Grandmaster Tse’s Tàijí Fist 287 

When we practiseTàijíquán 太極拳, we often hear the Sīfu 師父 – Teacher/Master recite a poem that goes, “Liàn quán wàn biàn shén lǐ zì xiàn 練拳萬遍神理自現 – Practice Tàijíquán ten thousand times, the Spirit and Theory will be shown.” What does this mean? It means that we should keep practising our Tàijíquán. Most people, generally, only know one form, such as Lǎojià Yīlù 老架—路 – Old Frame First form. We do not need to learn many forms to understand practise Taijiquan and its theories. Of course, when learning any skill, there are different levels that you can reach, basic, standard and high level. So, we learn Lǎojià Yīlù 老架—路 and then we repeat it again and again. If we did it ten times every day, then after three years will have reached ten thousand times. When we study anything, if we put effort into it, then after about three years we will reach a standard level, which is good enough for many people. So practise ten thousand times, means we should keep practising and then we will reach a certain level and the good result of our effort will come, which means the spirit and theories of Tàijíquán will reveal themselves to us.