Greetings all,
Regarding: 'The implications of translating 意气 not as a compound, but as "Intention (yi) and qi " particularly drew my attention.' how would you render this? Even some translations of this as a compound tend to account for a twofold concept: "will and spirit," or the like.
I would suggest putting this off until, we get through Chapter 13. My own translation process entails understanding a passage in its original language before rendering a translation.
As for Chapter 13 of An Explanation/Analysis of Taiji Principles, its title in Chinese is:
太极体用解
I understand this to mean: “An Analysis of Tai Chi’s Framework and Application.” The key words are 体 (
ti) and 用 (
yong). There common literal meanings are usually rendered as “body” and “use,” respectively. As a yin-yang pair, they seem to be represent a way of describing the art comprehensively. Alternative translations in this context are: “Substance and Application,” “Essence and Application,” “Theory and Application,” “System and Usage,” or perhaps “Structure and Application. I think the idea here is that something like Tai Chi is defined both by how it is internally constituted and by its field of action.
The first “sentence” goes:
理为精气神之体
I understand this to mean: “Patterning is the framework of essence, qi, and spirit.
The first word originally referred to the texture or grain of a jewel. In other contexts, it is often rendered as “reason” or “principle.” I think a word like “patterning” retains the original reference.
The main stream of Neo-Confucians represented by Zhu Xi posited that the entire universe boiled down to 理 and 气, patterning/principle and qi/matter-energy. The greatest principle was the Taiji itself that represented the relationship between yin and yang and was an alternative manifestation of Wuji. In this instance, qi represents not only energy, but also solid matter. In just about all other instance, qi represents some unseen aspect of matter and corresponds better to what scientists mean when talking about energy. It is the force that underlies matter.
As for the triplet of essence, qi, and spirit, I understand this not to refer to any special Neo-Confucian ideas, but rather to a concept developed in Chinese Traditional Medicine and Daoist Internal Alchemy.
I think that qi can be used as a cover term for all three terms so that we can talk about essential qi and spiritual qi. In this sense, I think the idea is that the basic qi of the universe can be divided into three in terms of the energy of the human body.
“Jing” (精 “Essence”) seems to represent a person’s physical endowment: what you inherit from your parents, what you build up through the environment by eating and other processees, and the basis for what you can pass on to your children. This is a different word from 体 (
ti), which can also be translated as “essence” in a different context. One of the literal meanings of jing is “sperm.” In Chinese medicine, it also corresponds to menstrual flow and pregnancy.
One basic attribute of
jing is that the part you inherit from your parents generally wears out, resulting in aging and death. One of the major preoccupations of internal alchemy was to safeguard this type of jing. Another term for this inherited portion of
jing seems to be primordial qi (元气 yuan qi).
Within this triplet, qi seems to represent the activity and energy flow of the body. It is supported by your physical endowment, or the jing, and is directed by the shen, which is the spirit, mind, or intellect.
Western though tended to focus on substances and an opposition between the physical and the spiritual. Traditional Chinese thought seems to have focused on activities and processes, rather than substances. It did not accept a basic opposition between the physical and the spiritual, but rather saw the spiritual as merely a refinement of the physical. “Cloudy” or “turbid” qi resulted in the physical matter, but refined qi resulted in spirit and intellect (shen). A Daoist sage could fly because he or she had suitably refined his qi so that his or her body was as light as air. A Neo-Confucian sage could perceive the underlying ethical basis of the universe because his or her thought was so refined that it could interpenetrate things and perceive their patterning. According to some, shen is what separates humans from animals.
This site also sets forth a specific interrelationship among this triplet in sections 14 through 18 of
this page.
What then does this first sentence mean? I think it is a statement saying the activity of the body and mind is patterned by the relationship between yin and yang.
The second sentence is:
精气神为身之体
I understand this to mean: “Essence, qi, and spirit constitute the framework of the body.”
The Chinese word for “body” here, 身
shen, is different from 体
ti, which is also frequently translated as "body," but which in this context is better translated as “substance,” “essence,” or “framework.” The word
shen sometimes refers to the torso specifically, but in this case seems to cover the whole body and the action of the mind. This
shen 身 is pronounced with a high level town; whereas the
shen 神 meaning “spirit” is pronounced with a rising tone. The characters are also written quite differently.
I think the line is trying to say that the energy structure of the body should be looked at from the tripartite framework of essence, qi, and spirit.
The next sentences are:
身为心之用劲力为身之用
I understand this to mean: “The body is what the mind is applied to, and power and strength are what the body is applied to.”
This sets up the mind and the body at the top of the pyramid so far, as the things behind the usage of power.
The next lines, where things get interesting, are:
心身有一定之主宰者理也精气神有一定之主宰者意诚也
I understand this to mean: “The mind and body have a definite controller, which is patterning. The essence, qi, and spirit have a definite controller, which is purposeful sincerity.”
I find all of this somewhat circular and confusing, but there seems to be an attempt to interrelate mind, body, qi, power/energy, and essence, qi, and spirit. The climax of the analysis seems to arrive at the importance of patterning/principle (i.e., the Taiji relationship of yin and yang) as the mind and body controller and the importance of “sincerity” as the energy controller.
“Sincerity” is a strange word from a Western viewpoint. I would welcome comments on this. From the little I know, it seems to be a reference to Neo-Confucian ethical ideas about the necessity of sincerely trying to follow ethical principles. It is one of the main topics of the Doctrine of the Mean, a major Confucian document. What exactly it means in this case is not clear to me, and I will leave further speculation to another time.
Take care,
Audi