Eight Pieces of Brocade Ba Duan JIn

While corresponding with Michael Phillips on Facebook on the subject of Kai -men exercises as part of jibengong or basic skills training, Michael said: “My teacher taught us the Kai-men, and I used that set for 30 years in my school; we found it greatly effective for doing what it’s name suggests - “Kai-men” means “Opening the Gates”; it helps you create a body that can actually “do” TCC.”

Then he followed up to a member’s question: “Do the 8 Pieces of Brocade count as Jibengong for Tai Chi, or are they considered Chi Gung exercises?”

His reply:

“Hi (name removed for privacy) - It depends on which version of “the Brocades” you do - for example, here’s a video of the “inner-door” Yang family version; as you can see, it looks nothing like the version one usually encounters - and in this case, it’s definitely jibengong:”

He posted this video of the classic set and I share it here with you so that you get an idea of the difference between a set meant for Qi Gong versus a set meant to train the body for further study in Tai Chi Chuan.. Enjoy