T'ai Chi Ch'üan, Taijiquan, Tai Chi Chuan, or commonly Tai Chi or Taiji (太極拳, or simplified 太极拳; in pinyin: tài jí quán literally supreme ultimate fist), is a Nei chia ("internal") Chinesemartial art which is known for the claims of health and longevity benefits made by its practitioners and in some recent medical studies. T'ai Chi Ch'uan is also known as a "soft style" martial art.
Tai Chi Chuan
This article is part of the branches of CAM series.
T'ai Chi forms are best known as the slow motion routines groups of people practice every morning in hundreds of parks across China and, increasingly, other parts of the world. In T'ai Chi classes one is taught awareness of one's own balance and what affects it, awareness of the same in of others, and appreciation of the practical value in one's ability to moderate extremes of behavior and attitude at both mental and physical levels.
T'ai Chi Ch'üan is considered an art of moving-meditation that is nowadays also considered a form of alternative medicine. While its practitioners have historically considered it primarily a style of martial art, T'ai Chi theory and practise is indeed largely formulated in agreement with many of the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. Besides the general health benefits attributed to beginning and intermediate level T'ai Chi training, many therapeutic interventions along the lines of TCM are taught to senior T'ai Chi students in traditional schools.
T'ai Chi Ch'üan as a physical art form is characterized by:
Leverage through the joints based on coordination in relaxation rather than tension, which is seen to improve stamina and to open the circulation.
Using this relaxed quality of motion coordinated with the breath to direct the body.
Recognition of the ultimate unity of internal (yin) and external (yang), mind and body.
The Mandarin term "T'ai Chi Ch'üan" translates as "Supreme Ultimate Boxing" or "Boundless Fist". The solo training routines known as forms, pushing hands (two person training, choreographed and freestyle) and the acupressure massage and other manipulations taught by some schools are designed first to improve the T'ai Chi students' stability, looseness in the joints and muscles and level of relaxation by taking them through their complete natural range of motion. The slow, repetitive work necessary to that process are said to gently increase and open their internal circulation (body heat, blood, peristalsis, etc.), while the postural requirements introduced in the first classes are conducive to relaxing and deepening the students' breathing. Over time, proponents say this enhancement becomes a lasting effect, a direct reversal of the physical effects of stress on the human body. This reversal allows much more of the students' native energy to be available to them, which they may then apply more effectively to the rest of their lives; families, careers, spiritual or creative pursuits, hobbies, etc.
T'ai Chi Ch'üan is seen by many of its schools as a variety of Taoism, and it does seemingly incorporate many Taoist principles into its practice (see below). It is an art form said to date back many centuries (although not reliably documented under that name before 1850), with precursor disciplines dating back thousands of years. The explanation given by the traditional T'ai Chi family schools for why so many of their previous generations have dedicated their lives to the study and preservation of the art is that the discipline it seems to give its students to dramatically improve the effects of stress in their lives, with a few years of hard work, should hold a useful purpose for people living in a stressful world. They say that once the T'ai Chi principles have been understood and internalized into the bodily framework the practitioner will have an immediately accessible "toolkit" thereby to improve and then maintain their health, to provide a meditative focus, and that can work as an effective and subtle martial art for self-defence.
Teachers say the study of T'ai Chi Ch'üan is, more than anything else, about challenging one's ability to change oneself appropriately in response to outside forces. These principles are taught using the examples of physics as experienced by two (or more) bodies in combat. In order to be able to protect oneself using change, it is necessary to understand what the consequences are of changing appropriately, changing inappropriately and not changing at all in response to an attack. Students, by this theory, will appreciate the full benefits of the entire art in the fastest way through physical training of the martial art aspect.
In a fight, if one uses hardness to resist violent force then both sides are certain to be injured, at least to some degree. Such injury, according to T'ai Chi theory, is a natural consequence of meeting brute force with brute force. The collision of two like forces, yang with yang, is known as "double-weighted" in T'ai Chi terminology. Instead, T'ai Chi students are taught not to fight or resist an incoming force, but to meet it in softness and "stick" to it, following its motion while remaining in physical contact until the incoming force of attack exhausts itself or can be safely redirected, the result of meeting yang with yin. Done correctly, achieving this yin/yang or yang/yin balance in combat (and, by extension, other areas of one's life) is known as being "single-weighted" and is a primary goal of T'ai Chi Ch'üan training. Lao-Tzu provided the archetype for this in the Tao Te Ching when he wrote, "The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong." Generally, the T'ai Chi student has to be well conditioned by many years of disciplined training; stable, sensitive and elastic mentally and physically in order to realize this ability, however.
