Last week, across the table in a tapas bar, the Confucian hierarchical code, as applied to society in general and martial arts in particular, was vehemently condemned by a Basque student of Asian studies who had lived in Japan. She said that everyone should be free and open like the Taoists.
I turned 50 recently and various interactions which then occurred made me reassess certain aspects of my personal and professional life. It is a truism that Tai Chi Chuan is a Taoist martial art, but it is also heavily influenced in the best and worst way mainly (but not only) by Confucianism.
Society is run by codes, religious, moral and legal. As a boy I went to Church eight times a week and tried to follow that straitjacket of a code; I couldn’t do it perfectly and in the end I rejected it. As a police inspector I was expected to follow and enforce both the law and disciplinary regulations; I couldn’t do it perfectly and again I rejected it. My teacher used the ancient martial practice of Bai Shi in his school although at times he himself was unable or unwilling to follow it and I have found the same to my own cost and yet I am also unable to reject it.
The paradox is that while the code of Bai Shi emphasises that Tai Chi Chuan comes from Taoism, you may consider that its emphasis on respect for the teachers and more senior members of the school and on correct behaviour are straight from Confucianism as is the ritual ceremony of initiation. In fact similar but often more complex codes and rituals can be found in many Taoist sects.
Before getting down to martial codes, rules and ways, I’d like to look at the philosophical and cultural morass out of which they came.
Taoism is thought of as being the opposite of Confucianism and is talked of as if it were a coherent school of thought. “Tao” is often translated as “The Way” yet Chinese is ambiguous and “Ways” is more apt because there were many different schools of Taoism. Some were really religious sects mainly concerned with prayer and worship; others practiced Internal or External Alchemy; others again concentrated on meditation or martial arts. Many of these sects were strictly regulated and on Wudang Mountain you can still read regulations for their conduct on some of the stone stele erected on the backs of giant stone tortoises from the Ming dynasty. There was even a Taoist prison for recalcitrant priests now turned into a Wu Shu school.
Though non-religious Confucianism is concerned with correct behaviour and emphasised righteousness, benevolence and filial piety and also emphasised the appropriate performance of rites. One of the great ironies of history is that Confucius was a failure in his professional life as a would-be advisor to one of the rulers of his day. He is what is known as an “Inner Sage”, a man who, though unknown in his life, lived on through his teachings. Today you can go as I did to his hometown of Qufu in Shandong where successive emperors erected mansions and shrines to honour him and where for centuries lived his descendants who were given Imperial positions to honour the unsuccessful sage. They became custodians yet prisoners of his memory and in a later section of this article I will tell you a similar story about Tai Chi Chuan.
One of the more important branches of Confucianism is that of the Legalists of which Hsun Tzu (3rd century BC) was the most famous thinker. He hated the corruption of the government of his times and rulers who relied on magic, omens and incantations rather than correct behaviour. It was a time when scholars were of low repute and people had been confused by the Taoists and the Dialecticians.
The Dialecticians heavily influenced Chan (Zen) Buddhism and said things like “A white horse is not a horse.” The Legalists attacked this approach using the words of Confucius, “Let the ruler be ruler, the subject subject; let the father be father, the son son.” Interestingly Lao Tzu said, “Beautiful words are not true, true words are not beautiful.” So sometimes the divide between the different camps was more apparent than real.
Paradoxically it is possible (though not easy) to be both Taoist and Confucian. These philosophical works are amongst the most sophisticated in world literature and were never meant for the “man on the Clapham omnibus”, but were written by the literati for the literati. Stereotypically the Confucian scholar was solemn and pompous, prosaic and dull, moralistic, but blessed with common sense. The scholar gentleman in his public persona was a sober, respectable, conscientious bureaucrat and family man.
The Taoist wanderer or recluse was by contrast a carefree spirit, escaping from respectability and conventional duties, a person full of wit and paradox, mystical and poetic. This was often the same scholar gentleman in his private persona, away from the demands of society and intoxicated by wine or nature.
My master’s uncle, Cheng Wing-kwong was fascinated with Qi Gong as well as Tai Chi Chuan and taught a system which included some sexual exercises which he had learned from a wandering Taoist. He said to this man that he too wanted to be a Taoist so the man told him, “OK, come with me.” He replied, “Where are we going? What about my family and my business?” And was told he had already failed in his ambition.
