Summary of the two beautiful and useful Taijiquan patterns-
I hope you’ve found the applications of these two Taijiquan patterns enjoyable. The original inspiration for putting this little series together was that there are quite literally hundreds of pictures showcasing Taijiquan, and many times it is these patterns that are used, but as mentioned before, rarely do we see any martial explanations for thses patterns.
Green Dragon
I beilieve one of the reasons for Masters in the past not recording the applications of these techniques was that they would not have wanted to share what would have been at the time ’top secrets’ with the general public. In the past if the applications were made public, rival Masters could easily ’steal’ the them. However, the fact that most of us generally live in law abiding countires where deadly Kung Fu battles are not common place means there is not so much of a need to keep Taijquan applications secret anymore. Indeed it is better for the promotion of genuine traditional Taijiquan that the combat applications be shared so that the combative aspect of the art may be kept alive for generations to come.
Part the Wild Horses Mane.
This is not to over emphasize an interest in the martial side of Taijiquan. But it should be noted that Taijiquan is a marital art and that if you wish to derive the full benefits of health and spiritual cultivation from the art of Taijiquan you must have an understanding (and hopefully some skill) in the Combat aspects of the art too. To do otherwise would be to miss out on an amazing opportunity to develop excellent skills for life derived from the combat aspect of the training. Skills like ‘Spacing and timing’, ‘mental clarity under pressure’ and training of the ‘Spirit’ to be brave and courageous are all very useful in daily life.
Indeed the difference in benefits of atainment between a practitioner who has done only Taiji Form practice for a year, compared to a practitioner who has trained genuine Taijiquan as a Martial art for a year is really incomparable.
The benefits garnered from the two approaches will not be the same. The ‘ Taiji Form’ practitioner may be able to perform a nice ‘dancelike’ performance of Taiji, but the benefits from repeating the performance every day normally peak at improved flexibility, balance, and grace of movement, whereas a Taijiquan practitioner in the same training time will have developed some internal force and energy flow, will have clearer thinking, better flexibility, increased strength and energy levels and at least a basic knowledge of how to defend themselves using Taijiquan patterns. It should be noted that all these benefits mentioned will also apply very nicely to everyday life.
Beautiful Taijiquan patterns also have excellent uses for Combat.
Robin
