DA XIANG WUXING

 by Yang Shuangxing

In a lecture by Sifu Yang Hai (a teacher of the Chinese internal arts who is of very high skill and knowledge), he spoke of a Chinese expression regarding art; “Da Xiang Wu Xing.” I means, “Great Image (is) Without Form” (大像无形), or more literally, “True Image is (almost) Invisible.” We can say that it means that an “insubstantial entity” can only be expressed through a “substantial entity” or “that which does not (seem to) exist must be expressed by something that does exist.”

Sound a little strange? It's a common theme found throughout Chinese art of all kinds; from poetry to painting, music, calligraphy, and even architecture and furniture design (it reached its zenith in the Ming Dynasty). This concept was expressed by the legendary founder of Taoism, Laozi, more than 2,000 years ago. Chinese culture impacted virtually all other Asian cultures and this same concept is readily found in their expressions of art. In Japan, simplicity and (seeming emptiness is considered to be the ultimate expression of art. This is found in all expressions of their art. One need only look at sumi-e ink brush paintings to see how true this is. Most of the paper is blank, save for a few critica strokes...just the opposite of Western art.

Okay – what has all this got to do with martial arts? Well, listen up, Scooter...

It also necessarily infers that something may appear to be rather simple (to do), but is very difficult to replicate. This is said to be especially true of martial arts (and especially the internal martial arts). You may watch your teacher demonstrate a particular technique and think you'e “got it”, but you don't...not by a long shot. Ten years later, you still can't emit the power that he can with that technique...it LOOKS simple enough to do, but there's much more to it than what you see (right away).

As we say in the West, “the devil is in the details.” But it goes even deeper than that. Tiny, often imperceptible things must be done to get the desired result. The only way to find these things is through literally thousands of repetitions. Only when you “get it” will you be able to perceive it. It is said that “you can see it only if you know it.” No amount of intellectualizing, analyzing, or instruction will be of much use...when you “get it”, you'll know. You'll FEEL it.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of martial arts students Asian and especially Westerners) never “get it.” In too much of a hurry, they gulp down the basic instructions in a desperate struggle to be able to “do it.” They see only that which is superficial and they never look beyond that.