Taoism provided the inspiration for much of the poetry and mysticism in Chinese society as well as having radical effects on martial arts and Qigong. However, Taoism was also appropriated by some to search elixirs of immortality and served as an excuse for superstition and occult practices this in turn led to the formation of religious cults with organisation and rites borrowed from Confucianism and Buddhism.
Often stories are related how in former times students were tested by the master and this does have religious parallels. In Chan Buddhist temples pilgrims would be left to cool their heels in the entrance court to see if they were serious and even after this they would only be admitted for a period of probation and only after this was he allowed to meditate with the others. Even then the diet and physical regimen is tough. Chinese call this endurance of hardship “eating bitterness” and believe it helps to build the character. This is not to say that sentient pleasures are to be avoided but the primary sentient pleasure is good health, hence the Taoist emphasis on both Internal and External Alchemy.
Many of the “rules” on how to do Tai Chi Chuan are found in the Tai Chi Classics and much of this theory comes from Chinese philosophy. For example, in the "Tai Chi Chuan Lun". The term Lun is found in Lun Yu - the Analects of Confucius - discourses of the master on how to conduct oneself - within a moral and social context. The Tai Chi Chuan Lun likewise instructs us how to conduct ourselves within a physical and more particularly a martial context.
In a traditional Chinese martial arts school in the Far East new disciples were and are expected to know and to earn their place in the hierarchy particularly after ritual initiation and conduct is tacitly agreed to follow the Confucian concepts of righteousness, benevolence and filial piety. Not surprisingly the Great Helmsman and friends did not regard this type of “feudalism” with enthusiasm though they expected to have it exhibited towards them.
In the Tai Chi Chuan Ching, the term "Ching" will be familiar to those who are interested in Chinese philosophy. It appears in the titles of works such as, "I Ching", "Tao Te Ching" and many others. It is often translated as "Book" or Classic but I prefer “Canon”.
The derivation of the word Canon is from a Greek term meaning measuring line or standard. Its primary meaning is a code or regulation made by ecclesiastical authority. The use of this term in the title points to the strong philosophical and cosmological element in this particular essay. The first few lines in particular are drawn almost word for word from Neo Confucian philosopher Zhou Dun-yi's “Tai Chi Tu Shuo” (Diagrammatical Explanation of The Supreme Pole (Tai Chi)).
The philosophers, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, both talk of the concept of Wu Wei and Lao Tzu even says, “Wei Wu Wei”, “Act without acting”. This is often wrongly interpreted as doing nothing. Alan Watts gives an excellent explanation of the concept; it is like being in a boat on a river and wanting to go upstream. One very arduous solution is to attempt to row against the current; the Wu Wei solution is to put up a sail and to use the wind. The idea is not to do nothing, but to harmonise and avoid conflict with the elements that are present. So:-
“Freely contract and extend, open and close and listen.
To go through the gate and be led along the path oral instruction is necessary.
Kung Fu (effort) is unceasing. Cultivate the method yourself.”
Another important school of philosophy contemporary with Confucius was that of Mohism. They held to the doctrine of universal love rather than the Confucian idea of filial duty towards elders and superiors. At the same time they were practical and recommended doing nothing unless it brought some kind of personal benefit, though not necessarily a financial one. This was why though against aggressive warfare, they trained in military skills so that they could not only defend themselves, but also come to the rescue of a weak state attacked by a strong one. This approach is not greatly different from the Tai Chi Chuan theory, “Opponent doesn’t move, I don’t move; opponent starts to move I have already moved.” They might sound like New Agers, but Mo Tzu said, “Truth and falsehood don’t depend on the ear and eye, but require the exercise of the intellect.” So it is with martial arts.
In competition fighting, I always tried to follow the rules, except once. When fighting an old opponent from the Chikechuan school in Kuala Lumpur, I deliberately kicked him in the groin. He had done the same thing to me at the beginning of the first round, but despite my protests, the referee did nothing so I felt justified. Four years previously in Singapore, I was hurt after my first fight so I deliberately punched my next Shaolin opponent in the face with a twisting action to cut him with considerable success as the fight was stopped, his face cut above and below both eyes. Which action was the worse?
“Be meticulous and keep the Xin (mind) on enquiring into the art.”
One of the interesting things about Tai Chi Chuan is that the “rules” are not solely concerned with fighting. The Tai Chi Chuan Classics are full of Internal Alchemy references, for example, in the Song of The 13 Tactics, it says,
“Let us enquire into what acts as the rule for the body (in all this):-
The Yi (intent) and the Qi are the rulers;
The bones and the flesh are the officials.
