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Tai Chi is natural - Or 'Tired of endless questions' Written by Lars Bo Christensen translated by Knud Erik Andersen. |
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Anyone who have practised Tai Chi, have tried to explain to others what Tai Chi is. But it's very difficult to give an explanation, which people understand immediately. People thinks Tai Chi is to difficult, unnatural, harmful for the knees, they think it's a kind of dance, karate, gymnastic or ask why the movements have more to the right than the left hand, they ask for anything. In China people doesn't ask these kind of questions, because Tai Chi is a part of every day life. That's why we have to try to put Tai Chi in a perspective where it's easier to understand. A good explanation could be, that Tai Chi is a series of natural movements. Just as natural for us to understand as poems, music, and dance etc. You can without offend anyone say, that the classical ballet has arose as an fashion phenomenon in a not so distant past, where the remaining fashion was to speak French and wear a wig. The age for retirement for Royal ballet dancers today is about 40 years, and the risk of having to stop because of injuries before time is very great. Ballet can be very beautiful and impressive, but you can say, it's far from a natural dance. As long as dance have been institutionalized, it has moved away from being naturally. You can ask the same about martial arts is it natural. Especially when you think about professional boxing and karate. If we define 'naturally art' as an expression for something we create inside ourselves, to be beaten up for money or become a ballet disable at the age of 28, is not not very naturally is it? Then we can ask ourselves if Tai Chi is natural? There is written a lot about the principles of Tai Chi and the idea behind it. Especially the Tai Chi Classics, gives us a clear idea of what Tai Chi is. But the Classics doesn't say much about the external form, that the movements have to be chained together, or that they have to be performed slowly. Tai Chi has changed, there are several styles, and the element of competition has also arose. When we are practising in the parks every day, is what we are doing naturally? Just because we love doing Tai Chi isn't the same as it's natural. A ballet dancer loves dancing, too. But there are dancers who ask themselves if their dance is natural. Hence the concept 'Modern Dance' which often is very natural and spontaneous. It's not for sure that a Tai Chi style is natural just because it's traditional (ballet is traditional). How old does it have to be, to become traditional, and why do we feel comfortable with anything that's traditional? That it has functioned for a long time, isn't the same as it's good or natural. What criterion should we use to find out if something is natural? Joy? No. Ballet dancers also feel joyful when they dance. Efficiency? Nor this. Karate is effective. Natural and simple can be used, because we know very well, what's natural and natural is always simple. The philosophy behind the concept Tai Chi, which is expressed in the Tai Chi symbol, the circle with Yin and Yang, gives some very simple and understandable principles: unity, the circle, hard and soft. Tai Chi is only natural when it's simple. Now we can begin to see if our Tai Chi is natural. Many will say, that there's a lot to learn in Tai Chi. The first couple of movements usually seems very difficult. There are thousand of things which the brain has to take care of and control in just one movement, and to remember the Tai Chi set in it self can be an impossible task for many. Besides that there is the fast set, partner exercises and weapon forms. Most people would say, that it's not simple. And how can it be natural to imitate an other persons personal expression? How can we then say, that Tai Chi is natural? This confusion can only be because, you are not able to see the simple in Tai Chi. Once in the BlackBelt Magazine there was an article, which criticized Tai Chi for being extreme complicated and technical, and the teachers corrected trifle things for ages. How could it ever be possible to get all this right, when different teachers taught differently, and all it have to do with, was punching an other person on the nose? Actually you can understand the criticism, and you can understand, that many people feels that Tai Chi is impossible to learn, even if they feel attracted to it. The fault lies with the teachers and the authors of Tai Chi books. |
All to often there are being wallowed in explanations to details, principles and techniques, which only confuse the more. Many loves to put Tai Chi into an mysterious context, which certainly doesn't help to the understanding of Tai Chi. We better understand something new, when we compare it with something we already knows. How do you explain to a beginner who have difficulties in remembering parts of the form, that Tai Chi is easy and natural to understand? Do you have to have practised Tai Chi for twenty years, before it becomes logic and easy? No! When you look at a Tai Chi master, it looks like everything is one technique, one principle. Something anyone can understand and learn. But it's necessary to reduce to the level we have at the present, and not being impatient of learning more than we can handle. Otherwise it will become very complicated. But it's typical for our modern mentality, to try to learn Tai Chi in one mouthful, and then go on to learn something new. In Tai Chi there is one circle. It becomes to one push or one pull. A punch is just like a push, just hard and with a closed hand. A kick is a hard push with the foot. By the way any part of the body can push, and the direction can of course vary. If you try to remember each movement in this way, suddenly it seems very easy, even for a beginner. That's why it's important to know the basic movements of Tai Chi. Otherwise the variations will look like new movements, and then there are suddenly hundreds to remember. It can also seem complicating that all the movements has been gathered in one long form. But if you try to look at it as a whole, like a tune or a poem with one feeling or idea, then it's quiet easy to understand. You have to keep the balance between the big context and the attention on each movement of course. But if we begin to think of each word in a poem, it would sound stutterly and incoherent. The same metaphor can be used regarding the question the benefit of practise a set of movements, which an other person have made and in addition in a different age of time. Try look at the Chi form as a beautiful poem or a piece of music. Everyone know you can gain something by reading a poem by Baudelaire or Rembaud, or by playing a piece of music by Mozart or Debussy. Why then shouldn't it be possible to gain something by practising the Tai Chi movements of Yang Cheng-Fu's style? The beauty, the strength and the clarification witch it contains, is very great. That's why you can change it, just because you feel like it. You can shorten or add something to beautiful poem. If you change it, it becomes another poem. Only great poets can make poems which you bother reading, even if it's the same words, we have to our disposal. That's also the reason why it's so difficult to make your own Tai Chi style. It would be an expression for you present level, and might not be a challenge, especially not for others. But it's natural to make your own movements, of course. We do that for example in Pushhands or for ourselves at home. But what form for Tai Chi are then natural? It makes you think, when you think that recently in China there have been created Tai Chi styles, which were made to make uniformity in competitions. The Yang style has been shortened so it's possible to have time to perform it during the lunch break. The best from all the old styles has been mixed together to one, and made so all the movements are made to both sides. Suddenly the poem has become a handbook for a good health. A poem like this is not beautiful, neither to read nor to listen to. We have to hope there will arise others, who can make Tai Chi styles like the old masters. Nowadays there are no composers who are heard as much as Mozart and Bach. We have to accept, that they were able to do things in the old days, which we are not so good to do today, even when it comes to Tai Chi.
©1999 Knud Erik Andersen
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