Thursday, April 21, 2011

Tai Chi Light Show --- Photographing Chi!


To see the inspiration for these shots look at my blog entry, "Virtual Volumes." I'm slowly learning the technicalities of the process... been using a digital point and shoot for so long now I've forgotten much of the discipline of good (analogue) photography. I blew the whole first role by not checking the shutter speed and the second roll, as you see here, suffers from not having cleaned the lens (see the spots and the centralized glow from reflections inside the lens.) However, I am happy as a clam with these first efforts.


These multi-colored images are made using a pair of "rave gloves" set to cycle through red, green and blue. The gloves have LEDs mounted at the finger tips and thumb tip. I am doing partial sections of Yang style Tai Chi with the camera in a fixed position.


I think the above shows from Raising Hands through Brush Knee and probably a Push. Next time I will keep some records of which movements are in which shots.



In the shot above I have added a single LED to the toe of each shoe. The sequence includes Waving Hands Like Clouds and Repulse Monkey (I think).


 The above is Sword Form using a single LED at the tip of the sword.


And here I added a second LED on the pommel. I should add that these show the complete Sword Form.


I have to thank my good buddy, Bill Mego for his help in scanning the negatives. I had no luck at Walgreens getting them to figure out how to print the roll and it's just as well. There will be more to come in the future, so 'til then, Buenos Noches and be careful doing Tai Chi out there in the dark!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Taoism, Buddhism and Tai Chi Cuan


Last time I wrote on this blog I alluded to the idea that Taoism is supposed by some to have influenced Buddhism. I was not actually thinking of Chinese Buddhist traditions here, but Indian. I was skeptical that Taoists in the first century BC had traveled to India and pow-wowed with the Buddha or his followers, but I had a strong recollection of having read this somewhere “authoritative.” A careful exploration of my bookshelf did indeed yield a little scholarly treasure: Chinese Thought From Confucius to Mao Tse-Tung, by H. G. Creel, written in 1953 (my paperback copy is from 1960.) H. G. Creel was a Professor of Chinese Literature and Institutions at the University of Chicago and worked for Military Intelligence as an expert on the Far East. In it, Creel often relates that this work or that work may be a forgery or may have been revised by some later Chinese scholar, however, he strives to reflect the nature of the truth behind the influence Chinese thought/philosophy/religion  has had on its culture throughout its long history. He says of Taoism and Buddhism:

Taoism and Buddhism were commonly associated in the Chinese mind. Many Taoist terms were used in translating Buddhist scriptures, and many Chinese studied Taoism and Buddhism together. The Buddhist were often quite tolerant of Taoism and sometimes even included Taoist deities in their temples. Taoism… copied Buddhism by establishing temples, monks, nuns, scriptures and doctrines which in many respects are astonishingly similar. The Taoists, however, were not so tolerant of the Buddhists as the Buddhists were of them;  perhaps their extensive borrowing from Buddhism left them with a bad conscience. The Taoists said the Lao Tzu had gone to India and taught the Buddha, so that Buddhism was nothing more than an offshoot of Taoism.

I was glad my memory was good enough to pull this out of the cobwebs, as it isn’t my normal reading matter. So problem solved, right? Those naughty Taoists were telling tales again. But questions of Taoist and Buddhist influences on the development of Tai Chi Cuan still were rattling around my brain. A more contemporary scholarly effort is found at http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/93608.htm in the manuscript called  The Taoist Influence on Hua-yen Buddhism: A Case of the Sinicization of Buddhism in China, by Kang-nam Oh, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Regina (May 2000). Hua-yen was one of the earliest schools of Buddhism to be developed in China. The schools reinterpreted Indian Buddhism to fit the Chinese way of thinking and its social order and the paper points out many instances where Taoism, or more properly, Neo-Taoism, had inspired its development. For example, the “Manifold Mysteries” of the Taoists relates to the “Ultimate” truth of the Buddhists. Both share the dual concept of Substance and Function which can be traced to the Tao Te Ching.


