Because iron was such an important factor in the unfolding events of the Warring States Era let us take a few pages to talk about this element and why it was so crucial.
While iron is much more plentiful than copper or tin, the ingredients of bronze, (iron is the fourth most abundant element in the earth’s crust) it is much more difficult to extract it from its ores. Thus the ability to produce and cast bronze preceded iron production by almost 2000 years.
“Although iron is a commoner metal than copper or tin, the technique of iron smelting is more complicated than that with the other ores, requiring repeated hammering at red heat to expel slag impurities (primarily stone fragments) before wrought iron can be produced.” [1]
Iron has been known from the earliest times, probably retrieved in pure form from meteors. However the ability to remove it from ores wasn’t perfected until late in the 2nd millennium BC. The exact dating of its development is difficult because it seemed that the Hittites of Anatolia, who might have discovered the process, kept it to themselves as a military secret. Their defeat and dispersion marked the spread of iron technology.
“True iron metallurgy began among the Hittites in eastern Anatolia at some time between 1900 and 1400 BC. The art of iron smelting was perfected by the time of the fall of the Hittite empire (c.1200 BC), and by 1000 BC iron objects and the knowledge of iron metallurgy had spread throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean and westward into Europe. This development marked the end of the Near Eastern Bronze Age, although bronze working was still in use for various ritual or prestige objects.”[2]
The production of iron from its ores marked the beginning of the Iron Age. Because iron, in its various compounds is so readily available, while copper and tin are relatively scarce, the military technology shifted to iron.
“The Iron Age marks the period of the development of technology, when the working of iron came into general use, replacing bronze as the basic material for implements and weapons. It is the last stage of the archaeological sequence known as the three-age system (Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age).”[3]
Let it be stated that the three-age system mentioned above was an attempt to organize prehistoric discoveries by archaeologists. Bronze Age Europe was definitely prehistoric. Although its beginning were prehistoric Bronze Age China was definitely historic, as it occurred much later. Although the Hittite empire is quite well documented with some written remains, it was prehistoric when the remains were discovered. Iron technology appeared relatively late in China, well into the historical period. Consequently most historians do not refer to China’s Iron Age, although, as mentioned, the production of iron was related to the Chinese agricultural revolution that transformed and centralized Chinese culture.
“The Iron Age appeared in China by about 600 BC, spreading widely during the course of the Warring States period (403-222 BC). The Chinese developed superior blast furnaces and technical apparatuses with which to produce cast iron, techniques not employed in Europe until the Middle Ages. Early iron artifacts in China included swords and other weapons as well as implements of common use, such as axes, adzes, sickles, hoes, and other equipment that revolutionized Chinese agriculture.”[4]
Probably the iron technology was spread from the Hittite culture of Anatolia the same way that the bronze military technology was diffused, i.e. through the interaction of the military cultures in the Eurasiafrican land mass. As mentioned the bronze military technology was probably spread from the nomadic cultures north of China. It is well documented that the military technology of horseman and archer also diffused to China from the steppes to the north. It is probable that the iron technology spread in similar fashion.
Iron ores are plentiful. The smelting of copper and tin ores had been going on for centuries. Why did it take so long to use these iron ores?
As mentioned, pure iron is soft[5], hence unacceptable for weaponry. Thus the first step was to find an ingredient which when mixed with iron would produce a harder metal. Bronze was created from two metals. Probably much of the early research had to do with mixing different metals with iron, unsuccessfully. Finally after perhaps centuries of research the Hittites discovered that pounding the gooey mess left over after smelting iron ore with charcoal produced a harder metal. They had inadvertently mixed carbon, a byproduct of burning charcoal, with the iron to produce a stronger alloy. At ideal proportions this alloy is called steel.
However there was another problem. While mixing purified tin with purified copper yielded a purified bronze, suitable for casting, mixing lumps of iron ore with charcoal yielded a gooey mess called sponge iron. While charcoal was plentiful and used as the fuel for the firing as well, when mixed with the iron it produced an unwanted by-product called slag. The smelting of the iron ores with charcoal produced an impure mixture.
In order to purify this substance, it was necessary to hammer it repeatedly. This process expelled the impurities.
“Iron is made by refining iron ore to a point where it reaches 90 to 95 percent purity. Wrought iron, the earliest form of manufactured iron, was made by heating lumps of iron ore with charcoal. This produced sponge iron, a pasty mix of iron with a great deal of slag, the unwanted residue of the ore-refining process. The iron-slag mixture was hammered into a semifinished bar (hammering expelled some of the slag) and then further worked into finished products. Later, furnaces were devised that could produce enough heat to smelt ore into liquid iron, which was then cast rather than wrought.”[6]
Once this process was discovered the Iron Age had begun. Smelting iron with charcoal and then pounding it was not an obvious process to discover. Once it was discovered the next step was to find the ideal mixture of iron and charcoal to make the perfect alloy. Just as there is an ideal proportion of tin and copper to make bronze, there was also an ideal proportion of iron and charcoal. Pure iron, like copper and gold, is relatively soft. Thus from prehistoric times they would mix other ingredients with these primary metals to create alloys that were stronger and more resistant to corrosion. To copper they added tin to make bronze, an alloy of copper. To iron they added carbon to make steel, a harder alloy of iron.
