WHAT IS TAI CHI CHUAN?
Tai Chi Exercises & Meditation
T'ai Chi Ch'uan or Taijiquan (literally "supreme ultimate fist"), commonly known as T'ai Chi, Tai Chi, or Taiji, is a nei chia ("internal") Chinese martial art. This art is often practiced for the purposes of health and longevity (some recent medical studies support its effectiveness here). T'ai Chi Ch'uan is considered a soft style martial art, an art applied with as complete a relaxation or "softness" in the musculature as possible, to distinguish its theory and application from that of the hard martial art styles which use a degree of tension in the muscles.
Variations of T'ai Chi Ch'uan's basic training forms are
well known as the slow
motion routines that groups of people practice every morning in hundreds of
parks across China and other parts of the world. Traditional T'ai Chi training
is intended to teach awareness of one's own balance and what affects it,
awareness of the same in others, an appreciation of the practical value in one's
ability to moderate extremes of behavior and attitude at both mental and
physical levels, and how this applies to effective self-defense principles.
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Overview
Historically, T'ai Chi Ch'uan has been regarded as a martial art, and its
traditional practitioners still teach it as one. Even so, it has developed a
worldwide following among many thousands of people with little or no interest in
martial training for its aforementioned benefits to health and health
maintenance. Some call it a form of moving meditation, and T'ai Chi theory and
practice evolved in agreement with many of the principles of traditional Chinese
medicine. Besides general health benefits and stress management attributed to
beginning and intermediate level T'ai Chi training, many therapeutic
interventions along the lines of traditional Chinese medicine are taught to
advanced T'ai Chi students.
T'ai Chi Ch'uan as physical training is characterized by its requirement for the
use of leverage through the joints based on coordination in relaxation rather
than muscular tension in order to neutralize or initiate physical attacks. The
slow, repetitive work involved in that process is said to gently increase and
open the internal circulation (breath, body heat, blood, lymph, peristalsis,
etc.). Over time, proponents say, this enhancement becomes a lasting effect, a
direct reversal of the constricting 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.
TAI CHI EQUIPMENT:
The study of T'ai Chi Ch'uan involves
three primary subjects:
Health - an unhealthy or otherwise uncomfortable person will find it difficult
to meditate to a state of calmness or to use T'ai Chi as a martial art. T'ai
Chi's health training therefore concentrates on relieving the physical effects
of stress on the body and mind.
Meditation - the focus meditation and subsequent calmness cultivated by the
meditative aspect of T'ai Chi is seen as necessary to maintain optimum health
(in the sense of effectively maintaining stress relief or homeostasis) and in
order to use it as a soft style martial art.
Martial art - the ability to competently use T'ai Chi as a martial art is said
to be proof that the health and meditation aspects are working according to the
dictates of the theory of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
In its traditional form (many modern variations exist which ignore at least one
of the above requirements) every aspect of its training has to conform with all
three of the aforementioned categories.
The Mandarin term "T'ai Chi Ch'uan" translates as "Supreme Ultimate Boxing" or
"Boundless Fist". T'ai Chi training involves learning solo routines, known as
forms, and two person routines, known as pushing hands, as well as
acupressure-related manipulations taught by traditional schools. T'ai Chi Ch'uan
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.
Teachers say the study of T'ai Chi Ch'uan 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 or
someone else by 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.
Wu Chien-ch'üan, co-founder of the Wu family style, described the name T'ai Chi
Ch'uan this way at the beginning of the 20th century:
"Various people have offered different explanations for the name T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
Some have said: 'In terms of self-cultivation, one must train from a state of
movement towards a state of stillness. T'ai Chi comes about through the balance
of yin and yang. In terms of the art of attack and defense then, in the context
of the changes of full and empty, one is constantly internally latent, not
outwardly expressive, as if the yin and yang of T'ai Chi have not yet divided
apart.'
Others say: 'Every movement of T'ai Chi Ch'uan is based on circles, just like
the shape of a T'ai Chi symbol. Therefore, it is called T'ai Chi Ch'uan.' Both
explanations are quite reasonable, especially the second, which is more
complete."
The source of this article is
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this
article is licensed under the
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