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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") Chinese martial art which is known for the claims of health (especially stress management) 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.
T'ai Chi is 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 called an art of moving meditation. 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 advanced T'ai Chi students in traditional schools. T'ai Chi Ch'üan as physical training is characterized by its requirement for the use of leverage through the joints based on coordination in relaxation rather than muscular tension. This coordination is seen to improve balance, flexibility, stamina and begins to open the circulation throughout the body, thereby providing ever deeper levels of relaxation than previously available by repeatedly and deliberately taking T'ai Chi students through their complete natural range of motion over an extended period of time. The slow, repetitive work involved in that process is said to gently increase and open the internal circulation (breath, body heat, blood, peristalsis, etc.). 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.
The study of T'ai Chi Ch'üan involves three primary subjects, in the following order:
The Mandarin term "T'ai Chi Ch'üan" translates as "Supreme Ultimate Boxing" or "Boundless Fist". The solo training routines are known as forms, there is also pushing hands (two person training, choreographed and freestyle) and the acupressure and other manipulations taught by traditional schools. 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.
T'ai Chi symbol. Therefore, it is called T'ai Chi Ch'üan.' Both explanations are quite reasonable, especially the second, which is fuller."
As the name T'ai Chi Ch'üan is held to be derived from the T'ai Chi symbol, the t'ai chi t'u (太極圖, pinyin tàijítú), commonly known in the West as the "yin-yang" diagram, T'ai Chi Ch'üan techniques are said therefore to physically and energetically balance yin (receptive) and yang (active) principles.
"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 centre of gravity. Accurate, repeated practise of the solo routine is said to encourage circulation throughout the students' bodies, maintain flexibility through their joints and familiarize 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, empty-hand and weapon, are catalogues of movements that are practised 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 (the degree to which weight-bearing knees are kept bent throughout the form), for example.
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." This soft "neutralization" of an attack can be accomplished very quickly in an actual fight by an adept practitioner. A 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.
Other training exercises include:
T'ai Chi's martial aspect relies on sensitivity to the opponent's movements and centre of gravity dictating appropriate responses. Effectively affecting or "capturing" the opponent's centre of gravity immediately upon contact is trained as the primary goal of the martial T'ai Chi student, and from there all other technique can follow with seeming effortlessness. The alert calmness required to achieve the necessary sensitivity is acquired over thousands of hours of first yin (slow, repetitive, meditative, low impact) and then later adding yang ("realistic," active, fast, high impact) martial training; forms, pushing hands and sparring. 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, fists, palms, sides of the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, back, hips, knees and feet are commonly used to strike, with strikes to the eyes, throat, heart, groin and other acupressure points trained by advanced students. There is an extensive repertoire of joint traps, locks and breaks (chin na), particularly applied to lock up or break an opponent's elbows, wrists, fingers, ankles, back or neck. Most T'ai Chi teachers expect their students to thoroughly learn defensive or neutralizing skills first, and a student will have to demonstrate proficiency with them before offensive skills will be extensively trained. 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:
There are several major styles of T'ai Chi Ch'üan:
Considered to be the senior branch of the T'ai Chi Ch'üan family styles, the Ch'en style today is known for its low postures and vigorous martial art training. While there are many hundreds of schools teaching T'ai Chi around the world, the family styles are said to go the farthest in maintaining the "old-fashioned" style of teaching that has been normative for T'ai Chi Ch'üan instruction for most of its history.
Historically documented from the 1600s, the Ch'en family originates in the Ch'en Clan Village (Chenjiagou) in Wen County, Henan Province.(溫縣陳家溝). Their best known teacher was Ch'en Chang-hsing (陳長興 Chén Chángxīng) (1771-1853). Ch'en is traditionally associated with a teacher known as Jiang Fa (蔣發 Jiǎng Fā), although it is no longer clear if their relationship was a teacher/student one (or even who was senior) or if they were colleagues.
Some traditions teach that a disciple of Chang San-feng (Zhang Sanfeng) named Wang Tsung-yueh (Wang Zongyue) taught the martial art later to be known as T'ai Chi to the Ch'en family, but this cannot be confirmed. On the other hand, some in the Ch'en family claim that it was Wang who learned T'ai Chi Ch'üan from them.
Ch'en style has become well recognized internationally in recent years, due mostly to the efforts of Ch'en Fa-k'e (1887-1957), who taught for many years in Beijing. Many direct descendants of the Ch'en family are still teaching T'ai Chi.
The most popular and widespread style (many variations exist).
The Yang family first became involved in the study of T'ai Chi in the early 1800s. The founder of Yang style was Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪), aka Yang Fu-k'ui (楊福魁, 1799-1872), who studied under Ch'en Chang-hsing starting in 1820. Yang's subsequent expression of T'ai Chi as a teacher in his own right became known as the Yang style.
Yang Lu-ch'an passed his art to
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).
This Wu style was founded by Wu Yu-hsiang (武禹襄, 1813-1880), a senior student (along with his two older brothers) of Yang Lu-ch'an. Wu Yu-hsiang also studied for a brief time with teachers from the Chen family, to whom he was introduced by Yang. His most famous student was his nephew, Li I-yü (1832-1892), who in his turn taught Hao Wei-chen (1842-1920), whose family preserved the art for several generations, so that it is now sometimes known as Wu/Hao or just Hao style T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Hao Wei-chen taught the famous Sun Lu-t'ang (see the Sun style article below).