The tensile strength of steel is greatest when it contains 2% carbon. Steel is iron that contains between 0.25% to 2% carbon. Low carbon steels are easily fabricated, while high carbon steels are extremely hard but brittle. The hardness is a desirable feature for weaponry while the brittleness is not. While iron isn’t brittle it is also not that hard. Thus the early iron swords were extremely hard but brittle.
Wrought iron has less carbon than steel, and hence is most malleable. While steel, iron mixed with 2% carbon, is hardest[7], it is difficult to work with. Thus the first iron to be worked with was wrought iron, which because of its low carbon content was less brittle and more malleable.[8] These early smiths discovered significant properties of iron working with wrought iron.
Metals were first fabricated into their desired shape by pounding techniques. To further fabricate these metals they heated them slowly. Both of these techniques had positive secondary effects, especially on steel. The pounding increased the purity and hardness, while the heating increased the toughness. As the heats were gradually increased, the fabrication of metals was eventually replaced by casting molten metal in molds. But fabrication preceded casting especially with the iron alloys, which were hard to work with. Cast iron, a late entry, has 3 to 4% carbon, and is very hard and brittle.
They pounded wrought iron with hammers to both remove impurities and to shape it. Also they discovered that these metals were much easier to shape when they were hot. We can imagine them heating up the metal mixture, pounding it into the desired shape until it cooled down, then heating it up again when the metal became difficult to work. This simple process yielded some unexpected results. First the pounding made the metal harder and more brittle than when they didn’t pound it. Second the metals that had been reheated seemed to be tougher, i.e. less brittle while still a little harder, than those that weren’t. Third as the metal cooled as it was being pounded, it would reach a point where it couldn’t be worked anymore without breaking or cracking. This last process is called work hardening. These three results were not deductive; they derived from practical experience. It took modern science to understand the whys behind the process, although these ancient smiths had been performing these operations for thousands of years before it was discovered why they worked.
While steel, an iron alloy, was harder than iron, the early smiths found that “the hardness of steel may be substantially increased by heating the metal until it is red hot and then quickly cooling it, a process known as quench hardening.”[9] Thus two techniques were known to increase the hardness of the iron alloy, pounding and quenching hardening. While both of these processes increase the hardness, they both introduce unwanted brittleness.
They discovered the solution to brittleness in the reheating process they used to reshape the metal. It is called annealing[10] when the metal is reheated to be reshaped. It was found that annealing decreased the brittleness of the metal, without losing too much hardness. Soon it was discovered that reheating the metal without reworking it even increased the strength more. This process of reheating and slowly cooling the finished product was called tempering[11].
The application of these techniques to make steel harder and stronger, i.e. less resistant to breaking, occurred quite early on the Iron Age.
“The Iron Age dates from about 1500 BC, when iron ore is first known to have been smelted. During this era iron was used mainly for making cooking utensils and implements of war. The cementation process for making steel and the art of quenching steel for hardening and tempering of weapons were discovered early in the Iron Age.” [12]
We must remember that these early metal smiths were quite sophisticated.
“By the late 4th millennium BC, smiths were remarkably sophisticated in a practical way regarding the individual phenomena of metallurgy. They knew the effects on metals of hammering, annealing, oxidation, melting, and alloying; they were aware of the phenomena of simple decomposition of ores, their reduction, double decomposition, and exchange of impurities.”[13]
Hence the metal techniques that were to be used on steel were probably all in place over a thousand years before the discovery of the smelting of iron ores with charcoal.
What are the scientific processes behind these metallic properties, of hammering, annealing, cold-working, work hardening, and tempering?
Simply put a metal is composed of many crystals, which in turn are composed of atoms arranged in regular patterns. The planes of the crystals are aligned in planes, called slip planes.
“As force is applied to a single grain of metal, the grain distorts along the slip planes. Metals in this condition are said to be ductile and easily worked.”
Hence unworked metal is malleable because its atomic structure is aligned in planes, which slide over each other when force is applied. While the metal soft and malleable, it is also not hard enough to assume a shape that is resistant to change.
Cold-work is the working of metals when they are cold enough, not to be soft. This normally has the nature of hammering or pounding.
“As cold-work is applied to the metal, however, the crystalline structure changes. The original grain slips, distorts, and reorients so that instead of having a single grain with all the slip planes parallel, the structure is now composed of grain fragments. The slip planes within all these grain fragments are oriented in different directions, destroying the continuity of the individual slip planes in the original grain. The fragmented or broken grain structure increases the hardness of the metal and its resistance to further working.”[14]
Hence the more metal is cold worked, the more disorganized is its structure, making it harder and less resistant to change. The same phenomenon occurs when a metal is heated and then quickly cooled, i.e. quench hardened. The normal slip planes are frozen out of alignment, increasing hardness because of the disorganization of the grain of the metal.
While the metal is harder because the alignment of its atomic grain has been fragmented, it is also more brittle because the metal has no internal integrity to hold it together. While the slip planes slip over each other they simultaneously hold the metal together. Hence destroying the natural crystalline alignment creates a resistance to change that becomes hardness or permanence. However with this increasing resistance to change comes an inflexibility, which translates into brittleness.
