The Ending Move of Tai Chi.

During the practice of Taichi, ending move is an especially important move in the routine and in basic practices. Taichiquan focuses on the practice of thoughts, mind, and qi. As we practice the routine and the single exercise, the qi is activated and transferred around the body. In order to return the activated Qi back to dantian when we finish our training sessions, the ending move plays crucial role in this practice.

The ending move we practice at the end of sessions composes of 3 sets of inhales and exhales:

First set: inhale with focus on our thumbs, raise arms from the sides of our body till over head; exhale with focus on the index fingers, and lower the hands down to the position of dantian.
Second set: inhale with focus on the middle fingers, raise arms forward, up to the level of your collar bone; exhale focusing on the ring fingers and lower the hands back to dantian.
Third set: inhale with focus on the inner side of the little fingers, raise arms from sides till over head, while shifting the weight to the right leg and raise the left leg; exhale with focus on the outside of the little fingers, lower the hand back to dantian, while slowly put the legs together and stand up straight as you finish exhaling.

Here is a short and condensed explanation from the perspectives of Chinese medicine. The layers of the meridian (channel) in our body, from the outer most to the inner most layer are as follows: LU (thumb),  LI (index finger), PC (middle finger), SJ (ring finger), HT (inner little finger) and then SI (outer little finger). Also, LU and LI are directly connected, so do PC and SJ, and HT and SI. Therefore, in the designed ending move, with each inhale and exhale, we are able to direct the activated Qi back to dantian in an organised fashion, closing from the outer layer towards the inner layer, and store the Qi generated/harvested/activated during the training session in our body.

I am no experts in Chinese medicine nor specialist in Qigong. If you are interested in further reading, please refer to other source, such as Wikipedia.

Happy training.

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