In last months newsletter I told you that I would see to it that diagrams and explanations (in the same style as "Head Nodding" @ wheelswithinwheels.net) of "Circular Breathing" and the first set of "Pushing" and "Step - Push" exercises be put online - and that this issue would link to this new piece which is NOW ONLINE @ wheelswithinwheels.net under the title of "Tai Chi Basics"
And with that (confirming that I have so "seen to it") this newsletter has already performed one of its original functions and informed you of updates to one, another or both of our websites.

Having been up and running for more than five years now I have, based upon feedback from you subscribers, come to the conclusion that bringing 'news' as above is not what you most of all want from this publication and so these days its primary function has become to publish and/or preview articles that might or might not be posted online. If and when we do put stuff online we do not normally just publish plain old 'articles'. No, what we do is put web-pages online; in other words we use only the most suitable of items and furthermore take advantage of and work within the limits of the medium.

Thus, much of this newsletter - which is text only and formatted to not provoke or threaten spam filters goes no further than here - ready for instant onscreen reading or as a black and white print out for reading later. In other words, much of this newsletter lends itself more to the medium of print. It has therefor occurred to Mark and I that a specially selected and edited 'best of the taichido newsletter' might be brought together as a quite reasonable book. With all of that in mind this newsletter continues with an example of "text from the newsletter that might be suitable for reformatting and edited (i.e. with the first paragraph deleted in the example below ) into book form" ... I reproduce the following and invite your comments/feedback:

I get a trickle of random emails that find themselves to me through taichido.com. I try, but I must confess, I do not, for various reasons, answer them all. Nonetheless, sooner or later, many do get a reply. In this the 64th monthly issue of the taichido.com newsletter I use a couple of those random emails exchanges; the first as a device that can guide you quickly into the depths of wheelswithinwheels.net (my more personal/less intellectual!) sister site to taichido.com - where plenty more similarly "interesting" stuff lurks. The second exchange fell at first upon deaf ears - or at least an abandoned inbox so I share it now just as a prime example of a "random" email - with my "ultimate tangent" reply even more random than all that went before!

Random email 1 from Istvan Szakats, received January 2007 said:

Hello,
I have been searching all over the web to find out the answer to the following question: What is the difference between a qigong master and a qigong grandmaster?
Some sites suggested this was a difference that made sense in history but nowadays it is used mostly by westerners mostly for marketing purposes can't think the answer could be this simple.
More technically put, my questions would be
1. Who can claim he/she is a qigong Master?
2. Who can claim he/she is a qigong Grandmaster?
3. Is there a worldwide list of qigong Grandmasters?
Waiting for your answer, best regards, István SZAKÁTS

My reply said: Hi,
Fundamentally, a grandmaster is a person who has taught a master.
Within my website www.wheelswithinwheels.net there is a mini site called 'WITHIN'. [http://www.wheels.taichido.comwithin/withinsplashpage.htm]
Within that mini site there is an article titled "Budo Grading and Formal Titles". [http://www.wheels.taichido.comwithin/budograding.htm]
This article, just one of sixteen on that mini site, has five pages. You will find all kinds of interesting information on pages 1 - 4. The specific question you ask is answered on page 5. [http://www.wheels.taichido.comwithin/budogrades/titles.htm]
So, by definition, master and grandmaster is all about history but yes also, it is term used far too liberally these days by people who have no proper knowledge or respect for the history or traditions of martial art. As you will note from the other pages re. "Grading and Titles" @ within @ wheelswithinwheels.net there is a lot levels before Master - and I would say that in the majority of cases shortcuts are created or traditions "reinterpreted" to suits needs - in the name of 'modernising' or perhaps more precisely 'westernisation'. I actually personally know of one person who went for Tai Chi Beginner student to "Master" in less than a year. But this, just like you said, was simply a matter of marketing. When the student became a "Master" he became automatically qualified to teach ... and therefore open up a new class - and pass on a percentage of the profits to ... guess who? Yes, the Grandmaster of course!
To answer your 3 questions - in reverse order:
3: No - there most certainly is not a worldwide list of Grandmasters. Various organisations may list their own - and usually claim that their Grandmasters are the only true Grandmasters. At the end of the day it is just a matter of who or which organisations authority you choose to accept.
2: If someone said to me "I am a Grandmaster" - I wouldn't believe them! As the Tao Tey Ching says: "He who says does not know. He who knows does not say".
1: Anyone can claim it - nevertheless the fact stated at the start of the email i.e. "a grandmaster is a person who has taught a master" remains the answer.

