Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Where can I find information about the symbolic meaning of the names of the movements in the Yang Long Form?
Why "Grasp the Sparrow's tail", "Part the wild horse's mane", "Snake creeps down" etc? Someone told me that the Fair Maiden is the goddess Quan Yin and the Drive out monkey is about taming the monkey mind. I have tried to find references to the significance of animals (e.g. White Crane) but can only find references to the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Hi AndyB,

Yours is a great question. I believe we have discussed this from time to time, including on the threads I have tried to link to below. You might want to browse through these threads and raise any questions or comments you might have then.

Posture Names

Posture Names II

Form Names in Chinese

By the way, I think this particular forum on the board is supposed to be for webmaster announcements. Your question would probably be better suited for "Tai Chi Chuan -- Barehand" or "Miscellaneous." The webmaster may decide to move this discussion there; however, things have generally been pretty laid back here.

Take care,
Audi

Thanks Audi

that gives me a great place to start-will have a good read and get back if I need more. As for posting in the wrong place-it took me a few goes to be able to set up a post and that was the only subject area where I could get it to work-I am sure this was due to my inexperience with discussion boards rather than a problem with the site itself.