The influence of the chariot is still with us in many ways. On the mystical level, the Chariot is the fifth card of the Tarot deck, following only the spiritual and temporal rulers. The Chariot is a remnant of the victory procession. The roots of the Tarot deck are probably in Renaissance Italy, when the chariot had long since fallen out of military fashion, being replaced by the more maneuverable knight on horseback. Hence the Chariot was still used as symbol of victory and conquering although its effective days were long past.
On the level of transportation, the car is our modern chariot. Its power is related in terms of horsepower just as the chariots were, i.e. a two horse or four horse power chariot. The power of horses was not reflected from individuals on horseback, nor was it reflected in the carriages of the day. Power is a term of military prowess more than a term of transportation. Furthermore the car is an extension of power and prestige. A new car is somehow associated with the modern royalty.
Another reflection is in TÕai Chi. First TÕai Chi Chuan itself is part of a warrior training reflecting back to the warrior aristocracy of the Shang and perhaps even before to the warrior cultures of the Longshan. It is a series of moves attempting to prepare one for combat. Chinese style, it is hoped that the preparation for combat will enable one to avoid combat.
He who doesnÕt prepare for combat invites it in,
While he who prepares for combat wards it off.
Part of the TÕai Chi warrior training is connected to the Horse Stance. Properly it should be called the Chariot stance. The horse stance is two feet parallel and firmly planted, legs bowed, arms out as if holding tight reins. The horse stance implies that one is riding a horse. When riding a horse, however oneÕs heels are pressed down lower than the rest of the foot. When riding a chariot oneÕs feet are firmly planted upon the ground, with legs bowed to enhance the incredible stability necessary to stay planted upon the chariot. Further the reins of the horse are held loosely, while the reins of the Charioteer are held extended. The Charioteer found in the First EmperorÕs tomb is standing in a perfect horse stance.
Primary to TÕai Chi Push Hands practice is the principle of balance – maintaining and not losing it no matter what the pressures. This is derived from the image of the Charioteer, who must maintain balance, no matter what the terrain or turns are like. If he loses balance both he and the horses are at risk from the overturned chariot.
Another derivative from the Charioteer is the Taoist notion of non-action in the midst of action. The charioteer only need maintain his balance and remain steady. His chariot and maybe an archer by his side do the rest. His primary duty is to break up and soften the enemy line so that his soldiers can move in. His individual task is to remain motionless in the mass chaos of battle that churns around him. He is to guide his chariot with subtle motions, but he himself is to remain as steady as possible. Bouncing over the terrain and the bodies, the lines of farmers attempting to protect their farmland, and maintaining balance and control of the horses must have been difficult. The charioteer as an analogy for life then suggested the idea of action in the midst of non-action. It was the first human activity that demanded absolute stillness and balance to work.
However just as the idea of the non-action of the charioteer creates incredible changes in his environment, albeit destructive, the same is true of the Taoist concept. Many of the interpretations of non-action, take it literally. One idea is being physically still in the midst of activity all around, Ōmeditation in the market place.Õ Another has one withdraw from the world to practice non-action. Some also take non-action to refer to resisting desires.
In The Journey to the West, however, Tripitaka rides upon the Dragon-horse, but does nothing. Indeed normally when he gets off his horse to do something is when he regularly gets in trouble. However Tripitaka is the one who accomplishes the most. It is he who is the leader and integral part of the Journey to the West. Without him the journey does not happen. This then is the real sense of non-action.
The horse is frequently referred to as the Horse of Will, while Tripitaka is, on some levels, associated with the spiritual intention. Hence the spiritual intention stays steady, carried along by the Will. The charioteer guides his horses into the midst of battle, but he remains steady. Neither does he go off into the mountains, nor off by himself. Instead he guides his horses into the middle of conflict. He does not avoid conflict but instead pursues it from a position of non-action.
The Spiritual Warrior, from a position of non-action, guides his Horses of Will into the midst of Battle. Remember for the Alchemists, the Battle is to be fought against conditioning, temporal, cultural and genetic. The very first battle is way before the battle. ŌNaturallyÕ we run away from battle. Our flight response is programmed into our adrenal nervous system. Of course the warrior must resist this ŌnaturalÕ urge. Instead he must guide his horses into the center of conflict. Similarly in TÕai Chi Push Hands, one goes inside rather than outside. Instead of attempting to stay away, one tries to get close, in this case to more effectively neutralize negative energy. We must resist our natural urge to retreat.
Of course the flight and fight response are totally linked. With the back to the wall, out comes the adrenal fight response. Once the chariot is moving full-speed into battle, the charioteerÕs back is against the wall, he has no choice now. It is too late to turn back. However again he must resist the adrenal urge to fight. He must just stay firm in the midst of non-action. His ŌnaturalÕ fear of conflict threatens to upset his balance, which is crucial for his survival. Similarly the adrenal fear-based urge to fight must also be resisted by the charioteer to maintain balance.
