Mist curtains the hills all around, yet this January morning is glowing, the Lombardy poplars showing fawn against the luminosity. The turning towards spring has been taken.

When I first met Chen XiaoWang I saw something on the move inside the body that I had not seen before in Taiji Quan. It was difficult to pin down, but it seemed that somewhere there was a hidden impulse, setting off vibrations which linked and transmitted an energy that appeared palpable. Slowly I began to understand that what had affected me so deeply was partly the result of a mysterious undulation of the spine, a forwards and backwards rolling, what Chen XiaoWang describes as ‘chest-waist change place’. The core ripples.

This undulation was nothing like what I had encountered in dance technique. It was not an action being executed, and there was no suggestion of its being a beautiful or sensuous motion. One cannot make it happen. Chen XiaoWang would say, "Natural - first principle!"

This 'chest-waist change place' exercise evokes wonderment in passersby, even in people who have some familiarity with Taiji. Those who have heard of strange Qigong practices from China may think that it is an Induction exercise, such as the ones mentioned by Zhuangzi, the 'bear-hangings' and 'bird-stretchings'. But at the centre of this exercise is one of the keys to Chentaiji. In one way or another it directs every move of the forms. It is the invisible beginning of the very first movement, when you simply lift your arms.

The penultimate exercise in Chen Xiao Wang’s Chansigong series, usually not taught in the beginning years, awakens an instinctive impulse in the body.

The stance is the same as for starting the form – the feet at shoulder-width distance, weight falling perpendicular, knees unlocked but legs nearly straight. I suggest beginning in the following way: place the palms of the hands one on each side of the lower abdomen, fingers pointing in towards dantian; elbows are relaxed, breathing is natural. Let a wave-like motion begin in the torso. The mid back rises slightly, with a tiny arching pushing through the lower spine. Allow the shoulders and arms to minimally follow the motion set off in the torso, while for the time being, palms remain at rest, one on each side of the lower abdomen.

The movement up the back continues and completes its circuit by a rounding and sinking down the front of the torso, the chest giving way. As the rippling through the body is repeated over and over, the entire spine becomes involved in the motion, from the lower body up through the back and down the front, and rising up the back again. It passes through the whole body, including the legs. There is a rising and sinking with each undulation, while the feet stay in full contact with the ground. The neck is relaxed and the head follows the spine’s motion. When the body relaxes into an instinctive pulse coming from its core, allow the hands to be drawn into the vortex.

‘Chest-waist change place’ is an apt description of this controlled turbulence at the core of the body. It happens longitudinally, the axis being vertical as well as at any angle across the frame. While one half of the body may be undulating generally along a vertical axis, at the same time, or almost at the same time, there can be mini-vortices folding and unfolding within the major spiral. At any one moment, the body may be engulfed in chansi, be an entire arena of multiple spirallings.