In
last months newsletter in his most recent article on the various
recognised styles of Tai Chi, Mark indirectly asked me a question
and suggested that my answer might be the subject of a future
newsletter. He wrote: "Gary can tell you about Cheng
Man-Ch'ing's influences upon him and why the style of Yang
Form that he practises is still Long Yang …" Thus
he invites response on three related subjects.
I am very happy to use this newsletter as my near immediate
response and I must say that it is easy to answer the first
two questions because Mark does in fact do so himself elsewhere
in his own piece:
1. Cheng's influence. (Quote last month's newsletter):
"He was a recognised master of poetry, painting, calligraphy,
medicine as well as tai chi chuan." In other (my) words:
He was primarily an artist - with an artist's ideology and
motivation.
2. Yang Form. (Quote last month's newsletter):
"… when he was young Cheng Man-Ch'ing suffered
from a very serious bout of tuberculosis and studied tai chi
from Yang Cheng-Fu, which helped him get through the illness.
A year later he in turn cured Yang's wife from a life-threatening
illness (he was also a trained and gifted healer), and in
gratitude Yang taught him all he knew, or so the story goes.
So I say: If it's good enough for Cheng Man-Ch'ing it's good
enough for me!
And then again, as Mark said: Check it out for yourself at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8162222609571015204
a 6+min video clip of the Master in various actions - or -
poetry in motion!
This brings me on now to question 3. Why the Long Form?
To contrast with my short and sweet replies to Q's 1 and 2
I shall dwell on this part of my answer and make it the main
theme of this months newsletter, that being Tai Chi as a Martial
Art - with the stress on Art.
As quite typically in these ethereal matters, I am going to
have to go about this in a round about way, so may I set a
certain mood by quoting from Meandering Through the Void @
wheelswithinwheels.net and (in alternative format) @ taichido.com:
Meandering 20: I learnt how to play the guitar when I was
a teenager and then, for a year or two, about a decade later,
I earned a living as a jobbing musician. These days I earn
my living away from recording devices and PA systems. Nevertheless,
here and now another couple of decades later, rarely does
a day go by without me being inclined to find a room in the
house where I can be alone for just half an hour or so and
simply "play guitar".
Likewise, if you keep up your Tai Chi practice there should
come a time when you can say that you "play" Tai
Chi and not forever "practice" it.
An artist does not continually 'practice' doing a painting.
He/she decides to 'do' one and then does just that. It's the
same as this when I play guitar or play Tai Chi. I do it because
I want to - or, because I enjoy doing it. Tai Chi, like all
art is best done 'just for the doing'.
You might now rightly assume that I am a music lover. I will
admit to that, however as I do confess that this is certainly
so I hasten to immediately add that personally I do not enjoy
mixing Tai Chi and music. For me one detracts from the other.
If I am to listen to music I like to do just that; listen to
music - and if I am to 'play' Tai Chi then I like to do just
that. As a further statement of that, my view, (you may disagree)
I return to "Meandering".
Meandering 6:
The nature of the Void is silence and emptiness. Tai Chi is
physical imitation of the Tao (or Void) and for this reason
you should go to it alone and in silence.
The Tao is the Void to which all things come to and come from.
Meandering 16:
The Tao is emptiness, nothingness, the Void. From the Void comes
all that is.
Nature is emptiness. Nature is nothing-much-ness and everything-ness!
Tai Chi is ... not trying to be anything; it is just 'being'.
The process of teaching or learning Tai Chi is one of gradual
refinement. At first it is a simple case of this goes here and
that goes there, and then you face that way and then you step
… and then this goes here and that goes there, and then
you face that way and then you step … and so on. In the
process we teach ourselves the best way of getting the bits
and pieces to where they ought to go, and later we might also
learn why it is that this and that goes here and there. This
process is really is no different to that involved in any other
'art' 'form'. Good art will always demonstrate or showcase the
artist's or craftsman's refinement of technique; and the finest
forms of art will normally be imbibed with originality or at
least a certain style. The greatest works of art are unique,
un-do-again-able one offs.
By necessity, just like in all the other arts, the primary method
of learning Tai Chi involves much repetition. It is best taught
by visual/physical demonstration and in turn learnt at first
by imitation and later mastered through repetition. Personal,
self-motivated, disciplined, regular practice i.e. repetition,
repetition and more repetition!!!
However, no matter how well, proficiently, efficiently, skilfully
or with perfect technique and refinement Tai Chi is done and
there will never be an end product - like paint on a canvas
within a frame.
Is Tai Chi a dance?
