Introduction
Taiji Push Hands , also known as dashou (joining hands), qièshǒu (rubbing hands), or zhuǎnquān dǎlún (turning circles and wheels), has more recently been called róushǒu (soft hands) by some practitioners, though the term tuishou (push hands) remains the most widely used, including in official national competitions. Push hands training develops dǒngjìn (understanding of force) and technical skill. It serves as the practical method for training some of the principles of Taiji combat techniques, forming the essential bridge between learning the form and applying it in free fighting. It is the most effective method for cultivating sensitive force awareness, and the step between mastering the solo form and engaging in free sparring. Practiced with full concentration and a light, lively spirit, push hands becomes deeply absorbing and endlessly rewarding over time.
The push hands maxim states: “Peng, lu, ji, and an must be taken seriously; when upper and lower coordinate, opponents find no opening. Let even the strongest force come at me , four ounces redirects a thousand pounds. Draw in, create emptiness, then release; adhere, connect, stick, and follow without losing contact or resisting.”
Another teaching goes: “When the opponent does not move, I do not move. When the opponent stirs slightly, I move first. The force is like loosening without fully loosening, about to extend but not yet extended, following curves to stretch, force may pause but intent does not, and if intent pauses, spirit can reconnect.” These sayings are a faithful portrait of true push hands skill.
I. The Nature and Significance of Push Hands
In Taijiquan, the solo form is the body and push hands is its function; the two must be tightly integrated for real skill to grow. The form should be practiced well and then applied through push hands; the form enriches push hands and push hands tests the form. Push hands takes the form as its foundation, while in turn it verifies and refines the form’s technique. If the form is theory, then push hands is practice. Over time, this unity of body and function, theory and practice, produces a leap in real skill, but only through systematic and scientific training that advances gradually toward higher levels. Practising only the solo form without push hands makes it nearly impossible to deeply grasp the requirements of Taiji technique or to use the form fluidly, breathe and circulate energy freely, and express force with subtlety. Without push hands, the higher attainments of combat skill simply cannot be reached.
Push hands is a form of practical combat training for Taijiquan. It is a two-person sparring contest conducted without protective equipment, competing in nèijìn (internal endurance), juéjìn (sensitivity), and the skilled application of Taiji technique, controlling one’s own balance while disrupting the opponent’s. The two partners make contact, entangle arms, bind the opponent above with the hands, and use the feet and legs for trips and sweeps below, coordinating upper and lower body to bring the opponent down. Push hands is a form of unarmed two-person martial competition. It is neither frenzied fighting nor casual play, but a serious mutual test of internal skill and technique. The moment contact is made, both sides enter a phase of mutual assessment, reading the full picture through hands and feet, calmly meeting the challenge, each seeking to effortlessly uproot or control the other.
Throughout the entire process, the full sensitivity of the skin and proprioceptive senses is engaged to detect the opponent’s force , its magnitude, hardness or softness, fullness or emptiness, length, speed, and direction, feeding back to the mind, which formulates a response guided by the situation. In this process, one must be skilled at sensing the opponent’s emptiness and fullness, strength and weakness, and the direction of their force, and skilled at controlling the opponent under all kinds of circumstances and delivering effective strikes. Push hands provides comprehensive training in skin sensitivity, proprioception, reaction speed, force technique, and the quality of internal energy.
An experienced push hands practitioner, the moment contact is made, can sense through tīngjìn (listening force) the magnitude, point of application, and direction of the opponent’s force; the shifts in their center of gravity; and the timing and effect of their released force. The higher one’s level, the stronger this comprehensive ability becomes.
It must be noted that although push hands is the primary means of developing Taiji combat skill, and demands that the practitioner deploy the whole body’s skill rather than limiting themselves to pushing “hands,” the aim is to push and strike the person — using methods of advance such as free seizing, hard entry, seizing and striking, evading and striking, sudden attack, and pressing pursuit, as well as defensive methods such as intercepting, blocking, covering, controlling, evading, following, and receiving — along with the full range of seizing, tripping, throwing, and striking techniques. Push hands possesses real combat utility. Yet it is ultimately not free fighting; it is training for combat.
