Settling in the Aquatic Depths that We Are: A New Materialist Irigarayan Reading of Subjectivity as a Practice of Qi in Taiji

Following Irigaray and new materialist thinkers’ concerns for the vital matter that we are, this paper analyzes the practice of Taiji (太極拳) as a method of attuning to the dynamic molecular processes that constitute us. It asks: What can we do to celebrate the vibrant matter that we are? Who can we become by taking these actions? In Taiji, we transform ourselves based on the elemental and more-than-human processes of qi. We act to align our psychosomatic practice with the ecological processes of the elements. In this practice, our subjectivity is defined by our capacity to both dwell in and accommodate the material vitality of qi. We can be both active practitioners and the immersed depths of life we dive into. This article focuses on a particular aspect of the practice of qi: the verb chen (沉), “to settle in aquatic depths” in the instruction of Taiji. Specifically, in dialogue with Irigaray’s subjectivity of breathing and Astrida Neimanis’s bodies of water, this article unfolds in three sections. The first explores how qi is sustained as sea in the body and how the practitioner thus orients their practice towards the gestationality of their bodies. The second section explores the intentionality of the practice involved in the vital processes in the encounter of the elements of fire and water, which together generate an internal atmosphere. The third section presents the practical methods of settling in Taiji to articulate the subjectivity that the practice enacts. This article proposes an alternative subjectivity—one that emerges in the practice of settling in oneself by becoming what one settles into.