“Yundong Guilu” (The Principle of Movements)
- Yi dantien wei hai xin
- Yi dong quan shen bi dong
- Jie jie guan chuan
- Yi qi guan tong
- Dantien is at the heart of the body’s motion
- Once a part moves, the whole body moves
- Joint by joint energy threads through
- Thus the force transmits unimpeded in one action
– Chen Xiao Wang: Carrying the Burden of Taiji Legacy
[tags]chen, cxw, principles, taiji, quotes[/tags]
12 comments
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September 22, 2006 at 8:06 am
Cindy
Thanks for sharing this. This is a core principle of Taiji.
September 22, 2006 at 7:22 pm
ZMS
this might be the core of chen taiji but certainly not the core of all taiji. if i were to paraphrase it the 1st line would already be :-
“Intention is the core of all movement”
This is because if you have no intention how can you command the dan tian to rotate. Can a PC hardware run without the software? Something to ponder about.
September 23, 2006 at 7:54 am
wujimon
Hi ZMS.
I agree with you that it should be “intention” is the core of movement, but I believe you have answered your own question. The only way the dantien can rotate is via intention, so I believe it is an implicit association.
September 25, 2006 at 3:30 am
ZMS
talking too much of the same thing makes the mind go crazy. ok, from now on talk less of intention unless i intend to go nuts
September 25, 2006 at 5:08 am
wujimon
we don’t want anyone to go nuts..
September 25, 2006 at 10:10 pm
cindy
I agree from what I have read and learned that intention is important. However, I have always been confused about it. What is intention? The intention of conquering, winning, defending, attacking, or the intention of specific movement such as push or poll? I have always been puzzled by how the intention of combating impact health in a positive way. Am I silly?
September 26, 2006 at 6:58 am
lifegivingsword
So…youre telling us that you INTEND to stop talking about INTENTION?
I think my head just caught on fire.
September 26, 2006 at 7:14 am
wujimon
@LGS:
I think that was ZMS who is going to stop talking about intention. I just don’t want him to go nuts
@Cindy
I think in taiji, when people talk about intention, they are referring to the intention for starting a movement. The movement must start with the mind and originate with the mind. However, to me, this has always been a matter of perspective since EACH and EVERY move ultimately starts with the mind, no matter what. Given that, everything we do is stemmed from intention.
I think a better term would be “mindfulness” in the meditative sense. When we create the shape of ‘white crane spreads wings’ are we mindful of the subtle changes within our body, the weight changes, the muscle activators, etc?
In regards to combat, I’ve often been told that if we train for combat/martial, then we automatically will reap the health/meditative benefits but not vice versa. However, a saying goes that when we do the form, we should imagine an opponent. When in combat, imagine no one. While it sounds contradictory, I believe the goal is to prepare our mind to the mental stressors that could be encountered. Similar to the concept of athletes using imagery.
September 26, 2006 at 7:36 pm
ZMS
wujimon-san got right points but something not quite right - unfortunately as regards intention :-X
September 27, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Cindy
I think the intention here depends on your intention of learning Taiji - for health or for learning combat skills.
Interesting point about imagining an opponent vs. no-one. I agree with the goal you stated. To add to that, I think it is a two step process - observing yourself and prepare to training your abilities.
September 27, 2006 at 8:36 pm
wujimon
@Cindy: Great point about first observing self, then training abilities!
September 27, 2006 at 9:36 pm
cindy
Actually, I want to thank you for linking your blog to Chen XiaoWang’s article. I only figured it out after reading that article.