Grasping Sparrow's Tail

"Grasping Sparrow's Tail" is often regarded, especially by practitioners of Yang Style Taijiquan, as the prototype from which other Taijiquan patterns evolved. It is traditionally described as containing four fundamental techniques, namely "peng", "lu", "li" and "an", or "ward off", "roll back", "press" and "push". However, in our school we recognize a fifth technique, which is "chen" or "sink". We also give poetic names to the patterns, namely "Immortal Waves Sleeves", "Double Dragons Play with Pearl", "Pushing Boat According to Flow of Current", "Black Bear Sinks Hips", and "Open Window to Look at Moon".