This is a post by our guest blogger, Silkreeling who is also a keen player of Chen Style Taijiquan.

Known as the “King of Wrestling” in Chen village, you would not suspect that He Guo-Yin is a blind man. Although blind in one eye since birth, He Guo-Yin was an active boy in Chen village. He started learning from Chen De-Yi after being thrown successively to the ground, when he tried mischievously to disrupt Chen’s farming activities.

Due to his surname, He Guo-Yin was considered an outsider and for a long time he could not be coached in the usual way. Instead, Chen De-Yi would throw him to the ground with an application move and he was left to figure out how it all worked. When He Guo-Yin thought he had it figured, he would go back to try the move on Chen. If there was a gap in his understanding, he would be thrown to the ground again. This process would repeat until he can successfully apply the move on Chen De-Yi, which usually took months.

In addition to Chen De-Yi, he also received pointers from other exponents, which include Wang Xian, Li Xi, Chen Zhi-Ben, Chen Xin-Lan, Chen Hei-Xin and Chen Yong. He became more prominent in recent years when the younger generation Chen Chun-Ai sought out his guidance, even though he was totally blind by then.

Ok, let us view this clip for inspiration; and ponder about the feelings going into our forms as if we are blindfolded.

Source: Shaolinyutaiji – March 09

If you can’t see the embedded video, please go to here