Stance names refer to the position of the lower body – hips, legs, knees, ankles and feet. In Lee style tai chi and Feng Shou kung fu you will notice that nearly all of the stances have the names of animals. The Chinese tai chi masters observed and noted the particular way animals stand, react to their changing environment and even the nuance habits that they adopted and gave the name of that animal to the stances which portrayed these common characteristics. During any sequence of movements in our training, be it the tai chi dance, open hand or weapons forms or qi going exercises the stances are both the foundation and the pinnacle of our movements. The stances also influence and exercise the upper body movements, the left leg influences the right arm, and the right let influences the left arm for example.
Today I’ve concentrated on two stances, eagle stance and bear stance. Common characteristics are that they are symmetrical stances with even weight distributed on each leg, they are square on stances and they are the first two and last two stances of each of the tai chi dance and tai chi open hand form.
Eagle Stance – Stand with both heels together, and the body upright, always looking directly ahead, and the hands hang loosely by the sides of the thighs. Bear Stance – from eagle stance, move one foot sideways until it is about the width of your shoulders apart from the other foot. Knees should be very slightly bent, and the posture upright but relaxed.
The image that come to my mind from the eagle stance is of an eagle surveying the plateau from a high vantage point. Eagle’s have vision evolved to spot and catch prey, the phrase “eagle eyed” describes a person that is good at noticing the smallest of details or that they are watching something very carefully. As an apex predator eagles can fly almost silently and make very little noise, when hunting they will be focused on their prey for a successful catch. At the beginning of any of our tai chi practice it is important for us to also focus our minds on the task at hand and leave the busyness and daily activity and thoughts to the side, they will be their waiting when we choose to pick them up again. In today’s digitally distracted world it is more important than ever to be present within ourselves and our surroundings like many animals who do not worry about the past or the future.
Bears stand up on their hind legs to give themselves a better vantage point, seeing over the long grass, to pick up a scent on the breeze or direction of a sound. Like the eagle they are surveying their surroundings, enhancing awareness of other animals nearby, potential sources of food or if it is safe to continue to walk in that direction. As the feet are shoulder width apart the base of the stance is wider than the eagle, the body’s centre of gravity has reduced slightly and we are more grounded with relaxed knees.
These two stances together remind me of totem poles which commonly have eagles at the top with wings spread wide. Totem poles often include bears and I see the bear as the strong base of the pole. I prompted AI to create this image of a totem pole to emphasise the difference between the grounded bear and the soaring eagle.
References: The Taoist Art of K’ai Men, The Taoist Art of Feng Shou, Hand of the Wind Kung Fu, both by Chee Soo, Copilot AI image creation.
