Dragons and Tai Ji Fight Club

First Rule of Tai Ji Fight Club: Never Punch an Old Man.

"Never Punch an Old Man"

 There are many times in our life when we might stop and wonder how it is they we actually got to where we are now.  I had one such moment as I was lying on the cold concrete floor of an underground parking garage.  Merely moments before I was so full of confidence that I thought I could take on the world.  Yet now… now I was so painfully aware of how fragile and human I really am.  But in order to really explain my situation I need to first start at the beginning of the story.

It all started during Langfang Sports Day at the University.  It was there that I met a half-Physical Education and half-English teacher funnily enough named “Don’t Change.”  He given himself that particular English name as more of a joke and the fact that the vernacular was close to his original Chinese name.  I affectionately gave him the nickname “Buddy.”  Buddy and I have been become fast friends in the short amount of time that we’ve know each other.  We are what you might call, “kindred spirits.”  It’s fairly common to find Buddy and I in the thralls of debate with one another discussing everything from Plato’s Republic to the teachings of Confucius and the poems of Robert Frost.  We are also what you might call, “nerds.”

Anyway, Buddy invited me to join his Tai Ji group.  Its proper English translation is “Shadow Boxing.”  Imagine if you will the scene of our first meeting… I’m lead to an underground parking garage on the outskirts of Langfang city.  It’s late and it's dark.  There is a gang of people all with wooden swords.  The leader of the gang cannot speak English but he desires to show me something.  Buddy translates his words.  The leader says, “Punch me as hard as you can.”  At first I am unsure.  The leader is an old man, bent over and fragile.  He stands with his hands behind his back and commands me to punch him as hard as I can in his chest.  He looks like he is ready to sit in the park and feed the pigeons, not engage in hand-to-hand combat.  But, I do as he says.  I punch with my right hand.  Before I know it I am on the floor.  The cold concrete is pressed against my back.  The master’s hand is at my throat.  My head is a blur.  I’m helplessly at the old man’s mercy.

That’s when I learned the first rule of Tai Ji Fight Club: “Never punch a frail old man because it won’t end well for you.”

The kind old master then helped me off the floor, dusted off my jacket and began to show me the ways of Tai Ji.  You may not have heard of Tai Ji but it’s more commonly known in America as Tai Chi.  Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese exercise that helps strengthen the body and helps develop a sense of physical balance.  It is mainly a series of slow flowing movements that strain a variety of muscles.  After one evening of practicing I was sore in places I didn’t even know I had.  Tai Chi is practiced very slowly but if speed up to a quicker movement it can cripple an opponent within seconds… as I experienced.

Now some of you may be worried that I’m getting involved with a Chinese street gang but I jest more than anything else.  This Tai Ji club meets in a very nice gated community and the majority of occupants in the club are old enough to be grandparents.  They don’t fight with each other but they fight with the air.  If you see a Tai Ji class you will often see a group of people perfectly lined up following a systematic pattern in unison.  It really does look like synchronized slow-motion martial arts. Buddy has been doing Tai Ji for a month now and it’s really helped him to get in shape.  I’m looking forward to doing the same.  

Flying High, Dragons in the Sky

The I Ching

 There is a lot of good that can be learned from Chinese culture.  Buddy has been helping me to learn about Eastern philosophy and its many practical uses.  There is a lot of mythology and mysticism wrapper up in Eastern philosophy but there is also a number of wise sayings and proverbs that could benefit anyone who takes them to heart.  Take for example the teachings of I Ching (Yì Jīng in Chinese).  I Ching is a very old book that talks about the path of man from birth to end.  In the book there is a series of pictures represented by three or six lines.  Each line represents a different stage of our development as we grow older.  The first line is our birth, the second is our adolescence, the third is our teenage years, and so on.  I Ching uses the Chinese dragon as a symbol for man at each one of these steps.  As a baby dragon we have great potential but we have not yet learned how to fly.  As we grow we should also be learning how to fly form the elder dragons.  It is not until we reach the third step, that period when we are starting to become adults, that we get our first real chance to fly.  However, young Dragons need to be careful of pride.  If young dragons are too eager to show off their abilities then other dragons may develop for them hatred and jealousy.  It is at the transition in-between the third step and the fourth step that young dragons must learn meekness and humility.  Life isn’t about showing off our skills but about developing respect for ourselves and for others.  It’s only when a dragon learns meekness and humility that he or she is able to reach the fourth step of adult.  After that they will reach the fifth step of teacher and elder.  Finally they will reach the sixth step of death without regret.  

There is an ancient Chinese saying that goes along with the transition between step three and step four.  The saying is 不三不四 (Bù sān bù sì) “No three, no four.”  It means that people may grow older in their appearance but they won’t always grow smarter.  We might think of it in modern terms as the young man or woman who is so busy chasing wealth and fame that they never grow out of being spoiled.  They still demand to have everything their way.  You could say “不三不四” to the man going through his midlife crisis: the kind of man that buys an expensive red convertible and dumps his wife for a hot young blond.  That man will never reach the fourth, fifth or sixth step because he is stuck on the third step.

It is quite funny sometimes how truth and wisdom are universal.  As Buddy was teaching me the story of the dragon and about I Ching, I couldn’t help but remember some of the Western stories of wisdom.  I thought about the Greek story of Icarus and how he flew to close to the sun with his glued wings.  I thought about the words of King Solomon who said, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  It made me wonder about myself.  What kind of dragon am I?  Am I flying high in the sky on the winds of meekness and humility or am I crawling about in the mud of shame and arrogance.  I hope I’m the former and not the later… but it’s something to think about…

A Dragon Flying High in the Sky