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1. Culture and Taichi Philosophy
Figure
1-1
The Taichi Symbol
I. The Concepts of Taichi Philosophy and Culture
Even in the Western world many people are familiar with the diagram above:
The Taichi symbol. On the surface, it looks very simple: a Yin, a Yang, and
a circle. Yet, this symbol represents a deep and universal theory: Yin,
Yang, and Taichi circle, or 1, 2, 3, Three into One. It is the core of the
Taichi philosophy.
E=MC
2
. What could be simpler than an equation with only three terms?
Without knowing the problems and obstacles faced by thousands of scientific
minds before him and with little or no knowledge of the intricate
relationship between energy and matter symbolized by the formulation,
anyone looking at Einstein's three terms may ask such a question.
Similarly, Americans unfamiliar with the long and venerable philosophical
tradition from which the Taichi smybol has been borrowed, when asked what
it means, would probably say the circle symbolizes the result aimed at in
the practice of Taichi-chuan(Taiji Quan), a form of disciplined exercise
leading to a balanced relationship between mind and body.
The art of Taichi-chuan, however, is but one practical application of a
philosophical tradition which, for thousands of years, has studied and
examined our world's myriad manifestations of the relationship between
permanence and change. Just as Einstein's expression finally distills a
universal principle with which generations of scientific genius have
grappled, the Taichi symbol elegantly encapsulates all that we can and
cannot know about ourselves and our universe.
Simply stated, the One--the Taichi circle--encircles the Two: the white Yin
and the black Yang, always becoming each other, always beginning each
other, each always containing a bit of the other, always moving towards the
balanced circle. It is simple to say, less simple to practice, and even
less simple to attain in a short time.
Slowly and gently, then, this book attempts to unfold Taichi philosophy to
the reader as the reader unfolds to Taichi. [In this book Taichi is not the
abbreviated form of Taichi-chuan, or other Taichi exercises. It is the
abbreviation of Taichi philosopy, Taichi theory, or Taichi model. Taichi,
Taichi philosophy, Taichi theory, and Taichi model can be used
interchangeably.] As the book and reader unfold the essence of each other,
become each other, begin each other, both will move simultaneously toward
and within the balance of Taichi. For only in the movement comes its
understanding.
In Chinese,
Taichi
(Taiji) means "supreme ultimate". It consists of two
Chinese characters "Tai" and "Chi". The word
Tai
means highest or
greatest;
Chi
can also mean high, supreme, or the utmost pole or extreme.
The Taichi symbol, or Tachi model, represents two relative factors,
YIN
and
YANG
, and their relation to the original One, the absolute whole, the
Taichi circle.
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, see detailed in Chapter 3): "A Yin and
a Yang are called Tao (Dao)," and "The Tao that set up heaven and earth is
called Yin Yang." The Taichi philosophy, which emerged from the earliest
roots of Chinese culture, is present in the ancient philosophical and
medical texts, as well as in the Taoist and Confucian classics. This
theory has colored all of Chinese thinking and can be used as a tool to
understand aspects of the world and ourselves on any level. It is the
major topic of this book.
II. Culture and life
Culture is a very broad subject, and the word culture has had and retains a
number of meanings. Generally speaking, all activities not resulting
solely from animal instinct, all activities belonging specifically to
people, are a part of culture. Thus, human beings are animals with
culture.
Culture is deeply intertwined with individual human lives, in that these
individual lives make up the whole which is culture. If culture is a
circle, the life of an individual is one of the points on its
circumference. Without each point there would be no circle, and without
the circle no individual points. Thus, culture and the individual life
cannot be ranked one above the other, for they are two aspects of the same
thing. With regard to culture and life, it makes no sense to ask "which
came first, the chicked or the egg."
Culture is the total way of life of the human being. Culture, therefore,
varies with every group or society, depending on what its historical
experience has been; it represents the distinctive way of life of a group
of people, their complete design for living. A particular culture--one
developed by a particular society--would consist of the patterns of learned
behavior shared by the members of that society. This would include
attitudes, ideas, values, knowledge, skills, and material objects. We can
identify as many cultures as there are societies.
