origami_itto wrote:But they lied, man, just straight up told a falsehood in print in this same book that you are using as proof that they are transmitting the complete and accurate system.
Now, consider for a second this... We know that there is more to Taijiquan than the long form and basic push hands drills. So if he is saying that this book contains "the complete methodology of form and function into a complete volume, including the fundamental training method" that seems a bit of a stretch, particularly when later in the same text he says he's intending to publish more details in a second book that didn't get written.
It's sales patter. [...]
Now the ten important points.... I'm gonna have to ask you to take a seat for this one.
In the book Dong Ying Jie wrote for him, there were 20 points. Two lists of ten that the ten we know today were drawn from both of them. The other ten were just tossed out. The ones that were lost were the ones that involved more physically strenuous training, such as "the thigh should be parallel to the floor".
So the "ten points" are just a package for the entry level basic health maintenance crowd that they were hawking the system to. The dilettantes and old folks with money that would take that money elsewhere if you told them to get in a horse stance.
It's sales and marketing, [...]
I think the situation is a little worse -- especially these days. Each of these "important points" is the result of a particular daoyin or qigong exercise, the "results" of which are described as an important point. This is, after all, kungfu. Why this was done this way I don't know, because while beginners and the uninitiated are excluded from ever truly understanding these points, those "in the know" recognize immediately what is being discussed and can draw out a "general picture" of what is "really" being discussed. Since, without actually naming particular things, they are alluded to in description; being talked around the mulberry bush so to speak.
For example if one performs Warlord Brandishes Trophy (霸王举鼎 bà wáng jǔ dǐng) every day for one hour, it will inform their understanding and ability to express point #1. The so called "iron gate" is apparently a very difficult place to open. Yang Cheng-Fu mentions this area and that it should be open, but does not refer to any exercise one can do to actually open it. I cannot however imagine that it is possible to open this area without at least performing an exercise like warlord. Which is merely the first in a series of progression daoyin exercises designed to open this area. Yes it is difficult but how much more difficult is it to do if one is swimming in the dark with no map from point a to b?
In any case one may presume that if one actually becomes a student of the Yang family these things will eventually be taught. For me, knowing the difficulty in finding a qualified teacher of Yang style, I decided to go to other styles (sun, etc.) in the hopes of getting a second opinion -- so to speak.