TaiChi YuanZhi

Metaphorical Cognition of Taiji’s Form-Based Conceptualization 🌱🌀

Influenced by the Chinese philosophy of "symbolic thinking," Taiji often employs methods such as "observing objects for symbols" and "constructing symbols for ultimate meaning" to guide mental training. Using the perspective of metaphor theory, based on years of practice and reflection, this study explores the metaphorical cognition in Taiji's form-based conceptualization through methods like literature review and expert interviews.

Key Insights:
The core elements of constructing Taiji metaphorical cognition are:

Locating mapping points

Constructing knowledge drafts

Activating mental schemas

Experiencing the intention point

Managing the relationship between the subject and the object.

The cultural practice of "imitating nature" or "symbolic thinking" has been a universal phenomenon in human history, especially in early civilizations. This practice reflects China's traditional "unity of heaven and man" philosophy.

Li Zhongxuan once said: "The four words 'symbolic thinking' are priceless. This is how Chinese characters were invented, and this thinking is applied in qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, and even Tang poetry. Once understood, mountains, rivers, the sun, the moon, and the stars can all be incorporated into Taiji."

Taiji is called "internal martial art" because of its profound internal cultivation methods, particularly its "imaginative inner experience" or "mind method." These experiences, although difficult to express in words, are often conveyed through "observing objects for symbols" and "constructing symbols for ultimate meaning," which actively engage the practitioner's existing sensory abilities. This process creates a symbolic landscape that inspires intuitive understanding of Taiji's principles.

The core idea is to borrow a certain essence or quality from an external object and apply it to a specific Taiji movement, thus understanding or experiencing the underlying meaning and purpose of the movement.

This "use of other objects to clarify" expression method essentially embodies a metaphorical cognitive approach. In summary, the essence of metaphor theory is "using one word to replace another, understanding one thing through another."

1. Mapping Points of Form-Based Conceptualization

The operational mechanism of metaphor, as described by Lakoff and Johnson, is known as "mapping," which forms the basis of the "mapping theory." They argue that metaphors involve "cross-domain mapping of the cognitive system," where one domain (the source) is mapped to another (the target). This mapping relies on accurately locating mapping points.

In Taiji, external objects do not directly correspond to body movements, so practitioners need to accurately locate the mapping points to connect the two. Metaphors are symbolic activities that involve an association between the signifier and the object, with a relatively vague degree of association and clearer interpretative attributes. Taiji practitioners observe and perceive external objects to establish a relationship between these objects and their bodies. Through the basic (or primal) mental schemas formed from their understanding of the external world, they recognize their own body movements, express the results in bodily language and inner experiences, and discover symbolic similarities between the external object and their own body.

These mapping points generally have three types:

Physical Experience Mapping: mapping the experience of an object's physical characteristics to the body.

Qualitative Experience Mapping: mapping the experience of an object's traits to the body's attributes.

Movement Experience Mapping: mapping the experience of an object's motion to the body's movements.

1.1 Physical Experience Mapping

In classical Taiji texts, external objects are often metaphorically linked to the body. For example:

"Stand like a balance scale, move like a wheel"

"The waist is like the axle of a wheel"

"The chest is like a tray."

These metaphors help practitioners understand balance, center, and stability by imagining the body as a balanced scale, a spinning wheel, or a smooth axle, symbolizing equilibrium in Taiji.

1.2 Qualitative Experience Mapping

In Taiji, the body is kept in a neutral and central posture. One practice method involves imagining a "cross" suspended in front of the chest, which maintains a horizontal and vertical structure. This analogy helps to maintain correct shoulder alignment and overall body balance in all Taiji movements.

1.3 Movement Experience Mapping

The circular movement of the Taiji body is often compared to the action of a grinding wheel. The relationship between the waist and hips is compared to the rotating and stationary parts of the grinding wheel, illustrating how waist rotation affects movement and balance.

2. Metaphors from Life Experience

Metaphor theory holds that the flow of information in metaphors moves from the familiar (source domain) to the unfamiliar (target domain), and the information from the familiar domain largely shapes and determines the understanding of the unfamiliar domain. In Taiji practice, this knowledge is formed through personal experience and can be enriched by external life experiences.

