The story of Tai Chi can often be conceived as starting with Chang San-feng – generally deemed a mythical monk within the tradition from the I-Ching and Taoism- perhaps living around 1368 onwards.
Compare Martial Arts – Which will One For you personally For You is credited with blending existing health exercises, fighting styles and the own observations (including natural animalistic movements) and strategic thinking in to a synthesis which later grew into that which you now talk about as Tai Chi. Whether or not Chang San-feng existed it is clear the many complementary precursor elements were current in Chinese culture over a any period of time and almost waiting to come together – perhaps just needing the correct time, place and person/s to tug all of the pieces into one codification. There are many candidates and yes it might be that nobody person is solely responsible – rather perhaps that numerous interacted and added to the task of these predecessors – included in this are Chang Sung-chi, Wang Tsung-yueh and Jiang Fa.
However the historical record is clear that within the 1600’s a retired Chinese military officer named Chen Wangting (9th generation member in the Chen family) was the focal person who put the whole package together under the umbrella label of Tai Chi Chuan. At that time family members already had a powerful martial reputation in addition to their own successful style, derived from the legendary Chen Bu 1st generation from the family, who lived in the late 1300s and brought that style to Henan from Shanxi when the family moved there ( Shanxi province can also be the original origin of both Bagua Zhang and Xingyi Chuan ). This original family style could also incorporate some comparison to its Shaolin since Chen village is apparently quite towards the Shaolin monastery.
Chen Wangting is credited while using development of a number of Tai Chi Chuan forms that had been then practiced by people in his family/village who continued to formulate what is now referred to as Laojia form. The new Tai Chi style he created was integrated by Chen Wangting through the existing family style with martial theories in the 36 postures explained General Qi Jiguang within the Chuan Ching (Boxing classics) section of his Military handbook and ideas from Jiang Fa – a competent martial artist/prisoner/friend of Chen Wangting – into five routines of Tai Chi Chuan, plus 108 form Long Fist and Cannon Fist form. He can be credited with creating push hands drills and silk reeling and also emphasising mental/physical relaxation, intention training and balancing slow with fast moves and many other aspects.
It entirely possible that the job of Chen Wangting and work by others that followed, was primarily centered on Martial use but incorporated many ideas and practices through the I-Ching and Taoist thinking along with from Traditional Chinese Medicine including health exercises from Daoyin and from Qi Gong along with much understanding of the anatomy and vital points of the human body, not to mention made use in the concept of Chi and ideas of chi flow. In a similar way Tai chi seems to have integrated Chin na – joint locks – apparently already ubiquitous in fighting techinques all around the world, but given new meaning in Tai Chi which gives unique opportunities for both application and for generating power available.
This period is believed of like a time when personal and family defence were a top priority and brutality was common – members with the Chen family by way of example are viewed to get been in both trading in herbs along with guarding caravans and personnel. Consequently it may be imagined the practitioners from the time were considering managing brutality as efficiently as possible – and taking Chen Wangting for example, were already capable fighters looking for a better way of managing aggression. In addition it seems also likely a large number of in the experienced fighters will be seeking to continue their abilities into older age and perhaps able to work from the perspective of experience in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Thus giving rise on the twin faces of Tai Chi and Tai Chi Chuan – health and martial application. Equally the Taoist lineage brought with it an intellectual procedure for observing and for the world both practically and philosophically, thus enabling a thoughtful means of approaching the roll-out of a martial-art.
This martial/health dichotomy is exemplified with the story of Yang style produced by Yang Luchan who’s said to get learned Chen style covertly while living within the village in the early 1800’s – but to get been accepted being a student when he demonstrated his ability against various members of the family.
Yang Luchan was the 1st outsider to understand the initial way of what we should now termed as Laojia when he was taught by Chen Changxing. He left the Chen village after many years practice and travelled around China signing up for all comers and was unbeaten – thus earning the title Yang the Invincible – an incredibly martial beginning for family members style. He eventually went to Beijing as tutor to the Emperor’s guard and taught his Tai Chi Chuan to his family. It seems that his form diverged since it passed from him through his descendents, becoming devoted to the health advantages via his grandson Yang Chen Fu -who wished to spread some great benefits of Tai Chi more widely to be able to improve the health with the nation – this is actually the style most popularly known today.
