The Shamanic Origins of Tai Chi

effortlessly.

Wang again retreated to the mountains to contemplate his failure. Then one day, while sitting in meditation, Wang was distracted by sounds coming from some bushes nearby. Investigating the source of the commotion he discovered a struggle between a praying mantis and a cicada. As he watched, Wang was fascinated by the mantis’s martial techniques. He captured the mantis and kept it in a cage built from sticks. He used a straw to poke and attack the insect in order to study its fighting strategy. Wang incorporated the strategies of the mantis into his martial arts and returned to the Temple. He defeated every one of the monks sent against him. The Abbott finally ordered a stop to the contest conceding victory to Wang. The Abbot was curious about his unique style of fighting and asked Wang how he came about it. Wang told the story of his encounter with the Mantis. Having also learned humility from the insect, Wang Lang became a Shaolin monk and his Praying Mantis style became famous throughout China.

As a parable this tale illustrates three of the most important strategies of warfare; deception, speed, and surprise. There are also the moral lessons: persevering in the face of failure, learning humility, and the benefits of learning to be in harmony with nature.

But from the perspective of cultural anthropology such folktales may contain an ancient memory of an even older tradition, that of the “Vision Quest”. Common to Shamanism, the Vision Quest is a ritual whereby a young warrior first undergoes a period of training after which he sets off alone into the wilderness. He must bear the hardships of isolation while fasting and meditating until he has a

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