ABSTRACT
The flow and accumulation of energy in the body during the practice of Tai Chi Ch’uan can be represented in an accurate and enlightening way by means of the cycle of twelve hexagrams known as the “Waxing and Waning of Ch’ien and K’un.” The cycle itself is fairly simple to describe, the ideas of “waxing” and “waning” having to do with the orderly increase and decrease of the number of unbroken (yang) lines in the hexagrams involved. With a bit of imagination, it is not difficult to see how this pattern of hexagrams can be used to give an accurate account of the regular cyclic processes of nature, such as the phases of the moon and seasons of the year. The movements of the limbs in this form are designed to guide the flow of the ch’i from the feet up the spine to the top of the head and then down the front of the body to the abdomen.
