What Is Tai Chi Chuan?
By now most everyone is somewhat familiar with the slow, graceful movements of Tai Chi Chuan. Tai Chi Chuan (also spelled Tàijíquán) has become famous for its health benefits, particularly for seniors and those experiencing health challenges. To fully appreciate and understand the art form, a larger understanding of its origins, theory, and practical application is helpful.
Tai Chi Chuan, which can be translated as ‘Grand Ultimate Fist’, is a Chinese martial art. The term ‘Tai Chi’ refers to a Yīn and Yáng diagram relating back to an ancient philosophical concept of a human tendency to understand the world by contrasting opposites, such as light and dark, long and short, male and female, etc. The addition of the word ‘Chuan’ or ‘Fist’ to the name gives the meaning of a martial art, so ‘Tai Chi Chuan’ describes a martial art based on the study of Yīn and Yáng.
Origins and History
In legend, the art of Tai Chi Chuan traces its origins back to its founder, The Great Master Zhāng Sānfēng, who we are told taught and promoted the art form in an area of central China known as Wǔdāng shān sometime in the last 900 years or so. He started a lineage from teacher to student and the art finally entered history associated with the Chén family in the 17th Century.
The Chén family in turn taught the Yáng family, who taught the Wú family. As a result, in the last 200 years, the art has come to be referred to in terms of different family styles, each one named after the family of teachers refining and promoting their own system. The differences between them have been compared with handwriting, which may look considerably different from person to person, but still say the same thing.
Our Academy teaches the Wú family style, our senior instructors have learned directly from that family and their senior students in North America and Asia over the last forty years.
Internal vs. External Training
In the world of Chinese martial arts, there are two basic categories of training. There are what is known as the hard style forms of training, also referred to as ‘external’ systems, and soft style forms of training, also referred to as ‘internal’ systems.
In hard style, which people are most familiar with, one trains speed, strength and technique so that if one is confronted with an incoming force such as a throw, punch, or a kick, one can apply a counterforce to block the incoming force and take advantage of the opening thus created. In other words, one meets an incoming force with a counterforce.
In the soft style form of training, one trains looseness, sensitivity and coordination, so that if one is confronted with an incoming force, one can ‘stick’ with the force and follow it in contact until the incoming force exhausts itself or is otherwise vulnerable. In other words, there isn’t a struggle to fight back, one meets an incoming force with softness. Tai Chi Chuan is a soft style of martial art.
Considering the concept of overcoming hardness with softness, there is the reality of having to deal with an aggressive incoming force. If one is to use softness and sensitivity to overcome an opponent in a combative situation, strong skill in concentration and relaxation is vital. Without the ability to stay focused and relaxed under pressure, one’s sensitivity and technique will not be sufficient to handle the threat.
It is the training that Tai Chi Chuan practitioners utilize to improve their concentration and relaxation skills under pressure that caused Tai Chi Chuan to become famous upon its introduction to the West in the 1970s as a method of stress management. If the art form’s training could assist in overcoming stress in a self-defense circumstance, then the same training should easily help with overcoming more mundane daily stressors.
The Three Studies: Health, Meditation, and Martial Arts
Tai Chi Chuan training is not considered to be exclusively for martial arts purposes, however. Martial art skills are considered a test of previously learned skills. There are three primary studies in Tai Chi Chuan: health, meditation, and martial arts are the third.
The health aspect of Tai Chi Chuan refers to the improvement of one’s own health. The slow gentle movements of the postures serve to improve circulation, to enhance flexibility, improve balance, joint mobility and respiration. The health aspect also includes basic acupressure techniques to assist in overcoming health challenges.
The meditative aspect of Tai Chi Chuan involves training to improve focus and relaxation under stress. The combination of health improvement and meditation training in Tai Chi Chuan helps to overcome the physical symptoms of stress related damage, helping the practitioner to renew themselves physically and mentally every day, improving quality of life. This involves coordinated Qìgōng training that Tai Chi Chuan is famous for.
As mentioned above, the martial aspect of Tai Chi Chuan, for those who wish to pursue this training, provides a reliable method for testing a student’s stability, coordination, focus and other aspects of their earlier training. We have rigorous safety standards and don’t pressure students into any training they are not comfortable with. Our instructors, however, are required to have knowledge of self-defense training.
