. It is a great place to train, and I will be running a six-week Introduction To Tai Chi course there on Tuesday evenings this summer. A five-week Introduction to Qi Gong course is also in the pipeline for Thursday lunchtimes in June – get in touch for more details.

The worldview behind Heart Repair Meditation for Nei Gong is simple – heart, mind and body are one. This means that strong emotions like sorrow or joy have a physical impact, which can be long-lasting, and can also affect the flow of qi around the body. When we train internal arts like Tai Chi and Qi Gong, we open and soften physical blockages and this means softening emotional blockages too. That internal practice does this is something all the Masters know, and it’s why the first stage of training Taoist arts is called ‘heart repair’.

This is something that happens quietly in the background for Tai Chi and Qi Gong practitioners. The Heart Repair Meditation retreat highlights this aspect and catalyses it over the course of a week through combining different meditation styles and Standing Stake. For me, the benefits of doing this are increased peace of mind, clarity, physical comfort and a boost to all aspects of internal training. You can read about the impact on my students here.

At the core of the Heart Repair Sequence is a Buddhist meditation style called Touch and Go which releases emotions by being with them one breath at a time. This, combined with Standing Stake, was the initial practice which saw me through times of ongoing personal challenge. Standing Stake is made much easier if you calm the heartmind and open the body through meditation beforehand. Furthermore, life is made much easier if you power up for the day with Standing Stake!

The other components that go with this core have arisen through teaching and natural development. The first Heart Repair Retreat made me aware that years of Tai Chi practice had made certain skills automatic for me, these needed to be made conscious again and shared, and that’s when Taoist Observation meditation was added to the mix. It’s a basic concentration meditation that refines the use of the breath as a relaxation tool.

For the upcoming retreat in November 2024 I’m adding the Central Channel Scan, this was an important stage where I focussed on persistently blocked areas and found connections between them. I ended up clearing out much of the Central Channel, which has multiple uses, including building martial power and expelling bad qi. There will be more on this in the retreat.

The Heart Repair Sequence is something I still train regularly, and it was one I submitted in order to acquire my Wudang Masters in 2023. Underpinning the system is the idea that from stress, or difficulty, one can also derive benefit. It is possible to turn emotional lead into gold. And in so doing, one finds a centre that can navigate all life’s offerings with equanimity.

It is like a guiding light, and when the nights grow long is a good time to turn towards it, so these online retreats run shortly after clocks go back in the UK, in the mornings before work. For more details on timing, cost and booking, click here. If you have any questions about this journey within, feel free to get in touch.

On Thursday 18th April there is a special online course starting that represents the pinnacle of my training and research to date. It’s called Eight Powers – Eight Trigrams, and it’s a deep dive into the link between the Eight Tai Chi Powers and The Eght Trigrams of the I Ching. This ten-week course is half-theory and half-practice, and classes take place online on Thursday evenings 6-7.30pm. Both complete beginners and experienced practitioners are welcome. All classes are recorded, and the cost is £150. If needed you can pay in two installments. Book here, or read more below…

The Eight Tai Chi Powers: These represent different ways that power moves; all of the different Tai Chi styles refer back to the same eight powers. These are: Ward-off, Rollback, Squeeze, Press Down, Pluck, Split, Elbow and Barge. A power is not limited to just one movement or application, and while it is easy to practice a movement, to train a Tai Chi Power to fruition takes dedication. The powers are made of a combination of: structure, qi, intention, essence, time and gravity (Heaven and Earth). Wudang Pai train the Tai Chi Powers through solo practice; we grow them in the body, express them through movement, and eventually test them out in partnerwork.

The Eight Trigrams: These are made up different combinations of yang and yin lines and represent forces of nature. They are: Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Cloud and Mountain. The trigrams have been around for at least 3000 years, they combine in pairs to make the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, a Taoist book which gives guidance for every circumstance in human life. It is not an easy book to understand, and this course presents an opportunity to know it from the basics upwards.

The Connection: Zhang San Feng, the creator of Tai Chi, said that the Eight Tai Chi Powers correspond to the Eight Trigrams. I have spent years exploring this connection. To look at one example, the Tai Chi Power of Ward Off (AKA Peng) is an outwards expansive bubble of power like a bomb blast – it is also the foundation on which all the other Tai Chi powers are based. It corresponds with the trigram of Qian/Heaven (three unbroken/yang lines)  This represents the seed, the blueprint that underlies all that exists – the DNA of the world. What is the blueprint hidden in Ward Off we need to make our Tai Chi come alive? How can embodying the pure yang of Ward Off help understand the trigram that sets the direction for all things? Come along and find out!

The Course: We will look at one Trigram-Power pairing per week, with an introduction and concluding session. For the eight central lessons, about 30-45 minutes of each class will be spent on theory as we come to understand the trigram and its corresponding power with the mind; the other half of class will look at understanding with the body. The course consists of 10 x 1.5 hour classes and costs £150. Regular UK students are asked to pay into my bank account, the next best option is through my website, and the third best option is Paypal. If cash flow is a problem, students are able to pay by two £75 installments. Please pay by 17th April, with the second installment by 23rd May. All classes will be recorded, with the link sent to all attendees.

My aim is to give you the tools to grasp the trigrams and powers from first principles. With enough practice, you can go on to grasp both with your shen/spirit – a deep intuitive understanding known as ‘wu’ 悟. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.

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This is something I have been working at for years and in October 2023 it finally happened. After developing my own techniques (Heart Repair Meditation for Nei Gong and Eight Powers Eight Trigrams), I explained them in relation to the Taoist Classics in an essay for Master Yuan Li Min, who gave me his seal of approval as a Master. This means I can now create the 17th Generation of the Wudang Xuan Wu Clan by taking on followers, also known as ‘indoor students’ or ‘tudi’ of my own.

Becoming a Tudi is a commitment to study the Wudang Arts with sincerity and help to spread them around the globe. It also a choice to support your chosen Shifu’s way of teaching; this should only occur when it has proven to work well for you. Traditionally, the decision to become a Tudi can only take place after a minimum three years of regular training with the teacher, and the decision to accept a student as a Tudi is at the teacher’s discretion.

The Xuan Wu lineage is Taoist; I practise a spiritual form of Taoism which means I welcome followers of all religions and spirtualities as well as those with none – you just need to have a practical understanding of Taoism. You can find out more about my decision to become a Tudi, and the Way which has unfolded from that decision, in this article.

To learn more about the techniques which earned me my ‘Masters’, check out the Eight Powers – Eight Trigrams online course starting in April, and the Heart Repair Meditation online retreat coming up in November. To see the special evening where myself and my elder Kung Fu brother Zhang Wei Hai were both recognised as Masters in Wudang, check out this video. To find out more abut becoming a Tudi yourself, please get in touch.

I am currently training in Wudang Shan until October 27th. Victoria continues to run the Tuesday evening Traditional Tai Chi classes while I am away, please go to the Salvation Army Hall on Lower Clapton Road for 6.20pm if you wish to take part.

I’ll be back teaching in person from October 31st, and will be running hybrid classes on the Tuesday evenings. This means we set up a webcam to record my tuition and students can train live online using zoom or access the recordings if they cannot make the live class.

Tuesday lunchtime Tai Chi for Health also continues from the 31st October, and online Kung Fu runs from the second of November. I will be running an early morning class on my return, and am currently deciding content based what inspires me while I am out here.

Access to email is intermittent while I am in China due to the firewall, I generally try to get online about once a week at the weekend. Thanks for your patience in awaiting my reply and see you at the end of October.