Thirteen Posture Long Boxing

Translated by Zee Wen from the book by Mah Yueh Liang and Wu Ying Hwa "Wu Style Taichichuan - Forms, Concepts and Application of the Original Style"

Long Boxing, which deonotes the serial forms, is like the flow of water in a great river or sea, running without end. The thirteen kinetic movements are: peng (warding), lu (diverting), ji (pressing), an (pushing), tsai (plucking), lieh (twisting), chou (elbowing) and Kao (leaning) which are connected with the eight trigrams, and jin (stepping forward), tui (stepping backward), ku (look to the left), pan (look to the right), and zhong ding (central equilibrium) which coincide with the five elements, namely, metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Peng, lu, ji and an are called the four straight direction manipulations which are toward the south, west, east and north respectively. Tsai, lieh, chou and kao are the four diagonal manipulations toward the four corners of northwest, southeast, northeast and southwest respectively.

(Original annotation: This is the work of the late Chang San-feng of Mt. Wu-Dang, who wanted the "heros" in the world to prolong life and not solely for martial arts).