Steffan  de  Graffenried

ANATOMY  OF 
YANG  FAMILY  TAI  CHI:
A  GUIDE  FOR 
TEACHERS  AND  STUDENTS 

Nomentira Publications. 2007. 108 pp. Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0979895626

reviewed by Patrick Kilough

"A proverb that is quoted quite often in Chinese martial arts is 'inch long, inch strong,' meaning that the ability to reach longer increases your power."

* * *  In Taoist thinking tai chi "birthed the universe ... is the mother of Yin and Yang."

* * * Tai Chi has two goals:
            (1) Become conscious of how you move. Let there be no movement that is unconscious.
            (2) Interpret the energy that others are expanding through the technique of "pushing hands."

* * * Both when fighting several opponents and in daily life, be aware of more going on around you than you can see.

* * * Commentary on a classic Chinese text:  "The waist is the commander in chief of the body." The waist must be flexible and fully maneuverable.

* * * Waist and legs have the largest muscle groups in the body. Between them they "control the majority of the body movements which comprise each Tai Chi posture."

* * * As in Feldenkrais exercises (my gloss) "Tai Chi Chuan manipulates the conscious mind, not ... physical force."

* * * Once upon a time, tai chi masters made their students spend five years doing standing postures only!  Then commenced the movements linking the 108 postures of Yang family tai chi. Nowadays most instructors "teach movement from one posture to another quite early."

* * * Stand like the pole suspending two pans of a scale. Especially do not commit the commonest error in tai chi -- of leaning forward. Stand "as though a steel rod were inserted into the crown of your head down along the inside of the spine and then exiting through the perineum and into the floor."

* * * When you make a turn from standing like a scale or balance, turn "like a wheel." That is: rotate your upper torso "like a freewheel we created with that imaginary steel rod."

* * * Never hold your breath. "In-Out In-Out Don't Stop." Both inhalation and exhalation should be equally long and even.

* * *  A much quoted Chinese martial arts proverb is: "inch long, inch strong." The farther you can stretch or reach, the more power you deliver. In my words: build strength through length. Don't let anyone convince you that stretching exercises are of little importance.

-- Author de Graffenried begins with a 7 generation "genealogical" tree tracing his training back to Manchu Dynasty Master Yang Lu-Chan.

-- He briefly embeds tai chi within the larger family of martial arts and cosmic Chinese views of the universe, man's place in it and human health. He cites texts from Chinese classics, as rendered into English by Fei Lincoln. There are a few score black and white photographs and diagrams. These are, alas, rather grainy and fuzzy.

-- ANATOMY OF YANG FAMILY TAI CHI  concludes with practical illustrated  "Exercises to Improve Your Tai Chi," followed by References and a select Bibliography and finally a one page "About the Author," with photograph. Since 1992 Steffan de Graffenried has been studying Yang Family Tai Chi with Grand Master Wong Doc-Fai.

-- (1) Here in Black Mountain, North Carolina near Asheville, I have taken three continuous years of Yang Family tai chi instruction: two years with one instructor, then one year to date with another instructor (three classes a week), supplemented by weekly classes in a church vestibule with an ordained minister who is the second teacher's long graduated star pupil. I have gone to a few other classes here and there with four other local adepts, including one who is very close to master status. My conclusion is that tai chi is VERY instructor-specific. Every teacher is unique in what he or she offers. No matter what you learn with one, expect to start "from scratch" if you move to another teacher. I am 76 years old, not physically gifted, a very slow learner, but I love tai chi.

-- (2) You have to have had some prior hands-on training in tai chi if you are to get much from reading and pondering ANATOMY OF YANG FAMILY TAI CHI. I don't mean that you have to have five or ten years of training! No. But you should have had a minimum, I think, of 10 - 20 hours with the same teacher either one-on-one or in a regular class meeting at least weekly. You cannot teach yourself tai chi from this or any other book in the complete absence of training by another human face-to-face nor without some daily practice of tai chi.

