Tiger Lady, Lady Meets Tiger

In a Feminine and Masculine principles (Yin and Yang) relation, there are always connections with the Feminine and the Masculine and one principle also always exists inside the other one. Lady is obviously the Feminine while tiger the Masculine. In this particular case, it is mainly dealing with the issue of check and balance as well as being able to instantly switch from one state to another. Therefore, as ladylike one would look, it will still be a spirited and unpredictable one who would fiercely preserve her integrity. Furthermore, using the absence of empathy will be one of the way to calmly endure insults, threats and bulling. As far as the tiger is concerned, as wild and insane one would behave, self-control and vigilance would remain. Furthermore, as the oxymoron method dictates, the more fierce, cruel and insane one was outside the more calm, smiling and mild one had to be inside.

I. Smiling Lady, Hidden Tiger

There are two qualities of a lady, even if nice, which links to the tiger, her deep sense of integrity and her capacity to change her mood in an instant for no apparent reasons (remember, this text was written in a male chauvinistic society). Furthermore, the lost of empathy a tiger has was directly used outside fighting in a reverse way in order to withstand insults and bullying.

a. Don't Touch Me!

Women can be very sensitive about being touched, even casually, by men. For this, apart from some sexual predators, they naturally adopt an attitude which keeps people from touching them. This quality, knowing where one's integrity lies and changing attitude according to the danger to it, is what martists were also looking for in a nice lady. The idea was to react and withdraw swiftly to avoid any contact like a woman would do, or even more as if touched by fire, and change into a defensive attitude. A known old training related to keeping one's integrity used to be to first learn to slalom around poles, as close as possible but strictly avoiding to touch them. Then one would have to slalom between hanged and swaying wooden sticks. Then blunt blades would replace the sticks, and finally sharp ones. Slalom meant that ultimately one shall not be allowed to stop, he/she had to avoid the swaying material while keeping on moving forwards and using the "Don't touch me!" or "Touched by fire" attitude.

b. Unpredictable

Being unpredictable by avoiding to have a fixed daily routine was also an essential part of the life of a martist. But what was even more sought for was to be able to instantly change one's spirit, an essential skill allowing martists to respond immediately to the sudden and unexpected.  One of the still known trainings for such unpredictability is while doing routines at a normal speed making a sudden extremely fast move, in short training to be able to change pace without notice or preparation. This ability was also, of course, the consequence of the fact that one would be trained to be on guard at all times, a basic skill for a pretty lady.

c. Empathy Reversed

The capacity to endure insults and even being bullied described in Tiger Lady, a Nice Lady is actually also partly coming from the hidden tiger in a smiling lady. Indeed, reaching a non-emotive state and loosing one's empathy would make those who insult or bully seem like just annoying insects. Since outside a fight one is more a lady, a degree of compassion for those poor insects, if any emotion should still rise, would emerge. In other words, enduring sometimes was a question of denying others their humanity.

If the tiger in the lady would keep someone from becoming a victim, the lady in the tiger would prevent the same person from becoming an uncontrollable manslayer.

II. Insane Tiger, Hidden Lady

While wildly fighting, the lady inside would help the tiger to maintain control, both through quietness and the ability to be guarded. Furthermore, to maintain the absence of empathy, one would use the sympathy of a lady in a perverted way if any emotion were to still arise.

a. Quiet Inside

This is a direct application of the Feminine and Masculine principles (Yin and Yang) theory, the more one is wild outside, the more he has to be quiet inside to compensate. In other words intense violence outside will come from an intense stillness inside. As described before in many posts, one's capacity to keep on breathing normally was one of the ways to judge if, as wild and fast one would be, one would still remain quiet inside. For this, one would reverse and extend the saying and look like a fearsome tiger while standing like a tender lady. This was trained through holding postures, looking scary but reaching a void and a total quietness inside through proper breathing. 

b. Keeping One's Guard

As insane as one would be, keeping the being on guard spirit of the lady would be a key factor for not totally losing it. Those who work on emptiness and the getting out of one's body training will always end up being faced with a sense of invincibility which makes them loose sight of the reality. Being able to still assess the real dangers and react accordingly, hence the lady in the tiger, becomes a survival skill.

To give a simple example, training such techniques, one could stand in front of a truck coming at full speed, fearless and not even raising an eyebrow, a fearsome tiger. Not moving at all would mean a total control of one's heart but also, for certain, one's death. In such a fearless state would come the guarded spirit which would rationally analyse the situation and make one's body move to avoid the danger. Therefore, training insanity was often made through codified forms in order to keep a certain control over it or even at a very slow speed, putting then one's body and spirit in two opposite directions. Indeed one would remain furious but at the speed and vigilance of a peeping thieve.

c. Sympathy Reversed

Very similar to the logic described in Empathy Reversed, if any emotion would still rise in the necessary void of the fight, it would be a certain sympathy a predator has for the prey who is going to be its meal. Once again, it is still a question of forgetting that the opponent is human, a safety belt in case an emotion still comes during fighting which still leads to the goal to be achieved.

Once again, most of the trainings and rules described cannot really apply to modern leisurely so-called martial arts. Still, as a reminder from where they come from, much more savage societies, or less relying on technology, they may be still interesting.