A Mnemonic Fairy Tale

A mnemonic device is something that is intended to assist your memory.  There are many types of mnemonic devices.  Think of ROY G BIV: the acronym  that helps us remember the colors of the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. 

"The Golden Lute" is a mnemonic device - a totally unrealistic, imaginary and sometimes even foolish story.  It is meant to help you learn the forms of the Yang 24.  It works with only the names in order of their sequence. It does not tell you anything about how the forms are practiced.

Read the story several times out load if you can. Pay special attention to the red keywords. Then practice the Yang 24.  Repeat after an hour or two.  Then repeat after 24 hours.  Then after a week.  

Once Upon a time in the country of magic and make believe there lived a brave warrior whose name was Yang.

Yang had a horse named Tai who he loved very much.  Tai and Yang loved to ride around exploring different areas.

Adventure 1

One beautiful sunny day Yang went out riding with Tai in the direction of the sea to find some adventures. Yang so loved Tai that he would gently part his mane as he started riding.

On this particular day as they were riding along, Yang noticed a beautiful white crane flying in the distant sky circling around, riding the wind and spreading it wings wide getting ready to land.  Wishing to get a little closer to where the crane was going to land Yang gave Tai a little brush with his knee to say let’s go and see what was going on.

When they came to the spot where the beautiful crane had landed Yang discovered that the crane had magically turned into an exquisite gold Lute.  Yang dismounted and carefully lifted the gold lute to place it on Tai’s back.  But suddenly a hoard of killer monkeys sprang from nowhere looking to snatch the gold lute from Yang. They had large ugly wings and their teeth were sharp and pointed. Their eyes were neon green and they smelled like dead fish. As they came closer and closer Yang began to repulse the monkeys but they were too many and too strong for him and just as they were about to kill him a huge flock of hundreds of small sparrows came to Yang’s aid and pecked out the monkey’s eyes so they couldn’t see.   Yang was so happy that he took out his single whip that he always carried with him and flicked it in the air so that it gave off a loud snap to let the sparrows know how joyful he was and to thank them for saving his life.

Yang and Tai continued their journey.

End of part I

Adventure 2

On the second day of their journey Yang and Tai again started off. The day was beautiful as they trotted off and as Yang looked up toward the sky he noticed how willowy and wispy the clouds looked and how elegantly they glided across the sky without even seeming to move. He cracked his whip again in sheer joy. He had found the gold lute and it was his.

But things were not quite right.  The skies darkened and the ground began to rumble.  Yang realized that riders were somewhere in the area.  Soon they appeared on the horizon, encased in a huge ball of dust. Yang knew that they were looking for the gold lute. Yang dismounted Tai and gave him a high pat on his back to calm him.  He then prepared himself for a fight and waited. There were many of them and they were ready to fight to the death for the gold lute.  This time Yang was prepared and he fought them off with right kicks to the groin, strikes to the neck, and a box to the ears. One after another he took them on.  When other villains attacked him from behind, he turned around and lashed out with left heel kicks, this time to the dan tien and they fell away in pain.   At one point he bent low to pick up a snake to use it as a whip but the snake magically turned into a rooster that lifted one leg and sharply struck one savage in the head and killed him.  So once again, Yang came out the victor.

End of Adventure 2.

Adventure 3

Yang hopped back onto Tai and together they trotted off toward the sea.  After several hours of leisurely riding along they came upon a cabin.  In the back of the cabin was a fair maiden whose name was Yin.  She had been working the shuttles spinning silk but she lost a needle that she was now searching for.  Yang helped her in her search and he found the needle at the bottom of the sea.  He looked over at Yin to tell that he found the needle and as he looked at her he thought to himself that she was the most beautiful girl in the world and he fell in love with her immediately.  But all was not well.  One of the winged monkeys had followed him. The fair maiden, Yin, raised her fan to alert Yang who readied himself to protect her.  With a parry and punch Yang knocked out the monkey.  And guess what? Yang asked Yin to marry him and she said yes. So Yin and Yang joined together and they rode off into the sunset on faithful Tai.

And they lived happily ever after with lots of money from the golden lute. 

The End