Historic Discovery

I was delighted that Emlyn found these photos after reading my post on Daoist Shoes. There is no evidence that they were used by Daoists in ritual. But the more orthodox the ritual, the more private it is, so we will never know. But the shoes are used in theater and were widely worn by Manchu women.

They were understood to do at least two things: One, they gave a feeling of potency to the wearer. Two, they were an imitation of Han (Chinese) womens' esthetics, namely bound feet.

Bound feet, and the reason(s) behind them, is one of the most fascinating and disturbing pieces of Chinese culture. Manchu women were forbidden by the Manchu government (1650~1905) from binding their feet. The government was never happy about Han women doing it, but it was out of their control. Some scholars now say that foot binding was an act of female agency. Men showed their acceptance of subjugation to the Manchu rulers by wearing their hair in a cue (shaving the front and leaving a thin braid in the back). Han woman showed their disdain en mass for this act of subordination by binding their feet. This act conveyed stored potency, as if to say, "We will act at a later date! (This did in fact happen in 1911 when women whose feet were not bound were slaughtered.) (Hat tip to Alan Baumler at Frog in a Well, also scroll down the comments section where some heavy scholars go at it. )

The problem with this explanation is that binding ones feet seems to us like torture, perhaps it is even self-mortification for the misdeeds that led to being conquered by the Manchu. To understand foot binding as an act of potency one has to understand the difference between, what we call in Taijiquan, jin and shi.

Jin is power which manifests through the balls of the feet (peng & ji) or through the heels (lu & an). Shi is potential power which is stored up and does not manifest. It is the power of being able to manipulate the spin of a battlefield simply by ones position. It is not overwhelming force or shock troops. To develop shi, one must not use power from the balls of the feet or the heels.  The more common type of jin must be discarded to develop the "higher level" shi.



Thus, by pure accident I discovered that these shoes were actually meant to convey shi (potential power). I was using my memory/dream of them to convey something not well understood about taijiquan and stumbled on the debate about foot binding.

Here is the poem from Frog in a Well:

Get a carpenter’s adze to make the shoe-bottoms
Get a carpenter to make the outside of the shoes
Use a card of yarn
Eight lengths of fine cloth
Altogether it will take three years
To make a pair of embroidered shoes
Call a girl to try the shoes

Whether short or long
The girl stretches her foot
to fit the embroidered shoes
The shoe small the foot large
Constrained and uncomfortable
Awkwardly and crookedly to the back wall

The left foot crushing eight tigers
The right foot crushing nine wolves

Wow, I hope this is taught in the schools some day. (Perhaps they'll even mention my famous blog.)
The best book on foot binding to date seems to be Cinderella's Sisters. I haven't read it yet, I did read Dorothy Ko's earlier book on Chinese women and recommend it for those with a scholarly appetite.

http://www.footwearhistory.com/lotusconstruction.shtml

http://www.shoeblog.com/blog/friday-shoe-history-corner-2/
--For an alternate view of why these shoes convey potency, that may give a little bit of wiggle room to anyone caught with their pants down, read this.

Taiji means

First of all, since I slept most of the day, here is a repost from September about sleep and training.

Following on yesterday's word meanings, Taiji has a definition people don't often talk about.
Taiji is very close to Dao, at least as far as human experiences go. It is the source of inspiration (of Qi and breath). To practice Taijiquan is to continually return to the source of inspiration. It is the place or state of transition from which inspiration arises and where inspiration goes to die.

As a fighting art, taijiquan is the idea that you take your opponent with you to that place of inspiration.

Does he (your opponent) want to stay in the source of inspiration? (ie. became one with Dao at the moment of death) or does he want to come back with a new inspiration (think: attitude)! Does he want to go to his usual home, or back to his original home?  Let him decide.

A Scale?

The metaphor of the scale is used in martial arts a lot, particularly in the Taijiquan Classics. Most people presume that the metaphor refers to a Chinese business scale, which is in essence a lever with a basket or a weight on either end and a movable fulcrum.

