Tai Chi (Taiji) chuan is great for both men and women and does not favor any gender; I am constantly inspired by the stories and teachings of masters of the past and the present time; still, as a female practitioner, I have been looking for a role model with whom I can resonate with. I remember that I was googling my heroine and then discovered Master Zheng Dong Xia 鄭冬霞 online a decade ago and I have followed her career ever since.
Born to a martial art family in 1974, she first studied Chen Style Tai Chi chuan from her father Master Zheng Guo Rui 鄭國瑞at a tender age. Around 14, she studied directly from Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei 陳正雷. Due to her diligence and talent, she excelled and won gold medals at competitions at the provincial, national, and international levels in all major categories including bare-hand forms, swords, sabers, and Push Hands since age 17. She has devoted herself to promoting Tai Chi. She has been a professional Tai Chi instructor for over two decades and trained thousands of enthusiasts of which many have become Tai Chi champions at competitions. She has written articles to elucidate Tai Chi theories and authored a few instructional Tai Chi videos. In 2014, she was invited by Henan TV Station to teach Chen Style Old Frame Routine One or Lao Jia Yi Lu 老架一路 . The show consists of multiple episodes and was widely broadcasted in China and was well received by the audience. Later, it was posted on YouTube and syndicated by Foreign-Aid Training Courses and shared with the global enthusiasts. She was well liked and invited to perform nation-wide as well as in Hong Kong and South Africa. She was the first female non-family member accepted by Grandmaster Chen as his in-Chamber disciple and a 12th Generation Chen Style Tai Chi Inheritor. The Chinese Wushu Association certified her as a 7th Duan 段Martial Artist. She has served as the head judge at many national level tournaments. However this highly decorated Master is low-key and humble. When I first met her in 2015 in Zhengzhou, China, she did not know who I was, but greeted me warmly and sincerely.
Recently, I attended the fifth Annual Tai Chi Symposium held in the Chenjiagou 陳家溝 (or Chen Village) hosted by Grandmaster Chen on July 1-4, 2018. I selected Master Zheng’s workshops of Single Saber (or Dan Dao 單刀) and Double Saber (or Shuang Dao 双刀) among 13 different tracks offered. My learning experience was totally awesome. There is a general perception that women play straight swords and men sabers. Tai Chi Dao or broadsword is a short weapon. Its practice has fewer techniques than straight sword routines. However, it demands much jumping, chopping, turning (including 360-degree turns), and crouching with the majority of movements executed in a fast fashion. In comparison, Chen Style Single Straight Sword has 49 movements and is done in 3 and half minutes or 210 seconds and a Single Saber form has 23 moves and can be done in 38 seconds a Double Saber form has 35 moves in 70 seconds. Or the Saber form is done almost twice as fast as a Straight Sword form. It is physically challenging to practice Tai Chi Sabers.
The Dao forms appear to be a lot more masculine than straight sword exercises and young men enjoy practicing Dao very much. In tournaments, there are more men than women part take in it.
Most of the attendees at the workshops were seasoned Tai Chi practitioners and most are instructors themselves. Almost all of them learned Single Saber before. Master Zheng spent a day to review the details of the routine to fine-tune the form for us. I appreciate her precision when performing the form. You can watch her video below.
The cliché is that the key to a good Single Saber practice is excellent hand movement or Dan Dao Kan Shou 單刀看手while Double Saber practice is excellent footwork or Shuang Dao Kan Zou 双刀看走.
The major Chen Style Tai Chi Single Dao hand techniques include stabbing, pricking, blocking sideways, upwards, vertically, diagonally, around the head, and rolling side to side, chopping, slashing horizontally and upwards, and cutting at all directions. Cai Tou 纔頭 (or Wrapping Around the Head) and Guo Nao 裹腦 (or Wrapping Around the Brain) are two unique techniques in Dao and similar in nature except the former one you move the saber from the front of your head backwards and the latter one you move the saber from the back of your head forwards. The secret is to coil the wrist very flexibly and to keep the back of a saber instead of the blade wrapping around the head/brain and the back. The martial art function is to use the Dao to quickly block any intrusion to the head. The Double Saber has the same hand techniques except it heavily employs Cai Tou and Guo Nao. It was fascinating to watch Master Zheng fly two broadswords alternately around her head swiftly without any break.
Based on the excellent hand movement with precision, one needs to develop agile footwork and outstanding body coordination of hands, eyes, torso, legs, and feet for the Double Saber form. There is an abundance of body twirling, with 90-degree and 180-degree turns, and a few 360-degree flips. Master Zheng was swift as a swallow and powerful as a hawk. When she chopped down after making a 360-degree turn, the Daos were shouting with exuberant energy. At age 44, she has not shown a sign of slowness. As an accomplished martial artist, she has continued to challenge herself and has participated in tournaments to compete. Last November, she entered the 7th World Traditional Chinese Martial Art Tournament and won first place in a bare-hand form and Chen Style Single Sword.
As she is busy spreading the art of Tai Chi by teaching, judging, and writing, she opened her own Tai Chi school two years ago in Zhengzhou, Henan, China and joined the franchise of Grandmaster Chen’s Chenjiagou Tai Chi Academy. Her school was commissioned to train the military police force for the Henan Province, which was a huge responsibility and honor.
During the workshops, she worked tirelessly and patiently with students. She also did many hands-on adjustments for students. Not only that, she even assisted students in the evenings to go over the form movement by movement that we learned during the day. It is no wonder that students all respect her greatly.
(Edited by Doc Luecke.)
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I WOULD LOVE TO CONTACT MASTER DONG XIA. CAN YOU PROVIDE ME HER EMAIL ADDRESS? SHE HAS BEEN A GREAT INSPIRATION TO ME AS WELL BUT WILL PROBABLY NEVER MEET HER IN PERSON.
MANY THANKS,
BILL
I can connect you with Master Zheng if you have a WeChat account.
Where is Master Zheng teaching most of the time? How can I contact the school wher she is teaching?
My appreciations in advance.
Master Zheng teaches in Zhengzhou, Henan, China.