If you want to claim you practice Chinese martial arts, three terms you should understand are Shuai Jiao, Die Pu and Qin Na. All three of these skills are part of the repertoire of San Shou techniques used in Tai Chi Chuan and other Chinese martial arts; they are not separate arts in themselves, but can be seen as a useful way to group and analyse techniques. This is rather complex because many Tai Chi techniques such as Raise Hands Step Up have multiple aplications and can be combined with others to make even more. Thus, one technique with its different applications could legitimately be classified as belonging to Shuai Jiao, Die Pu and Qin Na.
In recent years Shuai Jiao has become a reasonably well known term through the Shuai Jiao tournaments held in the Far East and in more recent years in Europe and North America. It is not necessary to wear the special tournament pyjamas in order to practice the art and such tournaments are as representative of Shuai Jiao as Judo tournaments are of Jujutsu or as pushing hands tournaments are of Tai Chi Chuan. Likewise a lot of people think of Qin Na purely in terms of joint locks, and while this is certainly part of what Qin Na can be, there is a bit more to it.
The radical for the character Shuai is the character for hand while the phonetic represents a net with a frame such as is used to snare birds and a rope which is used to make the trap fall. The character Shuai by extension means to throw to the ground or to shake. Jiao is nowadays usually given as either the character meaning mutually, so mutually throwing to the ground is wrestling, or the character meaning the bones of the leg, suggesting the use of tripping and sweeping in wrestling. Another variation is the Jiao character meaning horn(s).
Other terms used to refer to wrestling include “Jiao Di ” which dates from the time of the Warring States (464-221BC) and Jiao Li. Here the Jiao character means “Horns” while Di means to resist, and Li means strength. It is believed that contestants originally put on horned headgear and tried to butt and gore one another, of course even without such headgear, butting could be a useful tactic.
During the Tang dynasty, Xiang Pu referred to wrestling contests. Xiang means mutually, while Pu is striking / leaning against / falling. This same Pu character is used in the Tai Chi Chuan technique Pu Mian Zhang, literally strike face palm, or more colloquially, Slap The Face.
As for Die Pu, Die means fall / stumble and while Pu again is striking / leaning against / falling. This suggests a little more than simple wrestling. In Tai Chi Chuan there are two parts to Die Pu. First we try to evade and / or to redirect the opponent’s attack and then to counterattack, throwing him to the ground and setting up the possibility of a follow up strike or lock. Another way is to reverse it as in Flying Oblique, whereby, if we are being held, we can use a strike or strikes (Pu) to distract the opponent and force him to release his grip or hold enabling us to counter him with a throw (Die). In the main Die Pu is a counter attacking method.
Qin Na means seizing and holding. Usually we are trying to seize and hold the joints, since these are also nerve centres and can be struck or used as levers to manipulate the opponent’s body, but such seizing can also be applied to the torso, hair, genitalia and clothes. The holding aspect can either be to control the opponent prior to using pressure points on him, or simply to restrain him as a police officer or security staff would.
Next there is the method of practice. In Tai Chi Chuan, we can practice Shuai Jiao techniques such as White Crane Flaps Its Wings, in a variety of ways. Hand form practice is important as in many instances movements which occur in the Hand Form either set up the next technique or are applied if the preceding technique is resisted. However, partnered practice is more important, taking turns to throw the attacker, or as part of an arsenal of techniques to be used in freestyle wrestling, or as part of an arsenal of techniques to be used in San Shou. Some Die Pu techniques such as Repulse Monkey and Qin Na techniques such as Single Whip can be practiced in these ways also. Many Die Pu and most Qin Na techniques can be also be practiced as part of Pushing Hand drills such as Four Corners, Four Directions, Zhou Lu etc. or as part of freestyle moving step pushing hands.
In addition to what I’ve just said, this means of course that one of the old names of Tai Chi Chuan, the Thirteen Posture or Tactics, should not be defined as narrowly as it is in many styles. For example, Pat The Horse High can be applied with elements of An and Lie and Looking Left or Right, while Single Hand Seize Leg can contain elements of Peng and Cai along with Advance or Step Back. These are quite different explanations of these tactics to those given in most books, which completely fail to explain such applications.
The main reason that most masters, whether Chinese or Western, have such conservative and limited views on these Thirteen Tactics is that their knowledge of San Shou is also limited. They are like the frog at the bottom of the well in the Chinese proverb, believing that the small stretch of sky overhead is all there is. Techniques and tactics have to be multi-dimensional or what is being practiced is not a martial art, but some kind of museum piece.