The Rising Sun School of
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The Long Sword Instead of the Body

"The long sword instead of the body could also be called the body instead of the long sword. Whenever one strikes an opponent, the long sword and the body are not moved simultaneously. First, the body assumes a striking stance, being dependent upon the position from which the opponent is striking, and then the long sword follows a little later to strike.

There are instances when the long sword strikes while the body is immobile, but ussually the body moves first, and after the sword strikes. This should be carefully studied and practiced. "

The Book of Five Wrings by Miyamoto Musashi

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Commentary

In T'ai Chi Boxing we displace to the space (Yin) around the opponents attack (Yang) , firmly rooting ourselves on the earth. We then join them and neutralize their power. Only then do we strike. It is a misinterpretation of unitive principles to try to make everything happen at once in T'ai Chi. As we are bipedal and use the turn of the waist both to neutralize and return, one side of the body natural leads and the other side follows. As we displace either through walking, shifting or both, in the diposition and transfer of our power (Yin and Yang) one foot precedes and the other follows. So whether in Form or Boxing, movement is sequential, not simultaneous.

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Expanding Your Approach through the
The Four Aspects of T'ai Chi Ch'uan

From Mr. Lee's perspective, the central purpose of T'ai Chi was to help people help themselves, and then to encourage them to be helpful to each other. The 'Form' or Exercise Aspect of T'ai Chi was a way for people to heal themselves when they needed to, but more importantly, a way to stay well. He said simply, "People do T'ai Chi for the benefit".

Mr. Lee's form was characterized by the generous extensions of Traditional Yang style, while embodying the fully vertical spine of Cheng Man Ching's form. I think it is safe to say that from a boxing point of view, Mr. Lee would have considered the forward extension of Yang Zhen Duo's spine to be incorrect , making one vulnerable to being pulled over, and on the whole less mobile.
See: Discussions of Differences in Yang Styles for further commentary.

When asked about Cheng Man Ching's form he once said, "Good job, but Yang Long Form can make you stronger more quickly if sick." As a shorter form with fewer movements and less extension, Chen Man Ching's work is more accessible, but its exercise value is less than that of the Yang Long Form. Chen Man Ching kept both the arms and legs from fully extending, maximizing on the relaxation value of gravity while avoiding the tension that may occur from extension. Chen Man Ching's form does not engage, open, or fulfill the structure of the body as much as Yang style, therefore its capacity for movement of Blood and Energy (Qi) is less. On the other hand, as a form that teaches softness, plumbness and unity, it is superb and ideally suited to stress reduction. To rebuild strength in recovery from fatigue or illness, these principles can also be applied to the traditional Yang Long Form. One should begin practicing within a 'small frame' (less extended), with a smaller stance, and for less time, gradually increasing the frame, extension and duration of practice as one's power returns. There is no reason why a Cheng Man-Ching stylist cannot work in the opposite direction and get the 'large frame' benefits as well. The Yang Family tradition can learn much from both approaches.

Sam told me a good story about Master Lee's way of seeing how one uses one's body in T'ai Chi. Sam was asking him about studying some Wing Chun and Mr. Lee said, "No". Then he showed him the body use where the hips are thrust forward and said, "Do you walk down the street like this? Why would you want to practice like this?" As Sam said, "You can see what his thinking was in T'ai Chi, which was always from what one does naturally. I can also see the usefulness of the Wing Chun approach in some ways. It helps one to wedge into the feet. But then again, it does close off the hips".

There are many approaches to Formwork, and movement can be shaped in many ways that increase or decrease its potentials. For example, forward inclination increases certain muscle engagements, as well as the capacity to 'wedge’ into the balls of the feet and garner leverage from the floor, but not without cost to one's mobility and feeling. Master Lee always moved from the 'less is more' approach or the 'do from the not do'. His Formwork expressed the potentials of the innate shapes and dispositions that are natural to the human body in movement.

The Second Aspect ~ Medicine

I have heard Master Lee referred to as a 'Di Da Sifu', or a 'Hit-Fall' doctor, as he was well versed in Chinese traumatology. He attended to many injuries of T'ai Chi students, family and friends over the years and I still meet people whose 'tennis elbow' (and many other complaints) he helped to alleviate. He developed a T'ai Chi Medicine course that taught Chinese massage, Hit Fall medicine, and Chinese herbal medicine for common maladies. His medicine came more from a T'ai Chi folk tradition than a formal school or university of TCM. His massage involved use of acupressure points and many kinds of manipulations of tendons, muscles, joints and bones. Variations of Chinese massage like Master Lee’s system have latterly emerged in TCM schools in China and now also in the West and are referred to as 'Tuina' and less often as 'Anmo'.

Some of the prescriptions in Mr. Lee's course came from his teacher, Chen Wei Ming, and some may even go back earlier in our lineage. He used to tell stories about "drinking wine with my teacher", so as to get a look at his teacher’s medicine prescriptions. Within the T'ai Chi tradition, an old approach was for teachers to hold things back, thereby encouraging their students to apply some strategy and initiative in order to acquire the knowledge. Master Lee referred to 'Medicine' as one of 'Four Aspects' of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Like Boxing, Philosophy and Form, Medicine is an indispensible part of the whole system.

Many students of Master Lee's Medicine Course went on to practice Chinese Medicine. Sam Slutsky has practiced Mr Lee's system since 1971 and teaches it to his students as well. David Bray has become a well-known practitioner of Chinese Herbal Therapy and has a large clinical practice in Toronto. He also teaches professional training programs in Chinese Herbal Medicine locally and internationally. I went on to become a Master Herbalist in Western Herbal Medicine, specializing in Chinese Herbs, and also graduated from the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Toronto, as an Acupuncturist. I have a general clinical practice and have taught Master Lee's system of massage for over ten years now. Many of my students have gone on from Master Lee's Medicine Course to do Diplomas in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine and start their own clinical practices.

