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Clock Face Evasions Connection To The Eight Trigrams
The Clock Face Evasion drills that are taught in the Li family arts of Taijiquan and Feng Shou Quan-Kung Fu are not unique to the Li family.Other martial arts also practice similar evasion drills, but call them by different names like Eight Directional Stepping or Triangular Stepping. I once asked my teacher Master Chee Soo where the name of Clock Face Evasions came from. He told me that when he first learnt it, it was known as the Eight Trigram Evasions. But he changed the name to Clock Face, because he realised that his students learnt the angles and the whole exercise quicker, as they could understand and relate the angles to the numbers of the clock much more easier.
When we practice the Clock Face Evasions we perform them in two training methods. The first training method is where the training partners face each other. One partner either punches or kicks towards the other, while the other partner moves to different angles of the Clock Face in a set routine evading the punches or kicks that are aimed at him. I consider this training method as related to the Early Heaven Sequence of the Eight Trigrams, where each of the Trigrams are facing each other in a balance state. For example, the Qian or Heaven Trigram is opposite the Kun or Earth Trigram, and the Li or Fire Trigram is opposite the Kan or Water Trigram, giving a sense of balance.
The second training method of the Clock Face Evasions is where each training partner can now move to any of the angles of the Clock Face and then either punch or kick from that new position. Some teachers call this particular training drill "On The Move". I like to call it Freestyle, as each partner can now move freely to the most superior angle of his or her choice and then counter attack. The aim of this Freestyle drill is to train the student not to receive force against force, but to move to away from the incoming force and place themselves in the most superior angle so as to launch an effective counter attack. This training method I consider relates to the Later Heaven Sequence of the Eight Trigrams which is based on continuous change.
Connecting the Clock Face Evasions to its origin of the Eight Trigrams of the Yi Jing, or in English known as the Book of Changes, gives more depth of Taoist philosophical prnciples that are used in the Li family systems of health, healing, meditation and martial arts.