In terms of the ancient charioteer, the survival of the whole army depended upon his balance. The chariot was the royal weapon of leadership. Without their supreme Charioteer, they were a headless army. In the latter days of the Chou dynasty the chariot was made obsolete by the more mobile cavalry with a compound bow. Still the First Emperor would drive in an armored chariot surveying the field and directing the action. The bronze chariot has always had royal connotations.
Another indication of the prime role of the chariot in development of this idea of non-action in the midst of action is the early Taoist notion that just having chariots was wu-wei, non-action, because their existence was a deterrent to attack. The chariots because of their potentials deterred attack without ever having to be used. The Taoists felt that this was a perfect example of non-action in the midst of action. This connects with the idea that being prepared for battle is a deterrent to battle, while not being prepared encourages attack.
The present image is of the Charioteer moving fearlessly into the center of battle, resisting the urge to fight, instead focusing upon balance and direction. Balance has one mental and three physical components. The one mental component has just been mentioned, calm and focused in the middle of the battle. sung, i.e. relaxation, energy links the three physical components.
Sung energy is also a derivative of the Charioteer. The Charioteer in order to retain his balance must be incredibly relaxed as well as rooted. His waist and arms must be flexible and relaxed so that he can gently yield to the many instabilities and jerks of the horses. Additionally his knees must be supple and relaxed and legs rounded to yield like a spring to the shocks of the chariot ride. Simultaneously he must be rooted to the floor of the chariot, which is accomplished by relaxing into the floor. The sung energy generates flexibility, yielding and rooting energy. Without sung energy, there is no flexibility, yielding or rooting. These three are all elements of Tai Chi push hands. The Sung energy allows the body to act like a spiral spring, bouncy, but connected.
While balance is of utmost importance for the charioteerÕs personal survival, his sense of direction is essential for the survival of his army. There are two components of direction, guiding and turning. The first and primary is guiding. The charioteer must gently guide his wild horses, not one but two. The horses want to go off in any direction, he must guide them in a collective direction; only together will they accomplish anything.
The idea of gently guiding is essential to Tai Chi. With the return of the yang, one must gently guide and control the opponentÕs energy. The return of the yang occurs with the first stirrings of unguided energy. If the energy is allowed to manifest for too long it can easily get out of control. Nip it in the bud. The wild horses have considerably more power than the charioteer. The only possible way he can control their wild energy is to guide them back on course, immediately before they have time to get out of control. Controlling the return of the yang is certainly Taoist and derived easily from the charioteerÕs relation to his horses.
The horses represent chi energy. With a charioteer behind a chariot, they manifest explosively with concentrated energy. Operating separately the elements run away from the battle or never even approach it. The Warrior never achieves transformation from the heat of battle and dissipates away into a ŌnaturalÕ death. He doesnÕt become immortal and must be reborn again.
This idea of guiding is found in early proto-Tai Chi forms, called yin chi. These were translated as Chinese shadow boxing after the boxing techniques in the west, but are not connected really with shadows. In the First EmperorÕs tomb is found a very clear representation of one of these shadow boxers in a typical Tai Chi stance. He stands with feet in the traditional bow stance (weÕll get to that) for balance. ŅThe warrior presents a minimal target to oncoming adversaries while keeping his arms ready either to ward off an attacker or to strike a blow.Ó[13]
Yin chi, literally means guiding the chi, leading it, or drawing it around. This does not imply force but only a guiding. An integral part of Tai Chi and Push Hands is that of guiding oneÕs own chi or opponentÕs energy around the body with the mind. Again force is not met with force. Force is only guided as wild horses only can be. Thus the image of the charioteer also inspired the concept of moving chi around, which is central to control of the wild emanating yang energy that is so strong that it threatens us all with its impetuosity.
Another meaning of Yin is map. In this case the movements of Yin Chi are a map or guide to moving energy around. Encoded in the movements are the martial applications of the warrior. These movements are encoded so deeply that people can practice TÕai Chi for years without ever being completely aware of its fundamentally martial side.
The final element of direction is turning. The Chariot bursts through the lines but then must turn around. One way of turning is to make a wide turn. This takes up a lot of time and energy, not to mention the extreme possibility of the centripetal force of turning, throwing the rider out or overturning the chariot. More efficiently the charioteer pulls the horses up and pivots around the wheel of the chariot, i.e. on its axis, and then heads back into the fray. The rider is not thrown out of the chariot in a whipping action and the horses stay under control.
Pivoting on an axis is inherent to the idea of central equilibrium in TÕai Chi. Earlier versions of TÕai Chi were called 13 Principle Boxing. These thirteen movements, postures or principles still underlie all Tai Chi moves. Of those 13 elements, many masters consider central equilibrium the single most important element of TÕai Chi. Central Equilibrium has to do with pivoting around the smallest axis possible.
This principle would be especially apparent to the charioteer, when he pivoted his horses around the axis of his chariot. Still his center remains motionless even in the middle of turning. He comes to grasp even higher levels of non-action.
