I'm reading The Elements of Tai Chi, by Paul Crompton, at the moment. In his introduction, he says Tai Chi developed at a time when Taoists influenced thinking and conduct at many levels in Chinese society but that now the total situation into which Tai Chi was introduced is gone.
Tai Chi is like a finger pointing at the Moon. The student can either study the finger [Buddha] or look at the Moon [Buddha's teaching].
This seems to be the idea behind Yoshitoshi's picture, done circa 1892, and which I saw recently at the Chester Beatty Library.
His own haiku reads:
Holding back the night
With its increasing brilliance
The summer moon
(Yoshitoshi’s death poem)
