The main principal of practicing Taijiquan is to be firm but gentle, overcome the strong in a gentle way. When the opponent attacks you, you should not resist him directly, but lead him in the direction you want him to go, transfer the opponent's strength. When the opponent hangs back, you can push in the same way; this is what is called push-hands in Taijiquan.
A Taijiquan practitioner, should be calm in mind, relaxed and natural throughout the body. The performance is in arc-shape and Taijiquan may appear to be so slow and smooth that it can't harm others. From the perspective of architecture, the arc-shape can bear much more pressure than a straight line.
