Unreadable

縱橫逆順，直復不聞

Vertical or horizontal, against or following, straight or turned over is not made known.

縱 vertical, to jump in the air

橫 horizontal, at a right angle (as opposed to 縱), unrestrained

逆 to oppose, to go against, backwards, contrary

順 to follow, along

直 straight (as opposed to 彎, 曲 crooked), simply

復 turn round or over, to repeat, to return to an original state, hexagram 24th of the Yijing

不 no, not

聞 hear, smell, to make known

This last sentence seems to stress on the need to be stealthy, to avoid having one‘s intentions uncovered.
The use of 復 instead of 彎 or 曲 in what seems to be the enumeration of opposites is certainly leading to a riddle to be solved. 聞 , also has the meanings of to hear and to smell, a more balanced reading could lead to another interpretation.

I. No Intention Revealed

This is, of course, one of the aims of a good internal practice, becoming uncrackable in one’s intention. 

縱橫 having the meaning of freely and 橫逆 of in a perverse manner, it may be interesting to link this absence of apparent intention to body moves freed from any restriction, especially the moral and social ones. Hence, such principles can be found in the more commonly used sentence “手要毒“, hands shall be malicious. Therefore, apart from their often not too sophisticated background, martists often appeared rough around the edges, when not simply violent. This is, of course, an oxymoron to be solved, the need to be camp still remained.

One of the avenues of research for martists to reach, apart from practising the unreadable face through relaxation and proper breathing, was a sort of extension of asymmetrical training. Indeed, one would start by making a move while thinking of making the exact opposite one, a way to split mind and body. 

II. The 復 Riddle

If one sees the sentence as a list of opposites, 曲 (or  彎) seems to be more appropriate as an opposite of 直. Indeed, one of the definitions of 直, straight, is what is not crooked “不曲也”.

復 is used at least for two reasons, it allows the introduction of movement through the radical 彳, small steps. Being also a hexagram, it also brings back one of the cornerstones of internal practices, change.

Though a lot of internal practices training uses postures as a basic training, one must not forget that, ultimately, it is all about moving. Putting 復 as a last character is a reminder of such ultimate goal.

復 is also the 24th hexagram. It represents repetition and the idea of cycles and can be, then, used for another interpretation.

III. Another Interpretation

Enumerating three opposites seems to imbalance the sentence. Indeed, the presence of the comma in the middle may appear a bit contrived, it looks more like a six/two characters statement than a four/four one.

In order to keep the balance one can take 直 in its “simply” meaning and 復 in its hexagram one, repetition of a cycle. Since 聞 can refer to two senses, hearing and smelling, one can also extend it to all the senses to solve the riddle.

The statement could be, then, understood as something like “Vertical, horizontal, against or following, simply over and over without feeling.”

It will then stress on the need for training to endlessly repeat routines without thinking or searching of feeling, no feelings and no emotions being one of the cornerstones to internal practices which train the void.

Because 復, as a hexagram, also implies to start all over again, finishing a cycle and starting a new one, it actually also leads to some other methods in old internal practices, including the one which consists of voiding of one’s current and previous training and principles to start anew.

This concludes the interpretation through the enigma method of the most interesting statements of the Lady of Yue, but not the general reflexion on such a text. 復, as a hexagram, makes a perfect transition in the sense that the next two posts on this old text will try to introduce the voiding method and apply it to such interpretations as an example, literally voiding all of them. Indeed, applying the oral riddle solving method to a classical text is not appropriate as far its original meaning is concerned,  one can also seriously doubt that old martists, most of them being not really literate if not totally illiterate, could access the dictionaries the author used and, furthermore, the reality or accuracy of the text in itself as a martial manifesto can even be genuinely questioned.