ABSTRACT
We show how the relationships among technique, nature and culture have historically been established in the West and then present the case of a model for learning a Chinese martial art that claims to be natural, in the natural style. Then, using this model in relation to recent findings in the cognitive sciences, we sketch out a paradigmatic genealogy of technique and try to explain in passing why the Western has lagged behind on this issue. The ‘natural style’ (ziranmen, 自然門) is an internal martial art (neijia, 內家) explicitly oriented towards combat: traning is split into three distinct phases called 'form' (有形, youxing) ‘formless' (有形, youxing), and 'true form' (真形, zhenxing), each corresponding to a specific way of conceiving and materialising the relationships among technique, nature and culture through appropriate exercises and working methods. Later, the same ‘styles’ that allowed the learner to discover her body, will also familiarise her, along the way, with the laws that govern action in general.