An additional property of iron is its tendency to become magnetic[15]. When the slip planes are aligned and are in the presence of a magnetic field they may transmit magnetism and even retain the magnetism after the field has been removed. The magnetism has to do with the alignment of the electric fields of all the metallic crystals. When a magnetic metal is pounded or heated it loses its magnetism[16]. This has to do with the aforementioned disorganization of the slip planes on the atomic level.
As mentioned hardening entails pounding or quenching which disorganizes the atomic crystals of the metal. At this point the metal is stressed, because its natural atomic structure, which in its optimum state has the potential for magnetization, is out of alignment. To realign these crystals in their natural slip planes, the metal is reheated close to the level where it melts and then slowly cooled. Remember when the metal is reworked as it is cooled, it is called annealing. When the metal is just heated and then cooled it is called tempering.
The reheating increases metal ductility by allowing the metallic grain to realign itself and to re-crystallize. This creates a stronger metal product, which is less brittle, if not quite as hard. Thus the reheating reverses the process of work hardening, which disorganizes the crystals, by allowing the crystals to reorganize themselves along their natural magnetic grain. Further the metallic grain, which was shattered into fragments by pounding or quenching is allowed to reform[17]. Remember tempering, which re-integrates the atomic structure allowing the metal to re-granulate, has the effect of softening[18] the metal as well as making it less brittle.
Hence the metal has two polarities that are being balanced – the polarity of rigid and flexible and the polarity of soft and hard. Metallically this translates into brittle or ductile and malleable and hard, tensile. The balance between these two polarities, whose optimum condition would be called toughness, is achieved by two consecutive processes. First quenching or pounding hardens the metal. Then easy heating and cooling temper the metal – decreasing brittleness and increasing ductility. The hardening process destroys the atomic integrity of the metal while the tempering process reconstitutes this atomic integrity. Thus it changes a little under external pressure but holds itself together. Of course this is ideal for the sword.
One other element of metallurgy must be mentioned, metal fatigue.
“Metal fatigue is the tendency for a metal to break under the action of repeated cyclic stresses. Fatigue may occur for values of cyclic stress considerably less than the ultimate tensile strength of the material. This phenomenon applies to certain fractures in metals that are caused by repeated stresses of a low enough value that a single application of the stress apparently does nothing detrimental to the structure. When enough of these seemingly harmless stresses are applied in a cyclic manner, however, they bring about a small crack that grows with continued loadings until complete fracture takes place. Since the small cracks may not be noticed, the metal may fracture with a suddenness that can be dangerous, as in fast-moving vehicles or high-speed machinery. Special inspection techniques have been developed to spot small cracks before the material fails.
Fatigue failures are due to the repeated application of tensile stresses or shear stresses, which tend to pull the material apart. However, a cycle that consists of alternating equal stresses in tension and compression, called a fully reversed cycle, is usually used to obtain the endurance limits of a particular material.”[19]
In simplified terms, when metal undergoes repeated regular stress well under its limits, these stresses build up and will eventually produce cracks which turn into a break in the metal. This mechanism is called metal fatigue. If the stresses are relieved by counter-action, called a fully reversed cycle, then the stresses are relieved preventing fracture and breakage.
The reason that we’ve spent such a long time talking about the properties of iron is that it is an important Taiji Quan metaphor. The body of the martial artist is to be soft as cotton outside while as hard as steel internally. Furthermore the internal body is likened to tempered steel. There are a few metal concepts that need be explored in this context.
As we’ve pointed out, the tempering of steel increases its toughness, not its hardness, while the quenching of steel increases its hardness but makes it more brittle. Both processes are crucial to the process of body re-creation. Like Monkey, whose body is metal hard, our physical body structure is our metal.
At birth, our bones and musculature are soft and pliable. From birth we train these muscles and bones to carry us about, performing our work. As we grow older the bones and muscles both become harder. By the time we have reached adulthood, the softness of our childhood metal has been replaced by hardness of maturity. We have been cast.
At this point, for better or worse, our body structure has become relatively fixed. The body metal has been cast with all its structural imperfections locked in. Normally our body has been cast out of alignment. Too much TV, driving, sleeping, computer, studying, reading, remaining quiet in our seats, will all mold our bodies into imperfect alignment.
This imperfect alignment is then aggravated by the myriad fixed positions of modern life, which distort our musculature and our being. Doing one activity repeatedly over a long period of time, say an 8-hour shift, puts our body into unhealthy positions, which places stresses not only on our physical body but also upon our nervous system. Acids don’t drain because of physical blockages, and stress is internalized in stiff muscles and joints. With this continual hardening of the physical body it is no wonder that the modern human is susceptible to so many hard diseases, which include everything from back, knee and hip problems to arthritis, strokes and heart disease.
In terms of our metal metaphor, our metal body has become hardened, hence brittle. In general there are two types of hardening, quenching and pounding. Both increase hardness and brittleness. The sedentary or repetitive aspects of life act like work hardening, pounding our body into unhealthy structural positions. The longer we are sedentary, the more rigid our body structure becomes. As it becomes rigid, it resists working because of its brittleness.
