Tai Chi Chuan is one of Chinese Kungfu. People used to
practice it to fight with others or to protect themselves. It was
first created by a Chen family in Ming Dynasty. The skills
originated from other Chinese Kungfu such as Shaolin Chuan, Yushi
Chuan and Qijia Chuan, etc. It gradually formed its own system.
At first, there were six to seven series. After many generations
of practice, it gradually discarded unnecessary forms while still
absorbed good ones from other kinds and finally formed into two
series, Series One and Series Two, the present series. This is
the brief history of Chen-Style Tai Chi Chuan, the original one,
which is not as popular as Yang-Style because of its long-time
secretly-taught style.
MASTERS
There are or were many famous Tai Chi masters. A really
high-level master can play with the opponent however he will.
Here are the three most famous of them:
Chen Changxin, the teacher of Yang Luochan, lived in Qing Dynasty.
Yang Luochan, the first Tai Chi master from outside Chen family. No one, except his teacher and classmates, could defeat him at his time. So he was entitled "Yang Wudi" that meant invincible. He is the founder of Yang-Style.
Chen Fake, one of the greatest Tai Chi masters. He taught Tai Chi in Beijing in 1940s and 1950s. He could defeat anyone he met within the time of saying "one, two, three." He died in 1957. Many present Tai Chi masters are his students.
CHARACTERISTICS
Different from other Chinese Kungfu, Tai Chi Chuan has its unique characteristics. It trains person’s spirit while the other ones train person’s muscle. It begins from relaxing or softening the whole body while the others begin from tightening or hardening some parts of the body. From softness to invincible
state is the unique training way of Tai Chi Chuan. So we can see
that Tai Chi Chuan can make us both strong and healthy while the
others can only make us strong. Strong is not healthy.
WITH HUMAN HEALTH
According to Chinese medicine, jing (sperm), qi (air inside human body) and sheng (spirit) are three important factors for human body. "Spirit commands air and air commands sperm. Cumulate sperm to produce air and cumulate air to produce spirit" expresses the relationships between them. Tai Chi Chuan helps to produce, rear and harmonize them. When we are practising or after we have practised Tai Chi Chuan, we can feel a light heart, a clear mind and bright eyes, and also we can feel the happiness full of our bodies.
According to Chinese medicine, some special energy
channels that are different from blood tubes and which we call
jing luo go all over human body. When they are blocked, the human body will catch diseases. Most chronic diseases result from this. We can make and keep them flowing so that keep our bodies healthy by keep practicing Tai Chi Chuan.
Tai Chi Chuan is really magic when considering its medical functions. As I know, one woman from northeast China cured her blood cancer by using Chinese medicine together with learning and keeping on practicing Tai Chi Chuan. A young man from Anhui Province, whom I met in 1987 cured his blindness through more than ten years of practicing of Tai Chi Chuan. In fact, Chen Fake, the master himself cured or dissolved the hard block inside his stomach after his first three years of Tai Chi practicing.
WITH CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Ancient Chinese philosophers used yin yang theory to explain almost everything in the world. The theory means that
everything involves two opposite sides: yin and yang. These two sides coexist and include in each other and changes with time although they are opposite to each other. "Success and failure," for example, is a pair of yin & yang. Often great success includes the elements of failure. And we also say that failure is the mother of success. The theory of Tai Chi Chuan based on the yin yang theory. Every form of Tai Chi Chuan embodies these two sides.
For example, "move right first when we want to move left," "close
first when we want to open," etc. In fact, "from softness to
invincible state", the main idea of Tai Chi Chuan itself is the
vivid example of the theory.
AESTHETIC VALUE
Tai Chi Chuan looks very beautiful. We can appreciate the
harmony of the world through its peaceful and fluent movement. We
can see the swaying of trees in balmy breezes, the walking of
white clouds against the blue sky, the flowing of water in big
rivers and stability of high mountains. We can also find the
beauty of Chinese ink pictures and Chinese handwriting arts in
Tai Chi Chuan if we are familiar with Chinese culture. Actually
Tai Chi Chuan has become one of carriers of Chinese culture.