I have trained with Mai Lee Yang (the granddaughter of Yang Chen Fu) in Hong Kong and he or she still viewed Tai Chi practice as being a martial-art – indeed the form still retains many aspects which might be of martial value also it might be that Yang Chen Fu himself and maybe some close students continued to practice an even more martial version of the form. Indeed it had been my personal experience that it greatly added to the effectiveness and application from the Karate which I also practiced at the time. However it seems widely accepted that most Yang style today is practiced primarily for health and it is clear that in the west at the very least Tai Chi is observed in the mainstream culture as almost entirely health-related. So from Yang Luchan to present day global Yang style (until recent times “The” global Tai Chi style) we percieve a complete conversion in the space of about two centuries.
There are already many Yang style spin-offs after a while – one well-known being that of Chen Man Ching who initially trained under Yang Chen Fu and then went on the USA where his form is now very popular for it’s softness.
While this spreading and diverging of Yang Style Tai Chi was going on around the Beijing focus the original Chen style was itself undergoing change, notably by Chen Changxing 14th generation and teacher of Yang Luchan, who can also be credited with codifying the “old frame” Laojia form. At one time Chen Youben, also 14th generation is credited with devising a brand new small frame form called Xiao-jia. This was followed by 16th generation member Chen Xin who wrote the very first book on Chen Style “Illustrated Explanations of Chen Family Taijiquan” based across the Xiao-jia form, while not published until 1932. From a personal perspective it’s clear from obviously any good cursory examine this book that Tai Chi was being studied in a very huge depth of detail and confirms the ceaseless references back towards the I-Ching and also to Taoist ideas of how the globe works as well as the theory of Chi that had been clearly fundamental in developing the intellectual model containing driven the physical style.
Then at throughout the same time as Yang Chen Fu – inside the period from the late 1800s/early 1900s Chen Fake 17th generation also went from your Chen village to Beijing being an instructor where he acquired a substantial reputation being a fighter and developed what exactly is now referred to as Chen Xinjia form.
Stemming using this there are many other family derivatives in the Chen and Yang mix including Wu style, Wu (Hao) style and Sun style – these are generally considered the large 5 and therefore are all traceable through relatively few practitioners who often knew or were related and trained collectively or having a connected lineage bearer.
Wu style derives from Quan You a leading student of Yang Luchan and the son Yang Pan Hou – the Wu family style via Quan You’s son Wu Jianquan.
(Old) Wu (Hao) style derives from Wu Yu Xiang (1812-1880) who also studied with Yang Luchan for many years then in the Chen village for three months under Chen Ching-ping. His family style was produced from this experience and is frequently known as Hao style following the Hao Wei Zhen – the 2nd generation successor. The first generation successor Li I-yu also continued in order to create his very own style now differentiated as Li style.
Hao Wei Zhen went on to satisfy and offer his Tai Chi to Sun Lu-tang – a professional practitioner of Xingyi and lots of other martial styles. Sun Lu Tang was known as a proficient fighter who went on to generate his or her own Sun design of Tai Chi.
I learned Sun style from Sun Lu Tang’s daughter Sun Jian Yun at the Beijing People’s University. She described her father in strong terms and the design as primarily martial in intent. I was impressed with the compactness and obvious short range using Sun style. Discussion with one of Madam Sun’s students also revealed a knowledge of acupuncture/vital points together with Tai Chi.
The core of Tai Chi is therefore quite interlinked – nurtured for two centuries through the practitioners of the Chen village after which in the past 200 years going from Chen to Yang to Wu and Hao to Sun – all now growing in parallel and still splitting off yet more variants.
