Zhan Zhuang/ Santi Shi

[blindsage]

For those of you who have done both (Xue), how does the practice, feel and expression of these differ. Aside from the obvious physical position of the body, I assume there is a different focus mentally, but what else? Just a general question that popped into my head. I have no experience with either at this point.

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

I find Santi shi to be a very tense form of training which eventually the body becomes relaxed into it over time.

Zhan Zhuang is not so extreme and is a bit more gentler. The tense forming is not there it is more relaxed then Santi shi.

Santi shi puts the weight at about 70/30 which for most people is very demanding with all the finer points coming into play.

Zhan Zhuang is 50/50.

I think the focus is Santi is like a cocked gun holding the tension on the rear leg ready to explode forward.
Were Zhan Zhang the focus is relasing tension. There are exceptions to the rule and if you practice Santi long enough you do get more comfortable into the posture but IMO the weight on the back leg still is like a loaded spring waiting to pounce.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Santi hurts more.

Focus mentally in the beginning is pretty much the same. Basically there is no focus. You are trying to relax in the posture and simply stand and breathe. The longer the better.

However I have more experience with Santi than Zhan Zhuang. Santi is the root of Xingyiquan and Zhan Zhuang is trained as well but, IMO, Santi is much more important to the root of Xingyiquan. But this is not saying that Zhan Zhuang is not important. However I do believe the Yiquan people put much more emphasis on Zhan Zhuang than Xingyiquan people do.

There is a link somewhere about the various stages of Xingyiquan (there are 3) and it was actually a lot of help to me in my Santi and zhan zhuang training. If I can find it I will post it.

I also agree with what JadecloudAlchemist posted. But I believe that santi at higher stages (note that I never got to higher stages) is really no different than Zhan Zhuang. Both are postures to help you become familiar with your body and how it reacts, how the muscles are linked from head to toe and how the energy moves in your body.

But if you are training them you need to do it as a pure beginner and not do any of it based on previous training. This is where I was making a big mistake in the beginning. This is also where the chart I found made a big difference.

EDIT

More here

And here

 

[JDenver]

Just to add that the more advanced Zhan Zhuang postures put weight anywhere from 70/30 to 100/0 depending on the position. It isn't until you've been practicing for many months, even a year or more, that you work into those positions though.

I have no experience at all with Santi, though it sounds interesting.

Oh, and yeah, my opinion is that the microcosmic orbit is a fairly advanced practice. You will achieve excellent results in ZZ if you breath and observe points of tension and other feelings.

Just my very very inexperienced position so please take with skepticism!

 

[xingyiquan]

zhan zhuang means standing postures, and san ti is one type of zhan zhuang, what do you mean by differences?