Animals in Tai Chi and the Martial Arts
There is a legend about a Taoist monk who came upon a tiger while walking in the woods. He tamed the tiger by staring him down and then climbed on the tiger’s back and road away. “Riding the Tiger” has many implications. Certainly, the safest place to be is on the tiger’s back. Getting off is the problem. The expression is used as a metaphor for bravery and danger and also relates to Tai Chi Chuan. Near the end of the Yang Chengfu long form is a movement called “Retreat Astride Tiger.” It comes before the “Lotus Sweep” and “Bend Bow to Shoot Tiger.” Poor tiger!
The movement of “Retreat Astride Tiger” is similar to that of “White Crane Spreads its Wings.” The right hand is raised and protects the forehead while the left guards the groin. It is single weighted. It leads into a spin that precedes the kick of the “Lotus Sweep.” Yang says, “Although my opponent may be fierce as a tiger, with but the slightest turning motion he will be under my control.”
The Taoist priest, Chang San-feng, Sung Dynasty (960-1279), was said to have originated Tai Chi Chuan after observing a fight between a snake and a white crane. When the bird attacked the snake's head, the snake yielded at his head and struck with his tail. When the bird attacked the snake's tail, the snake yielded at his tail and attacked with his head. When the bird attacked the snake's belly the snake yielded at the belly and attacked with both his head and his tail. In the end the bird gave up and flew away. Chang San-feng was able to see Yin and Yang in the snake’s yielding and attack. This led him to embody these principles in Tai Chi Chuan.
Anyway, it’s a good story. We westerners think of Chinese culture as nothing if not poetic: indeed the elite of the dynastic eras were scholars and wrote poetry. It was natural that their legends and stories related to nature, and consequently, to animal nature. The Taoists developed many “exercises” with martial arts applications and meditative properties. One tradition is the Five Animal Fun (or Frolics) in which the Crane, Monkey, Deer and Tiger contribute their natural movements to this Qigong form.
In spite of the terms “Fun” or “Frolics,” this is serious business. The Five Animal Frolics, Wu Qin Xi, were created by Hua Tuo, (died c. 208) a renowned Chinese physician. The Five Animals are the Tiger for power and improvement of the lung, the Bear for strength and support of the kidneys, the Deer for grace and care of the liver, the Crane for relaxation and maintaining the heart, and the Monkey for flexibility and aid to the stomach. The movements of the Frolics mimic those of the specific animals.
The Five Animal Martial Arts (not to be confused with the Five Animal Frolics), developed at the Shaolin Temple during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), utilized images and movements of the Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake and Dragon. These styles have been popularized in the recent animated film, Kung Fu Panda, although slightly different animals are featured. In a review of the movie in Kung Fu Magazine, Craig Reid observes:
Although from a historical sense it might have been more nostalgic to model the Fearless Five from Shaolin's original five animal arts (tiger, snake, leopard, white crane, dragon) as created by Jue Yuen, Li Sou and Bai Yu-feng during the 1200's, the filmmakers opted to make the leopard evil, use the dragon as the statuesque holder of the ultimate secret of martial arts, and replace them with two of the more recently created popular animals styles: monkey kung fu (late 1800's by Kou Zi) and praying mantis kung fu (mid-1600's by Wang Lang).
In Tai Chi, of course, the list of references to animal movements is long. Repulse Monkey, or Monkey Retreat, looks very similar to the movement in the Five Animal Frolic Monkey Form. The agility of the monkey swinging hand over hand through the trees is mimicked in an application in which stepping back displaces the grip and energy of the opponent. In the Sword Form animal imagery abounds:
Swallow Beats the Water
Bee Enters the Cave
Alert Cat Catches the Mouse
Dragonfly Strikes the Water
Swallow Returns to the Nest
Phoenix Spreads Both Wings
Black Dragon Wags His Tail
Lion Shakes His Head
Horse Leaps Over the Stream
The Swallow Holds Mud In His Mouth
The Rhino Gazes At The Moon
The White Ape Offers Fruit
A Fish Leaps Over the Gate of The Dragon
And so forth.
Metaphor or magic, animal nature was important to the development of Tai Chi and other Martial Arts. Whether descriptive of the movement, the attitude or the strength of the animal, names and images were used in the creation of the Form and still function for us today to add richness and understanding of the history and the purpose of Tai Chi Chuan.
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