I used to be observing the same old argument/dialogue between two individuals about historic Chinese language phrases like Yi and Qi that steadily occur in Tai Chi circles, and it was taking place a well-known route..
“Don’t lecture me! I learn basic Chinese language and Yi means ‘concept’ and Qi means ‘motion’.”
“Actually? Wang Yongquan wrote ‘To mobilize Qi, you create an empty area, by Soong and a lightweight Yi to empty the world. The differentiation of yin and yang is what makes Qi circulation.”
“Appears quiet totally different then…”
And on and on and on…
Lately I had a dialog with a really skilled Chinese language martial artist (it is going to be launched as a podcast quickly, don’t fear) about how this stuff are skilled in Asia vs how we do it within the West.
He made the purpose that within the West we’ve got to grasp one thing intellectually earlier than we are going to do it. i.e. we’ve got to know we’re not losing our time, that we are going to get one thing out of this. It has to ‘make sense’. And we often ask a great deal of questions earlier than even making an attempt it. In distinction, in Asia, there’s a lot much less questioning and much more doing. You simply do it. Should you’re doing it unsuitable you hope your instructor will discover and put you heading in the right direction. However usually you simply hold doing it safe within the information that finally you’ll get it. It’s all within the really feel. You probably have the texture proper, then you’re doing it. Finish of story.
Nowhere is that this distinction between the Japanese and Western method extra clearly represented that on dialogue boards about Tai Chi which are stuffed with Westerners. We like to argue about what these historic idea and phrases like Qi, Yi and Xin actually imply. As if someday we are going to arrive on the final reply. It appears we are able to’t get sufficient of it.
However right here’s the key: it doesn’t matter the way you outline these phrases, what idea or principle you employ for his or her implementation, or how properly you learn Classical Chinese language from the Ming Dynasty. What issues is – are you able to do it? Are you able to present it to me?
If I mentioned, “Present me your Yi. Let me really feel your Jin” Might you do it?
Should you can then it doesn’t matter wether you outline Yi as “concept”, “thoughts” or “intent”. I’m certain we’re all acquainted with the well-known phrase coined by Polish-American scientist and thinker Alfred Korzybski, who gave a paper in 1931 about physics and arithmetic during which he wrote that “the map is just not the territory” and that “the phrase is just not the factor”, encapsulating his view that an abstraction derived from one thing, or a response to it, is just not the factor itself.
So, all these on-line arguments about Qi and Yi, are successfully pointless. They’re map, not territory. Nevertheless, I do assume that just a little mental understanding can be helpful. Particularly if it stops you asking questions lengthy sufficient to simply apply. Additionally, there’s at all times this temptation to assume that if I can simply perceive one thing completely, or write it down within the good, most straightforward method, then finally everybody will go “Sure! That’s it!”
Anyway, as I used to be working towards this morning a thought popped into my head which I assumed felt proper, so I assumed I’d write down and share it:
“Yi is the route you’re sending your thoughts in, and the Jin follows.”
To me, Yi is at all times a couple of route. And it’s directed. It’s the other of a obscure, heat, fuzzy haze. It has a steadfastness and a spotlight. There. Did that assist? Or did it simply make you extra confused. Solutions within the feedback part please. You probably have your personal pithy phrase to summarise an idea as refined as Yi that works for you, then be at liberty so as to add it beneath.
I’ve written earlier than about Yi in Tai Chi Chuan. So, you possibly can have a learn of that too.