Tai Chi Chuan and the I-Ching

From Inside Kung Fu Jan 1992 The I-Ching provides a general set of rules that can be applied to any situation. Internal martial arts styles are unique because they synthesize the physical, spiritual, and philosophical realms of human experience. That is, the "player" of the martial art form can stimulate and nurture all three aspects by bringing together the physical exercise, with the spiritual drive to endure, and incorporating the philosophical wisdom obtained by an active mind from such basic texts as the I-Ching. The internal arts to which I am referring are paqua, hsing-I, and tai chi, and I would like to focus on the relationship between tai chi chuan and the I-Ching to help exemplify how this synthesis occurs. My experiences as both student and instructor in tai chi chuan have helped me see how a student's ability progresses as he acquires first more physical skills, then spiritual discipline and determination, and finally becomes familiar with the philosophical principles of his art. Usually, the skills are acquired in this order, with some blending of these steps along the way. First, the student must copy the instructor and drill through the motions until they are refined, then he may be shown the forms' applications. This helps to release the student from old, familiar and possibly incorrect pat- terns, s. purching with the arm rather than with the whole body, and it aiso rele. s him from preconceived notions of how to move or fight. The next challenge is to maintain faith and trust in what one is learning, even though it may be unfamiliar or counter to one's instincts, until the movements are natural and the resulting actions truly become superior to what was previously done. This requires a spiritual development, a drive to achieve and to persist with something that is difficult, but beneficial in the long term. Then the student begins to question: Where does this come from, and why does it seem to be influencing my everyday affairs as much as my athletic activities? This is the time to begin studying the philosophical roots of the martial art, much of which is derived from the imagery of the I-Ching. The I-Ching, or "Book of Changes," is the ancient Chinese text which is the ideological foundation of that culture's thinking, much as the "Old Testament" is the source of our West- ern perceptions of how the universe is designed. In both cultures, around 5,000 years ago, people first attempted to organize the universe so that life would not be in utter chaos. In the Far East, this germ of culture was attributed to the mythi- cal figure Fu Hsi, who represented the era of hunting and fishing and the invention of cook- ing. In the Near East we find the organization of culture derived from the great forefathers and prophets of the Old Testament. In the case of Fu Hsi's contemporaries, however, the universe was understood through a system of abstract symbols which represented the material world around them. These linear symbols are the basis of the hexagrams of the I-Ching, and are simply the many rearrange- ments of two opposing forces, yin and yang. The Biolica here however. attempted to organize the universe by a strategy. They developed a system of laws that were not abstract symbols representing situations, but were the actual instructions of day-to-day exist- ence. This included laws of diet, family organi- zation, cleanliness, land use and distribution. In both books, the guidelines were set early on, but are subject to a very abstract system by the Chinese, and a very tangible system by the Western founders. The I-Ching is a parallel but divergent text to the Bible. This is important to our discussion of tai chi and the I-Ching be- cause we can now begin to discuss the I-Ching as a source for a philosophical and cultural experience, rather than only as a mystical book of divination and oracles with which most people have become familiar. In the I-Ching the sages used abstract linear symbols to represent the tangible world around them. The abstract nature of existence was defined by the Universe, which began as a great "nothingness" (Wu Wei). The Wu Wei may sound familiar (e.g., the Great Void). In the Wu Wei we find nothingness and allness, the great whole of existence which is represented by a circle. Within this lies the potential for all existence of the multitude of things called the 10,000 things. These things came into existence through separation of opposing forces con- tained in everything that exists, the yin (—- -) and yang ( — ) forces. The concept of yin and yang comes from the observation that on a hill there is a lighter side (yang) and a darker side (yin), and has come to represent polarities, such as hard and soft, for- ward and backward, up and down, empty and full. These symbols were then grouped in threes, with the resulting linear figures called the eight icrams. They are also the basis of the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching. Each of the trigrams has a series of tangible natural features that it represents. Thus, a mountain is represented by two yin lines below one yang line, and means loftiness or keeping still. There are further meanings, which include family relationship, military hierarchy, animals, or colours, and these require further study of the book itself.