16 Oct 2009 2030H

Everything is 馬

Recently I have been thinking maybe I should change the name of this blog to be “Everything is 馬”. Perhaps that is after all the fundamental truth about our art, about every art. It is easy to say that everything flows from stance. It is so everyday, so much a part of the martial artist’s daily routine, heard, repeated so often, that it is as if one had remarked that night follows day, a statement whose inherent truth is so evident, that the only curious thing about it is that one had bothered to mention it at all. But in subtleties lie great differences, and sometimes, there is a reason why these things are said to us so often that we take it for granted. Stance seems to be a poor translation since it implies staticness, posing, masking intentions, a lack of depth. Far from it. Ma bo, literally “horse-step,” is the squatting pose-exercise in which one mimics being seated on horseback. It is the most fundamental of all Chinese martial arts exercises, designed to strengthen the legs and back, in preparation for more advanced movement, such as blocking, moving, and punching. The “step” part implies action, movement. Yet this word must be reflected upon to capture the nuance of giving, then drawing energy from the earth, not being rooted in place, but like the act of stepping: giving, then borrowing energy from the earth as a kind of springboard. That is ma.

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