From a certain perspective, the internal variations within push hands technique are actually more subtle than those within free sparring. In terms of training content and difficulty, push hands is considerably more complex and demanding than free sparring. That said, push hands ultimately serves free sparring. Though combat methods are divided into push hands and free sparring, the two complement each other and form a unified whole.
II. Methods of Push Hands
Each school of Taijiquan has its own push hands methods, which are generally similar with individual distinctions. Here we focus on the traditional push hands methods transmitted from Zhaobao Village in Wen County, Henan Province. This tradition has its own distinctive character.
In terms of style, Zhaobao push hands emphasises issuing force that is cold, crisp, fast, and ruthless; startling, explosive, and jolting , with continuous chains of techniques and force changes: force follows force, technique connects to technique, giving the opponent no moment to breathe. In terms of hand methods, it emphasises intercepting, controlling, seizing, and locking joints; separating tendons and grinding bones; and the techniques of cǎi, liè, zhé, and biě. When pushing and turning, the wrists remain level, fingers extended, with fingertips slightly raised , this is called “not losing the hand.” In body method it emphasizes rising, falling, advancing, and retreating, leaping, evading, rotating in circles, swallowing and releasing, avoiding the solid and entering the empty. In footwork it emphasizes stealing steps to close in, hooking and pivoting to seal positions, agile step changes, and the principle that once the step is set, the person goes out.
Beyond the standard upper-body hand and body methods of peng, lu, ji, an, cǎi, liè, zhǒu, and kào, the most distinctive feature of this tradition is its relatively complete inheritance of ancient Taiji techniques: upper-body grasping, locking, sealing, and snapping; stacking, grinding, throwing, and tearing; sixteen middle-body methods : rise, fall, advance, retreat, leap, evade, circle, turn, contain, pull up, pass through, brace, loop, manage, swallow, and release; and sixteen lower-body methods : wrap, kneel, pry, scoop, chop, wall, hang, stomp, hook, pry open, intercept, point, spring, scrape, roll, and coil. This creates the forty-eight overt and covert methods of the three levels : upper, middle, and lower, a system where truly “every method has its word, every word has its formula, each word holds a specific use, each phrase a specific method, every word a pearl, every sentence a tapestry.” The three levels of skill are fused into one body: the whole person becomes Taiji, everywhere is Taiji, every part is like a hand, and one can issue force from wherever contact is made.
Before practicing push hands, Zhaobao Taiji requires preliminary solo practice of individual postures. The most commonly practiced include: Cloud Hands, Wild Horse Parts Mane, Step Back and Whirl Arms, White Crane Spreads Wings, Single Whip, Diagonal Walk, High Pat on Horse, Cross Hands, Vajra, and Flash Through the Back. Additionally, paired practice is conducted : one person holds a fixed stance and feeds techniques while the other trains, covering postures such as Small Open-Close, Lazy Binding of the Coat, White Crane Spreads Wings, High Pat on Horse, Step Back and Whirl Arms, Cross Hands, Diagonal Walk, Threading Punch, Covered Hand Punch, and various hand techniques of seizing, controlling, and joint locking, as well as leg methods of kicking, stomping, hooking, hanging, and treading, and issuing and releasing skill. The governing principle for all such practice is: from unfamiliarity to fluency; from slow to fast; from the partner holding a fixed stance to not holding one; from a dead stance to a live stance; from the partner feeding and offering force to not feeding force, so that the practitioner finds the force themselves, feels for it, asks it out, and issues spontaneously, progressing step by step until completely fluent, at will and at ease.
