A Translation error and a couple other thing I could not let go

[Xue Sheng]

From this post

Personally, I found this book to be useful:

'The Essence of T'ai Chi Ch'uan: The Literary Tradition' (Trans. Lo/Inn/Amacker/Foe)

(an excerpt)

Chapter One: 'T'ai Chi Ch'uan' by Chang San-feng

In motion
all parts of the body must be
light
nimble
and strung together.

The ch'i (breath) should be excited,
the shen (spirit) should be internally gathered.

Let the postures be without
breaks or holes,
hollows or projections,
or discontinuities and continuities of form.

The motion should be rooted in the feet,
released through the legs,
controlled by the waist,
and manifested through the fingers.

The feet, legs and waist
must act together simultaneously,
so that while stepping forward or back
the timing and position are correct.

If the timing and position are not correct,
the body becomes disordered,
and the defect must be sought
in the legs and waist.

Up or down,
front or back,
left or right, are all the same.

These are all i (mind) and not external.

If there is up, there is down;
if there is forward, then there is backward;
if there is left, then there is right.

If the i wants to move up,
it contains at the same time
the downward idea.

By alternating the force
of pulling and pushing,
the root is severed
and the object is quickly toppled,
without a doubt.

Insubstantial and substantial
should be clearly differentiated.

One place
has insubstantiality and substantiality;
every place
has the same insubstantiality and substantiality.

All parts of the body are strung together
without the slightest break.

Ch'ang Ch'uan (T'ai Chi Ch'uan)
is like a great river
rolling on unceasingly.

P'eng (wardoff), lu (rollback),
chi (press), an (push),
ts'ai (pull), lieh (split),
tsou (elbow), k'ao (shoulder),
are the eight trigrams.

Step forward, step back,
look left, look right,
and central equilibrium
are the five elements.

P'eng, lu, chi, an are ch'ien, k'un, k'an, li,
and are the four cardinal directions.
Ts'ai, lieh, tsou, k'ao, are sun, chen, tui, ken,
and are the four diagonal directions.

Step forward, step back,
look left, look right,
and central equilibrium
are metal, wood, water, fire and earth.

Together
these comprise the thirteen postures.

Although there is nothing wrong with the above, I am sure it is useful, many parts of it I agree with and I have no doubt it was written a long time ago and likely by a CMA practitioner or two but I doubt that it was written by Chang San-feng (Zhang Sanfeng) since there is no documented historical proof that he ever existed. But that is really not that bog a deal since it is fairly common in Chinese history to attribute things to real people who are famous or famous mythical people to gain some fame, credibility or money.

The bigger issue is here

Ch'ang Ch'uan (T'ai Chi Ch'uan)

That is simply wrong; Chang Chuan (Chángquán: 长&#25331 does not translate to Taijiquan (太極拳 Tai Chi Chuan). That is translating one Chinese word into another Chinese word Pretty much like saying Nei Hao (hello) translates to Zaijian (goodbye) and it just is not right

Changquan translates to Long Fist and Taijiquan translates to Grand Ultimate fist and although it could be argues that Taijiquan is in the Changchuan family it is most certailnt not Changquan

Sorry, I know I'm being picky but I could not let that go.

 

[harlan]

Best use of the internet and forums: information exchange. I'll print out your post (and responsese) and file it away in the book.

Not being a CMA practicioner, I found some personal value in the introduction of new ideas useful for my Goju. As to veracity of the text...:idunno:

 

[Xue Sheng]

Best use of the internet and forums: information exchange. I'll print out your post (and responsese) and file it away in the book.

Not being a CMA practicioner, I found some personal value in the introduction of new ideas useful for my Goju. As to veracity of the text...:idunno:

No worries it is just me having enough knowledge to be dangerous

Much of it is fine it is just a translation error and a typical old Chinese of attributing something written by one person to someone more famous real or not.

Less likely to have been read when it was written if it was attributed to (for example) Wang Shen but say Zhang Senfeng wrote it and many would have given it a look...or bought it