Enter Bodhidharma. In the 5th or 6th century, Bodhidharma, who was probably Persian but hailed from Southern India where he was a Buddhist Monk, migrated to Northern China bringing with him the first, or at least the most, influential concepts of Zen Buddhism. He became a patron Saint of the Shaolin Monastery and is attributed with having created the beginnings of Kung Fu there. He is supposed to have sat facing a wall for nine years without speaking. Bodhidharma is said to have been a disciple of the Buddha who later traveled extensively and developed many exercises to strengthen his body. He taught these as part of the discipline of Zen and they most likely merged with existent boxing styles known to the Shaolin monks.  However, some historians maintain that the story of Bodhidharma at Shaolin Monastery is based a forged qigong manual written in the 17th century, interestingly, by a Taoist with the pen name of Purple Coagulation Man of the Way. Oh well.


So we have a semi-mythical Taoist deity, Lao Tzu, riding off on his blue water buffalo to instruct Siddhartha Gautama, who would later be the Buddha, in concepts of wu wei, (being and non-being), which would later become Taoism, and a semi-mythical Buddhist Saint from Iran staring at a wall and creating Kung Fu. Not to mention Zhang Sanfeng, who lived to be 600 years old, could fly, and invented Tai Chi on Wudang Mountain. Before we logical, science-based Westerners scoff we would be best to remember that Moses parted the waters, Jesus walked on them and Muhammad traveled to heaven on a winged horse.


And, you might well ask, where does the I Ching come in to all this? After all, it comes to us from the 1st century BCE and embodies the concepts of Yin and Yang and the Trigram diagrams which the Taoists later adopted into their philosophy.  Its commentaries may or may not have been written by Confucius, who is said to have advocated the practice of martial arts, but at least not to have invented it. So closes our can of Chinese worms. I’m off to read something I can be sure isn’t fiction. Like the political history of the United States.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Wudang Mountain High

Wudang Mountain High



I don’t often review movies, and this won’t appear on Netflix, but I was struck and awed by a documentary we saw recently called Mysterious China: Holy Mountain. The is a promo for it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGwx_XPilIA. The film is part travelogue, part history lesion, part martial arts demonstration and part Busby Berkley. 90 minutes of breathtaking photography at and around Wudang Mountain, also known as Mount TaiHe or Mount XuanYue. Wudang Mountain is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site and is considered “Holy” to Taoists. Legend has it that Zhenwu, a Taoist deity, discovered the “Golden Elixir” there which made him immortal. Besides Taoism alchemy, Mount Wudang is the birthplace of Wudang school Kung Fu as popularized in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.


The possibly mythical figure, Zhang Sanfeng (Chang San Feng) is supposed to have created the Wudang style of Taiji Quan. It’s interesting that there is a rivalry between Wudang and Shaolin Monasteries over the invention of Taiji and Kung Fu, but these seem more akin to Taoism than to Buddhism to me. At any rate, Wudang Taiji has an interesting lineage so far as we know it. Here is a video of the Zhang San-Feng 13 postures http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mafTd7h9auo&feature=player_embedded#at=63. It is a beautiful, sweeping form that reminds one of Chen, Yang and Wu all at the same time. The form of Wudang Taiji that we have now was developed by a Hong Kong based master named Cheng Tinhung and is being taught in Great Britain by two of his students, Dan Docherty and Ian Cameron.



Some of this is touched on in the documentary but hard core Taiji enthusiasts may be frustrated by the lack of detail given there. Of course, it a film about the mountain, and covers many of its aspects. Scenes of Taoist artifacts, the temple architecture, the approach to the mountain (walk up the hundreds of feet of stairs, be carried up in a litter, or maybe you could take the cable car) are fascinating.



You get just enough information to make you want to research it further. It was a little disheartening to hear the terms, Kung Fu, Qi Gong and Taiji used interchangeably. And the constant cutting away from performances of various forms was annoying. But staying with it rewards you with a display of a variety of forms: Kung Fu, Taiji, Qi Gong, Sword, Tassel, some Push Hands and what appeared to be Ba Qua but might have been a dance. At one point the narrator suggested that Buddhism was believed by some to have been developed from Taoism. I think I read that somewhere else once. Chinese history is nothing if not reversionary and fraught with multiple mythology. So get the movie from Netflix and enjoy the production. My thoughts were, “I want to live there.”