Wu/Hao is a distinctive style with many small, subtle movements, highly focused on internal ch'i development. It is today a rare style, with only non-family instructors currently teaching the art publicly.
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.
There are several groups teaching what they call Wu Tang style T'ai Chi Ch'üan. The designation Wu Tang Ch'uan or Wudangquan is also widely used to broadly distinguish internal martial arts (said to be a specialty of the monasteries at Wu Tang Shan) from what are known as the external styles based on Shaolin Ch'uan or Shaolinquan, although that distinction is sometimes disputed by individual schools. In this broad sense, among many T'ai Chi schools all styles of T'ai Chi are therefore considered to be "Wu Tang style" martial arts. The schools that designate themselves "Wu Tang style" relative to the family styles mentioned above mostly claim to teach an "original style" they say was formulated by a Taoist monk called Chang San-feng and taught by him in the Taoist monasteries at Wu Tang Shan. Some consider that what is practised under that name today may be a modern back-formation based on stories and popular veneration of Chang San-feng (see below) as well as the martial fame of the Wu Tang monastery (there are many other martial art styles historically associated with Wu Tang besides T'ai Chi). There is also a modern T'ai Chi style going by the name Wudang as a term of convenience that is fairly well-known internationally, especially in the UK and Europe, originally taught by a student of the Wu (吳) style.
When tracing T'ai Chi Ch'üan's formative influences to Taoist and Buddhist monasteries, one has little more to go on than legendary tales from a modern historical perspective, but T'ai Chi Ch'üan's practical connection to and dependence upon the theories of Sung dynasty Neo-Confucianism (a conscious synthesis of Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian traditions, esp. the teachings of Mencius) is readily apparent to its practitioners. The philosophical and political landscape of that time in Chinese history is fairly well documented, even if the art later to become known as T'ai Chi Ch'üan's origin in it is not. T'ai Chi Ch'üan's theories and practice are therefore believed by some schools to have been formulated by the Taoist monk Chang San-feng in the 12th century CE, a time frame fitting well with when the principles of the Neo-Confucian school were making themselves felt in Chinese intellectual life. Therefore the didactic story is told that Chang San-feng as a young man studied Tao Yin (導引, py dǎoyǐn) breathing exercises from his Taoist teachers and martial arts at the Buddhist Shaolin monastery, eventually combining the martial forms and breathing exercises to formulate the soft or internal principles we associate with T'ai Chi Ch'üan and related martial arts. Its subsequent fame attributed to his teaching, Wu Tang monastery was known thereafter as an important martial center for many centuries, its many styles of internal kung fu preserved and refined at various Taoist temples.
Recently there has been some divergence between those who say they practise T'ai Chi primarily for fighting, those who practise it for its aesthetic appeal (as in the modern, theatrical "Taijiquan" forms of Wushu), and those who are more interested in its benefits to physical and mental health. The Wushu aspect is primarily for show, the forms taught for those purposes are designed to earn points in competition and are mostly unconcerned with either health maintenance or martial ability. More traditional stylists still see the two aspects of health and martial arts as equally necessary pieces of the puzzle, the yin and yang of T'ai Chi Ch'üan. The T'ai Chi "family" schools therefore still present their teachings in a martial art context even though the majority of their students nowadays profess that they are primarily interested in training for the claimed health benefits. T'ai Chi has become very popular in the last twenty years or so, as the baby boomers age and T'ai Chi's reputation for ameliorating the effects of aging becomes more well-known. Hospitals, clinics, community and senior centers are all hosting T'ai Chi classes in communities around the world. Along with Yoga, it is one of the fastest growing fitness and health maintenance activities, in terms of numbers of students enrolling in classes. Since there is no universal certification process, and most Westerners haven't seen very much T'ai Chi and don't know what to look for, practically anyone can learn or even make up a few moves and call themselves a teacher. Relatively few of these teachers even know that there are martial applications to the T'ai Chi forms. Those who do know that it is a martial art usually don't teach martially themselves. If they do teach self-defense, it is often a mixture of motions which the teachers think look like T'ai Chi Ch'üan with some other system. This is especially evident in schools located outside of China. While this phenomenon may have made some external aspects of T'ai Chi available for a wider audience, the traditional T'ai Chi family schools see the martial focus as a fundamental part of their training, both for health and self-defense purposes. They claim that while the students may not need to practice martial applications themselves to derive a benefit from T'ai Chi training, their teachers at least should know the applications well enough to ensure that the movements they teach are done correctly and safely by their students. Also, working on the ability to protect oneself from physical attack (one of the most stressful things that can happen to a person) certainly falls under the category of complete "health maintenance." For these reasons they feel that a school not teaching those aspects somewhere in their syllabus cannot be said to be actually teaching the art itself, and will be much less likely to be able to reproduce the full health benefits that have made traditional T'ai Chi Ch'üan's reputation in the first place.
Researchers have found that long-term T'ai Chi practice had favorable effects on the promotion of balance control, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness and reduced the risk of falls in elders. The studies also reported reduced pain, stress and anxiety in healthy subjects. Other studies have indicated improved cardiovascular and respiratory function in healthy subjects as well as those who had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery. Patients also benefited from T'ai Chi who suffered from heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attacks, arthritis and multiple sclerosis (See research citations listed below).
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