The University in Beijing under Professor Li Deyin is much linked to what has developed being a sport side to Tai Chi with many competitions taking place both nationally and internationally around the world. These include forms, sparing and push hands. Sport varieties of Tai Chi are judged on visual technique and also on rule based competitions with expert judges awarding points for observed skill.
Review Martial Arts – Which will One Is appropriate For You is usually quite akin to gymnastics/acrobatics with students learning first several “hard” Kung Fu styles and after that Xingi, Bagua and Tai Chi. I believe that the background martial understanding is retained in the university and certainly teachers like Wang Yang Ji that have leave this technique can demonstrate a fantastic a higher level martial skill.
Tai Chi within the parks of China appears to get been incorporated into a social melee of health insurance leisure activities alongside Qi Gong, religious meetings, stretching, running, ballroom dancing and rock-and-roll. It is frequently adopted by males and females after they approach retiring age or if they have a health condition including arthritis. Typically these practitioners spend two or three hours or more first thing in the morning exercising along with their 60’s 70’s and 80’s in many cases are delighted to share with you and demonstrate their skill.
It is likely that word of Tai Chi found its way to the west through the transmission of travellers who visited China from the early 1900s onwards and brought back their understanding – sadly we were holding few in number as well as perhaps limited in their understanding from the short time it was generally possible for them to remain. They did lay valuable footwork and generated visibility such that when I started lessons in martial arts in 1970 Tai Chi was known of inside west and some books were available. Although good teaching was not widespread inside the UK – primarily only in London. Later I was shown Yang style by my Karate teacher Hirokasu Kanazawa who learned 24 step Yang style in Japan coming from a Chinese teacher in exchange for Karate instruction.
The world wide spread of Tai Chi was promoted in parallel with the emigration of teachers from China as soon as the communist revolution, again in the period as soon as the 2nd World War and then following the Cultural Revolution. These teachers gave the rest of the world its first taste of genuine home-grown Chinese internal fighting techinques. They have more recently included those now encouraged with the Chinese government to see the west for promotion of Chinese fighting styles and culture in general.
Emigrant teachers include people like Chu King-hung who came to London from Hong Kong to show Yang style inside the Yang Chen Fu tradition and Chen Xiaowang 19th generation head in the Chen family who now travels round the world as ambassador for Chen style.
In the past few years Tai Chi focused organisations have successfully promoted the activity side of Tai Chi both inside China and worldwide, so that competitive forms and sparing of numerous sorts are actually highly visible and give a counterpoint on the health/meditation aspects seen widely in popular media.
Consequently Tai Chi of several variations is now hugely popular worldwide every tradition keeps growing and “spin-off” new shoots. In the past few years possibly the most important development however has become the dramatic growth from the oldest style of all – Chen style – resulting from the efforts of Chen Xiaowang (grandson of Chen Fake 17th generation) along with the three others with the quartet called the “Four Buddha Warrior Attendants” in the Chen village i.e. Chen Zhenglei, Wang Xian and Zhu Tiancai. Having such a long time nurtured the traditional martial cause of Tai Chi Chuan these Chen village teachers are giving us the ability to go back to that root and fully appreciate value of a mode that being true to its core values still posesses a full and balanced martial synthesis.
These travellers and emigrant teachers have seeded the establishment of an “Tai Chi culture” in the west. This has now developed it’s own highly skilled teachers including Karel and Eva Koskuba – who having met and trained under Chinese teachers in the UK or elsewhere, then sought to help expand their lessons in China itself – thus developing the maturity of Tai Chi outside China.
In the UK at the very least, Tai Chi now has quite a higher profile as being a “brand”, especially inside the alternative health insurance and leisure market, where they have gained increasing popularity like a “wrapper” for stress reduction/health/mobility exercise classes. Consequently we have seen a repetition from the established Martial/Health/Sport balance seen elsewhere in fighting techinques throughout the world. This blossoming of the self-defense skill of Tai Chi, which once encompassed every one of these facets a single discipline, is now becoming fragmented into many different aspects each featuring its own adherents, lineage and history – a representation with the globalisation process seen elsewhere.
