Jet Li's Taiji Zen Online Academy teaches Tai Chi Chuan with a unique principles based approach. It is well-suited for beginners learning Tai Chi as well as more advanced students.
This video, taken from Taiji Zen's Online Academy, guides you through the key principle of 'Suspend from the Crown' or 'Xū Lǐng Dǐng Jìn'
'Xū Lǐng Dǐng Jìn'（虚领顶劲）means to maintain an upward floating intention, as if your entire body is being suspended by a string from the crown of the head. This intention should be continuously maintained in every movement.
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Transcript:
The first principle that you are going to learn in your study of your Tai Chi Chuan Essentials is called xū líng dǐng jìn, which means 'Suspending the Body from the Crown of the Head'.
This is the first step in relaxing structurally and it connects you, it connects the whole body to the heavens above and the earth below, sort of giving you a sense of being bigger than just the confines of your physical body.
The upward intention allows you to let everything else relax and let go.
Now here is how to do it. First thing is to suspend your head from the top as if you are being drawn up by a string.
So if I tie a string to the top of her head and lift if up and we get taller and taller, now that string is going to hold you up and everything else can relax below it.
The second thing you can do is elongate the back of the neck, so the back of the neck gets longer and longer. This will cause the chin to float in just a little bit, but you don't have to pull the chin in just make the back of the neck longer.
And finally, always imagine that you are floating. As if your head is a balloon filled with helium, when the balloon goes up the rest of the body can go down.
The benefits of this kind of proper alignment is that it bring your spine into neutral. Now the neutral spine is the best position for better energy circulation, and it is also the optimal position for increased mobility, flexibility and strength which are essentials in your study of Tai Chi Chuan.
Original article and pictures take s.ytimg.com site
