First Principles and a Common Language

My point is that looking at the Traditional Chinese concepts necessary to gain Mastery in Taiji from other angles can be illuminating. Even those who are very skilled in reading the classic texts in their native language have differing ideas of what the meaning is. If that was the only path for the Westerner we would be doomed!

There are numerous texts that the serious Taiji student should study and understand; many are written in ancient Chinese or more technically Classical Chinese (gǔ wén).

Some are written in a kind of Literary Chinese (wényán wén) and filled with poetic and prosaic constructions as well. For those who don’t know, this is not like the distinction between Traditional and Simplified Chinese, it’s much more than that. There are many modern Chinese speakers who do not understand the deep meaning of these styles of writing. Some of the best scholars of these dialects like Paul Brennan are not Chinese.

I have said that these concepts of Prima Sapientia may be spoken of in the language of Neuro-Science and Neuro-Physiology without reinventing or watering down the concepts. That is to say that these same ideas may be stated in other terms as it relates to Body Movement and Body Mechanics and the Feeling and Awareness that is associated with movement. That is actually the definition of Neuro-Physiology! It is an obvious modality to talk about internal processes such as Sung and Ting.

Most serious students of Taiji have a deep respect for Chinese culture and the gift of Taiji that it has given the world. Without the study of the Authentic Traditional Taiji and the culture that created Taiji it would be unlikely to progress to the higher levels. The idea that the only way to describe the central and universal concepts of Taiji requires a specific language and that to understand those concepts you need to be a native speaker is silly at best. Nobody can own an idea. Once an idea is at large we may try to describe it in numerous ways.

Taiji requires the Physicality of doing it and feeling it inside but it also includes an intellectual component. We should certainly be able to describe clearly in modern language what the methods and the results of Taiji should be. One must get the balance of those two components right or the work will not bear fruit.

What we are moving towards is a more Universal Understanding of the First Principles and a Common Language.