In previous chapters I used a see-saw to illustrate the principle of YIN YANG. Of course, the philosophy of YIN YANG is much more complex than what I have explained but what I have said so far is adequate for the purpose of learning and practising taijiquan. Now that readers must have been practising taijiquan for some months by following this book, it would be opportune for me to expound more about YIN YANG in relation to taijiquan.
Apart from using the complex concept of YIN YANG to enable us to move the arms and body without using muscular power, we also employ it as the guiding principle for virtually all aspects of taijiquan.
When you stand, it is important that you avoid having both legs sharing equally the weight of your body. This is described as ‘double heavy’ (shuang zhong) and may affect your agility and ability to react to attacks from your opponent. What you should do is have one leg that is ‘solid’ and the other one ‘light’. ‘Solid’ is YIN and ‘light’ is YANG and this will facilitate your movement and you can easily change your position by shifting YIN to YANG and YANG toYIN. By ‘light’, it does not mean that you should relax the leg completely and let it hang there loosely. You should still maintain your ‘yi’ at the ‘light’ leg and imagine that it is floating up. The ‘solid’ leg, which stands firmly on the ground, is YIN and is balanced by the ‘light’ or YANG leg. Although the YIN leg is solid, you should develop the skill that the foot and the ankle are both relaxed and the foot is just placed on the ground. To make it even more complicated, you should train yourself to divide you ‘solid’ leg into YIN part and YANG part so that you can respond to attacks instantly.
The YIN YANG concept also applies to your body and arms. For example, when your right arm is ‘solid’, your left arm should be ‘light’. When a spot of your solid arm is in contact with your opponent, the spot is divided into YIN and YANG; between the YIN side and YANG side, there should be a centre as I have said in previous chapters. Maintaining the position of the centre unchanged, you should let the YANG side of the spot that is in contact with the opponent follow the direction of the attack and, using the power from the opponent, you will be able to let the YIN side move towards and attack the opponent. However, if we convert the two-dimensional Taiji (tai chi)diagram into a three-dimensional global mass, when your ‘solid’ arm is in contact with your opponent, your whole arm should be able to roll like a ball - one side of the ball will deflect the attack and the other side will attack the opponent.
You should apply the same principle and divide every part of your body into YIN and YANG so that you can respond to any external stimulation internally even if you do not move your body and arms.
Another important point to remember when practising taijiquan is to maintain a high spirit and a bright mood. The high spirit will facilitate the development of an aura which increases your fighting power, enhances your mental health, alertness, and confidence, and improves your agility and reflex. Externally, you will present yourself with an imposing posture. The high spirit is YIN and the aura is YANG. The high spirit supports the aura and the aura embraces the high spirit. In other words, the YIN supports the YANG which in turn embraces the YIN. They complement one another and they cannot be separated from one another.
The importance of the YIN YANG concept to taijiquan cannot be over-emphasized. I talk about ‘yi’ in the previous chapter. You employ ‘yi’ to control the movements of the body, arms and legs instead of using muscular power. ‘Yi’ is YIN and your physical body is YANG. When you use the ‘yi’ to float your head upwards, the rest of your body is still attracted downwards by the force of gravity. Therefore YIN and YANG act against one another and they also complement one another because if YIN does not exist, YANG will fall which means that your body cannot be held upright. On the other hand, if YANG is not there, there is nothing for ‘yi’ or YIN to hinge on.
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