In TÕai chi this rotation upon the central axis of the body is also called turning the wheel. The Wheel is the waist rotating around the vertical axis of the body. The hips and shoulders counterbalance each other. The hips are there to connect to the legs as shock absorbers, moving up and down, forward and back, only twisting to balance the pivot. It is important to keep the hips and legs aligned to avoid torquing the joints, especially the knees.
The Waist is called the ruler of the body. Not just any waist, but a relaxed waist. A sung waist. A relaxed, flexible, non-rigid waist. It rules the power of the torso. Any professional athlete uses the power of his waist to generate power: the baseball pitcher, the tennis player, the baseball hitter, and the quarterback are just a few examples. Athletes might augment the strength of the waist with other muscles but it is the body strength from the turning of the waist that does most of the work.
While the waist rules the torso, the hips rule the bottom of the body. The sung knees and ankles follow the powerful hip movements, and should not be an agent in and of themselves. Similarly the arms and hands should always act in concert with the waist, never acting by themselves.
While the hips and waist deliver the power and flexibility, the foot rules the balance. Without each foot firmly planted upon the floor from heel to big toe and the bubbling well in-between, there is no root. If there is no root there is no balance. If there is no balance then everything is lost. Just ask the Charioteer.
While the waist rules horizontal body power and flexibility, revolving as a wheel, the hips rule the vertical power, bouncing like a spring, and the feet rule the balance, rooting like a tree, the thoughts of the mind is the ruler of them all. This is because only the mind is light enough to grant optimum lightness essential to the flexibility of sung energy.
Trying to do something is already too hard. The trying is effort and force, immediately negating the essential sung energy. The thought of doing it is enough to guide waist, hips and feet. Localizing attention is a distortion. Only by focusing upon the whole is the proper balance achieved. Only the brain can integrate all the parts. Not an active brain, but a non-active brain, which nudges, but does not force.
All of these elements that have been mentioned, from non-action in action to central equilibrium to rooting, are inherent to the Charioteer. While the principles apply equally to hand-to hand combat, the consequences are not so immediate and extreme as for the Charioteer. The lessons that the Charioteer learns are quick and hard. If he is not relaxed, rooted, flexible he is thrown off his chariot, endangering everyone. While an opponent has human strength however great, the Charioteer has to manage the strength of two horses. He must learn sung energy or else. Thus it is more likely that the martial techniques were learned by the charioteer and then applied to hand-to hand combat rather than vice versa. The charioteer was a warrior who used the same techniques whichever arena he was in.
There are some residuals of chariot symbolism in Taiji Quan.
Professor Cheng Man-chÕing said, ŅThe chÕi pulls the blood like a horse pulls a chariot; where the chÕi goes, the blood will follow.Ó In the context of the discussion, Cheng Man-chÕing was pointing out that massaging a joint brings the chÕi there. If the chÕi moves there, the healing blood will follow. But the thought moved the hand, which brought the chÕi.
The thoughts are the charioteer, the chÕi are the horses that are controlled by the mind, while the blood is the chariot being drawn, which protects the charioteer. The chÕi without thoughts to guide them are like wild horses without a driver. Confused, directionless. Thoughts without chÕi are like a horseless chariot, really going nowhere. Non-action in the midst of non-action. Oblivion. The interaction of thoughts, the blood, and the chÕi are all necessary. The thoughts remain quiet. This is the non-action. The chÕi is controlled by the thoughts to pull the blood. This is the action. This is the non-action in the midst of action.
Gentle thoughts guide the chÕi, hence the blood around gently. This is ideal. Low blood pressure. Conversely hard thoughts pressure the chÕi, hence the blood. High blood pressure. This is not ideal. If the chi horses move too fast, they may get out of control overturning the chariot, throwing the charioteer on his head. Heart Attack.
Every once in a while in The Journey, Tripitaka will be impatient to reach the goal. These Ōspiritual desiresÕ excite Monkey/Mind, who stings or scares the Dragon Horse of Will. This sends the Horse galloping uncontrollably, throwing Tripitaka off or getting them into trouble. Sometimes the Will can be overheated by the Mind energy of spiritual desire, leading to misfortune, threatening the Journey.
In a similar context Master Ni warns against 'Burning the Bread'. DonÕt focus too hard upon the fire or it will burn too hot, damaging the elixir. But donÕt forget it either, or the fire will go out. All these examples have to do with hard thoughts driving the chi horses too hard and fast, threatening the stability of the Chariot. While the chÕi leads the blood, it too must be guided or led.
Thus just as the bronze metal making of the aristocracy is a root of the Alchemists, so is the Charioteer a major underlying symbol of Taiji and Taoism. This implies that Taiji, Alchemy and Taoism all have royal blood in their veins. This does not mean that they donÕt also have spiritual or peasant roots. It indicates that the ruling class was interacting with Chinese thought in many complex ways. Judging by the permeability of the Chinese heaven, we can imagine that the line between peasantry and nobility was also porous. Confucius is thought to have belonged to the disenfranchised nobility. Many times throughout Chinese history the peasantry has risen to nobility through military prowess. The same has probably always been true.