The
skill, discipline and philosophy of Tai Chi is to yield.
This is also sometimes called "the action of non-action".
Tai
Chi teaching advises that a person should never attempt to meet
an attack with brute force or sheer physical strength. The teaching
advises that if this 'non-action' policy is practiced correctly
then the object that approaches intent on impact will find nothing
to relieve itself upon. The clever Tai Chi person gets out of
the way of threat. The wise Tai Chi person both gets out of
the way and helps the threat further on its way. The wisest
Tai Chi person does all this and the puts as great a distance
between themselves and the threat as possible.
After
some basic training any student can successfully learn some
basic though effective self-defense techniques. I can teach
you now. Lesson 1. Walk away. Lesson 2. Walk further away.
Lesson 3. Run. Learn this well and the odds of you not getting
hurt improve. Sun Zi phrased this more aggressively in "The
Art of War" when he said: "If a battle can be won,
fight it, if not, depart."
If
you knew nothing about self defense and you were attacked your
recourse might be to use a weapon to defend yourself. This is
an ignorance that indicates that the less you know about yourself
the more you rely upon physical violence. However, if you were
trained an able to use your own flexibility; all weapons of
violence that inevitably inflict injury are rendered unnecessary.
Therefore, be prepared, practice every day (if you can) but
never make a show of any skill that you have acquired. To do
so can lead to envy or fear in others. This in turn could actually
invite attack from any of those that may wish to 'test' you
or prove something to themselves.
