Simply take into consideration how one learns the artwork of calligraphy. My expertise taught me the way to write in print type (brush and ink, after all). My very own instructor echoes this within the video hyperlink. Then one learns the cursive type. The variations between these two writing varieties are very a lot analogous to the variations between these two Tai Chi Types.
Sq. Kind is analogous to the block printing of (pinyin) Kai Fashion or “Kai Shu.” The spherical type is analogous to Tsao Fashion, “Tsao Shu/Cao Shu,” or the cursive script.
In Sq. type, as in calligraphy, actions happen in comparatively straight traces between factors (begin and finish factors of inflection). The Spherical type with its curves has the curves going by means of these factors…the Sq. is sort of a template for the spherical.
Just like the Calculus of arithmetic, nevertheless, I wish to level out that the spherical type is like calculus which integrates a tiny phase of a curved movement as a straight line to type the curved movement. Sq. type is like taking one of many necessary tiny straight traces and increasing it right into a linear motion. I suppose the way in which of the universe is predicated on comparable ideas for every little thing which seems to be unrelated.
I feel it’s in Jou Tsung Hwa’s guide: Tao of Tai Chi the place he makes a press release about motion being like particular person frames in a film movie. Taken individually and even 2 or 3, it is mindless, and one sees no movement. We solely have the phantasm of movement when one places all of the frames collectively.
Concerning sq. type and maybe to the critics: Though the principal goal is to show college students to delineate yin and yang, there are lots of, many particular person “factors,” “stops,” “pauses,” and so forth. Because it was mentioned, “modifications of route happen at these factors.” That, the extra “factors” are current in one thing equivalent to a sq. type, the extra capability there’s for these factors to hitch and produce a spherical type. It could appear then that very similar to the person frames in a movie being many however making a positive product that offers us the phantasm of movement.
If I solely have 2 or 3 factors, it will be laborious to see the spherical if I be a part of them with straight traces. If I put 10 factors in that very same state of affairs and be a part of them, one begins to see the spherical very clearly. As within the 8 straight traces becoming a member of and altering route within the I Ching diagram, one can draw the circle round these 8 factors. It could additionally appear that traces becoming a member of like this manner angles on the joints. Ideally, a wonderful place to mount an assault can be at an angle or “tangent.”
The factors the place one modifications route are known as “Dingdian” or mounted factors, really inflection factors. These beginning and ending factors outline the curved motion within the spherical type. In fact, nothing ever begins or ends in Tai Chi, like ocean waves and respiration; every has its personal peak and trough…sine waves come to thoughts. This considers the idea of “reversal, ” which is a mainstay within the I Ching.
After I was studying calligraphy, I appreciated the cease and go of the strokes in Kai Shu. It allowed me to mirror on the stroke I simply did and put together for the following motion. The sq. type of Tai Chi permits us to collect power, align the joints, and collect power on the “factors.” I can put together for the following transfer by gathering power for the approaching motion. That is why the strikes within the Sq. are resolute and seem abrupt.
Based mostly on this, I’d say that Tai Chi shouldn’t be solely very analogous to calligraphy but additionally very scientific…in mild of the Calculus, one can recognize arithmetic.
Thanks
James Roach
p.s. Learn the biography of the Chows at this hyperlink. They had been each excellent artists, calligraphers, and Tai Chi academics. They each discovered from Wabu Younger, who was my very own instructor’s instructor.