A Fleeting Light

彷彿若光，影逐形追

Seemingly as if a light, shadows one by one chasing shapes

追 chase (or run) after; pursue

形 form; shape

逐 pursue; chase; one by one

影 shadow; reflection; vague impression

光 light; ray; brightness; naked; nothing left

若 as if, like

彿 seemingly

彷 seemingly,: resembling

When trying to expand the meaning of the quote, the first thing that strikes the reader is that maybe the second part is written in the wrong order*. Hence, the whole quote has been reversed in the present post. Since this text is relatively old, a lot of what seems to be part historically part of Chinese culture may actually not be relevant.

Using the enigma method to interpret such text, one can push relevance aside. Still, in this particular case, it may be interesting to briefly consider it. Indeed, Spring and Autumn of Wu and Yue, regarded more as an historical novel than historical records, was compiled by during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 AD-220 AD) by Zhao Ye, 趙曄, and King Goujian reigned between reigned from 496 to 465 BC. Hence, Buddhism had not yet been introduced in China during his reign and would be later introduced during the Eastern Han. Also, if Taoism indeed existed during the Han Dynasty, it was not the case during the reign of Goujian though some of its concepts were already present, the Book of Changes being already a classic, for example.

Thus, if the first part of this post will expose some expansions and their link to training, the second hints at other avenues which can also be explored.

I. Basic Expansions

Two easy expansions can be found, the first one being to read the phrase in a reverse order as the second part would suggest. The second is the use of the radicals 彡 and 彳, each conveniently of three strokes and one located on the left while the other on the right which may be related to the “even and odd” theory sometimes used.

a. Reverse

光若彿彷 reverse becomes 彷彿若光, which translates into a much more understandable “seemingly as if a light”. Such reverse order is even found similar but to one character in a later fable, The Records of the Peach Blossom Spring** by Tao Yuanming: “山有小口, 髣髴若有光”***.

Reversing the second part, the first thing would be to check the meaning of the first part reversed: 影逐形追, “shadows one by one chasing shapes”. As mentioned in the previous post concerning this quote, shadows may refer to the training of organs and vapours. Hence, this reversed sentence can be seen as a mention to a method often used which consists of having a few postures supposed to each work on a certain organ, a certain fascia line and its corresponding meridian channel.

Still, on an even larger scale, writing backwards points out another cornerstone of old practices, the reverse method, which can be found at least in three cases:

• Externally, where some schools have a lot of training keys contained in the performance of its movements sequence in a rewind mode****.
• Internally where some of the body flows, fluid or vapours have to be reversed.
• Wholly when its concerns the ageing process after puberty, whether external or internal. Hence, the legendary and exaggerated immortality was not an aim for Taoists. Leaving longer and healthier was just an impartial way to judge the rightness of one’s practice. Therefore, the more one was able to slow, or even reverse, the ageing process, the more he was supposed to be close to Enlightenment.

b. Even and Odd

Without even reversing the order, another peculiarity of this quote is the presence of two three-strokes radicals on two characters, on the right for two characters in the first part of the statement and on the left for also two of them in the second part. This can give quite a few avenues of research such as:

• Studying first right, hence straight postures and then left, hence postures with weird angles.
• Feminine and Masculine principles, starting to study masculine, the obvious and in motion, to finish by studying feminine, the obscure and motionless.
• Three strokes for the three treasures, first the external ones (fascias, bones and skin) and then the internal ones (essence, vapours and spirit). Back to the method, one has to first study the external ones, then comes the internal ones.
• 彡 means hairs while 彳 small step or stepping with the left foot when opposed to亍 in 行 to walk. In a way, one could argue that, in this instance, 彡 refers actually to 亍 and that the use of both radicals is an indirect way to state that martial arts were the study of movements, 行, whether visible, 形, or invisible, 影, their direction, 方, or their absence, 弗.

II. Other Avenues 

One may further explore through the Eight Trigrams and Great Dipper theories. 

a. Pre-Taoism Issue

Whatever the temptation maybe, one could have to think that 若 and 彿 are actually a hint at Buddhism*****, expanding the text with Buddhist notions seems to be really historically irrelevant for the least and may not serve any practical purpose (unless of course one can use a Buddhist term linked to one of those characters in his/her training).

The problem lies more with Taoism, some of the theories it bases itself on being already present, such as the Book of Changes, others not yet.

Furthermore, martial arts studies was mainly oral at that time, which means some of the concepts might not be found in the contemporary writings and may have appeared later on or be lost.

As for example, below, one expansion linked to the Book of Changes seems historically relevant while the second one may not be.

b. Relevant Eight Trigrams, Question Mark Great Dipper

Referring to the Bagua, 彡 would represent Qian ☰, the heaven, while 彳Xun ☴, the wind. Normally Qian is opposed to Kun ☷, the earth, in Fuxi’s Earlier Heaven while, and Xun to Li ☲, the fire in King Wen’s Later Heaven. Such opposition in the radicals may be just a way that one has to train both the Ealier and Later Heavens. Opposing ☰ and ☴ may also refer to the odd and even theory described in the previous chapter. 

彿彷 is also peculiar both in its writing and characters order. Not only is the order reversed but both characters can be written with one less stroke 仿佛 or in a totally different way 髣髴. This can leave quite some keys for training for those curious to go further. A quick example is that 佛 usually pronounced fó is also pronounced bì, becoming the synonym of 弼, to help. 右(left)弼 is also the name of one of the two almost invisible (“seemingly as if a light”) stars next to the Great Dipper. When one knows that the Great Dipper is also a Taoist riddle to find some points in one’s body for internal alchemy, especially when looking for the famous 玄機, the “abstruse secret”. Indeed 玄機 is also supposed to be a location in one’s body which works like a water spring or water wheel.

Such quote is a good example of the main difficulty when working on old texts with the deciphering method. Indeed, interpretation leads to actually giving meanings which were not meant by the author or couldn’t even be fathomed at the place or time of the writings. Still, one must not forget that those texts, when using the deciphering method, are not meant as rules to be followed to the letter, but as a help to understand and further one’s knowledge in his/her practice and especially its method. Hence, if one has to take into account what the author meant, the truth or falsehood of one’s interpretation lies more on his/her ability to physically put it to the test. Indeed, interpreting old texts is not just an intellectual exercise, it has to become a physical one too.

*彿彷, for the least, does not seem to be a recognised reversed writing of 彷彿. Indeed, dialects or just Chinese sometimes reverse the order of their words, such as 喜歡, to like, love, be fond of, which becomes 歡喜 both in Cantonese and Shanghainese dialects. 歡喜 is found in Chinese dictionaries, not 彿彷. It remains maybe a plausible hypothesis that 彷彿 may have been written 彿彷 during Gou Jian reign but it does not make the statement clearer, only reversing the sentence seems to give more meaning.

**陶淵明〈桃花源記〉. Such fable was written around 421 during the Jin Dynasty. Spring refers to water, not the season.

***彷彿 is also sometimes written 髣髴.

****Exactly as if rewinding a movie, not just moving backwards.

*****若, ruò, can also be pronounced rě when it is used to describe Buddhist terms such as 般若, highest wisdom for prajña in Sanskrit, or 蘭若, abbreviation of 阿蘭若, a way to call a Buddhist temple also coming from the Sanskrit Aranyakah. 彷彿 is also often written 仿佛. 佛 from its original meaning seemingly started to be used as an abbreviation for Buddha with time.