{"id":2850,"date":"2011-07-23T10:40:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T15:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=2850"},"modified":"2012-02-13T19:09:26","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T00:09:26","slug":"a-taiji-hedgehog-or-a-taiji-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=2850","title":{"rendered":"A Taiji hedgehog or a Taiji fox?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?cat=103\">From The Master<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';\">A <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';\">Taiji<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"> hedgehog or a <\/span>Taiji<span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"> fox?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000;\"> by Yang Yang, Ph.D.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Y<span style=\"color: #000000;\">ou may have heard the Greek story of the hedgehog and the fox. In this story the fox knows many small things whereas the hedgehog knows one big thing.<a href=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Hedgehog-and-Fox.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2851 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Hedgehog-and-Fox-273x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"256\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When I read this story, I thought of the pair: a taiji hedgehog or a taiji fox. In my mind this pair is about an issue of achieving depth and quality in our taiji practice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Taiji practitioners all want to find an effective way to practice and enjoy their art. For different reasons, taiji practitioners often practice their art in very inefficient ways.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One of the mistakes practitioners make is equating the number of forms they know, or even the number of styles they practice to their understanding or level of Taiji. There end up being too many taiji foxes and not enough hedgehogs.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Being a taiji fox will generate certain benefits, but being a taiji hedgehog will definitely produce broader benefits at deeper levels.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">The fox\/hedgehog story basically conveys the same lesson as one old Chinese saying: <\/span>\u4e0d\u6015\u5343\u62db\u6703<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">, <\/span>\u5c31\u6015\u4e00\u62db\u7cbe<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> (<em>Bu pa qian zao hui, jui pa yi zao jing<\/em> &#8211; I am not afraid of someone who knows a thousand forms (techniques); I am concerned with the person that does one form (technique) very well).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Being a hedgehog is traditionally thought more effective in our taiji practice than being a fox. Here are some tips for becoming a taiji hedgehog or switching from a fox to being a hedgehog:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Micro approach:<\/strong> pick out one form (it doesn&#8217;t matter which style you practice) and focus on the following key elements:<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Tranquil mind<\/strong>: translate the tranquil mind and body from wuji practice to the taiji form. This is why we do wuji practice.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Happiness<\/strong>: smile while you practice. It is a joy and not a labor. It is an opportunity to apply the happiness cultivated from your wuji qigong to moving qigong&#8211;taiji form.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Energy<\/strong>: are you playing it slowly enough so that every repetition of this form is a process of Qi cultivation\/accumulation.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Imaging<\/strong>: are you applying the image of water (not mud, it is heavy and generates tension), are <a href=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Waterfall.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2854 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Waterfall-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Waterfall-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Waterfall.jpg 311w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a>you thinking about flowing water while you are both still and moving.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Posture<\/strong>: are you having an upright posture? Are you having a biomechanically sound posture? Do you feel awkward or even pain in your knees, have you opened your kua?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Foot work<\/strong>: have you had your toes turning outward slightly when you are in a neutral standing posture? A stance with strictly parallel feet may cause pain in your ankles or knees.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Core strength<\/strong>: are you initiating all of your movements from your Dantian: the core of your body? Are you allowing unlimited opportunities for dantian initiation\/movements in your form practice?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Is your whole body moving together<\/strong> like a harmonious, non-combative family instead of moving in different or even opposite directions?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Silk-reeling energy<\/strong>: do you have constant silk reeling throughout your body when you move? If not, practice some basic silk-reeling exercises and see if you can incorporate reeling into your forms.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>13 postures of Taiji energy<\/strong>: Peng\/ Liu\/ Ji \/An, Cai\/Lie\/Zhou\/Kao, Jin\/Tui\/Gu\/Pan\/Ding. Start with the first four energies: Peng: up; Liu: side and back; Ji: forward; and An: down; Actually, a taiji form generates unlimited possibilities of motor movements.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Pushands<\/strong>: each single taiji form can have many, sometimes unlimited applications. Play with it and see how the improvement of each single component helps you to enhance your pushhands. Pushhands is one of the ways to test whether you are gettng the fundamental elements of a form.