Conversely the less sedentary we are, the less rigid and brittle our body structure becomes and the more open to reworking. We know, of course, that our metal body needs to be rectified, but it has been work-hardened. Remember that when a metal is work hardened that it is resistant to change and might even break if worked further. Thus even though our body is out of alignment, we can’t just put it into proper alignment without the threat of strain and fracture, because of the brittleness that is a result of hardening.
As we age our body usually becomes hardened and brittle. It is unusual to stay soft and supple. How do we regain our lost suppleness? The body metal must first be reheated, in order to be reworked. Of course, total meltdown is always possible with a recasting, but this takes away all of our individuality and we are dead. Thus we really don’t want to be recast; we just want to be reworked. This is the process of annealing. How is the heating of annealing achieved? Simply put exercise.
The metal theory behind Taiji is that our body structure, which hardened into place in the process of growing up, can still be realigned. There are two levels of realignment. The first, tempering, is achieved through gentle exercise. The idea behind tempering is that the brittleness of the work hardening of sedentary life will be alleviated by gradually raising the heat. The gentle raise in heat presumably through moderate exercise will allow the body to naturally realign itself by relieving the stresses of hardening. Thus a daily walk is a type of tempering, gently raising the temperature of the muscles allowing themselves to naturally realign themselves, reducing the brittleness of the work-hardening of our modern lives.
The second type of body realignment is related to annealing. While tempering simply alleviates the stresses built up by the hardening process, it does not rework the body metal. Annealing is the process where metal can be reworked after it has been cast. The temperature of the body-metal is raised just as in tempering, but then the body structure is worked back into proper alignment. Tempering while alleviating stress does not rebuild posture. Rebuilding body structure takes the effort of annealing.
Let us remember what we learned about the crystalline structure of metal. Before the hardening process begins, the crystalline structure of the metal is aligned in planes, called slip planes which slide over each other when pushed, creating a greater malleability in the metal allowing it to be worked. The hardening of metal through pounding or quench hardening, disorganize these slip planes making the metal resistant to shaping, making it harder to work. But it is also now more brittle because the metal has no internal integrity to hold it together. While the slip planes slip over each other they simultaneously hold the metal together.
Similarly with the human body. The baby’s body is soft and cuddly, although their grip is strong. The body structure of the baby is integrated through the bones and muscles. The crystalline structure is integrated throughout the body. As we are cold hardened by time, we become hard and tough because the integration of the body is shattered through pounding and quench hardening. We become rigid and brittle subject to broken bones and strains. Thus as our body becomes less and less integrated, we simultaneously, while becoming harder we also become more rigid and more prone to breakage.
Many exercise programs, including jogging and biking, simply temper our bodies by reheating them. This relieves stress but does not realign the body. Any exercise will temper the body, but tempering does not correct the alignment it just relieves stress. Hence the incorrect body while tempered will still be pulled down by that formidable opponent gravity. Tempering has to do with strengthening not the rectification of body structure. Hence while tempering is extremely useful, it is not enough for most bodies. Most bodies need to be annealed. My body needs to be annealed. A 70-year-old Taiji master said that he was still working on his body alignment. With metal we anneal it to reshape it.
While many exercise programs just aim at tempering the body through reheating, (this is certainly to be commended), Yoga and Taiji, however, work to realign the body itself. Generally Yoga focuses upon cold-working processes, while Taiji focuses upon annealing. These disciplines are not about strengthening muscles except in the sense that it assists proper body alignment for increased energy flow. These realignment processes are not participated in any way by a great mass of the population. Thus their bodies harden with age, developing hard minds and rigid limbs, and eventually developing the hard diseases. In metal terminology the body is cold-worked for so long that the grain of the body-metal is fragmented, hard but brittle. This crystalline fragmentation makes it hard for the magnetic fields to form blocking integrated thought. AS the integration of the body breaks down, so does the mind.
To remold the body-metal it must be reheated through annealing. Thus heating our bodies through exercise puts it in a position to be reworked. Exercise reheats the body giving it the potential for shaping. Remember that the reheating has two metallic functions. It alleviates the stress of hardening by allowing the crystals to realign, but at high enough temperatures it also allows for the re-crystallization or reintegration of the metal. Thus gentle heat, while enough to temper and realign our metal grain, is not enough to rebuild the integration that was destroyed by the hardening processes. Thus the high heats of a more intense exercise program will actually rebuild the lost integration of the body structure.
As the body becomes more integrated with tempering and constant annealing the energy can flow easily over the slip planes the mind and body become more resilient, less susceptible to breakage and fear. The resiliency of the nerve structure is directly related to the integration of the body and directly influences the smooth working of our consciousness. Our nerve structure is where body and mind interact.
Remember that when iron has not been hardened that it can retain magnetism. This magnetic ability is destroyed through pounding and excessive heating. Similarly the body-metal when it has been re-integrated can more easily transmit the divine magnetism. This is known as alignment with the Will of Heaven or channeling from a higher source. An integrated body can channel the heavenly will more easily.
Additionally an integrated body is more prone to being magnetized by a stronger source. Hence doing Taiji with Master Ni, the students are slightly magnetized to his level. Those students with greater body integration retain the magnetism longer. This means carrying the energy longer into our day-to-day lives.
