MY OWN EXPERIENCE

I seldom agree or disagree easily with other people. I try to hold fast to the right and the true of facts and theories. A deaf man knows no difference of sound, a blind man knows no difference of color,－because their respective sensory organ is out of order. To agree or disagree easily with others is analogous to a deaf man or a blind man, accepting what he is told without the equipment for independent judgment. In discussing Tai-chi Chuan, I do not expect others to agree easily with me. I do not claim that I have cultivated the virtue of being able to extend myself to others or of helping people to do good. I only try to do so. I shall do my best to publicize my limited practical experience for the sake of my fellow countrymen. My own family and my students can testify to my sincerity and I do not say things which belie my heart.

     In my younger days when I was teaching in the Yu Wen University and the College of Beaux Arts in Peking, my health was extraordinarily poor. I forced myself to stay there for five years. In the summer of 1925 I returned to Shanghai and reluctantly accepted teaching posts at the Shanghai College of Arts and Chi-Nan University. Later I founded the Chinese Arts College there. In a few years my tuberculosis became so bad that I almost succumbed. My relatives and friends found no way to help me. Shortly afterwards, I was introduced to Professor Yang by a Mr. Pu to learn Tai-chi Chuan. Within a few months the internal hemorrhage ceased and my temperature returned to normal. In less than a year my coughing was gone. In six or seven years other symptoms such as headache, loose teeth, dim eyesight and failure of concentration all disappeared. Now in my 55^th year of age I can do everything anyone else is normally able to do. My eyesight has improved, to a state even better than it was thirty years ago, and my teeth are as good as in my younger days. I can walk a hundred li or do some stiff mountain-climbing with ease. As to the practical uses I have made of this art and how it has improved my sleep and appetite, they are described in detail in my Thirteen Chapters and will not be repeated here.

     A man’s life is limited whereas the calls made upon it are not. If he finds no way to get strong such as by the cultivation of the hao jan chih ch’I (the spirit which pervades and fulfils a person and the universe as advocated by Mencius), little hope has he of harvesting in full the benefits of health. The untimely death of a man like Yen Yuen (a disciple of Confucius) or Chu Ke-Liang (d. 3^rd c. A.D., one of China’s greatest statesmen) signifies not only a personal loss but also a national calamity. The ups and downs of the Great Tao (the Way, the Logos) concerns the welfare of a nation. The truth of this is beyond the power of words to explain even one part in ten thousand. Let no one belittle it!                         ~ Cheng, Man-Ching ~