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CHAPTER 1

PREVIEW



T’ai Chi Ch’uan:

Wisdom in

Action in a

Chinese Martial

Art

Stewart McFarlane




What is T’ai Chi Ch’uan? 5 Chinese martial arts and traditional values 6 Ritual Warfare in Ancient China 8

Ritual Archery in Ancient China 11 Legalism and the First Emperor: An

early challenge to Confucian values and Chinese tradition 12 Confucianism in Chinese Culture 16

Confucius on ethics, society and religion 17 The meaning of the rites of propriety: Li 18 Family values and the Confucian Way

to domestic and social harmony 19 Mencius on the nature of the mind, ethics and dealing with the pressures of life 22 Bodhidharma and the Shaolin temple 25

Chang San Feng and the Wu Tang tradition 30 Wandering Knights and Warrior Heroes from Ancient China to Modern Times 32

Contents

Protest and Protection in Chinese Martial Culture 37 Medical and meditational background to T’ai chi ch’uan 44 The traditional Chinese view of nature

and the human body 46 Yin-Yang classification in the body and

in nature 47 Yin-yang in action 51 Taoism and T’ai chi ch’uan 52

Conflict avoidance 53 Strategy in conflict 53 The soft overcomes the hard 54

The mind-body connection and the value of being relaxed 56 The evolution of T’ai chi ch’uan 59 Master Cheng Man-ch’ing’s T’ai chi ch’uan 60

T’ai chi ch’uan, flow, happiness and mastering life 62 References 67




What is T’ai Chi Ch’uan?

Above: Symbol of yin and

yang.

The T‟ai chi (or “great

polarity”) symbol represents

the mutual dependence and

harmony of yin and yang

qualities. Yin is associated

with darkness, softness, and

water;yang with lightness,

hardness, and fire

Above: Statue of Lao

Tzu,author of the Tao Te

Ching and Founder of

Taoism.

From the Temple of the Three

Immortals, Chonburi

Province,Thailand.

Left: Statue of a Buddhist

Monk in a T'ai chi ch'uan

stance. From the Pavillion of

the Immortals (Viharn Sien)

Chonburi Province, Thailand.

The term T‟ai chi ch‟uan literally translates as

„Great Polarity Boxing‟. This definition already gives

a sense of the nature of this art. The concept of T‟ai

chi (Great Polarity) is fundamental to traditional

Chinese thought, cosmology, religion and

medicine. It is to be found in the oldest texts of

Taoism, the I Ching (Classic of Changes) and Neo-

Confucian Philosophy. The term refers to the way

in which the qualities of yin (darkness, passivity,

contraction) and yang (light, activity, expansion)

are distinguishable in phenomena, yet exist in a

relation of mutual interdependence. In traditional

Chinese thought, processes of change and

development, expansion and contraction, growth

and decay, in the natural world, in human

experience, are explained in terms of the interplay

of yin and yang qualities.

T‟ai Chi ch‟uan is one of the three internal

martial arts of China. It seeks to train a direct

understanding of the interplay of yin and yang

forces in the body and mind, in order to achieve

the effective focusing of energy and the efficient

use of power. It incorporates Taoist notions,

particularly as expressed in Lao Tzu‟s Tao Te Ching

(Classic of the Way and its Power). In accordance

with Lao Tzu‟s teachings, T‟ai chi ch‟uan relies on

softness and yielding, supported by a strong

rooted stance. When using T‟ai chi ch‟uan as a

martial art, by correctly aligning the body and

following some simple principles of

physiology, balance and positioning, one

learns to evade and redirect attacks,

rather than trying to meet force with

force. Traditionally T‟ai chi ch'uan was

seen as a formidable martial art. Early

exponents of the art described it as

drawing on the strength of the earth

(yin) and the ch‟i of the Heavens (yang).

An understanding of these fundamental

forces brings considerable health benefits; so

the system is often trained as a health and exercise

regime, in accordance with the traditional Chinese

respect for preventative medicine. The T‟ai chi

ch'uan Classics point out that the mind and the

intention determine the use of the subtle energies

(ch‟i) and movements of the body. It is also

common for the Chinese to see this system as a

mental discipline or moving meditation. As an

integrated mind-body discipline, T‟ai chi has

tremendous value as a way of reducing stress and

eliminating mental and physical tension, and as a

means of cultivating one's inner resources of

resilience and creativity.

We can already see that T‟ai chi ch‟uan has a

powerful symbolic appeal within Chinese culture.

It incorporates many core cultural concepts, such

as T‟ai chi, yin and yang, ch‟i, subtle energy and

achieving effectiveness without brute force. It is

traditionally taught in the context of a close

relationship between student and teacher.

Confucian values are founded on the notion of

kinship or longstanding fictive kin relationships,

and they value the patient and persistent

acquisition of skill in any field. Traditionally in

Chinese martial arts, the relationship is ritually

confirmed in the "pai shr fu" ceremony, in which an

insider student makes a formal offering and bows

to his teacher. These ritual affiliations are an

integral part of traditional Chinese social

organisation. Some Chinese teachers who follow

the traditional methods are prepared to admit

Westerners as insider, ritually affiliated disciples;

others are not. For Westerners, training in T‟ai chi

ch‟uan may be seen as a way of encountering and

understanding central aspects of Chinese culture.




Chinese martial arts and

traditional values

Below: Warriors showing

respect and pride

From an episode from the

Romance of the Three

Kingdoms, a famous Chinese

14th Century novel set in the

2nd & 3rd Centuries CE.

Statues from The Temple of

the Three Immortals,

Chonburi Province, Thailand.

T‟ai chi ch‟uan may be seen as the product of

the integration of China‟s martial traditions with its

medical, therapeutic and meditational traditions.

