Learning Tai Chi should be understood:
1. Learning Tai Chi should focus on quiet practice rather than showing off skills or exaggerating techniques in front of others, which can help to discipline oneself.
2. Learning should be taken seriously and not treated as a game, avoiding sloppiness and roughness.
3. Learning Tai Chi should involve understanding its principles, transmitting its spirit, considering its name, and contemplating its form, in order to achieve subtlety and refinement.
4. Regardless of the various stances, whether biased, upright, reverse or side, one's body and hands should be positioned between the two legs for stability like Mount Tai. Any deviation will lead to imbalance and ridicule.
5. The front leg should exert horizontal force with the big toe pointing inward. The back leg should stand vertically with the heel turned outward, both knees facing each other to ensure firmness and protect the groin area.
6. Step methods should not be too far for fear of losing control and falling. Being able to jump high ensures distance. Height often surpasses distance, and there is good reason for it.
7. Left movement must correspond to the right, and right attack must be supported by the left, achieving the subtlety of yin-yang balance.
8. One must use all their strength when learning Tai Chi to become strong. Like a lion fighting an elephant or a rabbit, full effort is required. With full concentration, nothing can withstand it. Tai Chi treats illness. If one claims they have no strength, isn't that already a problem?
9. Force must be usable, and breath must be retained. Usable force makes every move like a battle; retained breath ensures steady steps. Changes in emergence should be unpredictable. Predictability leads to failure.
10. At pauses, one should exert more force, and at transitions, one should be adaptable and spontaneous.
11. Feet should align with hands, hands with eyes, eyes with heart, heart with spirit, spirit with breath, and breath with the body. When these six align, there will be no lack of agility and flexibility.
12. Initially, focus on movement to ensure the circulation of blood and qi throughout the body, forming a complete unit of energy.
13. Mastery of a single posture requires about a thousand repetitions. Without proficiency, another thousand are necessary.
14. Morality should come first in learning Tai Chi, showing respect and humility, not competing with others, embodying the virtues of a gentleman.
15. Cultivation should be prioritized in learning Tai Chi, maintaining calmness and composure in actions, greeting others with joy, avoiding calamities.
16. Tai Chi should not be casually taught to others, nor recklessly transmitted. Casual teaching leads to hearsay and lack of dedication, while reckless transmission causes trouble from unsavory individuals.
17. Avoid challenging arrogant people, lest they perceive inadequacy or provoke anger. It is better to flatter and avoid criticism, leading them to respect you.
18. Initially, correct body methods and step techniques should be emphasized. Do not assume general knowledge suffices; precise correction later may still result in errors. As the I Ching says: "Cultivating correctness in youth," this applies to Tai Chi small frame, a sacred art.
19. Aim for great endeavors in learning Tai Chi, avoiding misuse of skills that could harm morality, reputation, and life. The Yin Fu Jing states: "A gentleman uses it to solidify form; a villain uses it lightly risking life." Caution is advised.
20. Character should be upright, behavior restrained, and speech minimal, emulating heroes and aspiring to sainthood, ensuring wisdom and self-preservation.
21. Focus wholeheartedly on learning Tai Chi, exhausting mental resources to improve daily. Superficial understanding leading to self-satisfaction results in early abandonment by the wise.
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