The problem is it makes a lousy metaphor. In Taijiquan our weight does not shift back and forth like a lever. Perhaps like a tube of toothpaste, or a bag of something fluid, but not like a lever. Sure we can manipulate the fulcrum of two forces to throw someone, for that it could be an apt metaphor, but the metaphor it isn't used like that.

Louis Swaim translates: "Stand like a balance scale; active, like the wheel of a cart. Sink to one side, then follow. If double weighted, then one will stagnate...." Sounds fishy to me.

We are not talking about a scale as an object, we are talking about a scale as a function. The function of a scale is to represent things exactly as they are, with no mediation. Scales are honest. Scales are always appropriate.

If you put 5 pounds on a scale, it shows you 5 pounds, not 4.9, not 5.1. It adds nothing and it takes nothing away. When I practice Taijiquan, that is what I'm trying to do. If you give me 5 pounds, I simultaneously give you 5 pounds back. If you push me I don't resist, but I don't run away either. I respond exactly to what you give me, nothing gets in the way.

Method or Theory?

Is Taijiquan a method or a theory?

On the theory side of things there are the 5 Taijiquan Classics. To understand these short texts requires some cosmological background informed by Confucian thought and Daoist classics, most notably the Huainanzi.
But the Taijiquan Classics are mostly just lists of what to do or what not to do to achieve a somewhat elusive set of goals. Sure, to understand these lists you need to flush out the various metaphors used: Landscape, purification, water, pearls, coins on a string, a scale, following a compass, etc. But still, we are in essence dealing with a list of do's and don'ts, more indicative of a method than a theory.

After all, what's the goal again? To be weak? To be the greatest fighter on this side of the Golden Gate Bridge? To make clear commitments? To feel beautiful? To be so sensitive and intimate with your opponents that you know them deeply, but they can never know you? That's some weird stuff.

Oh yeah, and long life. Sounds good, but there isn't much theory there.

Some might argue that wuwei, non-aggression, is the theory. But I would say this: Taijiquan is an information storage system. It is a whole bunch of ideas, some of which fit well together, and some of which strain the boundaries of what can even be communicated between two people. For the most part these ideas are experiments which are meant to have some discrete result (which may or may not be part of a larger idea). So? Do the experiments and see if they are true. If they don't workout, discard them or, if you are a lineage holder, put them back in storage. That is the formula pure and simple. That's the only way it works.
Taijiquan is an experiment you do, on your own time! People who just go to a Taijiquan class a few times a week never actually learn. It is not something that can be spoon fed.

A Wonderful Alliance

When it comes to the subject of Experiential Anatomy and Physiology, Daoism and Modernity fit quite beautifully together. Here are some questions and observations common to both traditions.

Does a baby experience pleasure before it learns to smile?
Do we experience time in the womb? Do we feel it, or is it experienced as some other kind of change?

Do we experience space or balance while we are in utero?

When and how do we begin to recognize distance, or inside vs. outside, expanding vs. contracting, wrapping inward vs. wrapping outward? When do we gain the ability to spiral one way and then the other? Is it simply an unconscious part of growing or do we have some volition?
Stages of development are quite well known, but like taijiquan training methods, a child can develop out of order, skip a stage, or even create a unique transition.

I once knew a great dancer who had skipped the crawling stage of development, he went straight from scooting to walking. He was naturally flexible, rarely wore shoes, and never needed to stretch before a workout.

Do we start from a feeling of having a body, or do we start with a feeling of having no boundaries?

After birth, one of the first things we do is turn our head to find our mother's breast. Is this part of your internal martial arts practice? Does a baby feel its bones, or its muscles? Does it feel hungry? Does it feel the turning? Where does the movement come from?

Eventually a baby will find its hand with its mouth. It will start to see, and track. Eventually it will point and grab, and push and pull. How does a baby initiate this movement. Do children feel outside of their bodies?
How does a baby get control over its arms? Is this a question you ask yourself when you practice internal martial arts?

