Tai Chi Glossary > Posture (架势)

Posture (架势)

Definition: Posture (架势) in Chinese martial arts is the general word for the position a body takes, and by extension for the whole set of its positions and movements — hand shapes, hand techniques, stances, stepping methods, body structure and leg work.

In tai chi the word also names the named positions a form is built from: 揽雀尾, 单鞭, 白鹅亮翅 and the rest are 架势, and a routine is a sequence of them.

Key points at a glance:

• 架势 means the visible form. It covers hand shapes, hand techniques, stances, stepping methods, body structure and leg work together
• The correct spelling is 架势; 架式 is a variant form of the same word. In martial terminology you will also meet 功架
• Four things it is constantly confused with: 桩功 (the standing practice), 定式 (a held position), 拳势 (the internal jin), and the English words “posture”, “stance”, “form” and “position”
• 架势 is the body; 拳势 is the jin. The two are often written as if they were one, and the Chinese keeps them apart
• What makes a position a tai chi 架势 is that it carries a technique, holds a place in the routine, has a traditional name, and obeys the body’s structural requirements
• Form is practised in two ways — 定势, holding each position, and 连势, moving through without stopping. The bodies are the same; the difference is continuity
• The standing practice is a different thing. 桩功 is a method of training, not a position — see Zhan Zhuang

Four near-synonyms that are not the same thing

The English vocabulary here is a mess: “posture”, “stance”, “form” and “position” are used interchangeably, sometimes for the same Chinese word and sometimes for different ones. The pair worth holding on to is 架势 for the body, 拳势 for the jin.

A note on the characters: 式 tends to name a technique that has a name — 野马分鬃 and 白鹤亮翅 are 拳式 — while 势 tends to name the movement of jin, as in 蓄势 and 发势. So 架式 and 架势 are variant spellings of the same word, both about the body, while 拳式 and 拳势 are two different things. This distinction is a modern observation about the usage rather than a classical definition, and it should be presented as one.

What makes a position a tai chi 架势

Anybody can stand in a shape. What makes it a tai chi 架势 is that four things are true at once:

• It carries a technique. A position is the residue of a method of fighting: 式是前辈技击实践的结晶 — a position is what a predecessor’s practice of hitting leaves behind.
• It has a place in the routine. A 架势 connects to the ones before and after it; it is not a free-standing shape.
• It has a traditional name. Most are named, and the name usually describes what the body is doing rather than what it looks like.
• It obeys the body’s requirements. 中正安舒, 虚灵顶劲, 含胸拔背, 松腰沉胯 — the crown is lightly lifted, the chest contained and the back opened, the waist released and the hips settled.

The site’s own form pages list the positions; this entry is about what the word means.

Two ways of practising a form

In the Chinese way of working through a routine there are two modes, and the body positions are the same in both:

• 定势 (holding). Each movement is completed and then held for one to six breaths, the shape kept unchanged. A form practised this way is close to a sequence of standing postures.
• 连势 (continuous). The same sequence moves through without a break, like flowing water.

Wu Tunan is quoted on the first: “定势是吴家练习太极拳基本功的功架，其目的在于加强对于自身毅力、体质的修炼.” The wording matters: it says 定势 is the Wu family’s way of practising form. This is a family-specific method, not something every lineage does, and it should not be written as a universal practice.

The same word in ordinary speech

把势 (also written 把式) in colloquial Chinese means the stance or form of martial arts, and by extension martial arts itself, and then an old hand or expert. The proverb is blunt: “把势把势，全凭架式；没有架式，不算把势” — the whole of the art is in the form; without the form it is not the art. “光说不练假把式，又说又练真把式” — talking without practising is a fake form, talking and practising is a real one. Readers who have run into bashi in English-language material will find it here, but it is ordinary Chinese, not a tai chi term.

What can be observed

• The structural elements: the crown lightly lifted, the chin slightly tucked, the chest contained and the back opened, the waist released and the hips settled, the knees bent and the stance rounded.
• Height. Forms are practised at high, middle and low levels, and a common teaching summary is that the low stance trains the form, the middle stance trains the qi, and the high stance trains emptiness. That summary comes from modern teaching writing, not from a classical text, and should be marked as such.
• Consistency. The same position differs very little between sessions — the idea that a form has a fixed shape (拳势定形) is a modern formulation.
• Self-check. Record yourself or use a mirror: has the shape drifted, and do the shoulder and the hip still move together?

The standing practice is a different thing

Zhan Zhuang is the standing practice — a method, held for long periods, for training the body to stand correctly and to relax. It produces a position, but the position is not what the word 架势 means, and the two entries should not repeat each other. For how to actually practise standing, see How to Master Tai Chi Stance.

Sources

• 《中国武术术语百科全书》, entry 功架 — the term’s martial-arts sense, as the general word for positions and movements. A reference work.
• 《现代汉语词典》 — 架势 in ordinary Chinese, as posture or bearing.
• 杨澄甫《太极拳十要》 — the structural requirements that a tai chi position obeys.
• Wu Tunan’s remarks on 定势, quoted in modern writings on form practice — the family-specific holding method.
• 《武术教学》 and general martial arts textbooks for the categories a 架势 covers: hand shapes, hand techniques, stances, stepping methods, body structure, leg work.