The traditional Zhaobao Taiji push hands uses the advancing-and-retreating step method as its foundational approach. In this method, two partners face each other: you step forward to attack and I step back to defend, then I step forward and you step back. From this one-forward-one-back rhythm, one gradually becomes fluent in live stepping, advancing and retreating freely, though with specific principles and characteristics at the beginning. For example: if you extend your right arm and step forward with your right foot, I extend my left hand to receive your right elbow, with my left foot positioned to the outside of your right toes. Crucially, my left foot (the forward foot) must remain empty (unweighted) and must not pass behind your right foot, or I will be controlled by your leg methods. Conversely, when I step forward with my right foot and extend my right arm, you step back with your right foot and forward with your left, positioning your left foot to the outside of my right toes, your left hand receiving my right elbow , the two of us now in matching-side stance. You step with your left foot, I step with my right; you step with your right, I step with my left, each occupying half. In truth, the two become one: if thought of as a single body, the pattern traced by both pairs of feet on the ground is precisely a Taiji diagram. The point that falls between both practitioners’ chests is the center of the circle; the two front feet land where the heads of the yin-yang fish are, and the rear feet mark the tails.
The upper-body arm posture also carries unique requirements. Beyond the general demand of sinking the shoulders and concealing the elbows, the tradition specifically requires the fingers to be gathered together, always in contact with the back of the opponent’s hand. This hand shape is called the tuánjié shǒu (united hand) or dāopiàn shǒu (blade hand). When not actively applying a technique, the tiger’s mouth and fingers must not open, and the palm must not inadvertently turn downward. An unguarded opening of the fingers makes it easy for the opponent to seize, grab, bend, and wrench them; a downward-facing palm makes it difficult to conceal and drop the elbow, exposing the elbow tip to being seized and jolted. The maxim therefore states: “A downward palm invites release; an open hand invites a strike.” And it is also said: “When the hand goes out, watch the elbow” — meaning, as is generally understood: “The hand does not leave the elbow, the elbow does not leave the hand; when elbow and hand separate, a release is certain to follow.” The formula states: “Meeting force, do not collide — follow the direction of attack; where weight shows lightness, a release must follow.” One hand occupying two hands, the free hand holds boundless wonder.
Zhaobao Taiji push hands is divided into solo push hands and two-person push hands. Solo push hands is primarily intent-based practice: one may trace circles and arcs in various directions with a single arm, or trace with both arms the paths used in two-person push hands, contemplating the coordination of hand, eye, body, and step while maintaining a combat-aware mind. Solo fixed-step circle tracing includes: left and right inward-closing circles, outward-opening circles, left and right horizontal circles, front-and-back vertical circles, and oblique circles tilted upper-left to lower-right or upper-right to lower-left. Circles may be large or small, fast or slow, expanding then shrinking or shrinking then expanding; one may also practice by moving through the paths in one’s mind while walking, sitting, or resting, with no visible external movement. The body may coordinate in upward-downward, forward-backward, left-right, and diagonal directions. The arms may work singly or together, alternating in sequence, free and unrestrained, with intent, breath, and force unified as one.
Two-person push hands may be conducted with a single arm or with both arms, in fixed stance or advancing-retreating steps, or in free stepping, as one wishes. In fixed-stance single-arm push hands, both partners extend the right foot and right hand, with the back of the wrists touching; when one advances into a bow stance, the other retreats into an empty-seated stance, advancing and receiving in turn. Then the sides are exchanged in the same way. One may trace a horizontal circle at shoulder or chest height, the advancing partner reaching for the opponent’s shoulder or chest while the receiving partner draws back, rotating the waist and hip joints with the arm adhering and guiding, or trace vertical circles forward-backward and up-down. This can then be made into live stepping, moving and turning while continuing the practice. Fixed-stance two-hand push hands begins with the four primary and four secondary directions of push hands, transitioning smoothly through circles on one side before shifting to the other, and once both sides are fluent, combining them freely, switching at will.
The Six Progressive Steps of Two-Person Push Hands
Step One is fixed-stance two-hand push hands, beginning with the four primary hands (peng, lu, ji, an) and four secondary hands (cǎi, liè, zhǒu, kào), practicing until smooth and fluent.
