Sandao

[Xue Sheng]

I read Tung Ying Chieh’s (his family is spelling Chieh as Jie by the way) red book recently and there is an awful lot in it that has made a difference to my Tai Chi.

I wanted to post some of his basic requirements for practicing Tai Chi and hopefully it will help someone at the beginning and those like me with a little more time as well, but I still feel I am at the beginning. I have to admit I was not practicing Sandao (not to be confused with Sanda) of late and this little passage put me back on track.

Basically he is talking about the learning process and the importance of the 3 tasks needed to practice Tai Chi.

First one must complete your Shen (Spirit) and you must unify your Shen with the movement. Second you must make your Yi (thought, intension) an important part of every move and third is Shi (posture, position) it must be correct and comfortable.

I am starting my second MUCH slower read of this book. I have wanted to read this book for quite awhile and when I got it I blazed my way through it. So now I think I will take it a section at a time and just stop and think about it as I go. As I find things of interest I will post them if people find this interesting.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Thanks XS. I'll forward to hearing more.

 

[East Winds]

Xue Sheng,

Haven't read this book but will endeavour to do so if you can give the full details. But at a general level, yes, I know what you mean. My teachers kept on about the importance of incorporating Yang Cheng-fu's 10 essences into the form. And for years my attitude was, "Yes, I know about the 10 essences, now show me the good stuff!!" And of course I could recite the 10 essences by heart without a problem. Then one day I stopped and looked at my form and realised that I was applying SOME of the essences SOME of the time, but not all of the eseences all of the time!!! That was when I started to de-construct my form and begin again at the basic level and start a rebuild programme. In the west we are so concerned by the "quick fix" attitude, that we learn a sequence of movements (the form, any form) and think we have cracked it. Some even start to teach with only this basic information. And then we wonder why the level of CIMA's is so poor in the west. When we reach the stage you just have Xue Sheng, you have moved onto the next level of learning.
Here is an article by my teacher Christopeher Pei on this very subject. Its a good read.
http://www.uswushuacademy.com/articles/Five Skill Levels.htm

Very best wishes

 

[charyuop]

I don't even know 1 of the Ten Essences LOL.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I don't even know 1 of the Ten Essences LOL.

Yang Cheng Fu's Ten Principles on Tai Chi Chuan
http://www3.telus.net/tomash/yang4.htm

 

[Franzfri]

Thank you for the informative links. Much of what is in them is familiar. but my sifu usually doesn't elaborate extensively on theory. When he does it is sometimes difficult to pay attention as it is in the middle of a class and my attention is more on my knees and feet and how nice it is to not be standing still in a posture. But than I'm a beginner so hopefully to be forgiven and also I'm not that young. We do work a lot on intention and spirit and he's been isolating movements so that we will understand.