12 Characters Principle Grouping

[mantis108]

On the other thread about Gou Lou Cai by Oso, he asked the following questions. I don't want to hijack that thread so I open a different thread. First a recap:

ok, so...what is everyone's opinion of the formation of the 12 key words into their recognized groupings?

Here's an old reply to a friend on my forum about the 12 Characters grouping:

<<<Now, there is a straightly personal reason why this is important is to me. The 12 characters that of Taiji/Meihwa mantis IMHO can be seen as 6 and a half principles/theory that of Weng Chun. We have Zhan Nian, Bang Tie, Lai Jiao, Shun Song, Ti Na, and Feng Bi, a total of 6 pairs and the half is the Shan of Shan Zhuan. The Shan is almost equivalent of Lau (leaking). Shan implies shen fa and agile footwook this is a very important trait of northern style (ie Nothern legs). Lau on the other hand is more about encountering immovable object (implies solid stance of southern fist) and being flexible. It is this half point that makes the difference. Yet, the most interesting of all about 12 Characters and 6 and a half theories is that they both were once principles of staff or long pole fighting. Coincident? I think that might just be some connections between this. I think the answer lies in General Yue Dayou who was the mentor of General Qi. He taught Shaolin monk as well as the military staff fighting. So northern legs and southern fists, are they really that far apart or is it really that they are really that much closer than we generally believe?>>>

some quick points:

1) I see the pairing of the 12 keywords as the pairing of the 12 regular meridians. For each Yin meridian you will find a matching Yang meridian.

2) Shan Zhuan Teng Nuo (dodge, Deceive, Leap, and shift) concept is also very important IMHO in the mantis forumlation. So personally, I would say six and half concept is important to my mantis.

3) Gou, Lou, and Cai go under the Feng Bi in my grouping.

4) With this Six and A Half Point concept, I believe we could even go to the ground range without much difficulty with mantis.

5) Weng Chun (Yong Chun) is a style that GM Chiu came across in Macao. It is through the Weng Chun style that we have the wooden dummy in CCK TCPM.

It seems that if the 12 keywords weren't meant to be analyzed separately, then they wouldn't have come to be called '12 keywords' but, what, like '6 key words'

Personally, you sure can analyze them individually. It's like an amputated person missing a limb. There is distrution to his meridian system. He may not be dying but he's certainly not going to be functioning very well relative to "normal" standard. So the same analogy applies here. Take the 12 keys words apart and see how well will your mantis function.

'gou lou cai' is grouped as one thing
'gua' is usually looked at alone, right?
all the others are generally paired in every iteration i've read....which isn't many.

7 Star has it's own believe system and experience. They can make things work through their own understanding. I believe we should respect that and leave it at that. The important thing is that we don't lose the focus of what the priority and signifcance of the material that is received from our teachers.

Mantis108