The Truth Behind Energetics—It’s Simpler Than You Think

Have you ever heard terms like peng, lu, or ji tossed around in martial arts classes and felt completely lost? It can seem like a secret language designed to keep you confused. In this article, I want to break down these concepts so they’re accessible—because energetics isn’t about memorizing exotic words; it’s about understanding the fundamental forces that govern how things move and interact.

To illustrate, let’s take a detour through music. Many of America’s greatest musical styles—jazz, blues, funk—can be traced back to African musical traditions, particularly the pentatonic scale (the five black keys on the piano). 

That simple scale influenced entire genres. Yet music teachers often bury students in complex terminology before they even understand what a scale is. Similarly, in martial arts, students get overwhelmed by esoteric concepts before grasping the basics: on/off, push/pull, or in martial terms, yin and yang.

The same happens in construction. You don’t need a degree in engineering to build a shed—you just need to master three actions: cutting, pounding, and screwing things together. These actions mirror the foundational energies of martial arts. Yet many schools introduce a dozen terms before teaching how these basic forces work.

Here’s the reality: All advanced techniques come back to three fundamentals:

✅ Pound (press, pull, push, lean)

✅ Cut (split, dissect, redirect)

✅ Screw (spiral, roll, advance or retreat)

Everything else is just a variation of these.

🔐 Inner Circle Member Access: Breaking Down the 13 Tai Chi Energies

Let’s unpack the famous list of 13 energies (or jin) often taught in Tai Chi. They’re usually presented as mystical or arcane, but they can all be related to the basic actions above: