The Ball is Rolling

Know Your Beans

More on Qi balls - 氣求

§ Taijiquan begins with roundness as an all-pervasive condition rather than a localized technique. The body is understood as a continuous spherical field in which there is no place that is not round and no point that does not participate in rotation, revolution, and expanding and contracting. This foundational roundness is expressed as a whole-body Qi ball, with smaller Qi balls naturally present throughout the body. These spheres are not created by physical expansion with tension but by the relaxed internal spreading of intention and Qi from a central axis, establishing a state of looseness, emptiness, and uninterrupted continuity.

§ Once roundness is established, rotational movement emerges as its natural state. The whole-body Qi ball rotates as an integrated unit, while the smaller Qi balls of the limbs rotate within it. These rotations are not isolated but mutually coordinated, allowing connections to be expressed seamlessly. Rotation sustains roundness, prevents stagnation, enhances flow, and provides the elastic basis for change, ensuring that movement remains continuous and reversible rather than linear or rigid.

Concomitant with this rotation of the spherical field, dispersion and gathering (opening and closing) are constantly in play. Opening is the outward, three-dimensional dispersal of intention and Qi from the center, causing the Qi balls to expand; closing is the inward return of intention and Qi, causing them to gather and shrink. Dispersion and gathering do not disrupt roundness or rotation but occur within them, enabling springy resilience, issuing and receiving, all without loss of central equilibrium. All visible movement follows this and is therefore the external expression of this internal opening and closing.

§ As skill deepens, the emphasis shifts from large, obvious spheres to progressively smaller and more concentrated Qi balls. The operative circle becomes refined, moving from whole-body motion to localized internal movement, and eventually to a single point. At this stage, external form appears nearly motionless, yet internally the opening, closing, and rotation remain fully active. Connections are made throughout the body, directed with intense precision to miniscule points, manifesting as accurate, highly focused, elastic force with minimal outward movement.

§ This progression, from whole-body roundness, to coordinated rotation, to subtle opening and closing, and finally to point-level refinement, defines the internal path of Taijiquan. The smaller the sphere, the more refined the force; the less the external movement, the greater the internal clarity. What appears as stillness is in fact the highest level of integrated motion, where roundness, rotation, and opening–closing converge into natural, spontaneous response rooted in unwavering central equilibrium. (RP: January 28, 2026)

***********************************************

§ The below excerpt from Liu Jinyin is yet another precious set of quotations from his years learning from Master Wang Yongquan.

Liu Jinyin’s Remarks: Yang-style Taijiquan, as an internal martial art, emphasizes internal training and gives importance to the operation of spirit (Shen), intention (Yi), and Qi. With respect to the modes and mechanisms by which Shen, Yi, and Qi operate, the various schools, including their branch lineages, are not identical; each has its own distinctive characteristics.

A defining feature of the “Wang lineage” is that the mode of operation of Shen, Yi, and Qi is described as a “Qi ball.” The movement of the Qi ball gives rise to skills that are unique to the Wang lineage and different from those of some other Yang-style transmissions. The movement of the Qi ball includes expansion and contraction, rotation, advancing and retreating, and so on, giving rise to various movements, postures, and training methods. In other words, the entirety of the art, both the skill of knowing oneself and the skill of knowing the opponent, consists of different modes and methods of Qi ball movement.

Master Wang Yongquan’s Quotations:

Visualize yourself as a large Qi ball, with small Qi balls held in the centers of the palms and small Qi balls under the centers of the feet. Everywhere in the body there are Qi balls.

Intention and Qi expand three-dimensionally from the center toward all directions; they are loose, disperse, round, thus forming a Qi ball.

The Qi ball is formed by the spreading and relaxing of Shen, Yi, and Qi from the center outward; it is not produced by the expansion of sinews, bones, or flesh.

The characteristics of the Qi balls are emptiness, insubstantiality, and dispersion—without boundary or edge, invisible and intangible.

Qi balls can expand, contract, rotate, or collapse halfway or in part.

When the ball moves, it is intention and Qi that are moving.

The opening and closing of intention and Qi produce the expansion and contraction of the Qi ball. Opening (开) means intention and Qi relax and spread from the center toward the periphery, and the Qi ball expands. Closing (合) means intention and Qi return to the center, and the balloon contracts.

The Qi balls rotate continuously. The whole-body Qi ball “revolves,” while the Qi balls of the limbs “rotate.” They coordinate with one another to carry out the various training methods.

Liu Jinyin. (2014) Yang Style Taiji as taught by Wang Yongquan: A Notebook of his Oral Teachings and Photos of his Postures. Revised Edition. Beijing Physical Culture University Press. (pp. 11-12)

§ The below short excerpt from Ma Changxun touches upon this concept as well.

Taiji is a ring without beginning or end. By “ring” is meant that there is no place on the body that is not Taiji: not an inch without a ring, not an inch without a circle. This “circle” may be large and still be called a circle; it may be medium and still be called a circle; it may be small and still be called a circle.

The old masters used to say, “My skill is a circle the size of a soybean.” Someone with even higher skill would have a circle the size of a mung bean. The meaning is that the smaller this “circle” is, the more refined the force becomes. Hence the saying: large movement is inferior to small movement; small movement is inferior to no movement. It is not that there is truly no movement. Rather, there is “internal movement” transmitted from the soles of the feet to a single point, movement that cannot be seen externally. This is what is meant by: “Form has no form; intention has no intention; within non-intention lies true intention.” This is called “naturalness”—a natural response.

There was an old saying: “The head of the ball bulges; the ball meets the wall.” This explains the principle of “maintaining central equilibrium while issuing outward.” This is not mystical talk. I have seen three generations of practitioners whose hands all possessed this quality of force. Their movement was concentrated, small in scale, and their elasticity extremely precise. Their issuing was clean and beautiful, and both sides were completely convinced. It nourished health and cultivated skill at the same time. This level of technique is now very rarely seen.

Ma Changxun (oral history), Wang Zipeng (editor). 2016. Wu Style Taiji: Records of Teaching at Nanhu. Beijing: Huawen Publishing. pp. 172-173