Let’s first look at what the term means. Chan means “reeling” or “twining” in Chinese. Si is “silk,” or it can imply “a silk cocoon.” Jing (sometimes spelled jin in our alphabet) is a Chinese word that has no accurate English equivalent. It means something like a special strength, ability or characteristic that is gained through cultivation. If you want to understand what is chan si jing/silk reeling energy, then all you need to do is study the actions and properties of a silkworm, its cocoon and its silk.
Silkworm caterpillars have been cultivated in China for thousands of years. Silkworms prefer to take up residence in and receive sustenance from mulberry trees. Within their bodies they can transform the mulberry leaves into a protein-based silk filament. When they are ready to transform into winged creatures, they wrap themselves up within a mile long self-produced silk filament. This forms an insulating and protective cocoon. The silk is harvested by placing the cocoons in boiling water, bringing the enshrouded caterpillar to its early demise and concurrently softening the cocoon. One then brushes the cocoon to find the thread to pull in order to unwind the whole cocoon. While silk has a high tensile strength, pulling the filament too harshly will damage it and pulling it sloppily will tangle it. The puller has to feel just the right amount of tension and pull that must be used. Each silk filament is usually entwined with other filaments to form a stronger thread. The entire process of silk cultivation and production forms the perfect metaphor for how you can develop silk reeling energy, or chan si jing.
Silk reeling is an essential skill to develop for tai chi chuan. Without it, your tai chi is seriously lacking. Though you may still get some benefits by doing your tai chi without chan si jing, you are cheating yourself out of at least 79% more physical and energetic benefits! Martially, chan si jing allows you to change direction and energy flow quickly. It allows you to enter into an opponent’s openings more effectively. It allows you to “stick” onto your opponent and entwine him in order to redirect his movement and energy. It also gives you some “iron body” development so coveted by kung fu players. For health, chan si jing offers a cornucopia of benefits. For one, it continuously massages and stretches the connective tissue, thus helping you to literally rebuild and recondition your body from the inside out. People who are serious about chan si jing development have found chronic pains and injuries to vanish over time. Chan si jing builds an enormous amount of coordination and control into the nervous system. Its winding and unwinding movements are excellent for toning the muscles. If done with whole-body/torso method, chan si jing’s wringing action “cleanses” the lymphatic system and unblocks qi obstructions. It is a tremendous youth-preserving, physique-improving and energy-cultivating practice.
To do it, imagine your torso is like the silk cocoon. but instead of a single thread, imagine the cocoon is fashioned from the winding of four distinct threads – your limbs. Imagine that your body can turn on a vertical axis. Keep your posture straightly aligned with gravity. Imagine that someone is unwinding your cocoon by pulling the silk threads through your limbs. But at the same time, unlike the silkworm, you pull back on the threads too. This maintains a sort of “elasticity” type of feeling in the threads. They are neither limply hanging there, nor are they pulled so taut that they’re stiff.
When you either turn your torso away from one side of your limbs, or you turn out one side of your limbs away from your torso, imagine that the movement is being done to you by the “puller” of your threads. Then do the opposite: You become the puller when you rotate your torso toward one side of your limbs, or when you turn one side of your limbs inward, respective to your torso. Imagine that you are winding the threads back into your cocoon. In each instance, you need to feel your limbs stretch as you rotate them. Imagine there is a little space between all the joints, even to the end of your fingers. This stretches and wrings out the fascia and other bodily tissues. For gaining a tremendous amplification of qi, use dantian compressions and expansions like an engine’s piston that drives the inward and outward rotations of the torso and limbs. After two months of doing this correctly, you should notice significant improvements in your health or martial skills.
Because you are focusing on an elastic winding feeling, you become neither yin nor yang. You become both. What has formerly become too soft or yin will become more energized and tightened. What has formerly become too hard, or yang, will soften up and become more yielding, or yin. Qi then flows where it needs to and tenseness is eradicated. Energetically and physically, chan si jing does wonders for correcting imbalances. It almost seems to reverse the aging process.
