Recently, a highly respected former academician proposed that the Chinese theory of the five elements of yin and yang is superstition, which is really a shocking thing, no wonder he opposed Chinese medicine, it turned out that he regarded the five elements of yin and yang as fortune-telling to see feng shui, Confucius said: "Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing, is knowing." Some people joked that he knew everything except that he did not understand physics, and this understanding should be put in quotation marks. Physics is a major that I don't understand, and I don't understand anything else.
There are many people like him who hold the view that yin and yang are superstitious ideas in reality, because they do not understand yin and yang. Because the use of yin and yang for fortune telling, fortune telling, and feng shui leaves a deep impression on people. It even involved the art of war, martial arts, and traditional Chinese medicine.
Yin and yang belong to a term of Yi Li, which is also called yin and yang science. Learning the I Ching will calculate trigrams, this is only part of it, therefore, yin-yang is not superstition, superstition is only part of it, whether it makes sense or not, it is too early to draw conclusions, perhaps with the deepening of quantum research, the mystery of superstition may be solved. Isn't quantum entanglement already able to explain the twins' telepathy?
The root of Chinese culture lies in Yi, and it is the ideological core of all other cultures in China. Mr. Lu Xun said that home is the root of Chinese culture, but he really did not understand the relationship between Yi and Tao. Yi had it very early, such as Zhou Yi, which is said to have been played by King Wen of Zhou, and Lian Shan Yi even earlier. Taoism only came before a hundred schools of thought contended, that is, during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, and it was obviously much later.
To talk about yin-yang, tai chi is inescapable, because tai chi is a core concept of yin-yang.
Many people know about Tai Chi but don't understand what it means.
Tai Chi is a polysemitic word with rich meanings, literally the apex, the pole. But it is a professional term, is the most important concept in Yili, this concept also has a lot of meaning, not a single meaning, many people can not understand it, one is that it is abstract, the other is that it has multiple meanings.
Tai Chi is used by ancient Chinese people to express people, things, things, reason, time, place, movement, change... One word. It's abstract because it's short.
Tai Chi is a trinity of infinity, finiteness, and infinity, which can express the process of creating something from nothing to infinity.
Tai Chi is a trinity of 0, 1, and 2. 0 is the impolar state of Tai Chi, that is, primitive, without beginning, without formation. 1 is when yin and yang meet. 2 is the time of the yin and yang equinox. It is also the two sides of Tai Chi. These two sides are opposites and unified. Opposition is because of the opposite two sides, unity is because of oneness. It is divided into yin and yang because there are criteria for classification, and there is logic in it. Therefore, Tai Chi is not only not superstition, but also logic, and therefore science.
Tai Chi is philosophy, the equivalent of the contradiction theory and dialectics of modern philosophy.
Tai Chi is neither materialistic nor idealistic, and things and minds are rooted in each other. Matter and consciousness are each other's roots, and without the other there is no such, without this there is no other.
Tai Chi is a dichotomy that divides everything into two categories.
Tai Chi is difficult to understand because it is abstract, and abstraction is because it expresses all things in two words, especially things that are moving and changing. Static is easy to understand, such as male and female, mountain and water, white and black. Motion is the norm of things, and stillness is a piece of artificial interception. Therefore, it is very difficult to understand the yin and yang in the changing movement. Keep up with the movement of things. This is the constant change between name and truth. A common mistake that many people make is that their thinking cannot keep up with changes, and they make the mistake of waiting for the rabbit or carving a boat to seek a sword. For example, a woman is yin in terms of gender, but if she becomes a leader, she is yang in this regard. We can't always define women as yin. Gender yin does not conflict with ability yang.
The core of Tai Chi is the unity of opposites. Yin and yang are each other's roots. It is by far the most scientific way of thinking and thinking. It requires a comprehensive, linked, dialectical and mobile view of problems, and cannot look at problems in a one-sided, isolated, arbitrary, subjective, static and divisive manner.
