Brad's Tai Chi Somatics Article

TAI CHI,
A SOMATIC MOVEMENT ART



by Bradford C. Bennett, Ph.D.


Long before the development of Somatics in the West, Tai Chi was being practiced as a movement art that could improve health. The author explains Tai Chi from a modern somatic point of view.



Introduction

The movement art of Tai Chi was developed in China over seven hundred years ago. Originated as a set of "postures," over the centuries, Tai Chi evolved first into a martial art and then into a somatic movement art. Today, Tai Chi is the only widely practiced somatic movement system in the world. Why is this? What is it that allows Tai Chi to achieve this healthful orientation? When we look at Tai Chi from the perspective of somatics, we see a very complex and powerful somatic movement art: an art which was able to evolve because of its basis in the Taoist philosophy; an art which can become even more effective when approached from the viewpoint of somatic education; an art which reveals insights into the basic nature of somatic movements.


Somatic Education

Somatic movement is somatic education where one moves oneself. Thomas Hanna defined somatic education as "the use of sensory-motor learning to gain greater voluntary control of one's physiological process." The need for somatic education in movement is created by what Hanna named sensory motor amnesia (SMA)1,the loss of some portion of voluntary control by the sensory-motor cortex. A somatic movement or exercise is a movement during which a very special learning takes place. As a result of a somatic movement there is an increase in cortical control over a muscle or sets of muscles, a decrease in SMA. Outwardly, there is an increase in voluntary control of the contraction of the muscles, a decrease in the tonus of the muscles at rest, and perhaps an increase in the range of motion. Tai Chi is an artful form of somatic education.


The Essence of Tai Chi

Outwardly, Tai Chi is a series of slow smooth circular movements. Practiced alone or in groups, people move through a series of movements which constitute a "form." Different people practice different forms, even different styles of movement, depending upon the if school" of Tai Chi they learned and the individual teacher who taught them. However, the specific movements are relatively unimportant; rather, it is the way the movements are performed which is the important fact.

Like any art, the true essence of Tai Chi cannot be communicated in words. However, since Tai Chi is somatic, the experiencing of Tai Chi is the practice of Tai Chi. This is where Tai Chi differentiates itself from other movement arts. Unlike dance, there is no theme or meaning to be expressed. The meaning of Tai Chi is the movement itself. The theme of Tai Chi is life itself. Its essence is the learning that comes with each movement, the increase in self-awareness that comes with each breath. Unlike a martial art, there is no opponent to overcome. There is only the self. Tai Chi moves beyond conquering others into the realm of understanding the self. 2
Origin and Development of Tai Chi


The beginnings of Tai Chi are obscured by the mists of the Chinese tradition which blends fact with fancy to best illustrate a point. Historically, the origin of Tai Chi is credited to the Taoist monk Chang San-feng. It is said that while watching the interplay between a snake and a bird he was inspired to develop a movement art. Chang San-feng apparently had a deep belief in Taoism and he tried to develop movements which embodied the Taoist philosophy. Whether this quaint tale is true or not, Tai Chi has always been closely related to Taoism.

Over time, Tai Chi became the province of the Chen family. For generations it was passed secretly within the family and developed as a martial art as well as a health-giving art. Tai Chi was introduced to the Yang family in the nineteenth century when Yang Lu-chan posed as a servant with the Chen family. He secretly watched the teaching of Chen Chang-hsing until his ability surpassed that of all the Chen family students. Later still, a Wu style of Tai Chi was established.

Gradually, there were more and more practitioners of Tai Chi. However, the total number grew quite slowly until the beginning of the twentieth century when Yang Ching-pu broke with tradition and decided to teach Tai Chi to the general public. In a second stroke of genius, Yang Ching-pu realized it was more important to emphasize the health giving aspects of Tai Chi over the martial art aspects of the movements. This began the final stage of the evolution of Tai Chi into an art where the entire focus is somatic. (Of course, there are still those who continue to pursue Tai Chi as a martial art.)


Tai Chi and Taoism

The change in emphasis from martial art to somatic healthful art by Yang Ching-pu was not without guidance, since Tai Chi is based upon Taoism. The ancient Chinese believed that there were two kinds of energies in the universe, yin and yang. When these two energies worked together in harmony or interplay, in tune with each other, they complemented each other and life flourished and grew. Taoism embraces this concept in a naturalistic philosophy: a philosophy which stresses cooperation with the natural world instead of confrontation and violence. The father of Taoism is Lao Tse, an older contemporary of Confucius and the author of the Tao Te Ching, the oldest known writings on Taoism.