Wu Chien-ch'üan;, co-founder of the Wu family style, described the name T'ai Chi Ch'üan this way at the beginning of the 20th century:
"Various people have offered different explanations for the term T'ai Chi Ch'üan. Some have said: 'In terms of self-cultivation, one must train from a point of movement towards a point of quiescence. T'ai Chi comes about through the harmony of yin and yang. In terms of the art of attack and defense then, in the context of transformations of full and empty, one is constantly inwardly latent, not outwardly expressive, as if the yin and yang of T'ai Chi have not divided apart.'
Others say: 'Every movement of T'ai Chi Ch'üan is based on circles, just like the shape of a T'ai Chi symbol. Therefore, it is called T'ai Chi Ch'üan.' Both explanations are quite reasonable, especially the second, which is fuller."
From ultimate softness comes ultimate hardness. The core training involves two primary features, the first being the solo form or ch'üan - a slow sequence of movements which emphasise natural movement and relaxation. The second being different styles of pushing hands or t'ui shou (推手) for training "stickiness" and sensitivity in the reflexes through various motions in concert with a training partner in order to learn timing, coordination and positioning when interacting with a training partner or opponent. Pushing hands is seen as necessary not only for training the self-defense skills of a soft style such as T'ai Chi by demonstrating the forms' movement principles experientially, but also it is said to improve upon the level of conditioning provided by practice of the solo forms by increasing the work load on students while they practise those movement principles.
The solo form should take the students through a complete, natural, range of motion over their center of gravity. The repeated practice of the solo routine is said to encourage circulation throughout the students' bodies, maintain flexibility through their joints and familiarize the students with the leverage associated with the martial applications implied in the forms. The major styles of T'ai Chi have forms which differ somewhat cosmetically, but there are also many obvious similarities which point to their common origin. The solo forms, hand and weapon, are catalogues of movements that are practiced individually in pushing hands and application scenarios to prepare students for self-defence training. In most traditional schools (the modern Yang style being a conspicuous exception) different variations of the solo forms are practiced; fast/slow, small circle/large circle, square/round (different expressions of leverage through the joints), low sitting/high sitting, for example.
Other training exercises include:
Weapon forms and fencing employing the straight sword (jiàn 劍), a heavier curved sabre, sometimes called a broadsword (dāo; 刀, which is actually considered a big knife), fan, staff, and 7 and 13 foot spear (qiāng 槍). Less commonly known weapons still in use are the large "Bagua" dao, halberd (jǐ 戟), cane, rope-dart, tri-sectional staff and steel whip.
Two-person tournament fighting (san shou 散手);
Breathing exercises; nei kung (內功 nèigōng) or, more commonly, ch'i kung (氣功 qìgōng) to develop ch'i (氣 qì) or "breath energy" in coordination with physical movement. These were formerly taught only to disciples as a separate, complementary training system. In the last 50 years they have become more well known to the general public.
T'ai Chi's martial aspect relies on sensitivity to the opponent's movements dictating appropriate responses. The calmness required to achieve the necessary sensitivity is acquired over extended, slow, meditative martial training. This sensitivity is trained in hundreds and thousands of hours of ch'i kung, pushing hands, sparring and fencing. T'ai Chi Ch'üan trains in three basic ranges, close, medium and long, and then everything in between. Pushes and open hand strikes are more common than punches, and kicks are usually to the legs and lower torso, never higher than the hip in most styles. The fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, back, hips and knees are commonly used to strike, and there is an extensive repertoire of joint traps, locks and breaks (chin na), particularly applied to put pressure on the opponent's elbows. Despite its "soft" image, T'ai Chi techniques can be lethal or incapacitating, with strikes to the eyes, throat, heart, groin and other acupressure points commonly used. However, most T'ai Chi styles expect their students to learn defensive or neutralizing skills first, and a student will have to demonstrate proficiency in defending themselves with them before the offensive skills will be introduced. There is also an emphasis in the traditional schools on kind-heartedness. One is expected to show mercy to one's opponents, as instanced by a poem preserved in some of the T'ai Chi families said to be derived from the Shaolin temple:
Some traditions teach that a disciple of Chang San-feng named Wang Tsung-yueh taught the martial art later to be known as T'ai Chi to the Chen family, but this cannot be confirmed. On the other hand, some in the Chen family claim that it was Wang who learned T'ai Chi Ch'üan from them.
