Xie

Master Xie Bing Can (9/9/24 - 4/29/20) was born into a family of tuina (Chinese Massage) lay practitioners in China. Perhaps because of this, his study of tuina and qiqong began early and led to a life long interest in the internal arts, particularly Tai Chi Chuan. He studied intently. His passion and dedication ultimately led him to the world's foremost Tai Chi masters. Under their direct guidance and influence he too achieved mastery.

He never wavered in his commitment to sharing and encouraging his unique insights into the deepest foundations of those arts. This continued when at the age of 60 he immigrated to the United States, taking residence in Western Washington. There he continued to give and share what he knew, to whoever came and asked.

I did not have the good fortune of receiving Master Xie's direct tutelage. My good friend, Professor Sid Olufs did. Professor Sid and I have long pursued our own studies into Tai Chi Chuan, primarily under the guidance and influence of Master Lily Qin. Sid learned Master Xie was making himself available in Bellvue, Washington and immediately worked to become part of that group. His own skills improved dramatically in relatively short order. Master Xie was comfortable with Sid filming some of conceptual demonstrations and our group in Tacoma spent many hours (with Master Xie's blessing) analyzing what we found on the film clips. Assisting in the videos is Jeff Crossland, Master Xie's senior student.

Professor Sid has generously authorized our compilation of his clips into this video to serve the benefit of anyone interested. Each clip is presented at normal speed (the A clip) and 50% speed (the B clip). There are some artifacts on the clips which are on the originals. We have no control over that ... fortunately, they do not obscure the techniques.

I can say much more, but it is better you do the work on your own behalf. Much can be gleaned by careful scrutiny of what you see here.

As to Professor Sid's own experience, here are his words:

"Master Xie BingCan was the real deal. He was a student of masters Fu Zhongwen and Ma Yueliang, and among contemporaries was said to perform the long form most like Master Fu did. He was also a healer, since before he got into tai chi, and remained a member of the International Medical Qigong Society. He was very good at push hands and applications, although his emphasis was solely on defense. A colleague once asked him why he doesn’t attack during sparring sessions, and he said, no, I am only interested in deflecting attacks. (Told to me through an interpreter.). He came to the United States in the mid-1990s and continued to teach in Renton, WA. During his last years he was dedicated to passing along as much of the knowledge as he could, and allowed himself to be filmed, allowed students to put hands all over him to understand how he was moving, and patiently let students repeat the experience of pushing with him so as to better understand what he was teaching. Some of his students said he could be cranky, while I always found him to be of good cheer, and continuously encouraging his students to seriously pursue tai chi."

These clips are for entertainment and general informational purposes only. Actual self defense should be practiced in a controlled environment emphasizing safety, and only under the direct supervision of a Black Belt instructor, and only after you have been cleared by your personal physician.

Studies of Internal Energy

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