Tai chi
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 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. | |
| CAM Classifications | |
| NCCAM: | Mind-Body Intervention |
| Modality: | Self-care |
| Knowledge: | Pseudoscience |
| Culture: | Eastern Chinese |
Overview
T'ai Chi Ch'üan is an art of moving-meditation based on principles such as
- - Coordinated leverage through the joints based on relaxation rather than tension in the muscles to improve stamina and to open the circulation.
- - Using the intent and motions 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 T'ai Chi forms (the famous slow motion routines groups of people practice every morning in hundreds of parks across China and, increasingly, other parts of the world), acupressure massage taught by some schools and pushing hands (two person training, choreographed and freestyle) 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.
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. 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."
T'ai Chi styles
There are several major styles of T'ai Chi Ch'üan:
Chen style (陳氏)
Considered to be the senior branch of the T'ai Chi Ch'üan family styles, the Chen 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 Chen family originates in the Chen Clan Village (Chenjiagou) in Wen County, Henan Province.(溫縣陳家溝). Their best known teacher was Chen Changxing (陳長興 Chén Chángxīng) (1771-1853). Chen 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 purport that a disciple of Zhang Sanfeng named Wang Zongyue 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 Zongyue 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.
Yang style (楊家)
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 Luchan (楊露禪), aka Yang Fukui (楊福魁, 1799-1872), who studied under Chen Changxing starting in 1820. Yang's subsequent expression of T'ai Chi as a teacher in his own right became known as the first Yang style.
Yang Luchan passed his art to
- his son Yang Banhou (楊班侯, 1837-1890) who taught Wu Ch'uan-yü (Wu Quanyou), a Manchu cavalry officer. His son, Wu Chien-ch'üan (Wu Jianquan), also a cavalry officer, became known as the co-founder (along with his father) of the Wu (吳) style (see below).
- his son Yang Jianhou (1839-1917), who passed it to his sons, Yang Shaohou (楊少侯, 1862-1930) and Yang Chengfu (楊澄甫, 1883-1936). Yang Chengfu 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 Chengfu is largely responsible for standardizing and popularizing the Yang style T'ai Chi widely practiced today. Yang Chengfu's descendants are still teaching in many schools associated with their family internationally.
- Wu 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.
- other court officials
Cheng Man-ch'ing (Zheng Manqing), a student of Yang Ch'eng-fu, shortened and simplified the "long" Yang form after his teacher's passing, supposedly to emphasise the health benefits and make it more accessible. According to his students, the changes were introduced to make it more practical as a fighting art, but despite Cheng Man-ch'ing's fame as a teacher (known as the first to teach T'ai Chi Ch'uan in the West); most other teachers of the earlier "long" forms taught by Cheng's teacher Yang Ch'eng-fu don't necessarily agree with that assertion.
Cheng's style is particularly popular in Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the U.S.A. (where Cheng spent his final years).
Wu/Hao style of Wu Yu-hsiang (Yuxiang) (武家)
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.
Wu style of Wu Ch'uan-yü (Quanyou) and Wu Chien-ch'üan (Jianquan) (吳家)
Founded by Wu Ch'uan-yü (吳全佑, 1834-1902). Wu Ch'uan-yü started studying T'ai Chi Ch'üan in his capacity as an Imperial military officer cadet of the prestigious Palace Battalion under the famous Yang Lu-ch'an in 1850. He eventually became a disciple of Yang's son, Yang Pan-hou, in 1870. Wu Ch'uan-yü's son, Wu Chien-ch'üan (吳鑑泉, 1870-1942), and grandchildren: grandsons Wu Kung-yi (吳公儀, 1900-1970) and Wu Kung-tsao (吳公藻, 1902-1983) as well as granddaughter Wu Ying-hua (吳英華, 1906-1996) were well known teachers. Wu Chien-ch'üan became the most well known teacher in his family, and is therefore considered the co-founder of the Wu style. He taught large numbers of people and his refinements to the art more clearly distinguish Wu style from Yang style training. Wu Chien-ch'üan moved his family south to Shanghai in 1928. Wu Kung-yi then moved the family headquarters to Hong Kong in 1948, his younger sister Wu Ying-hua and her husband Ma Yueh-liang (馬岳樑, 1901-1999) staying behind to manage the original Shanghai school. Wu Kung-yi's children were also full time T'ai Chi teachers: Wu Ta-kuei (吳大揆, 1923-1970) was active in the resistance to the Japanese invasion of China, yet he later taught T'ai Chi in Japan after the war. His younger brother, Wu Ta-chi (吳大齊, 1926-1993), supervised the Hong Kong and southeast Asian schools for many years and opened the family's first Western school in Toronto, Canada in 1974. Wu Kung-yi's daughter, Wu Yan-hsia (吳雁霞, 1930-2001), was the senior member of the Wu family for five years after the passing of Wu Ying-hua, and was known as an expert with the T'ai Chi sword.
Wu Chien-ch'üan's descendants continue to teach in Asia, North America and Europe.
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.
Sun style (孫家)
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. 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.
Wu Tang (武當)
There are several groups teaching what they call Wu Tang style T'ai Chi Ch'üan. They 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 well 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.
T'ai Chi training and techniques
The name T'ai Chi Ch'üan is held to be derived from 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 thus balance yin (receptive) and yang (active) principles in a number of ways.
T'ai Chi Ch'üan training proceeds from the Taoist principle of complementary opposites: that in order to become hard, one must first be soft; in order to be fast, one must first be slow; and in order to develop strength, one must cultivate weakness. From ultimate softness comes ultimate hardness. The core training involes 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 sword (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 themself 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:
- "I would rather maim than kill
- Hurt than maim
- Intimidate than hurt
- Avoid than intimidate."
T'ai Chi in the present
Recently there has been some divergence between those who say they practice T'ai Chi primarily for fighting, and those who are more interested in its benefits to physical and mental health. More traditional stylists still see the two aspects 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.