Centre Line 中线

A line running down from the philtrum

The centre line (中线, zhōngxiàn) is the vertical line that runs down the front of the body's middle. A recorded class at the Zhongyi Wuguan defines it explicitly: “What we call the centre line in the martial arts is the line running down from the philtrum (人中).” In the stance the nose serves as a reminder.

On the ground the line has a counterpart: the middle gate (中门), the space between the feet. The old martial-arts formula for it reads “脚踏中门夺地位” — “step into the middle gate, win the position”. Whoever gets a foot between the other's feet takes away his footing; he topples.

And finally the centre line is a direction in space. The same recording asks: “Pointing at the centre line — what does that mean? Pointing at a distant target.” So what is meant is less a stroke on the body than a target on which one's own force stays aligned.

守中用中 — four characters

Yao Zongxun names the centre line in his Sanshou chapter as one of the combat principles and sums it up in four characters: 守中用中 — guard the centre, use the centre. The two belong together. One's own centre line is to be covered, the other's is the target; whoever gives up the one in order to reach the other has gained nothing. It is the same unity of attack and defence (攻守合一) that Yao explicitly sets against Western boxing, which separates the two.

The idea is older than Yao. Wang Xiangzhai already speaks of guarding one's own centre and conquering the other's, and Tang's textbook, too, lists “guard the centre line and use it to attack” among the five principles of combat training.

In the stance: one's own centre

Long before a partner comes along, the centre line is the measure of one's own alignment. In Hunyuan Zhuang the rule is: nose = centre line, together with 三点一线 — head, front hand and front foot on one line.

The hands stay close to the centre. In Pingtui Shili they are “at most two hand-widths” apart; Andrzej Kalisz has the index fingertips run on two parallel lines near the centre line and opens and closes at the elbows and forearms, not at the fingers. His reason is a combat reason: whoever opens the opponent's arms wide opens himself.

In Shili, moreover, one hand always points to the centre. When the right presses down with the heel of the hand, the left points to the centre line, and vice versa. Wang Xiangzhai asks for something similar even in the four forms (Si Xing): always imagine an opponent, the fingers point at his centre line.

The most common mistake in the stance shows during sideways Mo Jin: the arms work to the left and right, and the nose wanders with them. Then 三点一线 falls apart, and the structure meant to carry the force dissolves in the change. The arms may work to the side; the nose stays where it was.

In Tuishou: the other's centre

In Tuishou the reference becomes a target. The recording's principle is: “The hand must threaten the centre line” (手一定要威胁中线) — from above, below or the side. Even the hand on the outside keeps its direction towards the other's body, “with direction and penetrating force”. And not only the hand: head, knee and leg are also to be “a threat to the other's centre line”. The centre line is a matter of the whole body.

That is why two-handed circling is no mere turning of hands. The turning explores where the other is solid and where empty, while keeping the hand ready at every moment to set Fa Li on his centre. Whoever slides off to the side loses this readiness: the elbow goes flat, “there is no attacking force left”. Whoever pulls the other open too wide lets him come in.

Force does not act at the point of contact but through it. Andrzej Kalisz puts it like this: “If you would think only about force working in the point of contact, you would not be able to control opponent's center, opponent's balance in efficient way. Through those points you push, but actually you're thinking about opponent's center, central line.” Peter Zhu teaches the same thing independently in another lineage. Here the centre line is closely tied to listening to force (→ Ting Jin): what is heard is not only direction and strength but also where the other's centre is.

In Fa Li and Sanshou

For Fa Li with a partner the recording names three rules, and the first is: keep the centre line — the most common mistake of all. The other two: do not let the front knee buckle, and draw the force from the back leg. The front foot steps onto the partner's centre line, into the middle gate.

In free fighting (Sanshou) both stand in Dingba Bu on the centre line, about one and a half steps apart. The gaze goes to the other's eyes or centre line, not to his hands. The centre line is threatened with hand, leg and step. One retreats not in a straight line but to the side.

With the staff (Gun Fa) the same holds in extended form: in Hua Gan Fa Li the tip of the staff slides onto the opponent's nose, that is, onto his centre line — “as if the staff is connecting with the target”.

A reference, not a rail

The centre line is easily misunderstood as a straight line along which one pushes forward. The sources say the opposite. If one cannot press the other down in Tuishou, says the recording, one should not increase the force but set it crosswise: close in on him forwards and inwards, “towards his centre line”, with a force forward, inward and downward at once — “not one-sided”.

On principle, Wang Xiangzhai himself warns, in Jan Diepersloot's translation: force must not have a one-sided direction, “because if our strength has direction, then there will be a linear motion which takes us out of our center”. The centre line is the reference for a force in all directions (Hun Yuan Li) — whoever only pushes straight ahead leaves his own centre precisely by doing so.

Distinctions

• Not a body axis in the anatomical sense. Some Western accounts call centerline the vertical axis of the trunk, aligned with gravity. That is a question of structure; Yiquan's centre line is a question of direction between two people.
• Not a point. Ming Men and Dan Tian lie on the body's midline but are places; the centre line is a line and a target.