If the Tango is more artistic than the jump up and down dance
it is only so because the former is more disciplined form of
dance than the latter - and consequently it may be justifiably
defined as being more refined. However, unlike most other forms
of dance there is no accompanying score or musical accompaniment
to Tai Chi and even as some kind of shamanistic ballet the dance
of Tai Chi enacts or represents no story or examines no particular
emotion; and it has no allegory, no moral and no message aside
from "go with the flow".
Perhaps then the nearest equivalent of Tai Chi in classical
or high art is Ballet. But then again, there is no 'man' Tai
Chi or 'lady' Tai Chi and there is no such thing as a pas de
deux like there is in ballet; there is just Tai Chi as it is
- for everybody.
So, it has no message, it makes no statement, it has no sound
and essentially it has no material or physical presence. It
can only be done and it only has meaning when you are doing
it; and when you are done, again - you end up with nothing to
frame - and nothing that you can listen to … or smell
or taste to encapsulate, represent or remind you of it. It is
what it is. It is, like a lot of art, fundamentally pointless!
It is my feeling that the art that Tai Chi is most akin to is
music. Sometimes you may hear just a couple of notes but all
at once they 'mean' something. You may not know exactly what
the meaning is but most of the time this does not matter anyway.
The important thing is you just know it for what it is - and
words … and sometimes even meanings just don't matter.
The Yang Long Form is like a Symphony. It is not verse, chorus,
middle eight, verse, bridge, chorus; it far more complicated
than that. However, its virtue is not per say in its complicatedness
but in its dynamics and the demand for virtuosity on the part
of the player, for in this masterwork that is The Yang Long
Form every instrument is played by just one person. The body
is the orchestra.
What are we actually 'listening' to when we are listening deeply
to music? We are not just listening to the notes are we? No,
we are listening to it all - including the pauses - and we are
trying to 'feel' or understand the emotion of the composer;
and the music is all that the composer gives us to go on. He/she
does not also provide us with a written auto-biography, or paint
us a picture as well, or stop the performance to explain some
nuance - its just done (played) and then gone.
Before getting on with this newsletter I discussed its potential
subject matter with a senior student (a structural engineer
named David) who is also a musician. I started by saying that
Mark had asked this question, "why the Long Form?"
and confessed that at that time I that my only reason was because
it is … simply … "long!" I had no sooner
said this when David added "so it is worth studying!"
David is now just two or three 'new' postures away from completing
the Long Form. I have been meeting with him weekly for more
than two years now. He is a quick learner - because he practices
every day and thus, each time we meet he has himself taken care
of the repetition repetition part of practice and is ready to
move on. The most important aspect of this is that I am assured
that all that went before has been committed to memory and become
cognitive or, as I put it, filed in the riding a bike department
of the mind.
________________________________________
Each 'new' posture in the Yang Long Form is slightly more difficult
than the one that went before - but students are not inclined
to give up learning the Long Form not because it is difficult
to do but because it is difficult to remember!
The 'mood' of Part One is that it is learnt posture after posture
- and the directions faced are not complicated. With just two
exceptions, orientation is to the cardinal (NSEW) points.
By the time a student is learning Part Two they are then normally
able to absorb or commit to memory sequence after sequence.
Many postures are repeated (in and out of sequence) are orientation
is more often inter-cardinal (NE, SW and so on). By the end
of Part Two the student has learnt all but a handful of the
postures needed to complete the Form and whilst these last few
'new' postures are the most physically challenging (each 'new'
posture is slightly more difficult than the one that went before.
The first is simply raising the forearms, one of the last is
Sweep Lotus - a 360degre spin on one foot) the hard part is
remembering all that went before.
Part Three is very much a case of remembering sequences of sequences
and keeping up that particular form of concentration i.e. just
concentrating on what you are doing whilst you are doing it.
It is my feeling that it is the 'mind training' aspect of the
Yang Long is that which renders it as a 'complete' or holistic
form of self administered therapy and indeed a from of moving
meditation.
We are all able to scribble a note on a scrap of paper or bang
off an email or text message bereft of punctuation or capital
letters and in the circumstances that's OK. However there are
some people that choose to learn calligraphy - or write a book.
These people are still at liberty to send a text and probably
will but they are likely to continue with their studies just
because it is a challenge and take pride in their creations.
What they do/study/practice/play is perhaps fundamentally pointless
but they continue because, one way or another, they enjoy doing
it. This is why I do the Yang Long Form and encourage others
to do the same. I trust that all of the above adequately answers
those questions that you did not ask!
Gary Robinson July 2006
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