Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

That's a pretty cruel decent you're referring to.

But lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Wait! You're using too much strength.'

Cheers!
Dave

Dave! Where does it hurt? It can't be all that bad. Let's see if we can make it better, OK? Thanks, Louis. Repeated applications of liquid muscle relaxants, frequently ingested, seems to have done the trick. My words reflect my own thoughts and understanding, rather than my teacher's words; however...

Thanks for the links (and everything else), Louis. I'll take a closer look at that material as soon as my head stops hurting. And while I'm at it: My thanks also go out to Audi, for starting this thread, and to everyone who participated. I found it very useful. I hope we do something like this again...

Hi Louis, Regarding this last line: 漸至物來順應，是亦知止能得矣 Wu is quoting the philosopher Zhu Xi in the first part -- 物來順應 means something like "respond to things as they come." I would render the last line: "Gradually attaining (the ability to) respond to things as they come, this is also lik...

Oh! Oh! The last lines! 收即是放，連而不斷。極柔軟，然後能極堅剛；能黏依，然後能靈活。 氣以直養而無害，勁以曲蓄而有餘。 漸至物來順應，是亦知止能得矣！ Receiving is the same as issuing, connect and don't separate. If you can be extremely soft, afterwards you can be extremely hard; if you can stick and follow, afterwards you can be extremely agile. The qi by thi...

Hi Louis, In his discussion of the concept of “body” in Zhuangzi and Mengzi, Jullien writes of the word 形 as "body": I would be very wary of rendering 形 as "body," especially in this context. To render 形/神 as body/spirit is just asking for the reader to invoke our everyday Cartes...

Hi Louis, Your translation of these lines is flawless, in my opinion! Thank you. Accidents happen! One thing I might change would be how to translate 形 xíng. Rather than “appearance,” I prefer “form.” In early Chinese, 形 often refers to the physical form, that is, “shape,” or actualized form of the ...

Moving right along: 行氣如九曲珠，無微不到；運勁如百煉鋼，何堅不摧？ 形如搏兔之鶻，神似捕鼠之貓。曲中求直，蓄而後發。 Move the qi as through a nine-bends pearl; there is not the tiniest place it does not reach. Move the energy as if refining steel one hundred times; what solid can it not destroy? The appearance is like a falcon about to seize a r...

Hello Everyone, Next lines: 靜如山嶽，動若江河。邁步如臨淵，運勁如抽絲。蓄勁如張弓，發勁如放箭。 Be still as a mountain, move like a great river. Step as if on the edge of the abyss. Move energy as if pulling silk; store energy as if pulling a bow; release energy as if releasing an arrow. ------------ An interesting set of lines. Lo...

Hi Audi, I take yī 依 to be a loose synonym of zou3 走 and draw my inspiration from: 粘卽是走、走卽是粘 "Sticking is actually yielding, and yielding is actually sticking" Do you not agree? Is this not the yin and yang aspects of control through contact? I think I must respectfully disagree. I read th...

Hello everyone, The next lines. 發勁須上下相隨，乃能一往無敵. 立身須中正不偏，方能八面支撐. To issue energy you must mutually coordinate upper and lower, then you can issue in one direction without equal. The upright body must be centered and correct and not lean, only then can you support [force] from the eight directions. --...

Hi Louis, I agree that “transitions and conclusions” is cumbersome, and Wu likely had a deliberate reason to change it to 轉換 in the Mental Elucidation. In my own translation of that document, I translated 轉換 as “turning transitions,” which I feel better captures the kinesthetic dimension he refers t...

Hi Louis, Thank you for the elucidation of 轉合. That's just kind of thing I would miss, being without much experience in Chinese literature. I can't say I'm happy with the rendering, since in a taiji context saying "Advancing and retreating must have transitions and conclusions" seems less ...

Not wrong, but not right. The next lines: 往復須分陰陽; 進退須有轉合。機由己發，力從人借。 In moving forward and backward you must separate yin and yang; in advancing and retreating there must be turning and joining. The opportunity comes from the self, power is borrowed from the other. ---------------------- The first se...

Hi Louis, Thanks for the reply. b) 落空之妙 isn't just "the wonder of emptiness," but "the wonder of [leading the opponent to] land on emptiness." Thanks for that. a) you haven't accounted for 跟, Well, I will eventually have to account for a great many things, and 跟 is among the leas...