WHAT IS TAI CHI?
The Chinese characters for Tai Chi Chuan can be translated as
the 'Supreme Ultimate Force'. The notion of 'supreme ultimate' is
often associated with the Chinese concept of yin-yang, the notion
that one can see a dynamic duality (male/female, active/passive,
dark/light, forceful/yielding, etc.) in all things. 'Force' (or,
more literally, 'fist') can be thought of here as the means or way
of achieving this ying-yang, or 'supreme-ultimate' discipline.
Tai Chi, as it is practiced in the west today, can perhaps best be
thought of as a moving form of yoga and meditation combined. There
are a number of so- called forms (sometimes also called
'sets') which consist of a sequence of movements. Many of these
movements are originally derived from the martial arts (and perhaps
even more ancestrally than that, from the natural movements of
animals and birds) although the way they are performed in Tai Chi is
slowly, softly and gracefully with smooth and even transitions
between them.
For many practicioners the focus in doing them is not, first and
foremost, martial, but as a meditative exercise for the body. For
others the
combat aspects of Tai Chi are of considerable interest. In
Chinese philosophy and medicine there exists the concept of 'chi', a
vital force that animates the body. One of the avowed aims of Tai
Chi is to foster the circulation of this 'chi' within the body, the
belief being that by doing so the health and vitality of the person
are enhanced. This 'chi' circulates in patterns that are close
related to the nervous and vascular system and thus the notion is
closely connected with that of the practice of acupuncture and other
oriental healing arts.
Another aim of Tai Chi is to foster a calm and tranquil mind,
focused on the precise execution of these exercises. Learning to do
them correctly provides a practical avenue for learning about such
things as balance, alignment, fine-scale motor control, rhythm of
movement, the genesis of movement from the body's vital center, and
so on. Thus the practice of Tai Chi can in some measure contribute
to being able to better stand, walk, move, run, etc. in other
spheres of life as well. Many practitioners notice benefits in terms
of correcting poor postural, alignment or movement patterns which
can contribute to tension or injury. Furthermore the meditative
nature of the exercises is calming and relaxing in and of itself.
Because the Tai Chi movements have their origins in the martial
arts, practicing them does have some martial applications. In a
two-person exercise called 'push-hands' Tai Chi principles are
developed in terms of being sensitive to and responsive of another
person's 'chi' or vital energy. It is also an opportunity to employ
some of the martial aspects of Tai Chi in a kind of slow-tempo
combat. Long-time practitioners of Tai Chi who are so-inclined can
become very adept at martial arts. The emphasis in Tai Chi is on
being able to channel potentially destructive energy (in the form of
a kick or a punch) away from one in a manner that will dissipate the
energy or send it in a direction where it is no longer a danger.
The practical exercises of Tai Chi are also situated in a wider
philosophical context of
Taoism. This is a reflective, mystical Chinese tradition first
associated with the scholar and mystic Lao Tsu, an older
contemporary of Confucius. He wrote and taught in the province of
Honan in the 6th century B.C. and authored the seminal work of
Taoism, the Tao Te Ching. As a philosophy, Taoism has many
elements but fundamentally it espouses a calm, reflective and mystic
view of the world steeped in the beauty and tranquillity of nature.
Tai Chi also has, particularly amongst eastern practitioners, a long
connection with the I Ching a Chinese system of divination.
There are associations between the 8 basic I Ching trigrams plus the
five elements of Chinese alchemy (metal, wood, fire, water and
earth) with the thirteen basic postures of Tai Chi created by Chang
San-feng. There are also other associations with the full 64
trigrams of the I Ching and other movements in the Tai Chi form.
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THE HISTORY OF TAI CHI
There exists a very ancient history in China of movement systems
that are associated with health and philosophy. In some sense one
can see all of these as contributing to the climate in which Tai Chi
was born.
From the very origins of Taoism in the sixth century BC, sages like
Lao Tsu wrote in the Tao Te Ching:
Yield
and Overcome;
Bend and be straight.
And
He
who stands of tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
In
this and in the entire tenor of his writings Lao Tsu reflects the
central philosophical underpinnings of Tai Chi Chuan.
Later, in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220 to 265 AD) there was
a physician Hua-tu'o who relied not only on medicine but also taught
the 'movements of the five creatures' -- tiger, deer, bear, ape and
birds -- a system he called Wu-chi chih hsi. He believed that
the body needed to be regularly exercised to help with digestion and
circulation and only by doing so could a long and healthy live be
achieved. He advocated a system of imitating the movements of these
animals to help exercise every joint in the body. His teaching, and
its connection with the movements of animals, is probably the
earliest pre-cursor of Tai Chi.
Painting of Bodihdharma by Feng Tien: Ch'ing Dynasty.
In
the sixth century A.D. Bodihdharma (called Ta Mo in China) came to
the Shao-Lin Monastery and seeing that the monks there were in poor
physical condition from too much meditation and not enough movement,
his Eighteen Form Lohan Exercise. Over time these grew to be
the precursors of the Wei Chia (outer-extrinsic) school of
exercise, by which is meant all the schools of kung-fu and other
martial art forms which take an 'external' approach. This is in
contrast to the Nei Chia (internal-intrinsic) school of which
Tai Chi is a member, that take a fundamentally 'internal' approach.
