From The Essence and Application of Taijiquan by Yang Chengfu, grandson of the Yang style founder; Yang Chengfu remembering an explanation from his grandfather:
"...The gentlemen of today know only that our nation's troubles come from poverty; they still do not understand that our nation's sickness lies in its weakness. Therefore, those formulating our national policies vie for plans to save us from poverty, but I have yet to hear a plan to rouse the failing or raise up the weakened. Yet this country is riddled with disease... the proper path for saving the nation is certainly to recognize the urgency of saving ourselves from weakness. To neglect this, one might as well have no plan, for it is like treating only the surface."
"...The gentlemen of today know only that our nation's troubles come from poverty; they still do not understand that our nation's sickness lies in its weakness. Therefore, those formulating our national policies vie for plans to save us from poverty, but I have yet to hear a plan to rouse the failing or raise up the weakened. Yet this country is riddled with disease... the proper path for saving the nation is certainly to recognize the urgency of saving ourselves from weakness. To neglect this, one might as well have no plan, for it is like treating only the surface."
