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Learning T'AL Chi Ch'Uan
By Barry Hooper
T'ai Chi ch'uan – Chinese for Grand Ultimate Fist is the quintessential martial art, based on the Way of Heaven, the practitioner gains power or chi through harmonizing the two universal forces of Yin and Yang. Its philosophy originates from two of the greatest books in the world: The I Ching, the quintessence of 5000 years of Chinese wisdom, and The Tao Te Ching - "The Book of The Way and its Power', from which Taoism is derived.
For the aspirant to master its 108+ forms and to achieve the supreme status of sage or superior man takes many lifetimes, but a journey of 1000 leagues starts with the first step, and he has as his ultimate exemplar, the legendary 19th-century T'ai Chi master, Yang Lu-chan, who reputedly remained undefeated in over 20,000 combats.
"For to those who have conformed themselves to the Way, the Way readily lends its power".
The power is that of the universe, chi, which is accumulated in T'ai Chi exercises, and stored below the solar plexus to be used in all confrontational situations. Having witnessed a master project it from his hand over 8 feet to knock down his opponent, I can personally attest to its efficacy.
To learn tai chi, one emulates the movements of the teacher as he demonstrates the several movements of the form on the principle that ... "What is it easy, is easy to know; what is simple, is easy to follow."
However, to master, and incorporate the flowing, rhythmic, co-ordinated movements effectively demands great patience, and perseverance. Its deliberate stances, positions, and circular movements are derived from those of animals, primarily, the bear, bird, deer, monkey, and tiger; first taught at the legendary Shao Lin monastery c. the 5th century.
The relaxed, yet controlled, evasive movements, and lightning counterstrikes of the snake were reputedly added around the 15th century by the peripatetic Zhang San-feng, a Taoist monk, after witnessing the victory of a snake over a crane. He developed a form of combat which combined balance, flexibility, and speed in one flowing, continuous movement. He extolled the following principle:
"Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water, but when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail.
.…. That the yielding conquers the resistant, and the soft conquers the hard is a fact known by all men, yet utilized by none."
Confronted by an egotistical, megalomaniacal, hard style opponent, the T'ai Chi student knows .. "The best fighters do not make displays of wrath."
He will self-possessedly use his assailant's own power against himself by utilising sweeping, circular blocks, combined with avoidance strategies like pushing, deflecting, and twisting, adhering to the precept:
"To remain whole, be twisted! To become straight, let yourself be bent.
Thus effortlessly neutralizing the threat, harming neither his assailant, nor himself.
For he will be aware that:
"The man of highest 'power' does not reveal himself as a possessor of 'power'."
and he will nonchalantly continue on his Way.
1 Tao Te Ching (23) – Wordsworth Classics of World Literature – ISBN 1 85326 471 7
2 The I Ching- The Great Treatise - (Ch. 1, 7) Richard Wilhelm–Routledge & Kegan Paul – ISBN 0 7100 1581 X
3 Tao Te Ching (78) ) – Wordsworth Classics of World Literature – ISBN 1 85326 471 7
4 Tao Te Ching (68). ) – Wordsworth Classics of World Literature – ISBN 1 85326 471 7
5 Tao Te Ching (22) ) – Wordsworth Classics of World Literature – ISBN 1 85326 471 7
6 Tao Te Ching (38) ) – Wordsworth Classics of World Literature – ISBN 1 85326 471 7
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