Episode 49 - The Alps

Another picture taken at Interlaken.

In front of the snow mountain, everything becomes so small.

Episode 48 - Bridging the Gap

Occupying the Centre (Part VII)

This is the famous Chapel bridge at Luzern, Switzerland.

A bridge is a structure that allows things to cross from one side to the other.

In order to control an opponent and to take over his centre in close quarter combat, a connection between the two bodies has to be established.

One of the advanced techniques in the Taiji martial art system is the setting up of a "bridge" between oneself and the opponent through body contact. Once a connection is made, the opponent loses his centre. The two bodies merge as one and the centre of the opponent dissolves. He who maintains the centre takes charge of the next step.

Another alternative is to hang oneself on the opponent and use the opponent's centre as the centre of the merged bodies. Whilst the centre appears to be staying outside of one's "own body", the connection enables extension of control from one's body to the opponent's body. Can you remember the dragonfly that stayed on the top of a flower bud (in Part I)? The centre of the flower bud is also the centre of the dragonfly.

One follow up question:

After a connection has been made, what is the "thing" that crosses the "bridge"?

He who has completed the training in "Standing" should know the answer.


(Links to Part I, Part II , Part III , Part IV , Part V and Part VI)

Episode 47 - Water Mirror

This photo was taken at Interlaken, Switzerland.

Most of the people were up in the Jungfrau at that moment. I walked across the footbridge that separates Interlaken Ost from Interlaken West and discovered this beautiful corner.

Episode 46 - Stories from the North Country

These photos were taken at Furano.

This is one of the sites where the Japanese TV series "Stories from the North Country" was filmed. I followed the direction of a Japanese local guide book and drove here from the centre of the city.

The strange house in the photo was supposed to be made from disposed articles.

There are a number of similar sites nearby.

Episode 45 - Web Cam

Gogo purchased a webcam recently.

Gogo tried to talked to his cousin through this new toy. He first tried it with Yahoo Messenger but without success. The video capture condition was good but Gogo was not able to connect the video bilaterally. Either his cousin saw him only or vice versa. Perhaps it was because of the fact that his cousin was using Windows Live Messenger.

Gogo then tried the connection with Windows Live Messenger. The connection was successful but the video size was small ( whilst it can be turned into full screen, we cannot see live message) and not stable and the sound connection was bad. Perhaps it was due to the long distance between the two connection points.

Having said that, I still consider that it is worthwhile to install a video cam at home, in particular if you have relatives or friends living in other countries. You can see and talk to each other without the need to pay any additional charges. The new technologies plus the internet have brought revolutionary changes to our lives.

Episode 44 - On Forms

In the past 10 years or so, we start seeing people telling the world that there are in fact two types of taijiquan forms. The "Health Form" is for health purpose and the "Fighting / Application Form" is for fighting applications. According to these guys, the "Health Form" was designed for the general public and aim at promoting good health only. The "Fighting / Application Form" is the "real" art and reserved secretly in the Masters' small circles. It was transmitted secretly through these guys.

Do we really need such kind of form distinction?

As discussed previously, practising the taijiquan form is good for health for, amongst others, the following reasons:

1. For body and mind coordination: The form was designed to enable movement of the human body in a coordinated and efficient manner. When you move your hands in a taijiquan action, your legs and your spine are usually moving correspondingly in support as well. You mind is trained to move many parts of your body in one go. As the Taiji Classic said: "When you move, the whole body moves; when you stop, the whole body stops."

This aspect trains a practitioner to keep a good control of his body and learn how to maintain his balance (reducing the chance of falling down due to lose of balance on slippery floor). While the muscles power of a practitioner may be declining due to his age, he can maintain his activeness if muscles in different parts of his body can work together in carrying out a task.

2. For recovery from injuries and illness (internal and external): the slow and coordinated movements of taijiquan enhance the self-recovery mechanism within a human body. The slow motion form is a form of "chi" exercise which enhances your intrinsic power. With suitable breathing rhythm, the external movements activate the movements of the internal organs, fostering recovery from diseases caused by mental stress, over drinking, over smoking or lack of exercises.

The usefulness of this aspect has field proven experience. It helps to speed up the recovery processes of patients, in particular from resporatory or gastial diseases.

When I first learned taijiquan, there was no such "health form" and "fighting / application form" distinction. Whether you learned the form for health purpose or for martial art training, the teacher taught you the same form.

The reason is obvious and simple, if you know how to coordinate your body and mind efficiently in your movements, you obtain a balanced body and you will have good health. Practising the form is a way to good health. For martial art training, you also need to develop a balanced body before you are in a position to learn the application techniques, so you practise the form as part of the training (you will need to train in other things to reach the martial art standard). Hence, everyone learned the same taijiquan form from the very beginning.

After a practitioner's body has revived back to the balanced position (in the martial art standard to be exact), the form can be used to fine tune the body and mind coordination. You do the form slowly, in accordance with the martial art requirements, so as to check if each part of the body has been fully activated. However, this is not something a beginner or a practitioner in the intermediate level can appreciate.

The reality is that practising the taijiquan form is only part of the Taiji Martial Art system.

Whilst taijiquan form is an important element in the system, it is foolish to believe that one can acquire some super-natural power by learning the "right" form or that one can become a fighter by practising the form alone. There is no shortcut to success. In order to become a real taiji martial artist, one has to undergo a series of hard training.

There is no secret in this - laziness is the root leading to the popularity of the bad art.

In order to develop a balanced body, you will of course need to prastise the taijiquan form in the correct manner. But this is another story.

Episode 43 - Monkey business

- Specifically for Ying

I purchased this toy from Rishiri, Hokkaido, Japan.

Can you see a monkey standing proudly on the top of a crab?

The characters come from a Japanese folklore "The monkey, the crab, and the persimmon-seed". In the original tale, a greedy monkey used tricks to cheat a crab out of its food. The children of the crab, with the assistance of their friends, revenged.

The revenge can be accomplished easily. What you need to do is to pull the red string: