#yangstylestaijiquan

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Three Types of Fearlessness

By Cheng Man-ch’ing

From: New Method of Self Cultivation

三無畏 一、 無艮喫苦。 二、 無艮喫虧。 三、 無畏厲害

(Literally) Three Without Fears: First, without fear of eating bitter Second, without fear of eating loss Third, without fear of ferocity.

Cheng Man-ch’ing wrote-

My discussion on fearlessness is intended only for those willing to exert effort.

First: Do not fear bitter work. If you do, you will never progress.

Second: Do not fear losing. The fundamental principle in taijiquan is to 'yield to follow others.' Yielding up your position to follow others is, most decidedly, losing.

Third: Do not fear ferocity. Laozi described men who have cultivated the life principle saying, 'a rhino finds no place to gore, a tiger feels nothing to claw, a soldier has nowhere to stab.' Why is this? Because they have no fear of death. Rather than praising the ferocity of a rhino, tiger or wean, Laozi exalts the softness which overcomes hardness."

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Song of Split

How can we explain the energy of Split? Revolving like a flywheel, If something is thrown against it, It will be cast off at a great distance. Whirlpools appear in swift flowing streams, And the curling waves are like spirals. If a falling leaf lands on their surface, In no time it will sink from sight.

-Quoted form the Yang Family Manuscripts Collected by Li Ling-ang Trans. Douglas Wile

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Push Hands Yielding & Power Training at Great River Taoist Center- 

In the background student practice yielding and neutralizing during the "Willow Bends" exercise. Here the student being pushed cannot use his arms to neutralize. In the foreground, students throw a medicine all with a push from the legs. Throwing a ball is not a traditional exercise, but differs little from training with a spear of other weapons that employ a thrusting/pushing movement

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Training for skill in hands or sword, Zhangzhuan is at the core.

Photo of Wang Yen-nien with Scott M. Rodell at his side, 1993.