Changing Doors

One of the eldest texts known describing the martial arts theory is called "The Lady of Yue Talks About Fencing", a passage from the historical records called "Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue" written by Zhao Ye (?-around 83 A.C.). Later literary works inspired by this lady fencer figure, such as the one of the famous Hong-Kong writer Jin Yong called "Sword of the Yue Maiden" has made this passage quite famous, more than the one about archery that follows a few paragraphs later. Indeed, introducing a lady fencer in a male chauvinistic society which forbade teaching girls because they would marry into another family and having her teacher being an ape, a white gibbon, cannot but struck one's imagination.

If a virgin taught by a white gibbon using bamboo sticks contains already some messages for those training in internal practices, this short text actually embodies some of the most important points of the internal theory. It is so oriented that even when it explicitly opposes internal and external, it actually refers to two internal complementary trainings already described in Spirited Heart. 

The present and following posts will try to explain its most interesting statements as if solving martial arts egnimas and what kind of training they might imply whenever possible. As it was explained in the previous post, there is always more than one meaning in a martial enigma. 

"道有門戶，亦有陰陽。"

In this statement:

道 means the way (of the sword since it is the subject of the text). Still, it can also be taken as the Way in the sense it is described by Taoists.  

有 to have. 

亦 also. 

陰 Feminine principle. 

陽 Masculine principle.

The characters 門 and 戶 will be used to introduce more than one meaning. 

1. The way (of the sword) has schools and families, it also has the Feminine and Masculine principles.

Here 門 will mean school and 戶 family.

This is a general statement. In more modern times the term 門派 is often used to differentiate the different martial arts schools. What makes this sentence interesting is that it also states that they are Feminine and Masculine principles. 

Indeed, as it has been described in The Forest, it is sometimes about sorting out what is compatible and what is not. In this sense, feminine and masculine styles are not compatible, a choice has to be made. The regular practices, 正門, are masculine while the abnormal ones, 邪門, are feminine, or internal is feminine and external masculine... More generally, it is a way to state that one should understand the theory of changes, which the feminine and masculine principles embody, and know what type of training can be mixed and what is a waste of time and energy to say it in a simpler way.

2. The way (of the sword) has two doors and one door , it also has the Feminine and Masculine principles.

Here 門 will mean two doors because it is a pictogram made of two 戶, as opposed as 戶, one door*.

Again, a general statement, a reminder that the study of the sword is about changes as described in many classics. Therefore, one and two is a reference at the Supreme Ultimate which separates in two, a Feminine and a Masculine principle. Two is most probably put before one because 門戶 is a common name meaning door, sect, gateway..., which serves the different possible avenues of research explored by this text, while 戶門 is a much less used term of Traditional Chinese Medicine referring to the teeth.

One and two refers also to a system of complementary opposites as even and odd by example. Indeed, the Sword of Chaos can give such an example: "凡高勢雙勢為正，旁門低勢小勢為奇。/ All the high postures and dual ones are straight, the anomalous low postures and small ones are odd.
...
單化雙，奇中正，/ odd transforms into even, oddness in straightness,
...
雙化為單，正中奇，/ even transforms into odd, straightness in oddness,
....
是皆陰陽變化，/ These are all Feminine and Masculine principles transmutations."

By making the difference between standards and odd postures, the Sword of Chaos gives a hint that training must not only consider usual postures but also more unusual ones. Indeed, this difference can be still witnessed in styles that still practice, apart from their standard postures, the Swaying Fist (more famous as the Drunken Fist). Indeed, the idea of the Swaying Fist is to adopt totally crooked postures which give the impression of being totally out of balance while using through the lower stomach and the legs the principle of the ballast not to loose it. Therefore you have two doors, something balanced, and one door, seemingly unbalanced.

3. The way (of the sword) has outer and inner doors, it also has the Feminine and Masculine principles.

Here 門 will mean outer door as opposed as 戶, inner door*.

The traditional opposition between external and internal.  It points out that both should be trained. Furthermore, in such statement 門, external door, is linked to 陰, feminine, while 戶, internal door, to 陽, an apparent oxymoron since the feminine normally points to the internal while the masculine to external.

Outer coming first is an hint that one shall first train the body, then only comes the training of organs and vapours.

4. The way (of the sword) has doors, it also has the Feminine and Masculine principles.

Here 門戶 simply means doors.

In this sense, a door represents stillness while the Feminine and Masculine principles are motion by essence. This is a reminder that training is done through still postures as well as gestures. Stillness has to come first, then comes the study of the changes, hence the known saying, "Three years of postures, two years of boxing"**.

5. The way (of the sword) guards and shields, it also has the Feminine and Masculine principles.

Here 門 will mean to guard*** while 戶 to shield****.

Some old practices puts the stress on first and foremost protecting oneself, such translation is for them. For those, it is all a question of angles, the arms being doors that you close or open, always keeping in mind how to protect oneself.

Here, the main way to decipher the quote has been using the polysemy of 門 and 戶 in order to broaden its obvious meaning. Other methods like homophony, linking characters, giving internal and external versions.... will be used in later quotes.

Non-translated are dictionary references for Chinese readers.

*《六書精薀》室之口也。凡室之口曰戶，堂之口曰門。內曰戶，外曰門。一扉曰戶，兩扉曰門。

** 三年樁，兩年拳。
***《博雅》門，守也。

****《說文》護也。《釋名》所以謹護閉塞也。