Step Two is advancing-and-retreating-step push hands. The two partners stand facing each other. Partner A extends the right arm with the palm facing inward, the hand no higher than the head, sinking the shoulder and dropping the elbow, the left hand receiving the opponent’s right elbow, stepping forward with the right foot to land on the inside of the opponent’s left toes, while both arms trace a circle downward and toward the opponent’s right arm. Meanwhile, Partner B receives A’s right hand with their right palm inward, using the back of the hand to meet it, while the left hand receives A’s right elbow joint; as B steps back with the right foot to the right rear, both of B’s hands guide the incoming force to the right rear, so A advances one step and B retreats one step, the arms jointly tracing an oblique vertical circle one and a half times to B’s right side. When B’s left arm is extended obliquely to the lower left and the right hand is near the right elbow crease, B steps forward with the right foot to land inside A’s left toes, the left arm returning and folding to receive A’s left hand at the right elbow crease, while the right hand arcs from left to downward to right to receive A’s left elbow joint , each partner simultaneously exchanging hands, the two arms together tracing a vertical circle one and a half times toward A’s upper left and lower right. A then steps back with the right foot and performs the same retreating-step movements that B originally performed. In this way, one advancing, one retreating, only the right foot moving, the most fundamental advancing-and-retreating-step push hands of traditional Zhaobao Taiji is formed. Its circle-tracing characteristic favours vertical and oblique vertical circles over horizontal ones, making it well suited for uprooting, crossing, scissor-type striking, and folding-twisting hemp-cord force. The hand methods are numerous and varied, making the issued force extremely difficult for the opponent to endure.
Step Three is alternating-step two-hand push hands. In appearance this resembles advancing-and-retreating-step push hands, but close examination reveals a difference in footwork. In the previous step, only the right foot advances and retreats while the left foot stays fixed; here, both feet alternate, forming a triangular pattern, a three-point system. When stepping forward, the left foot angles to the left front and the right foot to the right front; when gathering back, both feet always return to the same point in alternation. Under the guiding principle of “the body attacks the person, the step surpasses the person, the spirit presses the person, and the breath prevails over the person,” this point imperceptibly advances forward, laying a solid foundation for the techniques of stealing the step, connected-branch steps, passing steps, and pressing steps. The benefit of this footwork is that it causes the opponent to lose stable footing without realizing it, making it difficult to maintain balance, leaving only the capacity to retreat with no ability to advance, remaining in a continuously passive position. The upper-body circle-tracing remains essentially the same.
Step Four is free-stepping two-hand push hands. The upper-body movements remain unchanged while the footwork becomes more flexible — advancing continuously, retreating continuously, completely free and unrestrained.
Step Five is free-stepping push hands with both wrists in contact, the two arms wrapping and inserting around each other in coordination with footwork and body movement, competing for the opponent’s inner gate, pushing, pressing, and striking the opponent’s central stagnation points, and applying the thirteen methods of Taiji : peng, lu, ji, an, cǎi, liè, zhǒu, kào, advance, retreat, look left, look right, and fix center, along with the head, hand, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, ankle, foot, buttock, chest, and back, freely as the moment demands. One achieves: listening, probing, following, and neutralizing; drawing in to create emptiness; countless variations; responding at will in command of the opponent at every moment and every place, so that the opponent does not know me but I alone know the opponent. Through long practice, morning and evening, one arrives at the state where the whole body is Taiji everywhere, issuing force from wherever contact is made, endlessly fascinating and completely absorbing.
Step Six is free-stepping two-hand push hands combined simultaneously with kicking, striking, tripping, and seizing; squeezing, shouldering, springing, and bouncing; jolting, splitting, startling, and exploding until techniques become completely fluent, progressing from understanding force to the stage of divine clarity. Issuing, striking, tripping, and seizing become integrated into one, with the chief aim of training the practitioner’s keen responsive ability, mastering precision down to the inch and millimeter, giving full expression to Taiji’s specialty of short-range inch force until reaching the highest level of Taijiquan: causing whoever touches you to fall instantly upon contact.