-- (3) Similar philosophies and beliefs about healthy postures and movement are found in tai chi, qi gong (chi kung), pilates and feldenkrais and yoga. My occasionally sought physical therapist is adept in dance and is also a teacher of feldenkrais classes. My one-on-one pilates teacher began as a ballet dancer and is highly proficient in reiki and yoga. Common to these approaches to movement are beliefs that pain is bad and to be avoided; circular motions of arms, legs and torso are superior to linear lunges; and that the best posture whether sitting or standing is via an erect spine. Pretend you are a Jane Austen heroine sitting on a couch in a Masterpiece Theatre episode awaiting the arrival of Mr Darcy!

A totally different approach to movement is displayed in some other martial arts, notably karate, and in painful contact sports such as American football.

ENJOY  TAI  CHI!

 (1) Tai chi has two goals; the first is to infuse consciousness into every move you make (p. 13).

(2) You must allow "your Qi (internal energy) to be directed and carried by your Yi (will or intention)" (p. 17).

(3) "Positive intention (i.e. thoughts of love, happiness, joy or an optimistic attitude) strengthens your partner and those around you" (p.23).

(4) "The essence of Tai Chi Chuan is to use the conscious mind not the force" (p. 35, 40).

(5) Tai chi has 13 basic Postures (p. 19). Each of the 13 has its own unique Jing, i.e. intrinsic energy -- made up of "Li (muscular strength) and the integrity of the Chuan Jia (fighting frame)," i.e. "the perfect structural alignment of your tendons and bones." Only mind, not force, can create your fighting frame (p. 17). Your conscious mind must, as it were, breathe your intrinsic energy (Jing) into each of the 13 postures, with no wavering of intensity (p. 77).

BEGIN  PREAMBLE

-- During my two years with my first laid-back teacher, the healer, I discovered that his approach ("Tai Chi for Health") tracked very closely with what is presented in  Y. K. Chen - TAI-CHI CH'UAN: ITS EFFECTS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. The healer brought me through the whole form nearly three times, his standard being first time 50% right second time, 70%, third time 90%.

-- When my first teacher stopped teaching to concentrate on his practice of Chinese medicine, I started all over with two new teachers simultaneously.

END  PREAMBLE

 "through physical and oral instruction and through the study of the classic writings" (Preface, p. 7).

-- (1) a certain incoherence in the sequencing of presentation. In normal American pedagogy, a teacher begins the demand side of his pupils, with the familiar, and then steps systematically across them into unknown territory. Steffan de Graffenried, by constrast, begins as a supply sider, esoterically, with unfamiliar terms of art, concepts and history. Later he uses them to explain already familiar (from classes) movements and postures. In addition, be it conceded, the author also elucidates some new (to me) practices, e.g. slight spiraling movements of knees and thighs;

-- (2) weak proofreading that should have detected a score or more of typos;

and, finally,

-- (3) instructive, well selected but poorly reproduced, grainy black and white photos of historical figures, exercises and postures.

Pros: Chinese background of tai chi. Distinguishes between postures and moves. Describes, analyzes in clear English.

Cons: A score of typos.Grainy (but apt) black and white photos. Weak on demand side empathy.

The Bottom Line: If you know absolutely nothing of tai chi, this book is not for you. After ten-plus hours of class, learn the art's history, Chinese thought patterns and jargon.

-- "Movement in tai chi is all about ... transferring weight from one leg to the other and maintaining structural integrity while stepping forward, backward and sideways."

-- Students make the common error of not planting their toes when "first learning to walk (transition from one posture to another)".

-- Students must first memorize "the shape of the posture." For this standing in front of a mirror helps.

-- (In the beginning) "I tell the student to think of the shape of the posture only (how it looks at each end.)"

-- "After the student has memorized the shape of the posture I will instruct him in the Tai Chi walking method."

(All passages quoted from ANATOMY, "Stillness in Motion, pp. 77 - 79).