Taijiquan / T'ai Chi Ch'uan - What is it?
Every teacher and practitioner has their own ideas about what T'ai Chi means. Because it can be used in many ways, e.g to promote health, as a martial art, as a meditation to clarify reality, to give us better understanding of ourselves and the world around us and to make our lives more meaningful, interpretation can become very personal. Let's look at the words first. T'ai Chi literally means big, without limits, but is commonly translated as Supreme Ultimate. Ch'uan translates as boxing, fist, or method (discipline) of working.
The familiar T'ai Chi symbol of the "double fish" circle incorporating black and white (Yin and Yang) is a drawing representing the idea that everything that we experience is created by the interaction of Yin and Yang. Originally Yang meant the bright or sunny side of a hill and Yin the shady side, but they developed and expanded in meaning, eventually coming to represent the primordial forces that shape the universe, the first separation of cosmic nothingness (Wuji) or universal oneness (Tao) into being.
To illustrate the simplicity of this strange idea, take a blank piece of paper. The empty page is the Tao, the unformed mist of spirit waiting to exist, doing and being nothing. From a Western physics world view it is the stuff that the universe is made of. From a celestial viewpoint it is God about to start work, or Nature about to bring forth the marvels of life.
Now draw a line across the blank page. This is the act of Creation, of bringing something into existence. This line only exists, however, by virtue of the empty space above it (Yang) that it separates from the empty space below it (Yin). If you change the shape of the empty spaces then the line also changes. The line is like our lives; we experience linear reality from birth, through life, to death. Look now at how small the line is, and imagine being able to understand the spaces either side as they move and change and shape and direct that line of existence.
The ability to recognize and interpret and move in harmony with those forces that shape us and the universe around us at all levels of Body, Mind and Spirit, the ability to control the mental and physical balance of Yin and Yang is the true internal meaning of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
Martial Art, meditation, graceful, flowing movement, therapeutic exercise, understanding Energy, becoming one with the Tao, all these and more are the potential results of correct and patient practice of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, the Supreme Ultimate Fist, an art form without limits.
History and Development
Much historical fact has been destroyed or lost in the turbulent history of China. Appearing in accounts of its origins, around 800 years ago, the legendary founder of T'ai Chi Ch'uan is said to have been Chang San Feng, variously described as being over seven feet tall, unkempt in appearance and possessed of immense strength, wisdom and agility.
He was a revolutionary, using a Taoist temple as a base from which he trained the native Han chinese guerrila fighters in the basics of Tai Chi before sending them to battle against and eventually defeat the occupying Manchurian forces. No one really knows where his knowledge came from.
Some stories have him witnessing a fight between a bird and a snake, becoming enlightened by observing their differing styles of combat as the softness, circularity and yielding of the snake overcame the hardness and aggression of the bird. Others have him receiving T'ai Chi in a dream, or mixing together bits of martial arts, Qigong, breathing exercises and Taoist principles to create T'ai Chi Ch'uan. The writings attributed to him state that he desired his art to be used not only for the martial techniques which liberated China, but for longevity, health and happiness for all.
Wang Tsung Yu's "T'ai Chi Ch'uan Lun", a fundamental classic written in the 1700's, emphasizes the primary importance of the philosophy of Yin and Yang. Certainly the idea of soft overcoming hard was culturally important to a country so often invaded and occupied.
However T'ai Chi Ch'uan came to be, it is likely that by 1850 its secrets were in the hands of the Chen family in Honan province. From there the knowledge passed (accounts vary as to exactly how) into the hands of Yang Lu Chan, who later took his skills to Peking and became the most successful fighter of his time, never defeated and earning himself the nickname 'Yang the Unconquerable'. Employed to teach at Court, he trained his sons, founding a family dynasty leading to his most famous descendant, grandson Yang Chen Fu. His student, Cheng Man Ching, was the first noted practitioner to bring T'ai Chi to the West and taught in New York from 1965 until his death in 1975.
T'ai Chi Ch'uan develops in distinct historical phases, originating with Chang San Feng, hermit and revolutionary, living in times of war and utilizing Taiji forces for fighting. The use of taiji as martial art by bodyguards and mercenaries continues and develops over the next 600 years. Then, around 1900, Yang Chen-Fu redevelops T'ai Chi's martial aspects to the more health-orientated forms widely practiced today. His "ten important points" become the basis of modern Taiji as a system of self-healing. His student Professor Yao Huanzi develops the use of Taiji forces for healing others to a very high level and this work is then transmitted to and developed by my teacher Dr. Shen Hongxun, who now teaches Taiji and the Buqi healing system in Europe, Asia and America.
© Paul Brewer/Heaven Mountain 12/07