Earlier on in this reply I eluded to "various" organisations. May I do so again?

Each 'branch' of martial art has its own organisation structure but there is no single governing body or one rule to go by. In my experience the most common effect of the establishment of an 'official' organisation is the fracturing of that organisation and the forming of breakaway or rival organisations. So even within one individual discipline there may be several bodies claiming authority. And then there are all the different disciplines; Jodo, Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido and so on. These each may have their own 'interpretations' of traditions. And there is all the different cultures or Countries - and so there never was and never will be a 'central register'. Even if there was, there would be no such thing as a qiqong master. First of all qiqong is a Chinese thing - so the Japanese would not recognise it as a martial art at all anyway. In fact it is only really in the Chinese culture that qigong is recognised as a separate discipline. In all of the other arts qiqong is regarded simply as a part of the whole. If one is a master of any one of the martial arts one is - ipso facto - a master of qiqong. Otherwise it would be rather be like person a who had not yet mastered the art of mixing cement or sawing through wood calling himself a master builder!

Istvan Szakats got back to me in March 2007 saying:
Hello Gary, thanks for your answers. I start to understand better the whole problematics.
The general consensus is - as you also wrote - that grandmasters don't call themselves grandmasters. There is a qigong teacher in X [an east European country] claiming he is "the only qigong grandmaster appointed by the World Qigong Federation who is not Chinese" and I found this claim odd. This is why I started searching. In the meantime I discovered that the guy plagiated some feng-shui articles by simply translating them from english to X and publishing them under his name - so I lost trust in him. But in this process I learned a lot.

I would have never figured this field of human endeavour has exactly the same number of crooks like the others. But on second thought - why not? Thanks again for your answers. Best regards, Istvan.
Random email 2. A similar exchange with the central subject being "directions". The sender wrote:
As a long time student of T'ai Chi, it came to my attention that the direction you do T'ai Chi is important ! In the morning you should start in the eastern direction, during the day, south and in the evening west because of the energy. As it was described to me, if you put a tomato plant in each window (north-east-south-west) of your home, the tomato grow less in the north window and best in the south window. Is any of it true, that direction is important ?

My reply said: Hi John,
I have been ‘sitting’ on your email for a very long time! I was slow to reply not entirely because I didn't have an answer - but more because a written reply would be so much longer than the question!!!

Anyway, being theoretical (whether we personally “believe” in it or not) we would ultimately have to concede that ‘Chi’ and the whole Yin Yang thing is still just a ‘theory’ i.e. a ‘not disproved idea'. On the other hand “Photosynthesis” is a process that has been repeatedly clinically observed and measured; therefore a scientific fact. And anyway anyway, tomatoes don’t do Tai Chi. So I suppose my answer to both of your questions, surmised as “is direction I important?” must be: yes and no.
May I now pose you a question? What is “less” and what is “best” … tomato wise? It’s like that phrase “Good weather for ducks”. That may be so but we really don’t know. Have you ever asked a duck? What we really mean is “bad weather for us humans!” By “best tomato” do you mean the shiniest reddest one, or the one that goes best with cheese, the one best eaten raw or the one best cooked? Theoretically the ‘best’ tomato of all for humans would be one grown in a greenhouse, or under lights, or, so as to best fit our human sensibilities and taste, one thoroughly genetically enhanced to containing the best of everything! And what about mushrooms? Is there a type of darkness that they thrive most in?

In general I do believe that a human can if necessary adapt our environment to suit our needs; but we just might find ourselves on the slippery slope to hell if we are not realistic and reasonable regarding these ‘needs’. Keep it in perspective. Tai Chi is an exercise – not a magic spell.