Daoist Shoes

I've been looking for information on Daoist ritual shoes. I was sure that somewhere I'd seen special Daoist ritual shoes which are 3 inch high stilts. These shoes make it impossible to put weight on the toes or the heel since the stilt post goes down from the center of the foot. Since the base the the stilt is thicker at the bottom, kind of like a mushroom, there is a plenty of space to balance. The problem is I have been unable to find these shoes (so no picture). Did I dream them? How embarrassing.

Dream or not, these shoes represent ultimate shamanic power. The symbolic steps Daoists take in ritual cover huge distances. They circumambulate the empire, the world, and they traverse the distances between stars in the sky.

It gets confusing. Daoists are not shaman, but there is a part of Daoist ritual in which they take on the role or the position, or more accurately, the qi of all shaman. This is done by taking on the physicality of the Chinese prehistory shaman the Great Yu, and acting out key parts of his life. The difference between normative shamanic power and a Daoist embodying the Great Yu is the difference between power and potential power.

There is a direct parallel with taijiquan and other internal arts. First a taijiquan student develops the ability to clearly and unambiguously demonstrate and replicate peng jin , lu jin, an jin, and ji jin (ward-off, rollback, etc...). To get these types of power one must know exactly which part of the foot to use. Then he or she strings peng-ji-lu-an seamlessly together so that these types of power are part of a continuous circle. To achieve this one must be continuously shifting from the ball of the foot to the heel. Once this jin level is achieved the student then moves on to the shi level. Shi roughly means potential, it implies a strategic position, a drawn bow, and having ones hand on a lever.
The jin level is like shamanic power. The shi level leaves power unexpressed, unused.

Shaman get power through covenants with spirits, deities, or even natural forces. The physical "fear and trembling" necessary for summoning shamanic power requires engaging the "pushing and pulling muscles" of the legs which involves pressure in the balls of our feet or in our heels. With these Daoist ritual shoes on, our legs would easily stay in a weak potential state. At the shi level of taijiquan we do not push from the balls of the feet or the heels. Our power remains potential.

UPDATE 12/21/07: Here is a picture of the shoe, it's called a Manchu Shoe. I have now written more on this subject!

The Gate of Fate

The Chinese term for the lower back kidney area is mingmen which means "the gate of fate." The name implies the Chinese notion that prenatal qi, yuanqi, is stored in the kidney system. The kidneys regulate fluids in the body and they also produce jing. Jing is that aspect of qi which comprises the self reproductive quality in nature, it is stored in the kidney system where it is available both for making babies and for making repairs. Jing produces new tissue when we are injured, bone, muscle, scabs, etc. It is our ancestral memory.

The number one purpose for studying martial arts is to not have a rigid fate. I wish more schools explained this up front. This idea is closely linked to the area known as the mingmen. When the lower back is stiff and deficient we literally have a rigid fate.

How is it possible that a person gets stuck on an idea in their twenties and despite heaps of evidence which accumulates during their lifetime which contradicts that idea, they still cling to it. Traditionally these rigid ideas or notions or ideologies have been conceived as hungry ghosts or wandering demons that are invisible to us but slowly eat away at our kidneys whenever we "check out." By "checking out" I mean staying up too late, forgetting to eat, taking drugs, or unleashing political rants. The day after we become food for little hungry demons, our lower back gets stiff and starts to hurt.

I don't think there is a perfect correlation between physical rigidity and a person's inability to freely make choices based entirely on what is real. There is some correlation, but I've met some amazing people with pretty screwed up bodies. Still, sit-ups are dumb. Six-pack abdominal muscles are O.K. against a boxer with gloves on and that's it. Like the "core-strength" fad, sit-ups break the unity of a person's body, they restrict the freedom of the torso and they tighten the breath. Why choose a rigid fate?

Why I'm Unbalanced

Several years ago, one of my advanced Baguazhang students said to me, "My ankles are wiggling all the time and I'm completely unstable on my feet." It was a break-through for her. She was experiencing things as they are, ziran. This is high level gongfu, this is the purpose of cultivating weakness.

A person standing on two feet is an unstable structure.

