The Emperor and the Bird
a Tai Chi Yang style legend

Below is a valued piece of Tai Chi (TC) philosophy from the Yang style. It is an old story, it has a few lessons, or meanings. We know it will help you greatly in your training, whether your are training in bare hands forms, in push hands, in weaponry or in self defence applications

The founder of the Yang style of TC, Yang Lu Chan had become a famous martial artist. So great was his skill that he was never defeated. His art was so soft and yielding that in all his matches he never hurt anyone yet he won each match. He was invited by the Imperial Court to teach.

Being an Imperial Court instructor meant that he must not keep any secrets from the Emperor because this would be considered treason and punishable by death.

One day he said to the Emperor he would show him an important lesson in TC. He could put a bird on his hand and that he could stop the bird from flying away.

The Emperor said show me how to do this.

The next day Yang Lu Chan came to the Emperor with a bird on his hand. Each time the bird tried to fly away Yang Lu Chan dropped his hand down so the bird had nothing to push against and couldn’t take off.

Over to you now for the morale of the story...

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