To be more specific, Master Ni is more closely aligned with Heaven’s Will or the divine magnetism. His personal magnetism linked with ours creates a greater field, which is then more aligned to the greater field. Thus teacher and student both benefit from the greater magnetic field, carrying with them a stronger field into day-to day life.
Remember that a magnetic field is generated when electric current goes through a wire. Further if many wires are strung together with current going through them then the field is even stronger. This is the situation of a group of Taiji people practicing together. It generates a stronger magnetic field, magnetizing each and every one.
Of course, as always, there is always the danger of misaligned fields destroying this magnetic field. In general hardness destroys body-integrity. With the decrease in body-integrity comes a misalignment with Heaven. Misalignment with heaven is the same as being off the Path, or opposed to the Tao, which inevitably leads to disaster.
There are many ways of dealing with anti-magnetism. One way is to remove oneself from sources of anti-magnetism and only associate with high-magnetism types. This is not always possible or desirable, especially when one’s employer is an anti-magnetism type. A second way is to insulate oneself from the anti-magnetic attack. This tends to be the strategy of detachment. There is no magnetic interaction, whatsoever. No harm. NO foul. Both of these strategies are lower level paths.
The highest level of response is to transform the anti-magnetic force into a positive magnetic force. In this strategy one uses the hardness of the anti-magnetic force against the hardness to break it down. However using force to destroy force is not easy and potentially dangerous. Using push hands techniques one must neutralize the hardness and throw it back at the opponent. In theory this is easy to say, but in practice it is difficult to do. As Master NI says: “Easy to say: Hard to do.”
The danger is that one’s opponent might have a more powerful field. The opponent’s hardness might be relatively stronger than one’s softness, or ability to transform. Then the anti-magnetic force might overwhelm one. Indeed one might even fall under its spell, becoming transformed into an anti-magnetic being, worshipping the hard God of materialism and things rather than the soft God of energy and spirit.
However regular realignment with the soft God of spirit/energy might recharge one’s electromagnetic batteries and allow one to reenter battle again. Hence regular realignment with a spiritual master is of exceptional importance. This is the process of re-magnetization.
In battle one must never resist force with force, for your opponent’s force might be stronger. Instead one must ground the opponent’s force into the earth. Similarly simply pitting magnetic field against anti-magnetic field is insufficient to the task. At one point Piggy and Sha Monk go back to fight a monster of formidable strength. When they were protecting Tripitaka, they were able to battle equally. They were aligned. When they go back to fight, they are overwhelmed, because they aren’t aligned with the Tao. The anti-magnetic force must be first grounded in the Earth and then reversed, if possible. If one’s field is aligned with the earthly field then there can be no defeat, because this field overwhelms any individual field. Thus grounding has to with the electromagnetic attraction that is created between the earth and an individual when alignment occurs. This force binds one in contact to the earth beyond the force of gravity.
Normally anti-magnetic fields are better than no field at all. Anti-magnetic personalities have cultivated a strong if negative materialist field. Thus if the poles of the anti-magnetic personality can be reversed, then you have just won yourself a strong ally. Hence it well worth it to change the direction of the anti-magnetic personality. Paul, Piggy, Monkey, Sha Monk, and the Red-faced Boy were all anti-magnetic personalities whose polarities had been reversed, becoming the strongest allies of the Tao, the Path.
In summary, when facing an anti-magnetic field, i.e. a field in opposition to the magnetism of the polarity of Heaven and Earth, on the highest level one might reverse the polarity to realign it. But in order to protect oneself from destruction, one might retreat, detach, or neutralize the negative force. While each of these strategies is a valid defense to avoid self-destruction, remember that self-destruction is not necessarily bad. Furthermore, on more subtle levels, joining a powerful magnetic field to an anti-magnetic field might generate enough imbalance to reverse the field also. “Merge with the ordinary in order to harmonize illumination.” Liu I Ming
Metal fatigue is another metaphor that is highly applicable to the body/metal.
Repetitive use metal can lead to metal fatigue. The repetition of improper body structure can lead to tiny stress fractures, which have a tendency to go out all at once. Thus extreme care must be taken not to heat the body up too fast. Even the most appropriate exercises must be approached carefully. Beware of metal fatigue of sudden breakdown. We have become rigid and brittle with many internal weaknesses that will be exposed with age. We will experience the sudden crack of metal fatigue from repeated stresses, and our neck, back, knee, or hip will go out on us. We will be disabled or have to have the ailing part treated or replaced at great strain to our system.
Remember that metal in the Taiji context is the body structure itself – the bones and sinews – tendons, muscles, and cartilage. Thus cyclic stresses too minute to notice eventually cause small cracks. These small cracks, after a buildup, turn into a major crack, all of a sudden. This is the underlying cause of carpal syndrome, the repeated cyclic abuse of a certain part of the body leading to permanent damage and breakdown. This also occurs with any form of exercise, Taiji included. The participant puts an unbalanced stress upon a certain part of the body, which eventually gives out unexpectedly.
