十三势名目 - 王宗岳The Thirteen Powers Named by Wang ZongyueTranslated by 冷门道士 - Copyright 2015, All rights reserved.IntroductionHere we have the thirteen powers again. Clearly, powers are not postures. In this list we have 58 postures and 41 of them are unique. Which is a pity. Because if 39 were unique, we would have 3 times 13 and, with luck, could map postures onto powers. Or transitions from posture to posture onto powers. Or sumpsing... Some may notice that the character for power (势) actually appears as part of some of these postures. In eleven of them, to be exact. Again, no help in clarifying the thirteen whatsits. That said, what we have here is a list of posture names. But even though this list claims the authorship of the 12th (or 15th) Century Wang Zongyue, whose very existence manages to be questionable, it is representative of the early decades of the 20th Century. Because the same (or different?) Wang Zongyue has another collection of taijiquan classics, connected to the far more historically existent Li Yiyu (李亦畬) from 1881. Within it is a similar list of 53 postures, of which 34 are unique. Again, not tidily divisible by thirteen. Li Yiyu is associated with the Wu (Hao) branch of taijiquan. The later Wang Zongyue from 1935 was published (rewritten?) by Tang Hao (唐豪) who is an early, allegedly serious, historian of Chinese martial arts. He seems to have been connected to the Chen family but his posture list here is not recognizably Chen-style taijiquan, which itself is something of an oxymoron. So is this list of postures Yang or Wu (Hao) or what? Surprise! We cannot know! Sigh. Since we can't use this document to crack the Thirteenth Gate and acquire Star-Eating Big Power (吃星大法) we'll have to settle for what we can get. Just to see what I can find, I will take a different approach than the usual "match the old Chinese characters to the modern English posture name." You can do that on your own. I will meditate on each posture name, with qi permeating my very bones, as I dig down into its characters to see what I can find. I will be helped in this by my inability to remember the names of most of my own postures beyond Single Whip and Play the Lute. We'll just see if anything about these names is suggestive, if looked at in a fresh way. Otherwise, we can at least come away with a sense of how the names are perceived by those whose minds see the characters as meaningful in themselves and not as mappings onto another language. Comments, improvements, and convincing lists of thirteen T'ai Chi whatsits are welcome and may be sent to tangshi@tuxfamily.org. Submitting a comment implies your releasing it under the Creative Commons 3.0 SA License and agreeing to its possible inclusion in future commercial versions of this text. NOTE: If any of the characters below appear as a big square, that means it is not in the utf-8 font on your device. This can be caused by vendor font choice or by your locale or by the character being so rarely used nowadays as to be found only in utf-16 font sets. If this occurs, you can find the original text on various sites on-line in both simplified and traditional characters. Good luck finding two that match. The Text揽雀尾
Seize Sparrow's Tail Lan3 (揽) is seize, embrace, monopolize but not grasp. 单鞭
Single Whip Or, Single Penis. But I doubt it. 提手上势
Raise Hand, Ascending Power Or, Raise Hand and Power Rises. Or, Raise Hand and Climb Male Genitals, which sounds unpleasant for all concerned. But who knows? Maybe it is "Raise Hand Smashing Gonads Upwards." 白鹤亮翅
Red-Crowned Crane Shows His Wings Or reveals his wings. Definitely not spread. 搂膝拗步
Draw in Knee and Step Defiantly Lou1 (搂) is "draw towards oneself" or "gather up (one's sleeve, etc.)" 手挥琵琶势
Power of Hand Brandishing the Lute Hui1 (揮) is not "play" but rather "wave," "brandish," "command," "scatter." 进步搬拦捶
Step In, Shift, Obstruct, Hammer Ban1 (搬) is to "shift" or "to move something heavy." Lan2 (拦) is to "obstruct" or "to block someone's way." Chui2 is to "beat with the fist" or "hammer" or "cudgel." 如封似闭
Be Open While Appearing to be Obstructing Feng1 (封) is more than "open." It's more like "grant his wishes." So while appearing to be defensive, actually let him do what he wants. 抱虎归山
Embrace Tiger and Return to Mountain Full stop. 揽雀尾
