Vol 11, Issue 1/2003
Did the Mona Lisa practise Taiji?
On cheerfulness, humour and the Chinese movement art. By Axel Dreyer
With the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa and the inner smile in Qigong and Taijiquan as his point of departure, Axel Dreyer’s essay starts with a cheerful attitude to life, progresses through humour and moves on to uninhibited laughter. In the process he shows the origins and effects of these different aspects of cheerfulness and their significance for a calm, centred attitude in life – which, as is well known, is a basic precondition for deep relaxation and action in the sense of Wuwei.