Our world today is quite different from the world of sixth century, B.C., when Lao Tse wrote down the basic tenets of Taoism. What he thought of as natural laws are now thought of as the laws of physics, evolution, sociology, and so forth. However, the principles of life remain the same. Twenty-five hundred years later, Lao Tse's words still ring true, for even today, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step."

Taoism has a wholistic somatic approach to life, unlike Western philosophies that assume the mind and body are separate entities. Lao Tse reveals his understanding of the importance of flexibility and relaxation in the physical body in these words:

A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.

Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.


The following words echo the above ideal, but they are even more direct and sound like the words of a martial arts Master:

The yielding can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
This is known by all,
But practiced by none.

Are you able to gather your intrinsic energy
To attain the state of suppleness of a newborn baby?

Most importantly, Lao Tse understood where the ability to maintain the suppleness lies:

One who know others is clever;
One who knows oneself truly wise.

At times Lao Tse even sounds like a somatic educator:

If you wish to expand, first contract.
If you wish to be strong, first relax.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by few.

Although Lao Tse is describing a philosophy, he mentions the physical almost as much as the mental in his writings. Clearly, the nonviolence of Taoism aided in de-emphasizing the martial art aspects of Tai Chi. Just as importantly, the writings of this great philosophical mind are truly somatic. It is understandable that the guidance of Taoism would lead a movement system to become more and more somatically oriented. Written evidence of the influence of Taoism on Tai Chi is found in a collection of writings called "The Tai Chi Classics."

"The Classics" form a unifying element to the different schools of Tai Chi. These writings are attributed to the great Masters of Tai Chi. They describe the qualities Tai Chi movements should have, rather than specific moves. Sometimes obscure, "The Classics" speak with a voice of great understanding of human movement. Chang San-feng, the founder of Tai Chi, wrote,

Every joint of the entire body must be strung together so that your body will be able to act as an integrated unit without the least interruption.

Wang Chung-yueh, another early Master, wrote,

Only when one can be pliable and soft can one be firm and hard. Only when one knows how to inhale and exhale can one move nimbly and smoothly.

And who could argue the desirability of the ability described by Wang Chung-yueh,

Your body is so light and nimble that a feather could not land on it without being felt, and a fly could not alight on it without setting it in motion.

It is these writings, along with the Taoist philosophy, that have guided Tai Chi through the centuries. Let us examine the most important of the Tai Chi qualities related in the "Classics."


Characteristics of Tai Chi

Tai Chi is more than a set of movement patterns; Tai Chi is a way of moving. Words are inadequate to describe movement in general, much less movements with the grace, subtly, and beauty of Tai Chi. (Or in Taoist thinking: words can describe Tai Chi, but they are not Tai Chi.) However, it is instructive to look at the characteristics of Tai Chi that allow or foster somatic learning and understanding to occur.

The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list of the movement qualities which are embodied in Tai Chi. Listed below are the qualities which are most important for somatic learning:

1. The awareness is focused inward, upon the self.
2. The movements are slow, smooth, and circular.
3. The movements originate at the tan tien, the center of the body.
4. Each movement involves the entire body in a coordinated, synchronized fashion.
5. Each movement involves yin and yang (that is, contraction and relaxation).
6. Central equilibrium is always maintained.

Let us now consider these requirements of Tai Chi with respect to somatic education and efficient movement:

The most important factor in Tai Chi is the focus of the awareness of the practitioner. Tai Chi practitioners focus on the first-person experience of what they are doing. Input from the proprioceptive senses (the muscle spindles, joint receptors, and cutaneous receptors) is emphasized and input from the exteroceptive senses (sight, hearing I smell, and so forth) is shunted to the background. However, they must also switch to third-person experience -- the objective viewpoint, to check and see whether they are actually doing the movement "correctly" (for example, that the hand is where the the hand is supposed to be and that this is where they feel the hand to be). The frequent switching from first- to third-person perspective promotes efficient sensory-motor learning.

Slowness is important if a movement is to be somatic. A slow movement makes the switching from first- to third-person perspective meaningful by allowing sensory-motor feedback loops to be completed. In other words, during a slow movement there is sufficient time for sensory information to travel to the brain and "correcting" motor commands to be returned. It is by moving slowly that the ability for sensory-motor learning is most readily accessed.

Movements may be described as being ballistic, continuous, or discontinuous.3 Ballistic movements are the fastest, and the course of the movement is totally determined by the initial burst of activity in the agonist muscle. There is no sensory feedback and no learning during ballistic movement. Continuous movements are slower and less programmed. Discontinuous movements are the slowest and and have minimal or no planning. Sensorymotor feedback is essential for this type of movement. Sensory-motor learning is the basis of discontinuous movement.

