Softness is the child of wisdom

The two major principles of Tai Chi Chuan self-defence strategy are using stillness to defeat motion, and using softness to defeat hardness.Softness is the child of wisdom, and is not merely a weak force which can somehow magically defeat a stronger one.Perhaps the best example of its use was in the war between Greece and Troy, where for years the Greeks laid siege to Troy and thousands of lives were lost on both sides in a bitter war of attrition. Finally, at the suggestion of Odysseus, the most cunning of their leaders, the Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving behind the gift of a huge wooden horse. The Trojans hauled this into their city as a triumph, believing the war to be over. Late at night, a party of Greeks, who had hidden inside the horse, broke out, killed the guards and opened the gates for their comrades who had returned and were lying in wait. The Trojans, unprepared and unarmed after a night of celebration, were no match for the Greeks and Troy was put to the sword. This illustrates that the real meaning of softness lies in the use of intelligence rather than brute force.