Tai Chi is known to most people as an exercise or moving meditation form consisting of from 24 to 108 movements. More properly referred to as Tai Chi Chuan, supreme ultimate boxing, Tai Chi is one of the most effective and efficient Chinese martial arts when used by a skilled practitioner. Tai Chi is a concept, which comes from philosophical Taoism. In this philosophy when a situation consists of perfectly blended and balanced yin and yang it is said to be a Tai Chi, i.e. supreme ultimate. Thus, in Tai Chi Chuan there is stillness (yin) and motion yang) and defense (yin) and offense (yang) in each movement. Thus, Tai Chi Chuan, when performed correctly, makes a Tai Chi.
It has been said that one cannot truly understand Tai Chi without studying the I Ching or Book of Changes. The I Ching states, "Thus there is in the changes the great primordial beginning (t'ai chi) which produces the two original energies (yin-yang). These in turn produce four images (ssu-hsiang), from which arise the eight trigrams (bagua)." The creative process is characterized by alternating phases of rest and activity, or yin and yang. The alternating of the energies produces the five elements. Even today the 13 techniques of Tai Chi are associated with the eight trigrams and the five elements.
Tai Chi Chuan is the best known of the internal or soft martial arts. Internal martial arts are differentiated from the external or hard arts by the use of Chi. In the internal martial arts Chi is developed early in the training. Chi is used to provide the power to a Tai Chi move rather than li or muscular power as is used in the external arts. It is said in the classics that 4 ounces of force can divert 1000 lbs. of force. It should be noted that this use of Chi is also used in the external arts. The difference is that the external arts do not emphasize Chi development until a much more advanced stage of training.
The first historical figure associated with Tai Chi is the Bhuddist monk Bodhidharma (Chinese: Da Mo). Da Mo was the 28th patriarch of the Shakyamuni Buddha in the Indian lineage. Da Mo arrived by ship from Canton in southern China in 527 A.D. Da Mo traveled to Nanking at the invitation of the emperor Wu Ti. Da Mo attempted to teach his variety of Buddhism to the Buddhist emperors without success. He then retreated northward to the Shaolin monastery in Honan province. Here Da Mo noticed that the monks spent an inordinate amount of time meditation with the result that their physical condition was deteriorating. At this point Da Mo engaged in his legendary "nine years in front of the wall" meditation. Upon completion of this meditation he created several forms of physical exercise: The Tendon Changing and Bone Marrow Washing Chigongs and the 18 Buddha hands fighting form. This is the first record of the association of internal Chi development with a fighting form. Da Mo is considered the founder of Shaolin boxing.
Little factual information is known about the history of Tai Chi for the next several hundred years. During this period there were several fighting styles that contain movements with names identical to current Tai Chi movements. The hermit Han Suan-Ming practiced San Hsi a 37-movement form that conformed to the Tai Chi principle. Li Tao Tze created Hsien-Tien Chuan " the stage before the universe was created"). Hen Kon Yu developed the Nine Little heavens form, which has some of the same movements as Yang's Tai Chi. Hu Chin-Tze developed Hu-Tien Fa (" the stage after the universe was created") method. This method had 17 postures emphasizing elbow movements.
The next major figure in Tai Chi history is Chang San-Feng who is the traditional founder of Tai Chi. Chang San-Feng was born in 1247 but the date of his death is uncertain. Some believe that he lived for more than 200 years. Chang San-Feng was the son of a government official and became an official himself. After the death of his parents he arrived at the Shaolin temple where he learned shaolin chuan. According to legend Chang San-Feng created Tai Chi while he was meditating on Wutang Mountain. He heard a commotion outside of his house and when he looked he saw a bird and a snake engaged in combat. As the bird would attack the snake would weave and dodge to avoid the bird's attack. From this Chang realized that a 'soft' style of fighting could be developed which emphasized redirecting the attackers force. Another legend says that Tai Chi was revealed to Chang in a dream. In any event Chang San-feng is generally regarded as the founder of Tai Chi. Many people consider Wutang as the source of the internal martial arts and Shaolin the source of the eternal martial arts.
The 'modern' history of Tai Chi begins with the Chen family's Tai Chi. Chen Wang Ting was known to be teaching Tai Chi in his home village in 1644. His Tai Chi consisted of five Lu or routines. He also taught Pao -Twi or Cannon Fist and a Long Chuan consisting of 108 postures. Over the generations the forms were simplified into two Lu. The first is the 'softer' of the two and consists of a consolidation of all but the Pao-Twi form, which is the extant second Lu. Pao-Twi is much more physical and powerful and is nearly extinct now. The first Lu is the oldest Tai Chi form known and is the source of all other modern Tai Chi styles. Another version of the Chen history states that the first Lu was taught to the Chen village by Chiang Fa while the second Lu derived from Shaolin tradition.
Yang Lew-Shan (1799-1872 was the first person outside the Chen family to learn their Tai Chi. Yang had learned of the Chen family Tai Chi from his boxing teacher Shao-Lin. Upon arriving in the Chen village Yang was refused instruction because he was not a member of the Chen family. Nevertheless Yang stayed in the Chen village and worked on a farm. Eventually Chen Chang-Hsin was impressed by Yang's sincerity and intensity and took him on as a student. After several years of studying with and working for the Chen family Yang was dissatisfied with what he had learned. One night he found a whole in the wall, which separated his house from the neighboring one. Peering through this hole he found Chang-Hsin teaching his advanced students the 'real' Tai Chi. Yang watched through this hole and learned quickly. Eventually he became as good as any of Chang-Hsin's students and returned to his village to teach. Yang Lew-Shan was very accomplished fighter who never lost a fight and thus was known as Yang the invincible.
Yang had two sons who survived to adulthood and who were both very accomplished Tai Chi practitioners. The most famous Yang family member was Yang Chen-fu. Chen-fu popularized Tai Chi when he went to live in the Beijing and taught Tai Chi to the Emperor and the court. After leaving the court Chen - fu taught many others. The 3 other main styles of Tai Chi, Wu, Wu (Hao) and Sun derived from the Tai Chi of Yang family. The chart shows the relationships among the Yang family members and the various derivative styles of Tai Chi.
In the 20th century the development of Tai Chi was seriously endangered by the assumption of power in China by the communists. All forms of martial arts were prohibited and went underground. However, no such ban was in place in Hong Kong or Taiwan and Tai Chi continued to be practiced in those places. In the 1950's Tai Chi began to infiltrate to the West including the U.S. Two people were of particular importance in the development of Tai Chi in the U.S. The first was Sophia Delza who practiced and taught Wu Style and promoted Tai Chi, also writing books on the subject. Also, Cheng Man-Ching from Taiwan taught extensively in the U.S. and trained many of the early American practitioners of Yang style. His success is perhaps partly due to the short form consisting of 37 postures that he developed.