Tai Chi does not involve ballistic movements. The goal of the Tai Chi practitioner is to remain in the realm of discontinuous movements to facilitate learning. As this sensorymotor learning takes place, movements become smoother revealing greater cortical control. The circularity of Tai Chi reflects the structure of the human body, allows unbroken continuous movements, and results naturally when moving from the center.

Moving from the center is one of the axioms of the martial arts and a requirement for efficient, effortless movement. It allows the soma to use the large muscles of the body to do most of the work, which they were "designed" to do. In fact, it has been suggested that an efficient movement is one during which each muscle involved contracts to the same degree. With regards to timing, it makes sense to initiate a movement from the center of the body, because the distance to the brain is shorter and the nerves are larger, ensuring that a signal from the brain can reach the muscles at the center first. However, initiating the movement from the center is just the beginning of involving the entire body in each movement.

Whether we are conscious of it or not, virtually the entire brain and muscular system are engaged in even the simplest movements. In Tai Chi this is acknowledged by spreading one's proprioceptive awareness to the entire body and moving it as an integrated whole. Movement of the feet is coordinated with the movement of the hands, the legs are coordinated with the arms, the shoulders are coordinated with the hips, and so forth. In fact, each part of the body is coordinated with every other part of the body.

Even this is not enough in Tai Chi; each movement must not only stand on its own, but it must also flow into the next movement. In Tai Chi and Taoism people speak of yin and yang, which may be interpreted in movement as the relaxation and contraction of a muscle. In Tai Chi the flow of contraction and relaxation throughout the body greatly aids somatic (sensory-motor) learning.

When one has SMA, what is lost is the ability to relax a muscle. This leads to complaints of stiffness, pain, and loss of range of motion. Yet, one retains ability to flex or contract the muscle. Hanna discovered that if a muscle is contracted and then slowly relaxed in a special way (while it lengthens), the pandicular reflex,4 a reflex basic in all vertebrates, is excited. The result is increased cortical control over the muscle. The manner of Tai Chi contraction and relaxation of muscles is quite like pandiculation. Undoubtedly, this is an important factor in the degree of somatic learning which occurs during Tai Chi practice.

Another point with regards to yin and yang is the "division" of the body, at any one instant, into parts which are either yin or yang. Whenever there is a muscle contracting (yang) its antagonist should be relaxing (yin). Tai Chi focuses upon this, and it goes into even more subtlety as to the degree and rate of change of yang and yin. (See the example of arm movement given below.) In addition, when one leg is yang (or yin), the opposite arm is yang (or yin). (The yang leg is the leg which is working or supporting the body.) These diagonal limbs will work together. They will move toward the center of the body together or away from the body together. Of course, the same diagonalization occurs in contralateral walking. In a way, Tai Chi can be viewed as slow motion, complex walking. There is nothing so distinctly human in movement as contralateral walking. As in the use of the pandicular reflex, we again see Tai Chi's use of basic instincts to aid in sensory-motor learning.

Maintaining central equilibrium in Tai Chi can be thought of as being dynamically balanced at all times. Moshe Feldenkrais thought this was an essential point of efficient and voluntary movement.5Feldenkrais referred to this quality as the ability to have reversibility of movement. If a movement is controlled by the cortex of the brain, the movement can be stopped and even reversed at any time. There is no compulsion or commitment to complete any movement that becomes inappropriate.

To put all of the above characteristics into a clearer perspective let us explore the movement of an arm during Tai Chi and examine some of what a practitioner learns to do. As a start, the practitioner learns what it feels like to allow the arm to move smoothly in a circular, perhaps even spiraling, arc and learns to relax any tension in the arm which makes the movement jerky. The practitioner learns to initiate the movement of the arm from the center of the body and to coordinate the movement of the arm with the movement of all other parts of the body. Next, the practitioner learns to apply yin and yang to the movement.

Tai Chi movements can be broken into units which contain yin and yang, a relaxation and a contraction of either the flexors or extensors of the body. (In Tai Chi this is referred to as storing and releasing energy.) However, the muscles are not contracted (or relaxed) at a constant rate. During the yang part of a move (releasing energy), movement starts slowly and the rate of contraction of the agonist accelerates at the end of a movement. Thus a practitioner of Tai Chi learns to feel and control the rate of contraction and relaxation of the muscles. A practitioner learns this and more (for example, coordination of the eyes with the movement) for each arm, for each leg, for all parts of the body. All and all, it is understandable that it takes years of study and practice to be proficient at the art of Tai Chi.

The above movement characteristics define Tai Chi. They define movement which is efficient, volitional, and somatic (sensory-motor educational). However, there are other somatic movement systems which do not have all of these characteristics. The question arises: What are the minimum qualities necessary for somatic learning? Investigation shows that only two qualities need be present for a movement to be somatic. (Of course, such a movement would not be Tai Chi.) First, the movement must be slow. Second, the mover must have a somatic perspective, focusing on proprioceptive senses. It is this second trait which seems to be lost to most adults of the industrial world, but it is central to most of the modem somatic systems.


