Mystical systems
Push Hands
Direct answer
Push Hands: Push hands, tui shou in Chinese, is the two-person exercise of tai chi chuan in which partners keep their forearms in light contact and try to feel and unsettle each other's balance.
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At a glance
- Also called
- tui shou, tuishou, pushing hands
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Tai Chi Chuan, Qi (Chi), Dantian, Zhan Zhuang
Push hands, tui shou in Chinese, is the two-person exercise of tai chi chuan in which partners keep their forearms in light contact and try to feel and unsettle each other's balance.
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What is the purpose of push hands?
Two people stand facing each other with wrists or forearms touching and move in a circling pattern, one pressing forward as the other gives way and turns. The aim is to stay joined to the partner without resisting and without losing touch, and to notice the instant when their weight is committed. A push at that instant needs very little strength.
Fixed patterns are learned first, built on four actions the tradition calls ward off, roll back, press and push. Free practice follows, with feet fixed and then stepping. Teachers speak of listening with the skin: reading a partner's intention through contact. It is the bridge between the slow solo form and tai chi's use as a martial art.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Yoga, qigong, tai chi.
What sets Push Hands apart
Push hands turns tai chi's central rule into something a second person can check: never meet force with force. A player who stiffens or shoves is immediately easy to move, so the exercise punishes the very reflexes it is meant to remove. Its skills have their own vocabulary. Sticking is staying in contact, listening is feeling the partner's weight through touch, and neutralising is leading an incoming push away so that it lands on nothing.
- Chinese name: tui shou: tui, to push, and shou, hand
- Four basic actions: ward off, roll back, press and push (peng, lu, ji, an)
- Listening: ting jin: reading a partner's force through contact
- Famous maxim: four ounces deflect a thousand pounds, from the tai chi classics
- Stages: fixed patterns, then free play with fixed feet, then with stepping
Often mistaken for something else: Sparring allows strikes and breaks contact; push hands keeps the arms joined throughout and counts a loss of balance, not a blow, as the point scored.
The story behind Push Hands
Chen family tradition credits Chen Wangting, of the seventeenth century, with devising push hands as a way to practise grappling and throwing without injury. The principles are stated in the tai chi classics, short texts that came to light in the nineteenth century and are attributed to Wang Zongyue; they include the saying that four ounces can deflect a thousand pounds. Organised push hands competitions with weight classes and rules have been held in China and Taiwan and abroad since the later twentieth century.
Why Push Hands matters
It is where the claims of the solo form are tested against another person, so it keeps tai chi honest about balance and softness.
How to read Push Hands
Partners practise it in pairs after form work, changing partners often so that each learns to read different builds and habits.
Push Hands in practice: an example
When a partner leans in to push, an experienced player turns the waist a little and the push slides past into empty space.
Where readings of Push Hands go wrong
It is cooperative training and not a fight; sudden force against a relaxed partner causes falls and wrenched joints.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- tui shou, tuishou, pushing hands, tai chi push hands, push hands meaning
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
See Push Hands in your personal almanac
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Common questions
What is the purpose of push hands?
To train sensitivity, balance and timing with a partner: learning to yield to force, stay in contact and find the moment when the other person is off balance.
Do you need to know the tai chi form before push hands?
Most schools teach the solo form first, since it trains the posture and weight changes that push hands relies on. Some introduce simple one-hand patterns early, alongside the form.
Is push hands a competitive sport?
It can be. Tournaments are held with rules, rings and weight divisions. Many teachers regard competition as a narrow test and keep to cooperative practice.