Yin-Yang Studies is the root of Chinese culture because it is the core of the culture and skills of Chinese medicine, the art of war, boxing, food, architecture, clothing, calligraphy, painting, literature, Confucianism, Taoism, or other schools and professions. The most typical are traditional Chinese medicine, the art of war, diet, and boxing.
Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the theory of the five behaviors of yin and yang. Yin and yang are two divisions, such as dividing the human body into inside and outside, dry and damp, cold and hot, up and down, front and back, movement and static, and urgency...
The five elements are the five-point method, which divides everything into five categories, such as five colors, five flavors, five sexes, five organs, five tones... But for all classifications, there are classification standards, and the classification standards are typical logic, which must be compared and have commonalities. How can it be superstition? Just a way of thinking and a way of expression.
The same is true of the three talents, four elephants, eight trigrams, and nine palaces, all of which are methods of classification and expression, and the methods of understanding nature and society and expressing the knowledge and understanding of nature and society by the ancient Chinese are both ways of thinking, thinking methods, and classification methods.
Therefore, the doctrine of the five elements of yin and yang is the most philosophical philosophy, more logical than any logic, more accurate than modern contradictions and dialectics.
So, what is Tai Chi?
Wang Zongyue's "Theory of Taijiquan" begins with Wuji and Taiji, and then talks about Taijiquan.
Mr. Chen Xin said that "Taijiquan is rooted in Taiji", and in "Chen's Taijiquan Diagram", he spent a lot of space talking about Yi Li, talking about square circle changes, and talking about sixty-four trigrams...
In short, Taijiquan is a boxing method based on the principle of Taiji, that is, a boxing method based on the principle of Yili, or a contradiction boxing, and a unified fist of opposites. During the Republican period, it was called the Contradiction Fist.
The yin and yang of Taijiquan mainly include: movement, opening and closing, rigidity and softness, advance and retreat, virtual and real, inside and outside, up and down, front and back, left and right, Gu Pan, fast and slow, high and low, pitch, light and heavy, slow, oblique, square, presence and so on.
The main feature of Taijiquan is neither vigorous nor slow, nor soft, nor loose, and its main core essential feature is the unity of opposites.
How to embody the unity of opposites in Taijiquan?
For example, rigidity and softness, virtual reality, these are not easy for many people to understand. To give a simple example, each movement exerts force in opposite directions around the body, but the point of action is the same, in which two are opposite each other. Therefore, each action has two main uses because there are two energies.
As for the five elements and eight methods, winding strength, drawing strength, relaxation, slow training, round turning, etc., these are also the characteristics of Tai Chi, and when we see someone is playing Tai Chi, it shows that it has some external characteristics. The external characteristics are slow and soft.
The fundamental external characteristics are spiral motion, there are revolutions and rotations, there are square circles, inner circles and outside, upper circles below, front and back circles, etc. Say "Taijiquan, entanglement method, unclear fist", or say "Taijiquan luck in the qi method, unclear this is unknown fist." "These are not the essential characteristics of Taijiquan, the essential feature is the unity of opposites, which is equivalent to the constitution in the law. Because to achieve complete unity of opposites, it must be spiral motion, which is the law of natural operation and the law of life operation, such as the operation of celestial bodies, that is, revolution plus rotation, such as gene shape, sperm forward form are spiral.
The vast majority of modern taijiquan has gone off track, pursuing part of it, or even a little, extremely one-sided development, rather than the unity of opposites. I call them Tai Chi Man, Tai Chi Xuan, Tai Chi Zen, Tai Chi Play, Tai Chi Trick, Tai Chi Dance, and Tai Chi Exercise.
Real Tai Chi, first practice the overall strength, and then practice Qi Concentration. The overall strength contains the winding strength, and the best overall strength must be spiral.
True Taijiquan must learn the eight methods, mutual survival and mutual restraint, but not limited to the eight methods, it is a martial art, it is a fist and wrestling.
True Tai Chi must practice Liuhe, both inside and outside.