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The Tai Chi "Classics" - An Experiential Approach

From: The ChiFusion Tai Chi and Qigong Blog
Posted: Friday June 15, 2007

Have you heard of the Tai Chi "Classics"? The Tai Chi Classics are a series of writings in Chinese about Tai Chi by past masters of the arts. Often attributed to mythical Tai Chi masters from the 14th to the 18th century, they appear to have been written down much later, though the exact authorship and dates of the writings seems to be unknown.

Most of the writings are in poetic forms that condense a number of ideas into short sayings or statements. Most of the statements in the Classics cover four main areas: (1) ideas on how the body should move within Tai Chi, (2) ideas on how chi works, (3) fighting and martial strategies, and (4) mental and emotional reactions during Tai Chi.

Often times, these ideas are expressed using imagery and technical terms (words that appear to have common meanings in English but have more specific meanings in Chinese). About 12 years ago, I began translating selected portions of the Chinese myself to explore this imagery and these technical terms. My exploration lead to nearly three years of email discussions with Louis Swaim, translator of Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan from whom I learned quite a bit about translating the classics.

Translation issues aside, just like almost everything in the energy arts, how you learn, practice, and teach Tai Chi in general often influences how you approach the Tai Chi classics in specific.

Overall, we've found three ways people approach Tai Chi:

1. Tai Chi as a set of movements. We call this the "Exercise" method.
2. Tai Chi as a set of principles. We call this the "Explanation" method.
3. Tai Chi as a set of skills and experiments. We call this the "Experience" method.

And these three ways correspond to how teachers and students approach the classics.

Tai Chi Classics in the Exercise Method

Teachers who use the "Exercise" method of instruction primarily teach Tai Chi as movements to be learned and practiced. Students are expected to learn and, with practice, be able to duplicate the movements shown to them. Student accomplishment is measured by the number of movements or sets (groups of movements) they can perform.

In many cases, an Exercise method instructor may never mention the Tai Chi Classics, or mention them only in passing. This has certainly been the "norm" with the Exercise method instructors I've known.

If they do mention the Classics, often they emphasize the ideas on how the body should move within Tai Chi, to help their students remember the movements they are teaching. Many Exercise instructors ignore the martial, mental, and chi aspects of the Classics.

The problem with the Exercise method in general is that real benefits for health, stress relief, and vitality often take quite some time. Students often have to learn and memorize a large number of movements before they see tangible benefits. So while references to the Classics in the Exercise method may help you learn more movements more quickly, it won't necessarily improve the level of benefits in your practice. That's because "more" in Tai Chi and Qigong does not always translate to "better".

Tai Chi Classics in the Explanation Method

Teachers who use the "Explanation" method of instruction primarily teach Tai Chi and Qigong as sets of principles to be explained, understood, and demonstrated. Movements are taught, but students are expected to learn not just movements, but the principles behind the movements as the teacher explains them. Student accomplishment is measured by the number of principles they are able to either verbalize or demonstrate in their movements.

Explanation method instructors often mention the Classics frequently in their teaching. They tend to draw from all four areas (physical, mental, martial, and energetic) mentioned in the Classics as they demonstrate and teach the principles behind the movements.

Most Explanation method instructors apply the Classics from the "outside in". In other words, they use the Classics to judge your Tai Chi practice from observation on the outside.

While this works for some of the ideas in the classics, most of the ideas are descriptions of internal processes of how chi functions, and of the descriptions of mental/emotional effects of practice. They were not meant to be taken literally, but as a general guide to experience.

The general problem with the Explanation method is that being able to "understand" principles and/or "demonstrate" them in your movements does not mean that your internal experience is identical to someone else who also "understands" and "demonstrates" the same principles.

Hence, results in health, stress relief, and chi experiences may not be consistent from student to student. This method may also give students a "false" sense of understanding. It's false in the sense that real Tai Chi and Qigong breakthroughs, like those described in the Classics, are related to increased internal awareness and sensitivity, not to understanding or demonstrating principles.

Tai Chi Classics in the Experience Method

Teachers who use the "Experience" method of instruction primarily teach Tai Chi and Qigong as a series of "experiences" to go through and/or "experiments" to try. Movements and principles may be taught, but students are expected to perform personal experiments to check the results - positive or negative - of these principles and movements. Student accomplishment is measured by their attempts at the experiences and their personal results.

Teachers of this method work to ensure that the students don't just outwardly mimic the teacher, but that the movements "feel" the same way to the students as they do to the teacher. Ironically, Experience method instructors may hardly ever mention the Classics, just like Exercise instructors - but for quite different reasons.

Experience method instructors try to bypass all the "verbalizing" and "intellectualizing" about Classics, and give you practices that will move you to a direct, immediate experience of the descriptions in the Classics.

Unlike Explanation method instructors who apply the Classics from the "outside in", Experience method instructors apply them from the "inside out". Whereas it's fairly common for an Explanation instructor to say to a student, "You are violating one of the Classics", it's rare to hear an Experience method instructor say that.

Instead, the Experience method instructor treats the Classics as descriptions of common "internal" experiences from the masters, not as 100% iron-clad, rules. And she will ask you to check your experience against those descriptions. She will ask you - not tell you - if your experience matches what the Classic says.

And more importantly, the Experience method instructor will know when a Classical description might apply - and when it might not! By the way, the idea that a "principle" from the Classics might not apply in a given situation is nearly blasphemy to some Explanation instructors. But to the Experience method instructor, the experience - unfiltered by preconceptions - is the driving force.

Ironically, through the Experience method, students find that many of the Tai Chi principles in the classics do apply to their practice. However, rather than having to memorize a bunch of rules and principles, and rather than having to keep checking their practice against these rules, they merely focus on the internal experience, and "principled" Tai Chi naturally flows from this focus.

As you probably know, the greatest strength of the Experience approach is that it is the most effective method we've found for gaining real benefits in health, stress relief, vitality, and Chi awareness. This method produces a whole level of Tai Chi and Qigong beyond what most students experience. "So this is what Tai Chi is supposed to feel like" is an often-heard comment. That is why we chose to organize our ChiFusion courses around the approach.

"Experiencing" the Classics

Getting back to translation issues, translators of the Classics often introduce "interpretations" based on their approaches to Tai Chi.

For the most part, the translations I've seen are by Explanation method instructors, and their "Tai Chi as principles" approach colors their translations. On the one hand, this "coloring" makes the Classics much more readable, since the text by itself is very terse. Unfortunately though, this coloring may limit the translation's value for Experience method student

For ChiFusion student interested in the Tai Chi Classics, I highly recommend that you find as literal translation of the classics as you can. I highly recommend the translation in Louis Swaim, author of Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan.

Of course, I may be biased here, since you'll read about my contributions to this book and the Classics translation in the book's Acknowledgements. However, as you'll also read in the translators notes to the Classics, Louis made a particular effort not to impose his ideas upon the translation, and to (in his words) "render as close to the bone as possible, without adding any verbiage that is not supported in the original ..."

Once you have a literal translation of the Classics, you can begin to look at the translation as "descriptions of experiences" and match those descriptions against the internal experiences you are receiving from your ChiFusion courses. Especially the work in Levels 3 and 4 of our Complete Course should parallel closely with the descriptions you are reading.

Of course, what is always primary in our courses is the "Experience" of Tai Chi as a set of skills and experiments. Though not necessary, reading the Classics may add another dimension to the experiments you are trying.

Whether you read the Classics or not, you'll find that your ChiFusion courses help you "embody" (put in your body) and "em-mind" (put in your mind) much of what the Classics describe.

Best wishes,

   

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