Remember though, no matter if you exercise or if you don’t, one’s body still feels the daily cyclic stresses of gravity upon the body structure. Exercise stress disables participants, while gravitational stress disables the observers. Just because one does not practice, does it mean that one will avoid the breakdown of body/metal fatigue. While they have avoided the type of breakdown resulting from hard repetitive practice, they have opened themselves up to gravitational attack.
What is the solution? Don’t practice? Then gravity does its dirty work, pulling on all the out of place body parts, pulling the back, neck or hip out of place. Don’t practice as hard? This might work temporarily, but you’ll never get anywhere either.
The idea is to practice the ‘fully reversed cycle’ in metallurgy terms. Most muscle groups come in pairs. If only one half of the muscle group is exercised just one way then muscle fatigue and injury is the result. If both of the muscles are exercised in many directions then balance is achieved and injury is avoided. The idea behind this strategy is to always exercise both sets of muscles.
For Taiji practitioners the idea is a bit subtler. Instead of exercising both sets of muscles consecutively one exercises both sets of muscles simultaneously. If the shoulders are moving one way the hips should balance this movement by moving the other way. This limits the range of movement but decreases the possibility of over reaching. Further the counterbalanced stretch increases oxygen flow to the muscles. Thus the yin-yang theory is applied to the body at all times to balance the cyclical stresses on the body parts.
One other aspect of this work on muscular polarity is the development of a spring like action for increased power. When muscles are pulling opposite ways they strengthen each other in a balanced isometric way. Also the counterbalanced energy is a type of potential energy. The mousetrap is set. When all the muscle groups go the same way, the energy is dissipated not stored. When all the muscle groups go the same way this is kinetic energy, which is immediately used up. The energy that is used to pull the muscles in opposite directions is stored as the muscle spring is opened up. Hence opening energy is storing energy while closing energy is the use of this stored energy. Opening energy is putting the energy into the mousetrap while closing energy sets the mousetrap off, converting the potential energy into kinetic energy.
One other point is that as the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy that the kinetic energy can be used to load the spring again. This is like the action of a pendulum. As the swing slows down all of the energy is converted to potential energy. As it speeds up all the energy is converted to kinetic energy at the fastest point but then the kinetic energy of the swing is converted to potential energy on the other side. Hence the balance of musculature not only lessens the dangers of muscle fatigue, but is also a major source of power.
To temper these writings, it must be mentioned that it is easy to punch these typewriter keys with all this great information. However while I can transmit great information, it does not mean that I have integrated it, nor will the reader be able to integrate this information simply by reading it. I must practice what I preach. Without practice these words are like a fart in the breeze. The Reader might fully understand the concepts herein, but without practice it is like an alcohol intoxicated bar conversation, full of meaning without any impact. The hope of the author is to inspire balanced practice, not understanding alone. Deep understanding is like enlightenment, a useful tool. But these tools must be used in the arena of life experience to have any impact. The Buddha, himself, experienced enlightenment and then brought his tools back to the world. While his words point to enlightenment as the goal, his life speaks of social service, working in life’s arena.
This is a reiteration of the theme that understanding the works of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu only puts one on the doorstep of Taoism, but does not let one inside. The key to the door of Taoism is physical practice combined with life experience. Understanding without practice is like learning the alphabet without reading. Practice without life experience is like reading without application. It is still an empty illusion, pretty images in the clouds without any substance.
In this discussion we have been just talking about the body/metal itself. We have not been speaking about its pollution and need of purification. We have been speaking about its fragmentation and need for integration. In our talk on bronze we spoke about the mental/metal ore that needs to be smelted to achieve purification of our internal psychology. The metal ore of our mind has been polluted, made impure, through culture, heredity, and genetics. As mentioned this has to do with the conditioned response, automatic and unthinking. As adults we attempt to seize control of our destiny instead of becoming victims of fate. We attempt to become pure metal again, purifying ourselves of the accrued ore. This process has to do with achieving extreme quietude.
While linked to the body rectification of our metal metaphor, it is very different. While meditation has to do with mind rectification, based upon purification and integration, Taiji forms have to do with body rectification, based upon annealing, tempering, and cold hardening. Mind actualization has to do with becoming so quiet that one can hear one’s destiny calling, while body actualization has to do with re-integrating our body after it has been fragmented through external stress. This is why the combination of quietude and physical exercises is very important for a complete transformation. In the Taiji tradition this means meditation and the practicing forms.
I asked Master Ni, “Which is more important meditation or Taiji practice?”
He responded, “Both.”
I then asked, “If you are only going to do one, which would be best?”
He responded, “Taiji, because you can practice stillness in motion, while it is hard to practice motion in the midst of mediation.”
Notice that he said that it was hard to practice motion in the midst of meditation, not impossible.
There are some other useful metallurgical concepts that can be applied constructively to the body/metal. The first is quench hardening.
Once the body is heated up and placed in appropriate positions, i.e. the body structure is rectified, then quench hardening increases its hardness. Thus after each form we stop dead still for a distinct period of time. This stopping or quenching has the function of hardening the body structure in its rectified position. Thus we drive all day developing terrible posture. We are cold hardened in a poor position. We perform some Taiji forms. With each repetition our body structure improves, with each stopping, the improvements are internalized. To quickly move on allows the bad habits to immediately reassert themselves. Thus quenching our body in stillness after intense movement allows our body/metal to integrate the heat and rectified its structure.