For instance, Zhang Sanfeng is said to have created Taiji's principle of "soft overcoming hard" by observing a battle between a snake and a bird. By understanding the movements of the snake, he transformed this into a metaphor for Taiji’s flexibility and power dynamics. Similarly, Taiji practitioners have historically observed various aspects of daily life, from grinding mills to the movements of a spinning wheel, to inspire their martial principles.

3. Spatial Metaphors and Psychological Schemas

The formation of psychological schemas in Taiji is largely based on spatial structures. This concept can be compared to learning geometry, which involves not only sensory perception but also spatial imagination. For example, a Taiji practitioner can visualize a "hula hoop" around the waist, using it to guide movements of advance, retreat, and turning. Once these mental schemas are activated, practitioners can use these abstract representations to control their movements even without physical objects present.

4. Realizing Metaphorical Effects
4.1 Experiential Intention Point

The metaphorical mapping occurs when a characteristic of an object temporarily leaves its original position and enters a corresponding position in the target domain. This process primarily relies on the practitioner's experiential journey. The "intention point" is the desired endpoint that the metaphor aims to achieve. For instance, in Taiji’s rising motion, practitioners imagine gently lifting an imaginary balloon instead of exerting force. Through repeated experience, the practitioner learns to replicate this effortless, natural lifting motion.

4.2 Managing Subject-Object Relationships

In Taiji training, there exists a duality where the practitioner simultaneously plays the role of both the subject (the one who is learning) and the object (the focus of the learning). This relationship allows the practitioner to use external metaphors to internalize the movement, balancing both the subject and object, to reach a state of unity. This process can be described as "forgetting the self and merging with the universe," where both subject and object become indistinguishable.

Conclusion:
Taiji's metaphorical cognition is a "borrowed form for true cultivation." It transcends verbal expression to enhance intuitive understanding of martial principles and cultivates the right-brain imaginative thinking. This allows practitioners to engage in a deeply immersive experiential process that brings them closer to the true essence of Taiji. Through this practice, they not only embody the movements but transcend them, ultimately reaching a state of "no form, no intention," just the pure flow of Taiji’s energy. 🌿💫

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 month ago | [YT] | 29

TaiChi YuanZhi

Understanding Tai Chi

Tai Chi is known as an “internal martial art” because it emphasizes profound methods of inner cultivation, especially through imaginative inner experiences—what is traditionally called “Xin Fa” (the mind method). These methods are the distilled insights of past masters, drawn from personal experience and deep reflection. Since such experiences are often intuitive and hard to describe in words, practitioners have long used metaphorical and symbolic thinking—what the ancients called “observing things and taking their images” or “expressing meaning through symbols.”

This approach actively engages the practitioner’s everyday perceptual understanding, forming a vivid, intuitive framework that helps grasp the essential principles of Tai Chi. The key idea is to borrow the qualities or meanings of external objects and apply them to specific Tai Chi movements, using these analogies to feel and comprehend the movement’s deeper essence. This method of “using one thing to illuminate another” reflects a metaphorical mode of cognition that lies at the heart of Tai Chi learning.

A Tai Chi practitioner observes and perceives the characteristics of external objects, establishing an interactive relationship between the outer world and their own body. Using basic (or primitive) cognitive schemas—mental frameworks built from accumulated sensory experiences of the world—practitioners explore and understand their body’s structure and movement patterns. They then express these insights through physical language and inner experience.

When a practitioner understands the body through external phenomena, they are in fact recognizing analogies between nature and the human body—in terms of essence, attributes, and movement—and identifying mapping points between the two. These mappings generally fall into three categories:

① Ontological experience – mapping the essence of an external object to the essence of the body.
② Qualitative experience – mapping the qualities or characteristics of an object to bodily attributes.
③ Kinetic experience – mapping the movements of an object to bodily movements.

In essence, Tai Chi cognition is a process of mirroring the universe within oneself, transforming perception of the outer world into inner awareness and embodied wisdom.

3 months ago | [YT] | 42