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><strong>Macro approach:<\/strong> after working on the many micro-elements of some individual component of a form, you can focus on one single element while you do the whole routine (the EBT, Essential 48, Paocui, Yang 108 forms, or a whole routine from another style). Then you can focus on another micro-element while doing the routine until you have gone through all major elements with the whole routine.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">Everything is an matter of degree. There is no pure fox, there is no pure hedgehog either. Actually, being a hedgehog with some fox characteristics may not be a bad idea, and can better help a hedgehog discriminate which big thing to concentrate on, as well as what micro practices enhance the big thing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">The point is to remember that quality is more important than quantity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">There is nothing new under the sun. There is no mystery in traditional practice; it is all common sense from ancient wisdom.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<address><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Yang-Yang.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2979 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Yang-Yang.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"114\" height=\"172\" \/><\/a>[Yang Yang was born in 1961 in Henan province near the Chen Village in China. At the age of 12, he began studying Taiji because of a congenital heart defect. He credits his practice of Chen Style Taiji with curing his heart condition and allowing him to pass the physical exam required in China to enter the universities. Master Yang&#8217;s Taiji studies now span 30 years. With both Law and Engineering degrees earned in China, Master Yang practiced business law for several years before coming to the United States to study for a Master&#8217;s Degree in Economics at Illinois State University. He is currently the Director of the Center for Taiji Studies in Champaign, Illinois, and has recently completed a Doctorate Degree in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois. His <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chentaiji.com\/research\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; color: #0000ff;\">research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"> focuses on the benefits and mechanisms of Taiji practice.]<\/span><\/span><\/address>\n<div><div style=\"padding-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;font-weight:bold;\">Do you like this? Please share it:<\/div><div class=simplesocial><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-url=\"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=2850\" data-text=\"A+Taiji+hedgehog+or+a+Taiji+fox%3F\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"horizontal\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/div><div class=simplesocial><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850&layout=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=35\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div><div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,500,400)\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/facebook.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850&t=A+Taiji+hedgehog+or+a+Taiji+fox%3F\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,812,420)\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/twitter.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,435,500)\" title=\"Email a Friend\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/email.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.freetellafriend.com\/tell\/?heading=Share+This+Article&bg=1&option=email&url=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,750,500)\" title=\"Share on Blogger\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/blogger.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/blog_this.pyra?t&u=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850&n=A+Taiji+hedgehog+or+a+Taiji+fox%3F&pli=1\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,750,500)\" title=\"Share on Google\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/google.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/bookmarks\/mark?op=add&bkmk=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850&title=A+Taiji+hedgehog+or+a+Taiji+fox%3F\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,812,420)\" title=\"Share on Myspace\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/myspace.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/Modules\/PostTo\/Pages\/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850&t=A+Taiji+hedgehog+or+a+Taiji+fox%3F&c=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,750,500)\" title=\"Share on StumbleUpon\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/stumbleupon.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stumbleupon.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850&title=A+Taiji+hedgehog+or+a+Taiji+fox%3F\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial onclick=\"return simplesocial(this,812,500)\" title=\"Share on Technorati\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/technorati.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/faves?sub=favthis&add=https%3A%2F%2Fyang-sheng.com%2F%3Fp%3D2850\"><\/a><a class=simplesocial title=\"RSS Feed\" style=\"background:url(http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/simple-social-sharing-widgets-icons\/icons_16\/rss.png)\" href=\"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?feed=rss2\"><\/a><\/div><div style=\"clear:both;margin-bottom:20px\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Master A Taiji hedgehog or a Taiji fox? by Yang Yang, Ph.D. You may have heard the Greek story of the hedgehog and the fox. In this story the fox knows many small things whereas the hedgehog knows &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=2850\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[403,402,401,255],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-master","tag-fox","tag-hedgehog","tag-practice","tag-taiji"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}