Which Taiji?
Posted by Cat on April 14th 2020
“Taiji is the mother of yin and yang.”
Which Taiji?
When discussing Taijiquan, it’s important to be clear which taiji you’re talking about. Confusing two taiji pairs is a common source of confusion.
“Is this room smaller or hotter than that room?”
Smaller is yin and Hotter is yang, but they come from different taiji pairs (size and temperature) so they don’t necessarily relate to each other.
“Separate Empty and Full” is about Yin and Yang, but doesn’t specify a particular taiji. In the beginning, we often talk about this in relation to weight distribution between the legs, but it can also refer to direction of energy, direction of movement, storage/release of energy, opening/closing, or many other taiji pairs.
Grandmaster Yang Jun illustrates this in this video:
Standing on one leg to kick. In the “weight” taiji, the supporting leg is full. In the “energy” taiji, the kicking leg is full (filling).
So, when you’re stuck on a particular question about your practice… make sure you’re not confusing one taiji with another.