As Master Lee intended it, the T'ai Chi Medicine Course provides a student with a very strong grounding in home or 'lay' medicine. One can learn to apply the tools of herbs, massage, foods, and T'ai Chi theory as first aid, remedies for common ailments, or as preventive measures.

The Third Aspect ~ Boxing

Master Lee's Boxing was a simple and clear progression from the principles of formwork into the neutralization principles of push hands, and the displacement principles of full sparring. He did not lean forward and his stance was based on a square so he could shift, turn or walk at any time. His boxing style emphasized listening and interpreting the opponent's energy with the capacity to "evaporate" - this without sacrificing the rootedness, "peng" or ward-off energy associated with a forward loading of the weight, such as in Yang Zheng Dou's work. Unlike some Schools who demonstrate 'peng' on receiving power, in Master Lee's system, 'peng' was expressed only upon discharge.

In Boxing, his work was closer to Cheng Man Ching's uprightness and softness than Yang Zheng Duo's forward extensions. I have found his instructions and methods to be so far unrivalled in any published literature I have seen on the subject of T'ai Chi Boxing. Mr. Lee loved the boxing and called it "sport or play". He said about boxing, "If you laugh, you win." All too often I have found both the spirit of learning and joy of comradeship sadly lacking, due to a competition of egos and fears acted out (rather than confronted) through boxing. "If you (both) laugh, you win." Two people can play to defeat each other in order to maintain the highest standard of learning and practice, and so each person wins and is satisfied with having been able to improve, regardless of outcome.

The Boxing Aspect of Master Lee's teaching was always present in some way over the years. After the long line teaching of form, there would be a break and then those who wished to would practice Push Hands. Every once and awhile Master Lee would call everyone together and teach his boxing methods, such as Five Directions Walking and then it was up to people to take up the practice or not. If you practiced these methods, he would come and give you more. If you worked on a martial application from the Form, he would get up and come over and show you how to do it better, or show you two or three more from the same movement. "Can also...this, this and this..."

I have been told that when I arrived in 1975, the 'hey day' of Master Lee's teaching and working with the Boxing Aspect had passed. It always seemed to me to be the one aspect that would take many years to achieve. When I did my Instructors apprenticeship and certification in 1979 through 1980, Master Lee emphasized all the boxing methods with us once again, saying, "To do the teacher, you must do the boxing. Many, many times to do." (practice a lot) The Boxing methods were part of our final examination for Instructor certification. I think he felt, especially for teachers, that we would have to deal with the inevitable challenges of other 'traditionalists' and practitioners who come looking to test teachers. Also, one cannot teach the Form or Exercise Aspect properly without understanding the martial context the movements were written in.

To be an intense 'Form' stylist is sometimes confused with not being a 'Boxing' stylist. Beyond personal affinity, we all have to encompass those aspects of the Four Aspects that we shy away from to be as realized in T'ai Chi as Master Lee thought a student could be. The 'Form" is a great laboratory of study from which one distils more and more knowledge of all aspects over the years. There is a reason why it is the first aspect and was by far the most practiced and emphasized learning in Mr. Lee's classes. It is where one learns all the fundamentals and then becomes the theatre of study for all uitlity of movement, boxing or otherwise. One of course practices and studies boxing through push hands, techniques, displacement methods and sparring, but this work tends toward hacking if there isn't a firm foundation in Form. The study of the Boxing and the Form is greatly enhanced when one founds a strong bridge between both aspects. Understanding Form through Boxing maintains the integrity one's Form movements, just like understanding in Form maintains the integrity of one's Boxing principles.

The Fourth Aspect ~ Philosophy

Master Lee's Way of Life

Taoist philosophy is not written in any particular book, although there are many written on the subject. When Chinese teachers talk about philosophy they mean your path in life and all that comes with that. A Chinese ideal is the person who tries to cultivate all that is noble and exemplifies a strong work, moral, familial and social ethic. Master Lee's system for self cultivation was his T'ai Chi study and practice. This desire for self cultivation expressed itself through all Four Aspects of his T'ai Chi Ch'uan, yet the spirit of this for Master Lee could be seen most clearly in his encouragement of T'ai Chi Family (a community of interdependent people learning and living life together) and his generosity. Master Lee always found time to help his students, their families and friends and he tried to get us to help each other. I think he saw in the continuum of human interdependence the elemental inspiration of his T'ai Chi Ch'uan and this was a message he tried to impress upon us again and again.

Over the last twenty-five years I have met many people who have come to study T'ai Chi. When I ask them why they want to study there are invariably two reasons that most people have. They are first attracted by T'ai Chi as an exercise because it of its gentle approach and relaxation benefits. Just as important, whether this is initially recognized or not, is the spiritual affinity felt with T'ai Chi. There is a serenity we associate with special places in nature that is often evoked when we see someone doing T'ai Chi. A persons first vision of T'ai Chi often sticks in their memory for life, inevitably drawing them to try it some time sooner or later. For many this accompanies a thirst to find more balance in lifestyle and they want to know what they can read on the philosophy of T'ai Chi. There are many good books, which might feed your practice and process around re-creating balance in your life. Some may not be on T'ai Chi at all, yet they resonate with your experience and need at the time. If you do the T'ai Chi exercise every day and concentrate on the principles of letting go and a balanced expression of power, you will understand the philosophy by simply paying attention to the book of your own life, which will be the most satisfying read of all.

Store energy like drawing a bow;
release it like shooting an arrow

T'ai Chi Classics