Think and enquire where does the final purpose lie?
It lies in seeking longevity and keeping a youthful appearance.”
In other words a purely physical approach is quite inappropriate and yet much Tai Chi Chuan is of this type. I believe that this is largely due to the years of the Bamboo Curtain when China was cut off from the outside world and “feudal” ideas were vilified. It was a mad world where traffic lights signalled red for go and green for stop. Where the corpulent Great Helmsman was surrounded by an army of adoring peasant concubines while the peasants starved in their fields as the country made the “Great Leap Forward”. It was a country where Shifu (Cantonese Sifu ) or teaching fathers could only be addressed as Jiao Lian meaning coach or trainer. The Tai Chi Chuan Classics were consigned to the dustbin of martial arts history and chop-suey hybrid forms were created which had to be done in a precise way (which oftentimes - and most often in competition, conflicted with principles of said Classics),
These forms continue to this day, being changed a little every year or two by a committee and so those who practice them need to relearn. Now the Chinese are preparing for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. There were more than 10,000 full-time students in ten Wushu schools at the Shaolin Temple when I visited a few years ago, Wushu schools cover the 72 peaks of Wudang Mountain like a rash and yet none existed there 20 years ago, though now it is possible to use the term Shifu and to undergo Bai Shi (ritual initiation as a disciple),
What all these people are doing is almost entirely a physical martial art or Wushu. – the therapeutic, the cultural, the internal alchemy approach are noteworthy only for their absence.
It is interesting to compare martial art forms and the Taoist and Zen approach to painting. The idea in painting is not to paint an exact copy of the subject but to convey its essence though not necessarily by simplification –except at the beginning but by subtlety.
It can be said that form is image and application reality or that the form is an aesthetic manifestation of (Nei – Internal) Kung – strength or skill acquired by meritorious effort. In Tai Chi Chuan (and many other styles) the idea is rarely to do the technique exactly as it would be applied. Not only this, but in many schools there are permitted variations, which may be of different degrees of technical and gymnastic difficulty. Often problems occur when applications are shown so we have pictures of famous teachers such as Yang Cheng-fu showing ridiculous applications, which exactly mirror the form movements. Then these pictures are taken at face value and people wonder why the applications don’t work. Many techniques in my own lineage are applied with the reverse movements to those in the form – one of the reasons why we have reverse form.
I was recently giving a workshop at Tai Chi Caledonia with my Tai Chi brother, Ian Cameron, and we were asked what was the rationale behind the differences in our technique. Ian said that what he was trying to do was to pare down the technique, to aim for simplicity. My own approach is to try to practice as many skills as possibly in each technique as time is so precious. We would be poor teachers if we did everything the same.
As well as formal rules and codes there are private ones, which of course get broken too. When I first started to assist my old karate master instructing beginners I did what I had seen Japanese instructors do and swept to the ground anyone who made a mistake. It was only after I had trained with another Japanese that I stopped doing this, he taught martial arts with a smile, which seemed a fine way to go about it. In the years since then I have tried only to hurt students who themselves had hurt others. I have not always succeeded in this goal; there are not a few instructors of considerable experience and expertise who routinely abuse their students.
It is a great irony that the greatest sinners are often religious leaders; the greatest law-breakers are often lawgivers. It is a Taoistic truism that if there were no laws there would be no criminals, but how then to control unacceptable behaviour? It goes beyond this too.
We don’t even agree on the rules regarding the use of language. In Tai Chi Chuan today, for some, a kick is a kick, while for others a kick is a transfer of “energy” through the leg. On a physical level some people know what they are doing and are consciously or not applying correct principles while others have no idea what their movements mean but wave their arms, believing that their “Tai Chi Chuan” is as good, or better than any other. The same people believe that photos of the famous Yang Cheng-fu showing ridiculous applications or of Cheng Man-ching standing erect are realistic and indeed the only authentic way of doing Tai Chi Chuan.. They are in prisond and museums of their own construction.
There is a Taoist story of a man who wishes to cross a ditch during a deluge and using a fallen stele of the local god to bridge the divide, walks over to the other side. Another man arrives and finding the fallen stele covered with muddy footprints, cleans it and reverently restores it to its rightful place. In the Taoist pantheon another god asks the local god, “And so you will punish the first man and reward the second one?” The local god replies, “I can do nothing to the first man because he does not believe in me. I will punish the second one.”
Belief in codes, rules and ways is a dangerous thing; almost as dangerous as telling the truth.