MASTER CHEN BING ATHENS 2024 SEMINAR

After waiting for a whole 5 years due to the pandemic which turned the flow of events around the world, Master Chen Bing returned to our country, the inheritor of the tradition of Chen style Tai Ji Quan as it originates from its birthplace, Chen village in China.

The seminar was successfully organized for the 5th time by the teacher's oldest student in Greece, Roza Maragkopoulou. It was hosted for the 3rd time in Koukaki area of Athens, at the awesome school of Constantinos Ambrosiadis called “8 immortals”. The participation was great with practicioners both from Greece and no less from abroad.

The seminar as usual lasted for 5 full days with morning and afternoon classes. The main course this time included a wealth of information in addition to the basic study of the routine. It included a detailed and thorough application of relaxation exercises (fang song), then the gradual transition to "reeling silk" which is a necessary pre-exercise in the Chen style for understanding the body and the dan tien movement. Finally they were taught the principles of pushing hands (tui shou) with application of taiji powers (jin) but also practical - fighting applications that originate from the routine movements.

More specifically the Xin Jia Yi Lu routine (New Routine First Road) was taught as we said as a core course. The New Routine was created by the 17th generation successor of the art the famous Chen Fa Ke (1887 – 1957) when he was in Beijing. It is based on the "Old Routine" (Lao Jia) but with the addition of new movements and characteristic spiral movements found in the hand-locks (qinna). It is longer in length with 83 movements and is traditionally taught to students who are already familiar with the Old Routine.

Our school joined with students who attended Master Chen Bing's seminar for the first time and gave their perspective on how they experienced this very powerful seminar, perhaps one of the best I have ever attended:

G. I had the opportunity last weekend to participate in the educational seminar given by the teacher Chen Bing, the inheritor of the historical tradition of Chen village in the art of Tai Chi Chuan, at a very beautiful space in Athens.

What impressed me and I would like to share was the quality of teaching and the ability to convey without words the very essence of the art from a great teacher. Observing him, I would say what characterizes him is simplicity. He teaches more by showing with the body and less by explaining. Just a few words and then movement and stillness in equal amounts.

He showed in his own way that movement comes from stillness as well as it contains emptiness. But this stillness is also an active state with the body calm yet alert. He particularly insistsed on absolute relaxation, which is why the first part of his teaching was nothing more than relaxation and balance exercises. Qi must descend to the dan tien and all movement must emanate from the center.

He taught us that reeling silk is the basis of movement in Tai Chi and that all movements of the form originate from the center. He then showed us how to apply these principles to the martial form itself (We were taught the first part of the explosive XinJia form) and how the great relaxation of the body leads to the moments of explosion and release of energy (Fajin) and back to relaxation again, in a continuous yin – yang.

As a culmination of the teaching, we practiced pushing hands (Tui shou) and selected applications through the form.

All of Tai Chi Chuan in one seminar, what more could one ask for?

S. My participation in Master Chen Bing's seminar was a unique experience for me. He is a complete Master, that seeing and hearing him for five whole days transports your mind elsewhere. There, where a meandering body takes you, with guidance and orders wisely structured, through centuries of teachings. From the bottom of my heart, I thank my teacher, Panagiotis Pierrakos, for encouraging me to participate in Master Chen Bing's seminar.

L. For the first time I took part in a Taiji seminar. It was a unique experience for me to immerse myself in the world of martial arts and meet Master Chen Bing in person. He has an amazing way of making the difficult things look so easy, relaxed and harmonious, he teaches the most difficult thing for the Western world – the absolute relaxation of the body and demonstrates that only in this way do relaxed, harmonious, circular movements come out effortlessly. This gives you the necessary tools to achieve them.

P. The whole seminar was of high-level technical training and transmission of the educational modules which certainly was due to the level of the Teacher. Despite the different level of the participants, it was evident his amazing ability to balance training with direct communication and guidance that resulted in solidifying the essence of Tai Ji. The direct transfer of information and the development of the technical movements of the form gave another dimension to this unique experience.

We are grateful for the knowledge we received as a starting point for new and deeper study in our beloved art. Already in our advanced classes, Xin Jia is incorporated in the program so that we can retain what we have learned and also keep it alive until the next seminar. We hope now that the world has returned to a relative normality, Master Chen Bing's visits will be more frequent (at least on an annual basis) so that we can maintain as a school a high level of knowledge.