WEAKNESS OF DOUBLE YANG
Crane Flying through Clouds, manifesting the yin-yang harmony of solidness and agility
Question
When a practitioner is solid in his stance but does not move fast, we refer to this as a weakness of double yang. When a practitioner is fast but has no force, we also refer to it as a weakness of double yang. Why is it not a weakness of double yin?
-- Santiago, Mexico
Answer
Yin and yang are symbols, and as symbols they may represent different things in different contexts. By convention, what is obvious is represented by yang, and what is not obvious is represented by yin.
In the context of a person being solid and not moving fast, these two aspects are obvious, and are represented by yang. Hence, we refer to his setback as a weakness of double yang.
When you stay at your stance, you are very solid. If someone were to attack you, but this has not happened yet, you could move very fast. The hidden part, your ability to move fast despite being very solid, is represented by yin. In this case, you have yin-yang harmony, even when your ability to move fast has not been tested out yet.
Now someone actually attacks you, and you move fast despite originally you were at a solid stance. So now both your solidness and agility are obvious. Do we still call this yin-yang harmony, or the strength of double yang?
We call it yin-yang harmony. In this new context, yin and yang do not represent the non-obvious and the obvious; they represent agility and solidness.
Similarly when a person is fast and has no force, we refer to the situation as a weakness of double yang, regardless of whether before or after his lack of force has been acted out. It is because it is common, and therefore obvious, that when people are fast they have little or no force.
If you are fast and also forceful, or you are forceful and also fast, in both cases you have yin-yang harmony.
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