🥷🏻 The Taichi article you never knew you wanted is here at last!

Introduction

Based on the Wutan school’s interpretation of the traditional ‘Yang Long form’ - each move as emoji!

For registered students, the full sequence of the form is here https://www.blackwatertaichi.com/yang-long-form.

See also my short article here (no login required) https://www.blackwatertaichi.com/blog/yang-long-form.

For convenience, the sequence is broken into chunks reflecting Wutan’s practice of varying the number of repetitions of certain moves (‘Fives’, ‘Fours’, ‘Threes’ etc.).

I am sure my translation to ‘emoji’ has lost as much of the subtlety, beauty and poetry as the translation from the traditional Mandarin / Chinese characters to English.

Needless to say I wrote this for fun and to help lock in the sequence in my own mind. Apologies in advance if you find it more of a hindrance than a help.

Hints and tips

I am not going to spell them all out - what would be the fun in that? But it is fair to say there are not really good representations of all the moves in single or even multiple combined emojis. If you can see emojis I have missed or combinations that work better, feel free to drop me a note with your proposal. I may disagree, so can’t promise to include them.

• ➰ = single whip

• 🫲 = ward off left

• 🫱 = ward off right

• 🪽= white crane spreads its wings

• 🎸 = play pipa

• 💪🏻 = shoulder strike. Closest I could get. There is no shoulder emoji! Fortunately / unfortunately some references will refer to this move as elbow strike 😄

• 🏐🪰 = hold the ball followed by ‘diagonal fly’ (slant flying)

I have sometimes used the arrows to indicate ‘up’ or ‘down’ (⬆️) and sometimes to indicate compass bearings such as North West, North East etc. (↖️ , ↗️ ). The context is important - if you know, you know! I could have added a lot more directional indicators, but felt that would have increased sensory overload even further - see my article on ‘four corners’ https://www.blackwatertaichi.com/blog/fair-lady-weaves-at-shuttles-four-corners.

Lastly - have fun!

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Opening

🙌
🤲
🫲
🫱🔙✋🤲
↖️ 🤲 ↗️ 🤲
➰
⬆️🙌
🫏 🦶
💪🏻
🪽
🧹🦵🫸
🫏 🦶
🧹🦵🫸
🧹🦵🫸
🧹🦵🫸
🫏 🦶
🎸
🧹🦵🫸
✋🚫🦶🥊
↗️✋💪🏻
🙅‍♀️

Fives

↘️🧹🦵🫸
🤗 🐯 ➡️🗻
🤲 ⬆️ 🤲 ➡️
🪭
🥊 💪🏻
🐒🐒🐒🐒🐒
🏐🪰
⬆️🙌
💪🏻
🪽
🧹🦵🫸
🫏 🦶
🪡 🌊
🪭
✊🏻🖐️🥊
✋🚫🦶🥊
🐴 ✋
🫱🔙✋🤲
↖️ 🤲 ↗️ 🤲
➰
☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
🙋🐴
✋🦵✋🦵✋🦵
🧹🦵🫸
🧹🦵🫸
🧹🦵🥊
✊🏻🖐️🥊
✋🚫🦶🥊
🫱🔙✋🤲
🦶
↖️🫸
🐯🥊 🐯🥊
🦶
↖️🤲🥊👂🏻
🦶
🦶
🥊🦵✊🏻
🐉
🥊
↗️✋💪🏻
🤲
🧹🦵🫸
🤗 🐯 ➡️🗻
↖️ 🤲 ↗️ 🤲
➰
🐴 ✋🐴 ✋🐴 ✋🐴 ✋🐴 ✋
🫲
🫱🔙✋🤲
↖️ 🤲 ↗️ 🤲
➰

Fours

🙋‍♀️💁‍♀️🙋‍♀️💁‍♀️
🫲
🫱🔙✋🤲
↖️ 🤲 ↗️ 🤲
➰
☁️☁️☁️☁️
➰

Threes

🐍
🐓🐓
🐒🐒🐒
✋🏐🪰
🎸
💪🏻
🪽
🧹🦵🫸
🫏 🦶
🪡 🌊
🪭
✊🏻🖐️🥊
✋🚫🦶🥊
🫱🔙✋🤲
➰

Closing

🙋🐴
🐍👅
🙅‍♀️🦶
🐉🥊
🫱🔙✋🤲
↖️ 🤲 ↗️ 🤲
➰
🐍⬇️
✨
🐯
🪷🦶
🏹🐯
✋🚫🦶🥊
↗️✋💪🏻
🤲
🙅‍♀️
🤗
⬇️
🙇

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Featured image from iStockphoto