Managed to get an image together today. It’s a good-ish one… I began to experiment with profile in the last drawing, which shows this sudden step-out to the left and slight turn, that results in north and east being behind you, and then the slight turn to the right that shifts the body again.
And I just realized, the color in the last panel of the image is wrong — it should be yellow on the left (the person’s right), and red on the right (the person’s left). Ugh! So hard to get this right!
The action, of course, is Spread Hands Like Fan, which I wrote about on Day 142 of this year. And you’ll see that I put in (x)’s on the lines that would need revision, later on.
End Brush Knee with left palm face out to block
and right hand punching; force comes from the twist,
joining right hand to left foot like a rock —
transfer the chi from the earth to the fist.
Then unbind the hand, and loosen fingers.
Step with the left foot, sideways to the left,
as left elbow swings. The movement lingers;
Let the widened stance be both smooth and deft.
And swing right elbow to the right as much,
(x) for leftward step demands a shift in weight.
(x) Tilt the pelvis to lengthen spine, for such
(x) maneuvers help the abdomen keep tight:
(x) for when you take the time to build the core,
(x) you build your body up to do much more.
I don’t know. All that advice-giving in the last five lines is relevant, but would the poem and the drawing be better served by a more detailed description of Spread Hands Like Fan? Worth considering.
Today’s practice was excellent. I woke way too early this morning, but that made it easy to get started. I wound up doing both the qi gong forms, the tai chi form twice, and a little bit of horse stance, position one, from The Way of Energy.
