When Taiji was introduced to the West in the mid-twentieth century,
those essential teachings needed to fully comprehend this art were
either ignored or misunderstood by Occidental practitioners. The serious
student was left to his own devices to unearth Taiji’s foundations from
the few reference books that existed. In Tai Chi Chuan: The Code of
Life, Graham Horwood has created an important and sophisticated work
that opens the mysteries of Taiji to the West. What is unique in this
book is that Horwood uses contemporary findings in DNA research and
Jungian psychological techniques in which he is adept to explain in
Western terms Taiji’s inner workings.

Carl Jung, who departed from Sigmund Freud’s school of psychotherapy to
establish his own system, rejected the monolithic emphasis Freud placed
on the effect of sexuality on the subconscious. Jung believed that just
as the human body shows a common anatomy beyond racial differences, so
the psyche possesses a common substratum that transcends all cultures
and consciousness. Jung called that substratum the “collective
unconscious.” He recognized that mankind’s conscious imagination and
actions developed from certain common unconscious archetypal images and
always remain bound up with them. These archetypes have been expressed
in the classical mythologies and enlightened texts that man created in
early historical times when the distinctions between conscious and
subconscious reality were not as ossified as they are today.

Horwood utilizes these and other Jungian concepts to plumb Taiji’s
spiritual depths that heretofore remained ensconced in the Eastern
psyche. The author thereby lets the Western reader utilize his own frame
of reference to explore this Oriental art at its core. In so doing,
Horwood synchronizes Western myths and spiritual symbols with the
parallel universe of rich Chinese motifs that are physically expressed
in the Taijiquan movements, which have been traditionally elucidated in
China by the archetypal hexagrams contained in the Book of Changes.

As observed by Horwood, the symbols of the Book of Changes are
representations of energy states that can be expressed and developed
within the Taiji postures at a cellular level. For example, as Horwood
sets forth in his treatment, the two initial moves of Taijiquan known
as “ward off” and “roll back” are represented by the Book of Change’s
hexagrams of Heaven (six yang or masculine lines) and Earth (six yin or
feminine lines) respectively. Horwood then presents numerous analogous
archetypes that are familiar to us in the West for Heaven (the Supreme
Creator, Yahweh, and Zeus) and for Earth (Earth Goddess, Sophia, Venus,
and Mother Mary). Horwood so analyzes the six other main Taiji movements.

Horwood also explains how the most recent discoveries in the field of
DNA genetic coding correlate to the Book of Change’s ancient
permutations. Remarkably, the genetic vocabulary set forth in the DNA
language unearthed by modern science consists of 64 basic combinations
of acidic positive and sugar negative ingredients that seem to have been
mapped intuitively by the creators of the 64 combinations of yin and
yang contained in the Book of Change’s hexagrams.

Horwood elucidates how practicing the eight basic Taiji postures affects
the energy meridians that correlate to the yin and yang organs of the
body as catalogued in Traditional Chinese Medicine. He further reveals
several distinctive energy work (qigong) breathing patterns with
detailed diagrams setting forth the particular acupuncture points and
meridians that are energized in the meditative practices of Taiji. These
patterns, which Horwood represents as secret Yang family teachings,
transform Taijiquan practice from an empty dance into a rich meditative
exercise that not only can be used to prolong life, but also to enrich
the spirit.