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6-9-3. Balance
"What is the balance that
appears when Tang and Saram united? Balance is the stable and calm state obtained
when every part well controled in change."(Ch.22)
"Where the solid qualities are in excess of accomplishments, we have
rusticity; where the accomplishments are in excess of the solid qualities, we
have the manners of a clerk. When the accomplishments and solid qualities are
equally blended, we then have the man of virtue."1)
This was said by Confucius. How, however, can only the balance of accomplishments
and solid qualities be important? Up and down; right and left; hard and soft;
motion and stay,2) the balance in each of them
is important together. Therefore, observing the balance of the opponent, you
should see the emptinesss of left in fullness of right, stabbing it; observing
the balance of motion and stay, you should wait for him to be exhausted if he
moves much, or control him by precedence if he wait too much. And, "if
you cannot control this balance you cannot get massive in your control over
your opponent and cannot get the power in your attack, and the world will not
help you control your body even though you try,"(Ch.22) so you can
use Kang-gi controling your own balance and use Yu-gi destroying the opponent's
balance.3) For this's sake you should train
all together right with left, Kang-gi with Yu-gi, and sudden motion with calm
pose, to prepare your balance. And then, you should get the balance in training
of Kyorugi and Poomsae, with that of basic motion and techniques.
Let me discuss Breath, Rhythm and Temperance in balance.
The balance in your pose and motion, which doesn't accord with your breath,
come to stiffen and exhaust yourself. And so, you come to lose motion not only
in stay but also in motion, either. Because of this, you cannot be swift to
collapse your balance moving forward, easily exhausted by losing agility also
in motion. "Balance is waiting
with movements hidden in the standstill, so good balance refers to readiness
that concealed every mobility in a no-movement, i.e. in a standstill perfectly."(Ch.22)
Thus, "a motion can be obtained
only when a balance collapses to show out its possibility and the balance in
its collapse always leads to another balance."(Ch.22) This is also
the way how balance is related to rhythm. It means, the nods of change that
shifts to new balance continuously is the rhythm.4)
By the way, as breath produces rhythm, you can control your balanced rhythmical
motion with breathing. Thus "the
right motion of Taekwondo is not beyond making proper rhythm with both adaptations
of you and your opponent to each other. No matter how fast or slow a motion
may be it is rhythmical."(Ch.14)
And "the abundant power (of Taekwondo)
comes/ not from the strong muscles/ but from the temperateness of a good exact
pose."5) By the way, as the balance
between what you intend to do and what you can do is the temperance, "when
the balance gets perfect, that is, it accumulates most possibility in itself,
it can be an important source of power."(Ch.22) By means of temperance
you should search for your balance, which should be obtained in having your
opponent opposed to the world. Here, he is fighting not you yet the world while
you do nothing more than to keep everything of yours in its proper place. This
temperate power never withers, for "not
I(you), but the nature fights him,/ through the empty place of temperance."6)
On the contrary, those who didn't get skilled in Taekwondo are restricted by
what they intend to do, using excessive force to fall forward, and sometimes,
just floundering stuck to a spot despite their try to step forth. It is just
like a man who cannot swim fight the water, failing to move forward, only with
his own exhaustion. A true Taekwondo man, however, keep a good balance in his
motion and the control on it like a fish that rides the flow in water, so that
in his attack he makes his defence if his opponent avoid it and in his approach
he make natural retreat if he lose his opponent.7)
It is possible because he keeps a good balance in his breath, rhythm and temperance,
and furthermore, also obtain it through them.
<footnotes>
1) Confucian Analects, LY0618 ; 子曰, "質勝文則野, 文勝質則史. 文質彬彬,
然後君子."
2) "That I Clench My Fist", 1. Motion and stay
when harmonized lead to tranquillity.
3) This statement is another version of; "In
Taekwondo, when you attack or defend your opponent, you should always control
balance to keep your tide and to find out his blind point. You as a good Taekwondo
man, when you attack, should never swept off by the opponent's big change yet
hit his calm part with a small power breaking his balance. And, when you defend,
you, receiving his attack to be nothing, cause his balance with the world to
collapse together."(Ch.22)
4) Confirm that the foregoing chapter, '3-3. walking'
also cited this clause; "a
motion can be obtained only when a balance collapses to show out its possibility
and the balance in its collapse always leads to another balance."(Ch.22)
In this manner the principles of Taekwondo can be applied to various levels
whether it were a specified motion or a tactics of Kyorugi. And, it should be
like that, so that all kinds of techniques can converge to Ilgiyae.
5) "Tightening a Black Bet On a White Uniform",
《Chokwon》
6) "Tightening a Black Bet On a White Uniform",
《Chokwon》
7) This is another explanation of; "imitating
the virtues of water the motion of Taekwondo draws back only to the exact degree
that the opponent's attack cannnot reach you whatsoever it might be, and once
you find out a good chance, you move in your proper tide only to its exact degree.
What would be required to protect yourself controlling over your opponent in
the motion harmonized with him?"(Ch.23)
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