Tai Chi Glossary > Grasp Sparrow’s Tail (揽雀尾)

Grasp Sparrow’s Tail (揽雀尾)

Definition: Grasp Sparrow’s Tail (揽雀尾) is the foundational sequence of tai chi chuan containing the four primary methods—Peng, Lu, Ji, An—practiced in every major style and considered the complete tactical grammar of the art.

Also known by its Chinese name Lan Que Wei (揽雀尾)—the two names refer to the same sequence, with Grasp Sparrow’s Tail being the standard English translation used across lineages. If there is one sequence that defines tai chi chuan across all its stylistic variations, this is it. Yang, Chen, Wu, Sun—every major lineage includes Grasp Sparrow’s Tail. Every serious practitioner returns to it throughout their training. It is at once the most basic and the most complete thing in the art.

The Name: What Is Being Grasped

揽 (lǎn) means to grasp, to take hold of, to gather into one’s arms. 雀 (què) is sparrow—a small, quick, elusive bird. 尾 (wěi) is tail.

Grasping a sparrow’s tail is an image of exquisite sensitivity. Too much force and the bird is crushed or startled into flight. Too little and it slips away. The correct grip is present but yielding—just enough contact to feel every movement, light enough that the bird doesn’t panic. This is precisely the quality the sequence trains in push hands : not the force to overpower, but the sensitivity to follow, feel, and respond.

The name is not decorative. It is a description of the internal quality the sequence is trying to produce.

The Four Methods as a Complete System

Grasp Sparrow’s Tail contains the first four methods of Ba Fa in their most direct, teachable form. Each method is distinct. Together they form a complete tactical cycle.

• Peng (掤) opens the sequence—establishing the expansive, buoyant ward-off structure that underlies every other method. Without Peng as foundation, the other three collapse. It is not a technique so much as a condition: alive, connected, present.
• Lu (捋) follows—the yielding roll-back that receives incoming force and redirects it past the centerline. The opponent advances; Lu follows and extends that advance beyond its usefulness, drawing their weight forward and their root off-center.
• Ji (擠) fills the space Lu has opened—compact, forward-issuing, closing the distance before the opponent can reorganize. Where Lu empties, Ji fills.
• An (按) completes the cycle—the downward-and-forward sealing press that addresses the opponent’s root before issuing through their center. An is not a push. It is the conclusion of a sequence that began with Peng’s presence, continued through Lu’s yielding and Ji’s compression, and now releases completely.

The cycle then resets. Peng re-establishes. The four methods begin again.

This is not a choreographed fighting sequence. It is a model of tactical transformation—a way of understanding how force, space, and timing relate to each other in any moment of contact. Practitioners who internalize the four-method cycle develop a fluency that operates below conscious thought: the appropriate response arising from sensitivity rather than decision.

Why Every Style Has It

The universality of Grasp Sparrow’s Tail across tai chi styles is not coincidence. It reflects the sequence’s function as a pedagogical foundation—the clearest, most direct way to introduce the four primary methods and their relationships.

• In Yang-style practice , Grasp Sparrow’s Tail appears near the beginning of the form and is performed with the expansive, deliberate quality characteristic of Yang movement. The four methods are clearly delineated, making the sequence highly accessible for beginners encountering Ba Fa for the first time.
• In Chen-style practice , the same sequence—known by its Chinese name Lan Que Wei—contains explicit silk reeling throughout. The silk reeling adds a spiral dimension to each method: Peng expands with a winding quality, Lu redirects along a spiral arc, Ji presses with rotational force, An seals through a spiral compression. The methods are the same. The internal texture is richer.
• In Wu and Sun styles , Grasp Sparrow’s Tail appears with stylistic variations in stance and arm position but the same essential four-method structure. This consistency across otherwise quite different styles is itself significant—it testifies to the sequence’s status as the shared root of the entire tai chi tradition.

Grasp Sparrow’s Tail in Push Hands

The four-method cycle of Grasp Sparrow’s Tail is the direct basis of the most fundamental push hands drill: Si Zheng Shou (四正手, Four Primary Hands). In this drill, two practitioners perform the Peng-Lu-Ji-An cycle cooperatively, one partner advancing through Ji and An while the other receives with Peng and redirects with Lu, then reversing roles.

This cooperative cycle is where the sequence transitions from solo practice into lived experience. The practitioner who has performed Grasp Sparrow’s Tail hundreds of times in the form begins to recognize, through Si Zheng Shou, what each method actually feels like from both sides—what it is to receive Peng, to be redirected by Lu, to feel Ji closing, to have An address the root.

Listening jing develops through this repetition. The four methods become less like techniques and more like a vocabulary—a shared language between partners, spoken through contact rather than words.

A Sequence That Never Exhausts Itself

There is a quality that the most enduring tai chi practices share: they do not run out of content. The more carefully they are practiced, the more they reveal. Grasp Sparrow’s Tail is the clearest example of this in the entire tai chi vocabulary.

A beginner performing the sequence is learning four arm positions and a weight shift. An intermediate practitioner is feeling silk reeling running through the transitions. An advanced practitioner is refining the moment when Lu is complete enough for Ji to flow without resistance, or finding the precise angle at which An’s downward seal and forward issue become simultaneous rather than sequential.

The sequence is the same. What is found in it keeps changing.

This is why teachers across lineages return to Grasp Sparrow’s Tail throughout their careers—not because they haven’t mastered it, but because mastery in tai chi is not a destination. It is a direction. And this sequence points that direction as clearly as anything in the art.

• Lan Que Wei — the Chinese name for this sequence; same movement, different name
• Ba Fa — the eight methods, of which Grasp Sparrow’s Tail contains the four primary
• Lu (捋) — the roll-back method, second in the sequence
• Ji (擠) — the press method, third in the sequence
• An (按) — the push method, fourth and completing the cycle
• Push Hands — the partner practice in which the four-method cycle is applied
• Listening Jing — the sensitivity developed through the Si Zheng Shou cycle
• Silk Reeling — the spiral quality that runs through the sequence in Chen-style
• Tai Chi Form — the solo context in which Grasp Sparrow’s Tail appears across all styles
• Eight Gates — the directional framework governing the four methods in this sequence

Have questions about Grasp Sparrow’s Tail in practice? Our forum thread — Qigong FAQ: Everything Beginners Ask — Answered by Senior Practitioners — covers this and many more topics answered by experienced practitioners.