Tai Chi Chuan Classical Yang Style. Jwing-Ming Yang

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      Regulating the Spirit (Tiao Shen). The final stage of taijiquan practice is regulating the spirit and strengthening the spiritual center. In this training, you use your mind to lead the qi though the thrusting vessel (chong mai), that is, the spinal cord to the brain, energizing it and opening the third eye for enlightenment. Since this subject is very profound and of interest only to the most advanced taiji practitioners, it will not be explored further in this work.

      From the above, you can appreciate the reasons why taijiquan can reward you with a healthy body, both mentally (yin) and physically (yang). If you practice for only a few minutes every day, you can bring your mind to a peaceful and harmonious level and open your perception to an entire new world of living energy.

1-6. What is Taijiquan?

       LECTURE

      Taijiquan Lecture

      Let us see what is Taijiquan, as it was written down in the past. First, we must define what we mean by “taiji.” It is stated in Wang, Zong-yue’s Taijiquan Classic:^4,16

       “What is taiji? It is generated from wuji and is a pivotal function of movement and stillness. It is the mother of yin and yang. When it moves, it divides. At rest it reunites.”

      According to Chinese Daoist scripture, the universe was initially without life. The world had just cooled down from its fiery creation and all was foggy and blurry, without differentiation or separation, with no extremities or ends. This state was called “wuji” that literally means no extremity, no dividing, or no discrimination. Later, the existing natural energy divided into two extremities, known as yin and yang. This polarity, or tendency to divide, is called taiji, which means grand ultimate or grand extremity, and also means very ultimate or very extreme. It is this initial separation that allows and causes all other separations and changes.

      From the above, you can see that taiji, which is derived from wuji, is not yin and yang but is instead the mother of yin and yang. How then do we interpret and define “grand ultimate” as the characters for which taiji is usually translated? And how can we apply this concept to taijiquan practice? Let us turn to the beginning movement of the taijiquan form for an illustration that reveals the answers to these questions.

      When you stand still, before you start the sequence, you are in a state of wuji, that is, a state of formlessness. Your mind should be calm, quiet, peaceful, and centered. Your mind, and hence your qi, should focus at your energetic and physical center, i.e., your lower dan tian or center of gravity. Your body is relaxed, with no intention. Your weight is evenly distributed on both legs.

      However, once you generate the intention to start the sequence and you begin to move, you are in a state of taiji (i.e., yin and yang start to be differentiated to perception). As the form continues, you shift from side to side, from foot to foot, and each part of your body becomes at times alternately substantial and insubstantial. The taiji in the taijiquan form is thus actually the intention or the motivation generated from the mind that causes the yin and yang to be discriminated. It is this mind that shapes reality. It is this mind that guides us to a deeper and more profound understanding. And it is this living and active mind that continues to achieve further perceptions of yin and yang. From this, you can see why taiji is called “grand ultimate,” and why the mind is the Dao in taijiquan practice. Therefore, taijiquan is primarily an art of the mind.

      Through the mind’s action, the entire art becomes alive. Once you start a motion it is possible to modify or redirect it, but this modification is possible only after the motion has been started. If one change is made, others can be made, and each change opens up other possibilities for variation. Each factor in the situation introduces other factors as possible influences. The initial motion made all other motions possible, and in a sense “created” the other motions. The Chinese express this by saying that taiji is the mother of yin and yang: “Taiji begets two poles, two poles produce four phases, four phases generate eight trigrams (gates), and eight trigrams initiate sixty-four hexagrams” (Figure 1-7).¹⁷

      Figure 1-7. The Eight Trigrams are derived from Taiji