Tai Chi and Other Somatic Movement Systems

This century saw the development of several systems of somatic exercises in Europe and the United States. Gerda Alexander's Eutony, Moshe Feldenkrais' Awareness Through Movement, Thomas Hanna's Somatic Exercises, and Charlotte Selver's Sensory Awareness are some of the better known systems. Although each of the above systems is distinctive, they also have some noticeable similarities.

As some of their names suggest, these systems call upon the students to focus their awareness upon their proprioceptive senses and upon the parts or subunits which make up a movement. Often these "exercises" are performed while lying quietly on the floor. This takes the person out of the usual frame of reference with respect to gravity. In this position the student need not be concerned with balance (as is necessary when standing). In addition, the movement patterns performed in these systems are simple. The above factors are important, because they make it easy for the mind to focus on the inner senses. This is especially important for people who have a large degree of SMA.

The above systems have shown themselves to have a certain degree of success in enhancing motor control. However, their advantages are also their disadvantages. Increased control is learned while lying down; however, in life we sit, stand, walk, and so forth (in other words we live and move in gravity). Sometimes the subtle changes made while lying are not felt (forgotten) when standing, or a strong habitual pattern overpowers them. Fortunately, for most people, the simple acts of "tuning in" to their proprioceptive (inner) senses and earning to be aware of how they move are quite important. To develop this awareness while learning a Tai Chi (or any) movement standing is rather difficult for many people.

In Tai Chi the learning is complicated by the need to maintain balance. Here each movement involves the entire body to the same degree as daily movements. Tai Chi is walking, moving forward, moving backward, standing, turning, moving in gravity. Thus, the information (learning) is more easily applied in day-to-day life.

The reader may have already noted that these two different approaches to somatic education do not conflict, but are in fact complementary; and combining these approaches makes a great deal of sense. The awareness training "out of gravity" makes students more sensitive to their inner senses. This increased awareness can be used to stay more in touch with the self while performing the complex movements of Tai Chi. The student then has the best chance of overcoming SMA and habitual patterns of inefficient movement.


Summary

Tai Chi is a living growing art. It continues to evolve, as it has throughout its past. Some movements simplify to make their somatic essence more readily apparent, while other movements become more complex to present a greater challenge to students. There are no belts in Tai Chi; no badges to distinguish different levels of ability. None are needed. The way each person moves readily reveals his level of understanding. In Tai Chi there is no graduation; it is a daily practice. This is important because it is our daily exposure to stresses that causes us to habituate certain reflexes,6 thus leading to SMA.

It is the somatic perspective of the Taoist philosophy which has permitted Tai Chi to evolve beyond its beginnings. It is this perspective that leads Tai Chi Master H.H. Lui to say, "If there is any tension in the body, it will block the flow of chi." If the word chi is replaced with the word information in the above quote, we see how close the traditional Tai Chi viewpoint comes to a truly cybernetic approach to movement. Looking at Tai Chi with our present understanding of the sensory-motor feedback system opens the door for us to better understand and improve the effectiveness of Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is a unique system of somatic education. Its complexity and its training in the field of gravity make it an important complement to the schools of awareness training. As time passes, more and more people are learning the joys of somatic learning that come in Tai Chi. This is to be expected because learning and movement are so central to human life. It is the ability of the human to learn that, more than anything else, sets us apart from the rest of the somas (living beings) on this planet. Movement is so important to life that Thomas Hanna wrote,7 "At the heart of the soma is a process, the single-arc sensory-motor system . . ." In today's stressful society we are indeed fortunate to have Tai Chi with its artful blend of grace, beauty, and sensory-motor learning.

 

Notes

1. Thomas Hanna, Somatics, (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1989), pp. 37-92.

2. This is not to imply that martial artists do not move gracefully and efficiently, but that they are just as concerned with proper fighting techniques. This often moves somatic learning to a secondary role. Masters in one of the internal martial arts have an understanding of somatic learning, often instinctive.

3. Vernon B. Brooks, The Neural Basis of Motor Control, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 9-12.

4. Thomas Hanna, "Clinical Somatic Education," in Somatics, Vol. VIII, No. 1.

5. Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement, (New York, NY, Harper and Row, Publishers, 1972,) pp. 85-86.

6. Thomas Hanna, Somatics, (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1989), pp. 49-81.

7. Thomas Hanna, Somatology: An Introduction to Somatic Philosophy and Psychology, (Unpublished manuscript, 1991), p 38.

 


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