Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Bamenwubu, The person you heard of may be Cui Yishi whose grandson is quite well known in China. He has a Taiji association, a website (I think?) and VCDs available for purchase. Didn't Yang Zhenduo learn his Taiji primarily from Cui Yishi? Cui and Wang Yongquan lived in Beijing and were quite close...

Here is a citation that relates to to point both Louis and Audi made. In contrast to external martial arts, a defining feature of Taijiquan is that it is a –combination- of movement and stillness. (dòngjìng jiéhé) From Daodejing, “Making This Life Significant,” A Philosophical Translation. translate...

In Standard Mandarin, syllables represented by "song" in Pinyin have a vowel that is represented by the IPA symbol ; high, back, rounded. This is what it is in Beijing. It is the same vowel as in "Su" of "Suzhou". Speakers from other regions do not necessarily have this...

I have not seen the graph (×Å) interpreted by Chinese sources as anything other than the word pronounced ¡°zh¨¡o¡± in B¨§ij¨©ng, which means ¡®postures, moves¡¯. The usage of this graph seems to be a T¨¤ij¨ª ¡®guild usage¡¯. The graph used in the standard language is (ÕÐ). I interprete this line thu...

"it" refers to 'secrets.' Quoting Yuri: "About "IT" - every time when I read taiji classics I have strong feeling that there is something hidden between the lines. For me "it" is this hidden thing." The impression I get from those who express views about other...

Bāménwǔbù: Very thoughtful post. I like the way you organized the various possibilities. These are very important topics. Let’s start another thread or threads: Origins Transmission/Future of TCC One short comment: I have had discussions of origins many times with accomplished players. The consensus...

Hi Louis, RE: “We are likely talking about the same thing, but expressing it differently. I think we can agree that ‘fangsong’ requires action and attention. I’ve said I don’t consider it to be a passive thing at all.” I think so too. Gu Liuxin’s book strongly supports this. His description of the w...

Kal, I just ordered the book. The first chapter was available on line and I was convinced to buy it. Looks like there should be some very promising connections made in the near future in with all of this activity in the mind-body research field. Candace Pert’s book is fascinating, too. Molecules of ...

Thank you Jerry. It is refreshing to hear the correct view of the Chinese writing system. This is a difficult thing for most people to understand initially. Linguistics is not a required course. It may help to think of this order. The generally accepted correct relationship is: MEANING>WORD>SOUND>GR...

Accomplished practitioners can demonstrate “sōng” in their muscles as if turning on a light switch. When “sōng” is turned off, a state of limpness occurs. Likewise, when flexed muscles are relaxed, or turned off, a state of limpness occurs as well. So, Louis, In contrast to your description, “……’son...

“The Stretch Reflex When the muscle is stretched, so is the muscle spindle (see section Proprioceptors). The muscle spindle records the change in length (and how fast) and sends signals to the spine which convey this information. This triggers the stretch reflex (also called the myotatic reflex) whi...

Speaking of noodles and meat balls; Taiji folk in Beijing never get tired of making the pun on the two near homophones, sōng and sóng. "In Taiji we should be sōng, not sóng!" (“sóng”: 1) semen; 2) worthless, spineless weakling who fears everything; a ‘limp dick’) I can imagine Yang Luchan ...

Has anyone seen or heard of photos of Yang Shaohou doing Taiji?

Louis, I find the naming and variants fascinating. Having lived many years in Southern China, my initial feeling was that 'bi4' being used for 'bei4' was a reflection of a southerner's pronunciation. Isn't variant dialect pronunciation the origin of 'grasp the birds tail' being derived from 'lazily ...

Interesting that 'shan4 tong1 bei4';"fan through back" is here named 'shan1 tong1 bei4' with "mountain" instead of "fan". Has anyone seen this anywhere else? shan1; shan4 homophones if you disregard the tone. Yang Chengfu probably spoke with a Beijing accent. What was D...