1
Culture exists through constant development or change rather than mere
preservation of tradition. In Chinese, the two characters making up the
word for culture are
Wen
and
Hua
. Wen means civilization, and Hua means
change or transformation.
2

Wen Hua
Fig. 1-2
Wen
Hua
There is an ancient Chinese saying which states: "Immortality governs
change." Change is the only constant. The transformations of culture may
involve barely noticeable departures or revolutionary changes.
Culture can be divide into three broad categories, or three levels.
1. The first level of culture: the aspect pertaining to material
goods, or people in relation to things.
2. The second level of culture: the aspect pertaining to society,
or people in relation to people.
3. The third level of culture: the aspect pertaining to spirit,
or people's hearts in relation to people's hearts.
3
The first level deals with the basic necessities of survival such as food,
clothing and shelter. The second level of culture deals with the dynamics
of social interaction. The third level of culture deals with the human
heart. A Chinese proverb states "People's hearts are different, just as no
two faces are alike," yet individual hearts and minds do have something in
common. The sole desire of the heart is to expand: we have a natural
desire to express our thoughts and feelings to others. A shared thought or
a feeling becomes a heart-to-heart link, a gift to others. This giving
from the heart strengthens the thought and deepens the feeling. Only
through heart-to-heart sharing can we eventually unify the body of mankind.
The heart is the strongest element in human culture. It is the heart which
inspires, reaches out, accumulates, changes, enjoys. On this level, we
understand that joy, anger, grief and pleasure are feelings all people
share. To overindulge in the material level spoils the appetite; on the
political level, power corrupts. By providing sufficient material goods
and developing political stability, we can inspire the exchange of thoughts
and feelings between hearts and minds. This will give new hope to mankind.
Keep in mind that the three aspects are not linear; cultures include all
three levels simultaneously. In terms of the Taichi philosophy, we could
call the first and second levels of culture Yin and Yang, and the third
level the Taichi circle. The third level, like the circumference of the
circle, combines and transcends the relative factors, Yin and Yang, or the
lower levels of culture.
Yin and Yang are relative concepts; that is to say, they reveal themselves
through contrast. Considering problems from the point of view of Yin and
Yang allows one to keep greater balance, while a culture lacking the
perspective of Yin and Yang will fall into one-sidedness and arrogance.
Yin and Yang are the vital core of China's culture. Still, the Chinese
also bear in mind that it is not good to play too many games with Yin and
Yang. For example, Chinese has the sayings "Yin yi tou, Yang yi tou" (one
face in Yin, one face in Yang -- hiding one's true intentions), and "Yin
Yang guai qi" (strange Yin Yang airs, acting weird).

Taichi philosophy emphasis Yin and Yang balanced within the Taichi circle.
People who are conscious of this level of Yin Yang balance can better
align their individual hearts and actions to form a harmonious whole, like
the Taichi symbol.
III. Culture and Healing
Culture itself has life. By saying this, we mean that culture can be
viewed as a growing, changing, learning and interacting organism. A
culture, too, can be healthy or afflicted with disease; a culture, too, can
be born, grow old and die out; a culture, too, can have a relationship with
other cultures.
Both cultures and individual lives can get sick and require healing.
Internally healthy people and cultures are less susceptible to disease.
For a person or a culture to be healthy, the development of material,
interpersonal and spiritual levels should be parallel and balanced.
Individuals, societies, or countries lacking in sound spirit will be
plagued by illness. Addictions to money, power, drugs, or excessive sex
can result in culturally-based diseases.
The medical arts of China are valuable because they developed within a
culture that spans more than 5,000 years of written history, covers a vast
geographical area, and contains the world's largest population. Instead of
experimenting on laboratory animals, Chinese doctors have tested their
hypotheses by observing living human beings. Over centuries of empirical
study and research, they have continued to keep what is good and useful and
to discard what is not valid. Chinese medicine comes from the same
intangible energy as its culture, which has kept China alive through
geographic and political change. It is the continuous growth of the
culture that has allowed the medical arts to mature.