First, I shall consider the roots of Chinese martial

culture; also, I shall examine key passages in

ancient Chinese texts, which reflect core values

and orientations.

In ancient China, the systematic training of

warrior skills probably began in the Spring and

Autumn period (722-481 BCE) when warrior elites

from rival tribes and territories engaged in a kind

of ritualised warfare often simply to demonstrate

their worth and power among their peers. Ancient

sections of the Chinese classic texts refer to these

encounters and the values they reflect. During this

early period and during the time of the Sage

Confucius (551-479 BCE) ritual mastery, poise, and

self-control were demonstrated through formal

archery tournaments. The mastery of such skills

were seen as the indicators of worth and suitability

for office as an official or political and strategic

advisor. The development of territorial warfare in

the Warring States Period (402-221 BCE), along

with improved weapons technology, brought in a

new era of pragmatic and unmoderated „total war‟.

The First Emperor Ch‟in Shih Huang (Qin Shi

Huang) represents the culmination of this new

realism in territorial and military affairs. He was

responsible for linking up the Great Wall and the

creation of the terracotta army to ritually protect

his burial site. Confucianism developed a distaste

for the military affairs partly because many of the

excesses of Emperor Ch‟in Shih Huang (Qin Shi

Huang) were directed against the Confucians. They

also had strong ethical objections to Ch‟in Shih

Huang‟s rise to power through his policy of

invasive war and military control. But popular

culture continued to value martial skill and

prowess, as can be seen in the tales of the

Wandering Knights preserved in one historical

treatise of the Han dynasty. One reason that the

Mohist teachings of Mo Tzu (Mo Ti, 470-391 BCE)

were popular until the Ch'in Dynasty was the

reputation of the Mohist warriors and strategists,

who were trained to defend weak cities and states

against stronger aggressors.

The earliest model of systematic education

available to young men in ancient China was a

military one. This included training in

horsemanship, chariot riding, training in a range of

combat weapons, especially bow, sword and

spear, along with tactical and strategic training.

Initially specialist training in these weapons was

reserved for the sons of nobles (chun tzu), but as

warfare became less ritualised and more

pragmatic, training of ordinary troops became

commonplace. Training in the ritual protocols of

archery was also essential to a knight. Judging by

references in the ancient Chinese historical

accounts, the bow was the most highly esteemed

weapon, with strong aristocratic and ritual

associations. The favoured use of the bow in

combat was to shoot from a chariot, with one or

two charioteers and a spear-carrier in support. This

type of equipment was of course possible to

wealthy nobles or sons of nobles. Special training

in handling this specialised weaponry was clearly

required. Chinese armies also had foot soldiers.

Usually these were retainers of the nobles in the

chariots. They of course, had nothing like the same

protection and support as the nobles. They are

hardly mentioned in the accounts of battles and

military operations documented in the Tso Chuan,

which is the commentary on the Spring and




Left and Above: Pavillion

of the Immortals (Viharn

Sien)

A temple/museum

dedicated to Chinese History

& Culture.

Autumn Annals of the State of Lu. These

documents provide an annotated history of the

state of Lu (Confucius‟ home state) between the

years 722-481 BCE.

An army of the early period would often be no

more than twenty chariots, holding three to four

men each, with less than one thousand foot

soldiers in support. Although not professional

soldiers, there is evidence in the Tso Chuan that

these small groups of chariot-riding nobles and

their retainers trained, drilled, and fought

according to some sort of disciplined plan, and

responded to commands. In the course of battle,

these commands were issued by means of drums.

By the end of the Spring and Autumn period (5th

Century BCE), armies were much larger, the ideal

being 1,000 chariots and about 10,000 foot

soldiers. The historical records of the period

suggest that these ideal figures were designed so

that armies were evenly matched. The Warring

States Period (402 to 221 BCE) saw an end to such

considerations of fairness and honour in warfare.

In the records of the Spring and Autumn

period, there are frequent references to the

smearing of the drums with the enemy's blood,

both before and after battle. This ritual act seems

to have taken the form of a sacrifice of a captured

prisoner and clearly had magical significance, and

was thought to ensure the success of the

campaign and the protection of the victorious

forces. Much of the manoeuvring in the course of

battle seems to have consisted of noblemen in

chariots attempting to locate worthy opponents,

similarly equipped, followed by the issuing of

challenges and the exchange of shots and spear

thrusts. It is impossible to say to whether the literal

exchange of shots in the gentlemanly fashion

described above was commonplace, but there

were definite protocols and rules of engagement,

which both sides were supposed to follow. These

included not attacking non-combatants such as

non-military servants of the nobles, not attacking

elderly men in the ranks, or attacking opponents

who were already wounded. Devious tactics such

as ambushes, surprise attacks or feigned

withdrawals were not condoned. With the

exception of sieges, battles were short-lived, with

frontal attacks led by the lighter war chariots

supported by foot soldiers wielding spears, dagger

axes and short swords. As one side gave ground or

collapsed, the other would press its advantage and

try to drive the enemy from the battlefield. Booty,

provisions and weapons left by the retreating

forces were collected, often followed by the ritual

feasting on the enemy‟s provisions. Tribute was

often obtained from the losing side, and in the

majority of the battles of the Tso Chuan, the losing

ruler retained control of his state. Much of the

material in the Chinese historical Classics, the Shu

Ching, Chun Ch‟iu and Tso Chuan are concerned

with the exploits of the feudal rulers of the

different states and their small armies of knights.


END OF

BOOK PREVIEW




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T‟ai Chi Ch‟uan: Wisdom in Action in a Chinese … · Ching and Founder of Taoism. From the Temple of the Three Immortals, Chonburi ... T‟ai Chi Ch‟uan: Wisdom in Action in