Greetings all:
I came up with this image to piece together what he was saying:
I think the diagram is quite accurate for when Master Yang is talking about unification of the energy in the body. It is also accurate in describing how he normally breaks the body into three when discussing what should guide push hands practice. In that context, he says that “the upper body should by light; the lower body, heavy; and the middle body, flexible.”
In talking about the external energy path, however, Master Yang usually quotes the full saying, which is, depending on translation:
“The energy is rooted in the feet, generated in the legs, controlled by the waist, and manifested in the fingers.”
All three contexts require slightly different ways of thinking.
I believe it was advice to be relaxed, at all times, at the beginning of every move in Tai Ji Quan. Soft at first then become hard at the end which is the basic principle of yin-yang.
I don’t think we use this method. What Master Yang describes is relaxing and keeping yourself soft at all times, not just at the beginning of every move. We do not become hard at the end either. When showing fajin, I have seen him explain that he does not feel any special tightness or hardness. We do not squeeze or muscles tight to become hard.
What I understand of the method described is that by consciously loosening up the joints and extending the soft tissue as we move, we can become yieldingly soft (柔). If we can then unify the soft parts of our body, we can turn the soft to very hard. In dealing with an opponent, when they need us to be hard, we show soft (usually in defense). When they need us to be soft, we show hard (usually in attack). In this way, soft and hard complement each other (刚柔相济).
An example of this is water. If you have water and an empty balloon in a bowl and try to splash someone hard with it, you will only get them wet and make them wonder what the balloon is about. The water and the ballon are not unified in their energy. If you put the water in the balloon and throw this at someone, it can hurt and cause a bruise if you use enough energy.
Another example would be to throw a shovel of snow at someone. Again, there is little effect, because the snow is dispersed and not unified. Take even a portion of the snow and squeeze it into a snowball. If you throw it now, the energy will be unified and can cause a great effect.
Loosening up the body to make it soft is a little difficult to understand and only a little difficult to do for a few seconds. It is much more difficult to maintain this state through 20-25 minutes of doing solo form, and It is a great deal even more difficult to learn how to unify this soft energy in the body and thereby make it hard.
For those who do not know Chinese, I want to caution you both about what you may think of as “relaxation” and “soft.”
The Chinese word for what Master Yang translates as “relaxation” (放松) also covers the meaning of “loosen.” In Chinese, you can use this word both for your muscles and your shoelaces, but in English you cannot talk about “relaxing shoelaces.” What Master Yang is referring to is much closer to what you do to your shoelaces than what you do to your muscles lying on a couch.
Both Chinese and English have many words to cover the concepts of hard and soft. Chinese has two main pairs: one is gang 刚 and rou 柔, and the other is ying 硬 and ruan 软. These pairs are near synonyms, but only the first is what you generally see in discussions of Tai Chi because it focuses on the degree that something yields to outside force or something that is yielding and soft for its type.
There is a famous saying, often used in Tai Chi：“use soft to overcome hard” (yi rou ke gang 以柔克刚) and its equivalent: “use soft to control hard” (yi rou zhi gang 以柔制刚). These phrases may stem from the famous general Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮). He was known for his clever strategies during the Three Kingdoms Period and is very roughly equivalent to Alexander the Great, Hannibal, or Napoleon in prestige within their respect spheres. Zhuge said:
善将者，其刚不克折，其柔不可卷，故以弱制强，以柔制刚
As for good generals, their hardness cannot be broken and their softness cannot be rolled/swept up. Hence, use what is weak to control what is strong and what is soft to control what is hard.
Since Zhuge Liang is talking about armies, we shouldn’t think of soft and hard in terms of pillow softness and rock hardness. He is talking about yielding to avoid the tip of the opponent’s strength and using mild techniques to win (避开锋芒，用温和手段取胜). With this in mind, a better translation might be:
As for good generals, their firmness cannot be broken and in yielding they cannot be rolled up. Hence, use what is weak to control what is strong and what yields to control what does not.
Is Fang Song 放鬆 a method? I believe that Tai Ji is a method and Fang Song is just a procedural step has to be taken in the practice.
The terminology we use is that 放鬆/fangsong/relaxation/loosening is indeed a method， I think it is part of 手、眼、身、法、步 (hands, eyes, torso, method, and footwork) and fits under the “method” part.
Take care,
Audi
