When asked what was the single most important thing to pay attention to in training Taijiquan? Chen Xiaoxing said “timing”. He was referring to the coordination of multiple different aspects e.g. the left and right sides of the body and the upper and lower body. And also the integration of the physical and energetic, for instance harmonising the internal sensation within the body with outside movement etc – so that everything starts and finishes together. To fulfil Taijiquan’s six harmonies (i.e. the three internal and three external connections) we aim for the combination of a body that is loose, relaxed, pliant and strong with a mind that is calm, focused and clear so that the body and mind are harmonised. In a nutshell, it’s not enough to be strong or fast if movements are scattered and disorganised.
This idea of timing is an often visited theme in Chinese philosophy. Confucian scholar Du Weiming illustrated its importance in relation to playing music: “A performance that accords with the highest standards of excellence requires both the “strength” to carry it out and the skill to make it right. It is not only the power and ability to complete the whole process but also the “timing” at each moment as the music unfolds that gives the quality to the performance.” Mencius cut straight to the heart of the matter explaining: “It is like shooting from beyond a hundred paces. It is due to your strength that the arrow reaches its target, but it is not due to your strength that it hits the mark.”
In a similar vein, chatting with Chen Xiaowang during his last seminar in the UK, he highlighted some of the obstacles that people must overcome if they are to make a success of their practice. A common mistake, he suggested, was focusing exclusively on the external aspects and the appearance of Taijiquan rather than understanding its real essence:
“People ask how high your arms are or how far you should reach, or how far the legs should step out. This is not the aim of practice. The aim of practice is to make your body into a movement system. The whole body should become like a system. Like the relationship between the engine of a car and the steering wheel. The steering wheel is like the movement system and the movement system is driven by the engine. No matter what kind of car you’re driving, the movement system is the same. No matter how the car changes, the movement system doesn’t change… So when we train Taijiquan there are hundreds and thousands of possible movements, but they all go back to one method. As in the saying ‘ten thousand methods return to one principle’. This is the key to understanding Taijiquan. It doesn’t matter what movement or form you do, the question is whether you can use this movement system.”
It's not clear to me what you mean by "timing". You say that CXW was referring to "coordination", but I'm still not certain what you mean because there are several ways to interpret what you're saying. Could you use the example of just the top part of the circle in the standard arm-circle in silk-reeling practice, and describe how the "timing" or "coordination" or "internal sensation" works in that brief movement where the hand goes out/away from the body? I'm not sure how "timing", for instance, would apply. "Coordination" might apply, but it leaves open normal, muscular movement. And so on. Clarification would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteTiming and coordination to me are very closely related. It’s the Taijiquan paradox that everything is together but they are also separate entities. So for instance, we have to exactly coordinate the turning of the arms (while fulfilling energetic requirements) and then at precisely the correct moment (timing) change weight and unfold the arm. All the time trying to experience any movement as a whole body action (“concentrate on one thing, lose everything”).
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