Remember though that while quench hardening allows the rectified body structure to be internalized before additional pollution settles in, it needs the annealing process to precede quenching in order for the right things to be integrated in. Quenching our body after improper exercise can lead to body damage. That is why most forms of exercise recommend a cool down. Thus proper annealing should precede quench hardening to be effective.
While tempering, annealing, and quenching achieve body rectification through heating and cooling, cold work can and should also be employed in the body rectification process. Cold work in the body/metal context has to do with standing exercises. While the heat can remold the body into a better form, there are certain impurities that will remain unless hammered out by posture rectification techniques. Thus the cold work has to do with hammering the body into alignment through being dead still. Some call these movements power stretches. This is the specialty of Yoga – body rectification through cold work. This cold work is necessary to reduce certain impurities. In motion one might lean on the motion for balance and strength, while standing postures are only easy with perfect posture. Any out of balance body part is pulled down by gravity.
The cold work has to do with standing exercises; the annealing process is the exercise process; quenching has to do with the body integration of the heat work. Tempering on one level has to do with exercise to reduce the stress of work-hardening. On another level tempering has to do with body integration. After cold work, annealing, and quenching, it is good to integrate this rectified body structure into day-to-day life on a continuous level rather than just during the annealing process. At all times the body structure is tempering itself. While the Taiji practitioner is probably unaware of these processes consciously, these are the processes that he goes through to produce the tempered steel body.
We’ve already pointed out that the iron technology transformed the military landscape by providing harder weapons from a more plentiful source.
However, let us reiterate some themes that were first introduced in our discussion on bronze. First, the search for vital military metals has initiated global exploration and political expansion in order to control the supply and the mining of metals. As pointed out earlier the expansion of the Ch’in state was somewhat connected to this mechanism. Further the whole structure of society is influenced by the need for mining. Few people actually volunteer to leave the security of their farms for a job in the dangerous career of mining. Hence the government had to collect men from the lower rungs of society to mine the ore that was so important for their military security.
“Since ancient times mining has had a fundamental political impact on society. Wars have been fought to acquire minerals. The institution of slavery received much of its legitimacy from the need to use slaves in the onerous and often life- threatening work of mining. The exploration of Latin America and the opening of the American West were both accelerated by the presence of gold and silver in those new lands. Colonization of many areas of the world was in part due to the need of Europe to acquire the metals to feed the factories of the Industrial Revolution. Today, world politics and world trade are shaped in large measure by the locations of mineral and energy reserves.” Grolier Interactive 1997: Mining & Quarrying
Hence the results of mining allowed the military aristocracy to stay on top, while the ability to mine was dependent upon a slave or serf class to do the work. Thus these Metal Age military aristocracies needed metal to maintain their dominant position and the only way to acquire the metal was through forced labor projects. Thus the demand for metal restructured society in a hierarchical way. Those with the metal dominated society, while those that were required to mine it were the dominated social class. Thus these Metal Age aristocracies were dependent upon both a subservient mining and agricultural class. While the agricultural was dominated, in many ways it was the preferred class of the two. While the farmers were dominated, at least they above ground with their own land to work. However, the miners, below ground and reaping no rewards of their own were just a step above slavery. Indeed escaping conscription into the imperial army was a common folk theme.
In our section on magnetism, it was pointed that grounding anti-magnetism into the earth is effective because the magnetic field of the Earth is dominant. Further if one is aligned with the magnetic field of the earth, then one is impervious to harm. This reverence for the earth is seen in the ancient attitude towards mining. This view holds that the Earth is a living Mother, who in her abundance supplies the food from her soil and minerals, gems and metal from her womb. This mystical and somewhat holistic worldview of Earth as mother was replaced by the fragmented notion that the Earth is an inanimate source of natural resources.
“By the medieval period, the ancient reverence for the Earth as a living Mother, and ores as living substances gotten from her womb, had been replaced by the simple notion of minerals as a resource to be exploited for the greater wealth of society.”[20]
For those New Agers amongst us let us point out a few interesting connections. First carbon is an essential component of life as we know it, animal or plant. Organic chemistry has to do with all the different ways that carbon molecules combine to facilitate life. As mentioned carbon is also the element that needs to be added to iron. Hence in this connection steel could be considered a living metal.
Lest we think this line of thinking too far-fetched, which it probably is, let us remember that iron[21], copper[22], and zinc[23] are all metals that are essential to our human diet[24]. Thus while humans, and life in general, are composed of water and are carbon compounds, metals are also an essential ingredient to life. Thus metal combined within organic compounds composed of carbon create life. Steel is iron combined with carbon in a crystalline structure. While steel and life have certain ingredients in common, a major difference between the two is the molecular structure. Every metal, including steel, has a crystalline structure to their molecules, while life has an organic structure. But remember that this same crystalline structure is essential in trace quantities to the effective operation of our bodies. Those bodies without enough metal are prone to disease and weakness. The lack of zinc has been linked to prostrate cancer.
Iron deficiencies are linked to anemia and blood weakness. It is an essential ingredient in the transporting of oxygen through the blood to the tissues of the body. Without iron, the tissues of the skin suffocate because of lack of oxygen.[25] Iron is an essential ingredient of blood, which as we all know permeates the body.