There is no such thing as balanced movement. There is only unbalanced movement. The feeling of balance is the result of an unconscious process in which we are constantly readjusting. Fear of falling causes us to develop foot and leg muscles which are constantly at work to keep us feeling balanced. What most people call "rooting" in martial arts is simply a continuation of this process.

One of the reasons the higher levels of martial arts are so hard to achieve is because we are afraid to give up this unconscious reliance on our legs for balance.

Toddlers balance by moving their torsos while their legs remain soft and springy. In Taijiquan we say, "Move from the tantian," but most people use their leg muscles for balance and power which limits the expression of the tantian. To achieve the higher levels of martial arts the legs must be part of the movement of the "tantian," not a separate force. If toddlers can do it, so can you!
The way I learned Baguazhang, I was told to always be "on balance," and to always be able to "turn on a dime." Thus forward motion was propelled by twisting and pulsing the legs. There is a Yin style Baguazhang school in San Francisco that teaches the opposite. They teach that one should always be leaning so that one's spirals will be driven by the momentum of falling. Both these ideas are missing the mark.

Gates vs. Stone Bridges

A teacher's greatest dilemma is whether to teach gates or stone bridges.

Getting around a traditional Chinese city, village or home is all about going through gates. Thus "going through a gate" is a primary metaphor used to describe learning something or getting something done. It is also a primary metaphor for describing movement of qi around the body. For instance, the shoulder and the hip each have a major gate that allows qi to move between the limbs and the torso.

I did a lot of skateboarding in my teens. Every day I skated steep hills with (by todays standards) large 70 millimeter Kriptonics wheels. I'm what the kids today call O.G. (Old Gangster). There are very few people with this particular experience around. Downhill skiers and snowboarders have some comparable skills, so I can at least communicate with them, but snow is softer than concrete and there aren't a lot of cars on the slopes.

Skateboarding was a gate I passed through to get to my current understanding of internal martial arts. It still informs my practice. When I heard the taijiquan saying "You must go left in order to go right" I understood it immediately, skateboarding works the same way. If you are going to make a high speed 90 degree turn into traffic you have to feel your pathway through space and along the ground before you make the actual sequence of turns that will get you into the little space between the the moving cars and the parked cars. Just turning to the right will get you squished.

Now when I teach, I'll say something like "Do this," or "Copy me," but nine times out of ten the student doesn't quite do what I'm hoping they will do. So I'll describe what I'm doing, or let the student feel my torso moving. But often they still don't "get it." I think, o.k., if I was in their body I would just do "this" and "this" and "that other thing." From where I'm standing I can see exactly what they need to do to get to where I am. It is as if there were a stone bridge that, if they could see it, they could just walk across.

But they don't see the bridge. So I have a choice. I can either keep trying to get them to see the bridge, or I can take them through some of the gates I passed through on my way to achieving my current skill level.

I do have some memory of the hundreds of gates I passed through to get to my current skill level in internal martial arts. From a teacher's point of view, the only proven method for getting to where I am, is to pass through all the same gates I passed through. However, it isn't realistic for me to ask all my taijiquan students to take up downhill skateboarding.

What most teachers do at this point is to make up a list of gates (exercises, experiences) that will hopefully be a shorter route to excellence than the one the teacher took to get there. Some of the gates I teach are ones I passed through myself, some are gates that I think are improvements on the ones I passed through, and some are gates I put there because I'm hoping that the student might notice the stone bridge off to their left on the way through.

Every teacher, whether he is rigid, traditional, experimental, or inspired, has to decide whether to point to the stone bridge, or guide students through gates. I wish I understood this when I first started studying gongfu.

George Xu: On the Difference Between Predators and Humans

Here is the first part of the video I took this Summer of George Xu talking about the differences between predators and humans.

The material he presents is "indoor" high level martial arts. It is rare that teachers are willing to explain the most refined aspects of their art, especially in such a public way. One reason for this is simply that kinesthetic learning resists cognitive explainations. True secrets keep themselves.

Still I hope people will appreaciate these animated lectures and will take his words as a challenge to improve their art.

Predator vs. Human