{"id":525,"date":"2023-05-07T22:17:23","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T22:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/?p=525"},"modified":"2023-07-07T10:58:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T10:58:25","slug":"relax-and-let-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/2023\/05\/07\/relax-and-let-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Relax and let go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mr Moy, like many Tai ji teachers, told his students to relax. What he actually said was fang s\u014dng<\/span> – \u653e \u677e<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perfectly relaxed: a pine tree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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S\u014dng<\/span> \u677e<\/span> is an essential quality for tai chi practitioners. It means loose<\/em>, but the character also means a pine tree. You can see the pictographic representation of a tree in the left hand half of the character, with branches hanging down from the trunk – this is more clear in an older version of the character \u67a9<\/span> which has more branches. The branches hang loosely, but the tree retains its structure – something that is no longer implied by the word “relax” in English, which today could easily refer to someone collapsed on their sofa, with no structure.<\/p>\n

Fang<\/span> \u653e<\/span> means release<\/em>. Fang s\u014dng<\/span> thus means something like “let go of all excess tension”.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of his life, Mr Moy started telling his students, in English, to let go<\/em>, a translation of fang s\u014dng<\/span> which avoids the ambiguity of the word relax<\/em>. I like to think of it as: relax and let go<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mr Moy, like many Tai ji teachers, told his students to relax. What he actually said was fang s\u014dng – \u653e \u677e. S\u014dng \u677e is an essential quality for tai chi practitioners. It means loose, but the character also means a pine tree. You can see the pictographic representation of a tree in the left READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-taichi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t