While iron is the fourth most abundant element in the earth’s crust, “The molten core of the Earth is primarily elemental iron.”[26] The earth’s magnetism is directly linked to the iron in its core and crust. Our blood is permeated with iron. Thus the iron in our blood can align creating a magnetic field, which can be more or less in alignment with the magnetic field of the earth, our Momma.
In this New Age section we have established that, we have an affinity for steel because of our common materials, carbon and iron. Steel might be thought of as a living metal. Further because iron is necessary in the blood to transport vital oxygen throughout the body, we become magnetic creatures who can be more or less in alignment with the earth herself with her iron core.
[1]Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron Age
[2] Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron Age
[3]Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron Age
[4] Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron Age
[5]Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron, “In its pure form iron is rather soft and is malleable and ductile at room temperature.”
[6] Grolier Multimedia 1997: Steel and Iron Industry: Iron Making
[7]Grolier Interactive 1997: Hardening: “Hardening is especially important in steel processing, where the maximum hardness is dependent almost entirely upon the carbon content.”
[8] Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron “At carbon contents below that of steel is wrought iron, which is nearly pure iron. Because of its low carbon content (usually below 0.035 percent) it is forgeable and nonbrittle. Iron of high carbon content (3 percent to 4 percent), obtained when pig iron is remelted and cooled, is called cast iron. If cast iron is cooled quickly, hard but brittle white cast iron is formed. If it is cooled slowly, soft but tough gray cast iron is formed.”
[9] Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron
[10]Grolier Multimedia 1997, Annealing“Annealing is a method of heating and cooling a metal, alloy, or glass under precise controls to remove internal stresses and make the material more ductile and less brittle. The method is applied after a metal has been shaped by forging, extruding, rolling, or drawing, at temperatures where softening does not occur (cold-working). At this point the metal tends to resist further working, and a condition known as work-hardening occurs. If the metal is worked after hardening, it will crack or break. Annealing returns the metal to its original state so that it can be worked further.”
[11] Grolier Multimedia 1997: Tempering: “Tempering is the process of toughening glass and metals, particularly steel. During its manufacture, steel is heated to a high temperature and quenched or cooled quickly. This rapid cooling creates a buildup of internal stresses that cause the metal to become brittle. The tempering of steel involves the subsequent reheating of the metal to a temperature below the point to which it was first heated. It is then allowed to cool slowly. This reheating and cooling process softens the steel, relieving the internal stresses set up by the original heating and quenching operations. The softening is accompanied by an important increase in toughness that is a direct result of the alleviation of brittleness of the steel. Temperature and rate of cooling will vary depending on the type of steel used, the desired properties, and the intended use of the steel. Generally, steel is tempered at temperatures ranging from 200 deg to 600 deg C (400 deg to 1,100 deg F).”
[12]Grolier Interactive 1997: Metallurgy: History
[13]Grolier Multimedia 1997, Metallurgy: History
[14]Grolier Multimedia 1997, Annealing
[15]Grolier Multimedia 1997, Iron: Magnetism: “Iron at room temperature exhibits ferromagnetism, a strong magnetic behavior that the metal may retain even in the absence of an external, applied magnetic field. When iron is heated to 768 degrees C, it loses this property. ”
[16]The exception to this is when the metal is pounded in the direction of the magnitic field.
[17]Grolier Multimedia 1997, Annealing: “Heating affects cold-worked metal in two stages, recovery and recrystallization. Recovery occurs as the temperature of the cold-worked metal is gradually raised. Internal stresses are relieved as the atoms in the metal rearrange themselves into the positions that they occupied in the preworked state. Recrystallization occurs as the temperature of the metal is raised further and nuclei for the growth of new, stress-free crystals begin to form. The higher the temperature, the more nuclei are precipitated. As these nuclei form in cold-worked metal, the stress-free crystals exhibit most of the original physical properties of the metal.”
[18]Grolier Multimedia 1997: Annealing “The degree of softening resulting from an annealing treatment depends on the temperature to which a metal is heated as well as the length of time for which it is heated. The time and temperature of heating are inversely related. Different metals require different annealing times and temperatures, which are carefully regulated to gain the optimum structure development.”
[19] Grolier Multimedia 1997, Metal Fatique
[20] Grolier Interactive 1997: Mining & Quarrying
[21]”Iron is an essential mineral nutrient for humans and all other vertebrate animals.” Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron
[22]“Copper is a trace element essential to the healthy life of many plants and animals.” Grolier Multimedia 1997: Copper
[23]“Zinc … is an essential trace element in plant and animal life. A zinc deficiency in the human diet retards growth and maturity and produces anemia.” Grolier Multimedia 1997: Zinc
[24] Young Students Learning Library 1989: Nutrition: “The human body needs minerals for strength and healthy tissues. The most important minerals are calcium, phosphorous, iron and iodine. Besides these, trace minerals … such as manganese, copper, zinc, and cobalt, are needed.”
[25] Young Students Learning Library 1989: Vitamins and Minerals, “Iron is needed for hemoglobin, the matter in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to your tissues.”
[26]Grolier Multimedia 1997: Iron