On reflection we can easily see the reputation Tai Chi being a historical “way” or “path” of development after a while within the association of ideas derived from the early natural sciences and philosophical thinking with health/medical practices, joining together using the practical fighting styles – a cross linking perhaps fuelled with the needs of injured warriors to mend in addition to healthy ones to boost their health and to boost their abilities. These practical ideas synthesised with a relatively people, over quite a short period of time, went after dark straightforward external fighting styles into something more complex and complicated – perhaps because many martial people were/are also intelligent thinkers. Also, perhaps because we can easily observe a historically common path from warrior to healer, the fighting style along with the contributing health/philosophical etc practices remain intimately intertwined, indeed it is sometimes difficult to differentiate with shod and non-shod. This path has continuously created powerful fighting art over some 400 a few years 19 generations with each transmission through another mind/body adding or subtracting a little at intervals of stage. However the last century technique of globalisation has also seen practitioners get off its martial origin to pursue Tai Chi for other objectives and in a sense we’ve come full circle – where after the art brought other disciplines together now it really is getting used to propagate them.
So what in the future for Tai Chi? – with the energetic activities of Chen Xiaowang, his co-teachers through the Chen village and direct lineage students throughout the world, it’s to be hoped we are able to retain a genuine transmission of the traditional art whatever other developments and blending of cultures occurs.
Appendix:
The role of other Internal arts in understanding a brief history and development of Tai Chi – the co-linear developments of Xingyi, Bagua and Yiquan
In understanding a history and growth and development of Tai Chi it is useful to look on the parallel paths of the other internal arts of Xingyi, Bagua and Yiquan. In the case of Xingyi it’s got its roots inside the early 1100s using the historical figure of General Yue Fei (1103-1142) although it is said how the earliest reliable evidence identifies Ji Long Feng (early 1600s) of Shanxi province (origin with the Chen family) who used his expertise using the spear to produce “Heart Mind Six Harmonies” boxing for protection in times of peace. This concept utilises the linkage between mind and body to produce a layout beyond what is possible with body alone – this can be analogous on the intention training with which Chen Wanting is credited. Indeed Xing Yi Quan is translated as “form-intent boxing” alternately “mind-body boxing” and was originally called “Heart Mind Six Harmonies Boxing”. Like Chen Wangting, Ji Long Feng also lived inside early 1600s and his style shares some concepts, for example the six harmonies and chi concepts and clearly came out in the same social/philosophical milieu, but followed a structure based much more on animalistic characteristics and traditional martial ideas around the expression of power. Xingyi too went through lineage diversification of styles as it has spread geographically although it is probably true to say that like the style itself it may be more linear in staying with a strictly martial tradition.
Baguazhang however is traced returning to Dong Hai Chuan living inside mid-1800s (contemporary with Chen Changxing and Yang Luchan) whose ancestral lineage can also be traceable to Shanxi province – although he is claimed to own learned his style from the Taoist monk called Dong Meng-Lin. The Taoist input is most obviously noticeable inside the circle walking using the meditation practice with the Taoist Quan Zhen sect, which can be sign of Baguazhang along with the use from the 8 Trigram Bagua from your I-Ching just as one intellectual structural concept for that style – thus defining the mental intent ( mantra) in the training. Bagua too has experienced a geographical spread but like Xingyi appears to have attracted primarily the martially inclined.
Yiquan – the forth and most recent internal style happens from the Xing Yi Quan lineage from the creator Wang Xiangzhai (1890-1963) who competent in Xing Yi Quan and spent several years researching martial arts. This led him to simplify the education process by removing what he thought to be the unnecessary physical forms and to focus much more around the mental training, in conjunction with simple Qigong like exercises. He therefore dropped the “xing” (form) from the name Xing Yi Quan and called his system Yi Quan, where Yi refers to Mind or Intent.
A few of the Differences Involving Martial Martial arts Styles exemplifies just how far the introduction of internal arts can go and does appear to get the main one defining factor of the arts – the use in the mind in training to produce bodily power and skill.