Chen style has become well recognized internationally in recent years, due mostly to the efforts of Chen Fake (1887-1957), who taught for many years in Beijing. Many direct descendants of the Chen family are still teaching T'ai Chi.
his son Yang Chien-hou (Jianhou) (1839-1917), who passed it to his sons, Yang Shao-hou (楊少侯, 1862-1930) and Yang Ch'eng-fu (楊澄甫, 1883-1936). Yang Ch'eng-fu removed the vigorous "Fa-jing" (release of power), energetic jumping, heavy stepping, and other difficult movements to create Da Jia (large frame style). Da Jia has slow, steady, and soft movements suitable for general practitioners. Thus, Yang Ch'eng-fu is largely responsible for standardizing and popularizing the Yang style T'ai Chi widely practiced today. Yang Ch'eng-fu's descendants are still teaching in many schools associated with their family internationally.
Wu Yu-hsiang (Yuxiang) who also developed his own Wu (武) style (see below).
Other students including:
Wang Jiaoyu (1836-1939), the founder of Guang Ping style T'ai Chi Ch'üan.
Wang Lanting, a court official, who taught Li Ruidong, who founded Li style T'ai Chi.
Cheng Man-ch'ing (1901-1975), a student of Yang Ch'eng-fu, shortened and simplified the traditional form Yang taught him, after his teacher's passing, supposedly to make it more accessible. Cheng Man-ch'ing is known as the first to teach T'ai Chi Ch'uan in the West.
Cheng's style is particularly popular in Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the U.S.A (where Cheng spent his final years).
Wu style is the second most popular form of T'ai Chi Ch'üan in the world today, after Yang style. Wu style emphasises parallel footwork training with the feet relatively closer together than the modern Yang or Ch'en styles, small circle hand techniques (although large circle techniques are trained as well) and differs from almost all of the other T'ai Chi styles martially with Wu style's initial focus on wrestling and groundfighting technique; tumbling, jumping, throws, footsweeps, pressure point leverage and joint locks and breaks, which are trained in addition to more conventional T'ai Chi sparring and fencing.
Was developed by Sun Lu-t'ang (孫祿堂, 1861-1932), who was considered expert in two other internal martial arts styles: Hsing-i Ch'uan (Xingyiquan) and Pa Kua Chang (Baguazhang) before he came to study T'ai Chi. He was also considered an accomplished Confucian and Taoist scholar, especially in the I Ching. Sun learned T'ai Chi Ch'üan from Hao Wei-chen, who was Li I-yü's chief disciple. Interestingly, Sun started studying with Hao relatively late in his life, but his accomplishments in the other two internal arts led him to develop his T'ai Chi abilities to a high standard more quickly than is usual. He subsequently was invited by Yang Shao-hou, Yang Ch'eng-fu and Wu Chien-ch'üan to join them on the faculty of the Beijing Physical Education Research Institute where they taught T'ai Chi to the public after 1914. Sun taught there alongside the Yang brothers and Wu Chien-ch'uan until ca. 1928, a seminal period in the development of modern Yang, Wu and Sun T'ai Chi Ch'üan.
Besides his earlier Hsing-i and Pa Kua training, Sun's experiences with Hao Wei-chen, Yang Shao-hou, Yang Ch'eng-fu and Wu Chien-ch'üan influenced the development of what is today recognized as the Sun style of T'ai Chi - characterized by small circular movements and high stances with subtle footwork. Sun's daughter, Sun Jianyun (who passed away in 2003) was also a famous T'ai Chi Ch'üan teacher.
