Wu Chi and John Chang

[Tokoyo Tama]

why does john chang have no idea what this 'wu chi' thing is? guesses, theories etc. To me, this is possibly one of the most interesting aspects of the 'magus of java'. I'll flesh out this post later, but need to get going, and figured someone might have an answer here and now, so why wait till elsewhere later... Thanks for any thoughts, and if you don't know what I'm talking about or want more context, I'll be adding that later today.

[Martial Development]

"Wuji" is just a piece of jargon, and knowing the term is not the same as embodying it.

 

P.S. Not entirely sure it is worth embodying anyway.

Edited May 26, 2009 by Martial Development

[froggie]

*raises hand*

 

question: why would john chang not nknow what wu chi is? maybe it is kostas who doesn't know it? john chang didn't write the book.

[Tokoyo Tama]

about 8 pages into the chapter 'lessons to be learned' (p.83 in 2000 copyright paperback) John Chang has just described the first four 'levels' at which point "the two [yin/yang] sit in your dantien like this". A drawing follows of a yin-yang symbol w/o the dots. Chang is asked why no dots, and he says he doesn't know. What I referred to is the following exchange:

 

Kosta: "They also write that a man progresses from yin and yang to t'ai chi..."

Chang: "This is t'ai chi. That's correct."

Kosta: "...and from there to wu-chi," I finished.

Chang: "What is wu-chi?" he asked.

...[Kosta describing how surprised he is at this question]

Kosta: "Er... wu-chi is like this; beyond yin and yang," I stammered, and drew on the paper: [a full circle that is empty]

Chang: "I see. I have never seen anything like this,"

 

Chang later goes onto explain that he's not technically Taoist, 'simply a practitioner of neikung'. Also, in his school the practitioner stays at t'ai chi from level 4 on. He notes that other lineages may have discovered a method allowing wu-chi (citing Mao-shan Pai and Wutang-Pai), but this is merely him saying that he cannot speak for other schools on the matter, only on his Mo-Pai training. A sidenote of interest is that directly following this is when Chang tells Kosta to write a book.

 

Not entirely sure how comfortable I feel with quoting published material at such length, so let me know if you feel it inappropriate. Were I more comfortable with my ability to summarize, I would have, but as the exact wording is potentially of great importance for the question I thought that editing and summary could be misleading.

 

Personally I wonder if this is partially a misunderstanding. I'll say my idea in more detail after some more responses come in, but I suspect Chang might simply not know the semantics of wu-chi in spite of being familiar with the intended concept behind it.