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Waving Tassels in the Wind

Paul Chen tassel for double edged sword
Waving Tassels in the Air

When I got my extendable practice sword it came with a tassel. My other swords hadn’t. The tassel is traditional and decorative looking, but I immediately put it aside thinking it would just get in the way. Nobody in sword class used a tassel. I had read somewhere that the tassel was useful for practice, so the first warm-enough day (in Wisconsin that means it is above 30) I looped the tassel through the pommel of my Paul Chen sword and took to the backyard. Yes, I did find I had to pay attention so the tassel didn’t wind itself around my hand. No, it didn’t unbalance the sword, but I also didn’t see how to let it “lead the sword” or to keep the flow consistent. Clearly, I need to figure this tassel business out!

Wikipedia wasn’t much help but I got on several sword forums, including Kunfu Magazine’s and one called “Sword Arts Talk.” Mixed in with historical concerns, glib speculation and occasional silliness were some interesting ideas about tassels. First let me give you a link here to a nice youtube video of Jonathan Russell performing T. T. Liang’s version of Yang style sword with long tassel attached. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z573zimpP_s  This is a wonderful demonstration of the Long Tassel Sword form and you can see how he uses the tassel as a key element. The theory that the tassel was used to distract the enemy seems valid although I also could subscribe to the notion that it was flung into the opponent’s face and might have contained wires or barbs. At any rate, here are some excerpts from those forums:

The official reason is distraction    ...more for aesthetics

poison was someimes used on the blades of the swords and the tassel was used to conceal a small vile tht held antidotes

The tassel could be weighted with brass or lead and used to whip at an opponent, or entangle his weapon. I believe it might also contain small hooks or blades that could cut as well as impact an opponent

they look ridiculous   ...unless your wearing them silk pajamas

they're for grip when the handles are covered in blood.

the tassels were weighted to act as a counterbalance for the sword   the tassel (by not becoming tangled) ensures that the sword is being used in the correct manner

it's something that should be avoided until a certain level of skill is acquired

Here is a quote from "The Art of Chinese Swordsmanship" by Zhang Yun. "There are two kinds of tassels; changsui which is as long as the body of the jian and duansui which is half the length of the jian. Originally made of rope that connected the jian to the practitioners wrist, the tassels of contemporary jians are always made of beautiful materials. Historically , the jianpao allowed the jian to be thrown outward by the practitioner and then pulled back into his grasp. Today, jianpao are used primarily for show , not combat".

long tassle sword /chang sui jian ... the tassel in this style should be long as sword or longer... first of all is to distract enemy  ... this technique is called: "huang"   ...the other important technique is called "shuai"  ...it is using the tassle to hit the oponent and believe me, it hurts a lot, also the tassel can be thrown to the oponent eyes and distract his view

It is also a training tool. If the sword is flowing smoothly and in correct lines, the tassel won't readily wrap around your arm....it will also flow with the sword.

It's also been postulated that it started out as a lanyard ie a thing you tie around the wrist so you don't lose your sword in battle.

As well as something you can tug on to pull the sword out of your enemy if it gets stuck.

Some practical uses of sword-tassels are as a means of leading the sword and distracting the enemy. The sword, following the tassel in a strike can confuse the opponent.

Besides that, it can be a means of balance when using the sword and can help you depending on the style you are practicing. For the internal styles, when you do horizontal strikes, meaning the sword is parallel to the ground, generating the strikes from your mid-section can encourage the tassel to swing circularly below the sword itself.

the tassel is a training tool. The sword is Yang, and the tassel is Yin. The power of the sword is generated by the Yin. During training, the RED colour of the tassel helps in focusing the intention. In a real fight, the tassel may or may not be there (real fights are ugly and chaotic and never ideal and you may not have all the right equipment at that moment!) but the power is generated the same way even if the tassel is not there.