Tai Chi Postures: Correctness and Activeness
“Correctness and Activeness” is the “neutral” way to correct postures and movements of Tai Chi.
(a) “Correct and active” postures in Tai Chi
“Correctness” means that postures should be “even-handed.” One should seek for the equilibrium in the Tai Chi Symbol where the Qi of Yang rises and that of Yin ebbs, resulting in the S-shaped dividing line as well as the “dynamic equilibrium.” The ancient Tai Chi tabke required that “the force comes upward and the Qi falls to the inner heart, which is just the indication of ‘even-handedness.” When doing Tai Chi, this means one’s body should remain upright and the head should be as erect as the body. This is what the chart of Tai Chi table called “the trunk being erect and spirits permeating the top.”
By “activeness”, we mean that every posture should be carried out to the full extent. In Tai Chi from “Tai Chi Symbol of the Book of Changes,” Tai Chi is where various objects are derived, and it is still extending outward on its own instinct. The two elements of Yin and Yang are closely connected and should never be separated. Thus the two forces of extension and convergence are coexisting.
The circle becomes substantial with the two elements of Yin and Yang, and the shape of the circle becomes round due to the extending power of the two elements. Thus when learning Tai Chi, one’s limbs should be extended to the required range as well as be tight to the required degree. One’s movements should combine flexibility with straightness, exhibiting the circular arc kind of “neutrality.”
As to the movements, the Charter of Tai Chi technique requires not only to make “the trunk being erect and spirits permeating the top,” but also to make the limbs sink loosely up to the feet. Thus, from the vertical point of view, the top of the head should be propped up, and the ten toes firmly planted on the earth. The body between the head and feet forms an apparently loose but connected string. Therefore, though being “hauled” from the two ways, the body will not become stiff. Besides, from the horizontal point of view, Tai Chi requires the four limbs to “combine flexibility with straightness,” and “seek flexibility from straightness.” It’s in this way that the four limbs can be convergent while extending outward. Thus the vertical and horizontal movements and postures of Tai Chi are round in itself and pleasant to the eye.
(b) Characteristics of Tai Chi with “correctness and activity”
Tai Chi requires that the movements and postures should be round, active and coherent in accordance with the concepts of transformation of the two elements of Yin and Yang and the circulation of the sun, the moon and the stars. Chen Xin said, “Movements of Tai Chi is like the tangling silk.” One should “move and circulate with the hand and feet so as to understand the connotation of Tai Chi,” “create a Tai Chi with each movement of the hands,” and “never deviate Tai Chi when extending and converging.”
The limbs should be circumvolving when one is practising Tai Chi. As the “route” of the limbs is arc round, the body itself may also go arc round and round accordingly. Let’s take “Yun Shou” for example. This term indicates that the hand moves in a circle in accordance with the movements of the arm. Some movements, however, may not create the actual “route.” Yet even in this case, the movements are conducted in a roundabout way. Take “Louqi Tuizhan” for example. When people are performing this movement, their bodies are simply spindling in a clockwise or anti-clockwise manner, with ankles, legs, waist, raphe, shoulder and wrist all “wheeling.” The whole body is then transformed into a connected moving curve of legs, waist and even up to the fingers.
With each and every movement full of turns and spins, the whole set of movements in Tai Chi is also characterized by continuous round gestures and postures, like one evolving “Tai Chi Symbol consisting of the two elements of Yin and Yang.”
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