T'ai chi ch'u[ tahy -jee -chwahn, chee ] is a Chinese martial art and form of stylized, meditative exercise, characterized by methodically slow circular and stretching movements and positions of bodily balance.
Therein rests my conundrum.
T'ai chi is a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential, the oneness before duality, from which Yin and Yang originate.
I don't dig that mystical stuff at all -- as I'm in no way shape or form of the Taoist persuasion -- but the exploration of opposites is my everyday hobby.
I'd call it 'Dialectics' -- because it is.
Despite its mystique, there's a generic logic in the way that Tai chi explores opposites in its combat system --as it does as you move through the form. Indeed, its core rationale is a flexible interplay between you and some other. Even between parts of you and other parts.
If you miss that, it just becomes some ritualised hi jinks ruled by stepping about and hand waving -- which is invested with some ethereal spiritual meaning as well as health and wellness.
You know, like a placebo effect.
It is my belief that the martial artistry came first and the ying yang-ery was an addition. But that, in turn, gave the art a format and internal logic.
This is very true of the weapon form I study -- 'Biangun' or 'Biangan' (Whip Rod).
Since Biangan is just a chest high stick used to herd livestock -- as much by a North West Chinese Moslems as it would be by a spiritualised Taoist monk -- there is no pure taichi-ness about it.
Just afterthoughts.
My problem is finding the language -- in English -- to explain this.
The safest option is to simply use the moniker Biangan.
Unfortunately, that doesn't register on the radar. There is a group in Tokyo who uses that name for a variation of the form as stick work is what they do.
I find their package inspiring -- although I'm not enamoured with their stylised form.
It is a Chinese import possibly from the Ma family, I'm told...
On top of that, the word 'biangan' pops up out of context if at all.
Biān gàn is 边干 in Chinese; サイドドライ in Japanese; but doesn't take to English so well and in Indonesian it means 'number'.
This is why I often use the alternative spelling, 'Biangun'.
You don't have to, but you learn it with the same principles that you employ for tai chi practice. There is a tai chi stick form of some ancestry, which is called tai chi gun -- with, I assume, the 'gun' standing for the gàn in Biān gàn. But that uses the longer bo stick -- which is head high.
But a whip rod is a whip rod is a Biangan -- or Biangun -- and if the rod is for whipping then you 'could' suggest that it is of a particular size. Even there you'll get the Biangan armpit length partnered with shorter sticks -- like I do with my Hanbo (hip high) length.
So I have this problem of explaining that Biangun is like taichi but not. So for now I have to settle for 'Taichi on a stick'.
