Master Chen Huixian on Silk Reeling

Master Chen demonstrates Silk Reelig (1)

Silk is an ancient Chinese natural product. Through trade, silk was introduced to Korea, Japan, South Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Europe and North Africa and won the love of millions of people in history. The Silk Road was an extensive trade network and series of routes for silk trade between China and those regions. Silk is known for its lightness and lustrous look. It takes a special skill to extract the hair-thin fiber out of cocoons. It requires constant turning and soft steady pulling. The fine filament breaks if pulled too fast; it tangles if pulled too slow. Based on the same silk pulling principle, the Chen family created Silk Reeling Taichi routine. Silk Reeling is also called Chan (routing or pulling) Si (silk) Jin (kung fu). It helps a Taichi practitioner develop internal strength (or neijin) and a strong core.

Master Chen Demonstrates Silk Reeling (2)

During recent Chen Style Taichi workshops in St. Louis, Master Chen Huixian taught the four most common Silk Reeling movements: single arm outward reeling, single arm inward reeling, both hand outward reeling alternately (aka Cloud Hand), and both hand roll back twining hands alternately. All four Silk Reeling movements are fixed steps.

The beauty of the Chen Style Taichi is that all the routines are well connected. Master Chen pointed out how Taichi Ba Fa techniques are incorporated in Silk Reeling. She also emphasized the importance of body weight shifting during silk reeling. She taught the workshop attendees how to make the figure eight twining while shifting the body weight from right to left or vice versa. She pointed out it is very important to loosen or relax the hips when doing silk reeling.  It is important to keep the shoulders even during the Silk Reeling.
 

Master Chen shows wrong way of doing Silk Reeling with a  shoulder raised.

Master Chen also introduced the Tile Hand (Wa Lurn Shou) to the students. There are three major hand forms and Tile Hand is the most used form in all Taichi forms. All five fingers are relaxed and separate. The hand looks slightly hollow in the middle. The hand shape is like the old-time Chinese roof tiles (Wa Lurn); therefore, it is named as Wa Lurn Shou (hand). Hook Hand is used in Single Whip with all five fingertips coming together with the wrist slightly bent downwards. Fist Hand is simple and the key is not to clench the fist too tight.

There are many different silk reeling movements and some combinations with forward, backward, and diagonal stepping. They were not covered due to time constraints.