 Legend
has it that the founder and of Tai Chi was a Taoist Priest
by the name of Chang San Feng (1270-1364).
He is credited with reworking the original Fighting Forms
as developed at the Shao-Lin Temple to incorporate a new
emphasis on breathing and inner control. It
is reputed that he created this "internal" form
either as a result of a dream or, by observing a fight
between a bird (crane/stork) and a snake. From this he
deduced that despite the clearly different 'nature', size
and shape of the two animals there was no clear winner
as each canceled the other out with specialist moves appropriate
to and in keeping with their own abilities, nature size
and shape. Other scholars contest that Chan San Feng was
himself no more than a mythical figure.
It
is a distinguishing feature of oriental cultures that
fact, fiction, truth and myth are allowed to mix or merge.
For instance, bridges there are either curved arcs or,
if horizontal, the crossing is zigzag. This is not for
structural engineering purposes; in fact this makes construction
more difficult! The reasoning behind it is that evil spirits
can only travel in straight lines. This also explains
the shape of the roofs there. Furthermore, at each end
of these curved rooftops there is usually a Dragon ornamentation.
This is not any old Dragon; it is specifically a Water
Dragon and put there to protect the building from fire.
Given
all of this it perhaps better to assume that in Tai Chi
- nothing is 'real' and nothing is fact and bear in mind
the wise words of the Tao Teh Ching that tells us "value
lies in what is not there and not in what is".
Chang
San Feng internal
link from Cheng's
Preface
|