Ultimately, no matter what culture we speak of, Eastern or Western, those
who are able to cure illness and heal people are good doctors. Major
cultural transformation is now within reach for Americans. The blooming of
many different coexisting cultures will be beneficial to all. Composed of
people from a diversity of backgrounds, the United States of America is a
country with an excellent opportunity to integrate different cultures, to
one day became the "United States of Cultures." It will be a very long and
difficult process. When discussing world problems, it is important to
start from a cultural perspective and to look at the long term patterns and
effects. We need to face the deep questions of our lives to develop a
healthy world culture, a new and ideal united culture inherited from the
past and working for the future.
7
Fu Xi realized that everything is constantly changing, and created the
symbols
────
and
──
──
to represent change. These ideas developed into the
classic
I Ching
(
Yi Jing
,
The Book of Change
, see Chapter 3). Shen Nong is
said to have invented the wooden plow and methods of farming, which moved
the population away from a nomadic lifestyle. This had great impact on the
culture. He is also credited with having been the first to personally
taste and use Chinese herbs. The earlist extant Chinese pharmacology book,
dating from the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.,
Shen Nong's Canon of Herbs
, is
attributed to his great name.
The legendary figures were followed by the era of the "Wu Di" (Five
Emperors) -- the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di), Emperor Chuan Hsu (Zhuan Xu),
Emperor Ku, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun. Huang Di (2698-2589 B.C.) is
best known to students of Chinese medicine in association with the
Huangdi
Nei Jing
(
The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine
).
The ancestors of the Chinese people lived along the Yellow River, and like
all nations, their lives were formed around the natural forces and features
of their environment. By using local vegetation and developing methods of
production, they met their needs for survival. In time, their habits
evolved into distinctive traditions. In the early stage of development,
people lived in migratory tribes. One of these tribes has come to be known
as the Xia Zu, meaning the Xia race, also called the Hua Zu. The name
became Hua Xia Min Zu, or the Chinese nation. The legendary leader of this
group was Huang Di, who defeated Chih Yu (Chi You), chieftain of another
tribe, in a battle around 2670 B.C. The battle was decisive, and ever
since then the Hua Zu people have been living in China. Thus, Chinese like
to refer to themselves as descendants of Huang Di.
During the era of Huang Di, there was progress in the methods of
accumulation and distribution of surplus goods. The most important culture
of this period is known as the Yangshao Culture. Another Huang Di
Neolithic culture, called Long Shan, followed the Yangshao period. This
culture was more advanced than that of the Yangshao period and probably
knew the use of the wheel in transportation. According to the
I Ching
and
Shi Ji
(
Historical Annals
), people in the Long Shan period knew how to
carve a canoe from a log and to split a board into an oar. The Huang Di
era yielded many innovations which had far-reaching influence on later
generations, such as the study of astronomy, a progressive farming system
called "Jingtian", the invention of pictographs by Cang Jie, and the
invention of the compass, called the "south-pointing carriage."
Yao, Shun, and Shun's successor Yu were considered model emperors with
exceptional wisdom and virtue. During Yao's time, there were the
establishment of government positions and rites, cultural emphasis on the
importance of people rather than deities, further development of
agriculture, and an orderly transfer of power through the appointment of a
successor to the throne. During the Yu period, the so-called "great flood"
was brought under control. Establishing the Xia Dynasty, Yu left his
8
throne to his son, thus originating the system of hereditary succession to
the position of emperor, usually by the emperor's son.
In important excavations between 1979 and 1986 in the west of Liaoning
province, Chinese archaeologists discovered a great deal of reliable
evidence of the early "Hongshan (Red Mountain) Civilization." The
discoveries included a Goddess temple and sacrificial altar which were
built over 5,000 years ago. This was the first archaeological evidence of
Chinese culture before the Xia Dynasty (the first known Chinese dynasty).
Shang, or Yin, was the second dynasty, lasting from the 16th century B.C.
to the 11th century B.C. During the Shang dynasty, a bronze culture
evolved. The discovery of thousands of inscribed bones and tortoise shells
in An-yang, Honan (Henan) province, between 1928 and 1937, has given
historians firm evidence regarding the Shang dynasty.