Seize Sparrow's Tail Again 肘底看捶
Under the Elbow, You See a Hammer Chui2 (捶) as above. 倒辇猴
Topple the Monkey in the Emperor's Carraige Hey, I work with what they give me. Nian3 (辇) is an emperor's carraige pulled by humans and modifies monkey here. Topple the emperor's carraige monkey. Make of it what you will. 斜飞势
Oblique Flying Power Or, Oblique Flying Male Genitals. Take your pick. 提手上势
Raise Hand and Ascend Power Or male genitals, again. Just raise your hand and lift them a bit higher from their obliquely flying position. Or sumpsing... 白鹤亮翅
Red-Crowned Crane Shows His Wings Again 搂膝拗步
Draw in Knee and Step Defiantly Again 海底针
Bottom of the Ocean Needle Hai3di3 (海底) is "the floor of the sea." 扇通臂
Arm Connects to Slap Face Shan1 (扇) is "to fan something" or "to slap s.o. in the face." Shan4, same character, is a fan. Could also be "Fan Goes Through Arm" or "Fan Connects Arm." But these make less sense than the traditional (?) "Fan Through Back." And bi4 (臂) is definitely "arm" and not "back." 撇身捶
Downward-Slanting Body Hammer Could be "Throw Body Hammer" but now I'm picturing long-haired muscle-bound guys armed with folding-chairs. Pie3 (撇) is the leftward downwards stroke in calligraphy. 却步搬拦捶
Step Back, Shift, Obstruct, and Hammer Obviously a variant of 进步搬拦捶 above, stepping back instead of in. 上势揽雀尾
Issue Power and Seize Sparrow's Tail Which is different from "Seize Sparrow's Tail" exactly how? 单鞭
Single Whip Again 云手
Cloud Hands Unambiguously cloud hands. 高探马
Tall Mounted Scout Scout as in military scout. Could also be "Tall Horse Stretches Forward." Horse could be loud instead of tall. Or high. Sounds like somebody was. 左右分脚
Left Right Separate Legs One assumes kicks here rather than a split that drops you to the floor. The use of "separate the legs" rather than "kick" is interesting to think about, though. 转身蹬脚
Turn Around and Kick Or, "Turn Around and Stamp." Or, archaically, "Remarry and Stamp your Foot." 进步栽捶
Step in and Plant the Hammer Even more painful: "Step in and Insert the Hammer." 翻身撇身捶
Turn in Flight, Brush Him Aside, and Hammer Which means don't leave the hammer behind after insertion. 反身二起脚
Turn Around, Twice Raise Foot Probably toe kicks and not heel kicks. 上步挫捶
Turn Around, Subdue, and Hammer Cuo4 (挫) is "defeat," "frustrate," "subdue," "bend back." 双风贯耳
Twin Winds Pierce Through the Ears Two fists smack head. 披身踢脚
Open Body and Kick Foot Kick with foot or kick his foot? Pi1 (披) is "open," "to spread out," "to split open." It is also the one hand to wrist, the other to elbow, split, in Chinese wrestling. 转身蹬脚
Turn Body and Kick Foot These last two are probably the common double heel kicks. 斜单鞭
Oblique Single Whip Or, Single Whip at an Angle 野马分鬃
Wild Horse Parts His Mane Clearly not "Part Wild Horse's Mane." 玉女穿梭
Jade Lady Works the Shuttle Alternatively, "Jade Woman Moves Back and Forth." 单鞭
Single Whip Again. 云手下势
Power of Cloud Hands Descending This is one I would like to know what it really means. 金鸡独立
Golden Pheasant Stands Alone Or, ... Single Stands. And so, ... Stands on One Leg. 倒辇猴
Topple the Monkey in the Emperor's Carraige Again and making no more sense than the first time. 斜飞势
Oblique Flying Power Again. 提手上势
Raise Hand, Ascending Power Again. 白鹤亮翅
Red-Crowned Crane Shows His Wings Again. 搂膝拗步
Draw in Knee and Step Defiantly Again 海底针
Bottom of the Sea Needle Again 扇通臂
Arm Connects to Slap Face Again 上势揽雀尾
Issue Power and Seize Sparrow's Tail Could also be "Power Rises and ..." 单鞭
Single Whip Again. 云手
Cloud Hands Again. 高探马
Tall Mounted Scout Again. 十字摆连
Cross-Shaped Assume Joining Cross Hands and Join Opponent? 搂膝指捶
Draw in Knee, Point, and Hammer Point could be finger strike? 上势揽雀尾
Issue Power and Seize Sparrow's Tail Again 单鞭下势
Single Whip Descending Power If these "Descendings" were taken as "Lower," we could think of them as occurring in the crouching position. 上步七星
Upward Step Seven Stars I'd also like to know the significance of "seven stars." 退步跨虎
Step Back and Step Across Tiger Kua4 (跨) is "to step across," "to stride over," "to straddle," "to span." 转脚摆连
Turn Leg Assume Joining Or, "Shift Leg, Join Opponent." Or, "Turn into Leg (his leg kicking?) and Join Opponent." 弯弓射虎
Bend Bow and Shoot Tiger Nothing ambiguous here. 上步揽雀尾
Rising Step Seize Sparrow's Tail |