In the eighth century AD (the Tang dynasty) philosophers like Hsu
Hsuan- p'ing developed a 'Long Kung-fu' of 37 forms. Of these
certain ones such as:
-
Play the Pi'pa
-
Single Whip
-
Step up to Seven Stars
-
Jade Lady Works the Shuttles,
-
High Pat on Horse; and
-
White Crane (originally Phoenix) Cools Wing
Still
survive in the contemporary Tai Chi form. There were several other
such forms being practiced in the eighth century (Heavenly-Inborn
Style, Nine Small Heavens Style and Acquired Kung-fu) from which
grew the origins of Tai Chi.
Chang
San-feng.
The apocryphal founder of Tai Chi was a monk of the Wu Tang
Monastery, Chang San-feng to whom have been ascribed various dates
and longevity's. Some scholars doubt his historical existance,
viewing him as a literary construct on the lines of Lao Tzu. Other
research and records from the Ming-shih (the official chronicles of
the Ming dynasty) seem to indicate that he lived in the period from
1391 to 1459 (he may have been born earlier and lived later: these
are simply some dates associated with him).
Linking some of the older forms with the notion of yin-yang from
Taoism and stressing the 'internal' aspects of his exercises, he is
credited with creating the fundamental 'Thirteen Postures' of Tai
Chi corresponding to the eight basic trigrams of the
I Ching and the five elements. The eight 'postures' are:
1.
ward-off
2.
rollback
3.
press
4.
push
5.
pull
6.
split
7.
elbow
strike; and
8.
shoulder strike
The
five 'attitudes' are:
1.
advance
2.
retreat
3.
look
left
4.
gaze
right; and
5.
central equilibrium.
His
exercises stressed suppleness and elasticity and were opposed to
hardness and force. They incorporated philosophy, physiology,
psychology, geometry and the laws of dynamics.
His theories, writings and practices were elaborated sometime later
by Wang Chung-yueh and his student Chiang Fa. Wang apparently took
the thirteen postures of Chang San-feng and linked them together
into continuous sequences, thus creating something which resembles
the contemporary Tai Chi Chuan form. His student Chiang Fa taught
Tai Chi to the villagers of a town on Honan (almost all of whom were
called Chen) and thus began the first family school of Tai Chi
Chuan.
Herein lies one of the most contentious and perplexing areas of Tai
Chi history and scholarship. Some scholars feel that rather than
bringing Tai Chi to the Chen village Chiang Fa simply discovered
the Chen villagers practiciing this art. Others maintain that the
Chen family's so-called 'Cannon Pounding' (Pao Chui) was a distinct
martial art that undoubtedly influenced Chiang Fa's teaching but
that it was not the same as Tai Chi.
Another of Wang's students was Chen Chou-t'ung who quarreled with
Chiang Fa. The former then established the so-called
Southern School of Tai Chi, an interesting an colourful branch
of Tai Chi which subsequently disappeared. Chiang Fa continued with
the mainstream 'Northern' school of Tai Chi which survives today.
Whatever their respective contributions, from Chiang-Fa and the Chen
villagers in Honan emerge all of the surviving branches of Tai Chi
Chuan:
1.
One
of his students, Chen You-heng, continued what is called the
New Frame Style of Chen Tai Chi.
2.
Chen Chang-hsing (1771-1853) studied under Chiang-Fa and combined the
Cannon Pounding (Pao Chui) form of the Chen Family with the Tai Chi
taught by Chiang-Fa. Chen Chang-hsing, in turn, was the teacher of
Yang Lu-chan, the originator of the
Yang Style of Tai Chi.
3.
Another Chen family member and student of Chen Chang-hsing was Chen
Gen-yun whose descendants continued the
Old Frame Style of Chen Tai Chi.
4.
Wu Quan-yu, a Manchu guard in the Imperial Palace at Beijing, was a student of
both Yang Lu-chan and his son Yang Pan-hou. Wu taught it to (amongst
others) his son Wu Chien-chuan (Also written as Wu Jian-quan). From
this stream emerged the
Wu Style of Tai Chi.
5.
Another Chen family member was Chen Yau-pun who veered away from
Chiang Fa's tradition to create the 'new' school of Tai Chi.
Apparently his student Chen Quin-ping was an originator of the Zhao
Bao Style of Tai Chi.
6.
One
of Chen Quin-ping's students was Li Jing-Ting who, in turn was the
founder of the Hu Lei Style of Tai Chi.
7.
A
student of both Yang Lu-chan and Chen Qing-ping was Wu Yu- xiang. He
taught his nephew Lee I-yu who in turn taught Hao Wei-chen. This
gave rise to the
Wu Shi Style (or Hao Style) of Tai Chi Chuan.
8.
One
of Hao Wei-chen's students was Sun Lu-tang who also studied Hsing-I
Quan under Kuo Yun-shen and Pa Kua Chang under Cheng T'ing-hua
(himself a student of Dong Hai-chuan, the founder of Pa Kua Chang).
He combined these forms in the new
Sun Style of Tai Chi Chuan.
These
are the principal styles of Tai Chi that are in existence in the
present day.
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