Monday, December 6, 2010

Traces of a Master

Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing left a number of ways in which people could observe and appreciate his work, and derive guidance for their own practice of taijiquan and other arts.
For instance, Cheng's own exploration of qi development (養生 yangsheng) is evident not only in his taijiquan movies and in the stories people tell of his medical abilities, but in his calligraphy and painting. After all, Chinese calligraphy is based on some of the same principles as taijiquan: alignment, focus (yi), balance, and relaxation. In these four examples below of his calligraphy, done over the span of fifty years, we can see—despite the low resolution of these pictures—how his work dramatically changed over time.