“I think '13 stations' works better than '13 dispositions'; 'disposition' is really more about disposing than position.”
I suppose that highly nuanced actions require highly nuanced words for referring to them. If disposition is more about disposing than position, then I think that supports my point that it’s a good rendering for the 13 shi. “Stations,” again, sounds too static to me, unless you’re thinking of “the act or manner of standing: posture.” But consider this: disposing, after all, is an action. One disposes troops, positioning them along a line of defense. The disposing is prior to, and essential in, the positioning. Disposition includes connotations of “orderly arrangement,” “prevailing tendency,” so the word does a good job of capturing the ‘yi’ of taijiquan movement technique. I think of shi as a configuration of jin and intent.
Here’s a passage from a wonderful book by the French Sinologist, Francois Jullien, _The Propensity of Things: Toward a History of Efficacy in China_. The whole damn book is about the word "shi." Although Jullien makes a few references to taijiquan in his book, quoting Despeux's book _Taiji Quan: Art martial, technique de longue vie_, he is in this passage speaking specifically about calligraphy theory. It really applies to numerous arenas, as he demonstrates throughout his book:
"When translators do gloss shi, they render it indiscriminately as 'postures' ('positions') or 'movements.' But actually both 'postures' and 'movements' are simultaneously involved. On its own, 'posture' seems inadequate because it implies immobility, however temporary: our notion of reason seems incapable of analyzing a disposition without petrifying it. But given that, in reality, one gesture follows into another, it is not possible to arbitrarily distinguish between one individual 'position' and the movement that both stems from it and leads into it." (1995, Zone Books, p. 113)
To me, that applies beautifully to the art of taijiquan.
Although sometimes rendered “power,” I think that etymological arguments can be made that shi is more about the management of power or resources, carrying an entailment something like the English word “husbandry”: ‘the control or judicious use of resources.” Roger Ames, in his translation of ch. 9 of the Huainanzi as _The Art of Rulership_, argues convincingly that the word shi developed primarily in the area of military theory, where its meaning was usually one of “strategic advantage.” Later, it was appropriated into political usage, where it had a meaning something like “purchase” as in “to get a purchase on” or what modern politicos may call “traction.” 'We aren't getting any traction on that issue in Vermont.' But in both contexts, the term shi referenced and depended upon the prevailing circumstances—environmental, psychological, etc.
I’ve notice that in more modern Chinese taijiquan manuals beginning in the 50s or 60s, the compound “zishi” is consistently used with a meaning of “posture.” In earlier manuals, it is usually just the character shi by itself. Often, for example in Yang Chengfu’s book, Taijiquan tiyong quanshu, it is used interchangeably with the homophonic shi meaning “pattern,” “model,” “form,” or “style” (as in Yang Shi Taijiquan). But I think it is misleading to think of “shi” as it appears in the earliest taiji texts, and in the traditional formula, “shisan shi” as “posture.”