From the essay Combat Yang Taijiquan:
The principles behind the adage of deflecting a thousand pounds with four ounces hold true in Taijiquan.
...instead of deflecting, resisting and absorbing an opponent's attacking force, Taijiquan exponents evade, redirect and blend with it. Evade means simply to move out of his way. In any attack, there are only limited points of attack, so simply removing yourself out of his attacking focus by a change of position negates it. Upon contact, it is not a hard block but a blending with the attacking part by yeilding, sticking and following his momentum, joining his energy and redirecting it to your advantage.
Through Nian Jing or sticking energy we can then develop Ting Jing or listening to energy which is the sensitivity to detect the opponent's strength, its origin, trajectory, magnitude and component vectors. Once we are able to detect his energy movement and his centre of mass, we can effectively know his intent and control it by affecting the energy flow and centre of mass efficiently.
...Sui Ren Zhi Shi This simply means to follow your opponent's structure and adapt to it so that it is ineffective. This is practical application of the principle of Bu Tiu Bu Ding by yielding and following him. Rather than a rigid application of postures learnt, the postures occur spontaneously in response to the opponent's structure.
...Jie Ren Zhi Li Borrowing his strength is essentially utilising his own strength against himself, either by causing it to over extend or to channel it through your own body structure back to him. He is literally then hitting himself and there is little expenditure by way of energy for the Taijiquan exponent.
...If he does not move, you should not move, but even static, there will be structural flaws that can be detected by the touch and one can attack them by moving first. But be always aware of a possible trap, even during an attack, sensing plays a very important role in avoiding traps by responding in mid-attack and countering the trap....
It seems like this is the same technique used in the blues, and used in countless forms of revolutionary media subversion.
Repeat the moves of the opponent/partner, revise subtly, then recapitulate it. Call and response, right?
In music, one improvises by repeating the melody, then adding to it by extending the scale or mixing notes from a harmonic chord or some other subtle subversion, until the original melody is unrecognizable. Then one returns the new theme to the original, making it sound completely new - remade in a brand new context.
In tai chi chuan, Nian Jing, Ting Jing, Sui Ren Zhi Shi, and Jie Ren Zhi Li.
This could be the first step of the Dance of Shiva.
I have so much to learn.
Posted by grant at March 20, 2002 05:37 PMvery thank
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