Zhou (Chou) was the third dynasty. With this dynasty, China entered a
feudal system of government. Most Chinese laws, political institutions,
art, and literature can be traced back to roots in the Zhou dynasty, during
which time the population greatly increased. The Zhou dynasty can be
divided into Western Zhou (1111 B.C.-771 B.C.) and Eastern Zhou (770 B.C.-
221 B.C.). Eastern Zhou can be further divided into the Spring-and-Autumn
period (770 B.C.-476 B.C.) and the Warring States period (475 B.C.-221
B.C.). During these eras, culture flourished as a response to the demands
of the times. Beginning in the Zhou dynasty, China had written historical
records and books. It was a very rich and important age in Chinese
history; this era saw the beginnings of philosophical schools
(Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, etc., called "zhuzi baijia",
literally "one hundred various schools"), and medicine.
After the Zhou dynasty, in the Qin (255 to 206 B.C.) and Han (206 B.C. to
220 A.D.) dynasties, the boundaries of the Chinese nation extended to the
south to cover such present provinces as Fujian, Guangdung, Yunnan, and the
present nation of Vietnam. To the east was the China Sea, to the north the
desert of Mongolia, and to the west the Pamir Plateau. The Han people had
a predominant impact on culture, having in common the same "blood" or
genetics, language, writing, customs and habits. When foreign tribes
invaded (the Mongols ruled from 1280 to 1368 A.D. and the Manchus from 1644
to 1912), the conquerors could not dominate the Han and were eventually
assimilated by them.
Qin Shihuang (the First Emperor of Qin) standardized the written Chinese
language -- the Chinese characters. This has been a very important factor
in the extraordinarily long survival of Chinese culture. The thousands of
written characters or ideograms that Chinese use singly or in pairs to
represent words have changed little over the last 2,000 years, and this
written language has been a great unifying force in Chinese history and
culture. Although local languages and dialects hinder spoken contacts
between people from different regions, written characters are uniform
throughout China. Japan and Korea have also used Chinese characters in
9
their written languages for many centuries.
The third level of culture in China, as well as the art of traditional
Chinese medicine, were well developed by the end of the Han dynasty.
Confucianism had entered the mainstream of Chinese culture, Taoism as both
philosophy and religion had been established, and Buddhism had been
introduced into China. The Han dynasty was one of the peaks in the cycle
of Chinese culture.
An excavation in 1972 outside the city of Changsha, in Hunan Province,
revealed much information about Han dynasty culture. The site, identified
as being 2,100 years old, contained a tomb consisting of six layers of
coffins placed one within another, tightly packed in charcoal sealed with
clay. The innermost coffin contained the well-preserved embalmed body of a
fifty-year-old woman. The clay seals and inscriptions in ink on the burial
accessories were those of the Marquis of Ta, a hereditary title conferred
by the Emperor Hui in 193 B.C. and withdrawn in the fourth generation. The
body is surmised to be that of the wife of the first Marquis of Ta, a petty
noble with a fief containing about 700 households. More than one thousand
burial accessories were found, including lacquerware, wooden figurines,
bamboo and wooden utensils, pottery, grain, foodstuffs, specially made
funerary objects, and many exquisitely woven silk fabrics.
The most valuable of these is a painted silk shroud that draped the
innermost coffin (Figure 2-2).
6
The painting is divided into three parts: the upper portion represents the
realm of god or heaven, the middle depicts the human realm, the lower part
shows the realm of hell. This ancient concept of Heaven, Earth and Man
relates to the three levels of culture. The top images symbolize Yin and
Yang with paintings of the sun holding a crow, and the moon holding a toad
and a rabbit. The Five Elements are depicted as five birds, corresponding
with a legend that the earliest form of acupuncture was a pecking bird.
The middle part of the shroud shows what is probably a scene from the daily
life of the wife of the Marquis. The bottom part of the shroud shows
scenes of sea and land, demons and a dragon.
--
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