MARTIAL
ARTS
TAI
CHI CHUAN (Taijiquan)
The earliest references to Tai Chi date back to the T'ang dynasty
which detail "patterns" that were practiced by hermits in the
mountains in China.
One popular, and widely believed, story is that legendary figure
Zhang, San-Feng, a Daoist monk reputed to being over 6 foot
tall and a powerful fighter who had mastered Shaolin Boxing,
combined Yi Jing theory (the dynamics of opposites yin and yang)
and Daoist energy cultivation practices (qigong) with Shaolin
"kung fu" and his observations of the natural fighting behavior
of a crane and a snake to create Tai Chi Chuan some time during
the period 1200 to 1400 AD. Intrigued
by the yielding, smooth evasion and darting counter attacks
of both creatures, was inspired to develop a form of boxing
which would embody the natural philosophy of the Dao.
The
story of Zhang, San- Feng, however, is disputed by many Tai
Chi practitioners, although he is credited with a "classic"
writing entitled, "T'ai Chi Ch'uan Ching", that describes Ch'ang
Ch'uan (interpreted as Tai Chi Chuan) principles.
Another theory implies that 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. .
In the sixth century A.D. Bodihdharma (called Ta Mo in China)
came to the Shaolin 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,
such as:
- Play the Pi'pa
- Single Whip
- Step up to Seven Stars
- Jade Lady Works the Shuttles
- High Pat on Horse
- White Crane (originally Phoenix) Cools Wing
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:
ward-off, rollback, press, push, pull, split, elbow strike and
shoulder strike
The five 'attitudes' are:
advance, retreat, look left, gaze right and 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.
One of his students, Chen You-heng, continued what is called
the New Frame Style of Chen Tai Chi.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
THE
PRIMARY DIFFERENCES IN STYLES:
1) Chen contains hard as well as soft techniques, some resembling
regular kung fu with fast, hard power and footwork;
2) Yang is made up of large, graceful circles, and the techniques
are easy to see and understand;
3) Wu uses smaller circles with more throwing and pushing techniques.
There is another, less practiced, style known as Sun style Tai
Chi (also derived from the "majors"), founded by Sun, Lu-Tang
that deserves mention. Sun combined many techniques of the other
Chinese "internal" martial styles Hsing-I Chuan and Bagua Chang
into his Tai Chi Chuan style.
