Continuing on with my haiku series around “Songs of The Eight Postures” attributed to T’an Meng-hsien and translated by Lee N. Scheele here is my second entry, Lu.

Lu is often associated with the “rollback” technique. It’s a yielding and redirecting… force. The reason I hesitate to put the word “force” is that when force (external) is applied, it’s already changed into a different energy/technique. It’s one of the most internal and in my mind, transient, of the eight.

My Version - Lu

the water wheel coils
lithely adhering, yielding
directing …

I’ve been diving deeper into taijiquan and re-reading the classics. It’s been so long I’ve forgotten most of what I read. One reason being I’m coming at them from a translation, in a different time period and culture. So the meaning doesn’t stay with me.

There’s one in particular that I was reading over the weekend, “Songs of The Eight Postures” attributed to T’an Meng-hsien and translated by Lee N. Scheele. It’s a series of short instructional poems on the eight energies. I was inspired to try my hand at making some myself, that are …