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Tai Chi Quan

What is Tai Chi Chuan?

Definition: T'ai chi ch'uan or Taijiquan, often shortened to tai chi or taiji  in English usage, is a type of internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits.

It is also typically practiced for a variety of other personal reasons: its hard and soft martial art technique, demonstration competitions, and longevity. As a result, a multitude of training forms exist, both traditional and modern, which correspond to those aims. Some of t'ai chi ch'uan's training forms are especially known for being practiced at what most people categorize as slow movement.

Name

T‘ai chi ch’uan / Taijiquan is formed by the combination of three hanzi:(Hanzi – Wade-Giles韦氏拼音 / Pinyin – Meaning)

太 – t'ai / tai – supreme, grand, great

極 – chi / ji – ultimate, extreme

拳 – ch'uan / quan – fist, boxing

Relation to taiji philosophy

The word taiji translates to “great pole” or “supreme ultimate”, and is the opposite of wuji(without ultimate).

Wuji appears in both Taoist( 道家 ) and Confucian Chinese philosophy, where it represents the fusion of Yin and Yang.

Wuji is believed in the Taoist to be the highly disordered and chaotic state of the initial universe.

Wuji Taij. It also represents the “hard” and the “soft” in a martial art.

Relation to taiji philosophy

The combination of the term taiji and quan (“fist”), produces the martial art’s name taijiquan or “taiji fist”, showing the close link and use of the taiji concept in the martial art. The practice of taijiquan is meant to be in harmony with taiji philosophy,utilising and manipulating qi （氣 ） via taiji, to produce great effect with minimal effort.

Philosophy The philosophy of t‘ai chi ch’uan is that, if one uses hardne

ss to resist violent force, then both sides are certain to be injured at least to some degree. Such injury, according to t‘ai chi ch’uan theory, is a natural consequence of meeting brute force with brute force. Instead, students are taught not to directly fight or resist an incoming force, but to meet it in softness and follow its motion while remaining in physical contact until the incoming force of attack exhausts itself or can be safely redirected, meeting yang with yin. Done correctly, this yin/yang or yang/yin balance in combat, or in a broader philosophical sense, is a primary goal of t‘ai chi ch’uan training. Lao Tzu （老子） provided the archetype for this in the Tao Te Ching （道德经） when he wrote, "The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong."

Philosophy

Traditional schools also emphasize that one is expected to show wude ("martial virtue/heroism"), to protect the defenseless, and show mercy to one's opponents.

Five traditional styles There are five major styles of t'ai chi ch'uan, each named a

fter the Chinese family from which it originated: Chen-style ( 陳氏 ) of Chen Wangting (1580–1660) Yang-style ( 楊氏 ) of Yang Lu-ch'an (1799–1872) Wu- or Wu (Hao)-style ( 武氏 ) of Wu Yu-hsiang (1812–188

0) Wu-style ( 吳氏 ) of Wu Ch'uan-yu (1834–1902) and his so

n Wu Chien-ch'uan (1870–1942) Sun-style ( 孫氏 ) of Sun Lu-t'ang (1861–1932)

Historic origin

What is now known as “t‘ai chi ch’uan” only appears to have received this name from around the mid 1800s. Yang Luchan ( 杨露禅 ) learned Chen’s( 陈王廷 ) tai chi chuan and created a style of his own. Later, he went to Beijing, where the Imperial Court was at that time. A scholar named Weng Tonghe( 翁同龢 ) witnessed a demonstration by Yang Luchan. 

Historic origin

Afterwards Weng wrote: "Hands holding Taiji shakes the whole world, a chest containing ultimate skill defeats a gathering of heroes." This was the time when Yang Luchan made the Chen 's martial art known to the world through his own form ("Yang family style").

Benefits

Before t'ai chi ch'uan's introduction to Western students, the health benefits of t'ai chi ch'uan were largely explained through the lens of traditional Chinese medicine, which is based on a view of the body and healing mechanisms not always studied or supported by modern science. Today, t'ai chi ch'uan is in the process of being subjected to rigorous scientific studies in the West.

Benefits (physically) Researchers have found that intensive t‘ai chi ch’u

an practice shows some favorable effects on the promotion of balance control, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, and has shown to reduce the risk of falls in both healthy elderly patients, and those recovering from chronicstroke ， heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attacks, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer  and fibromyalgia. T'ai chi ch'uan's gentle, low impact movements burn more calories than surfing and nearly as many as downhill skiing.

Benefits (mentally)

A systematic review and meta-analysis, funded in part by the U.S. government, of the current (as of 2010) studies on the effects of practicing t'ai chi ch'uan found that:

Benefits (mentally) "Twenty-one of 33 randomized and nonrandomize

d trials reported that 1 hour to 1 year of regular t'ai chi significantly increased psychological well-being including reduction of stress, anxiety, and depression, and enhanced mood in community-dwelling healthy participants and in patients with chronic conditions. Seven observational studies with relatively large sample sizes reinforced the beneficial association between t'ai chi practice and psychological health."

二十四式太极拳拳谱 1 、起势 2 、左右野马分鬃 3 、白鹤亮翅 4 、左右搂膝拗步 5 、手挥琵琶 6 、左右倒卷肱 7 、左揽雀尾 8 、右揽雀尾 9 、单鞭 10 、云手 11 、单鞭 12 、高探马 13 、右蹬脚 14 、双峰贯耳 15 、转身左蹬脚 16 、左下势独立 17 、右下势独立 18 、左右穿梭 19 、海底针 20 、闪通臂 第八组 21 、转身搬拦捶 22 、如封似闭 23 、十字手 24 、收势

Chinese martial arts Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Man

darin Chinese term wushu （武术） and popularly as kung fu or gung fu  （功夫）， are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China.  Styles which focus on qi manipulation are labeled as internal ( 内家拳 , nèijiāquán), while others which concentrate on improving muscle and fitness are labeled external ( 外家拳 , wàijiāquán). 

Qi ( 氣 )

In traditional Chinese culture, qì (also chi ) is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is translated as life energy, life force, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts.

Hard and soft (martial arts)

In martial arts, the terms hard and soft technique denote how forcefully a defender martial artist counters the force of an attack in armed and unarmed combat.

Hard technique

A hard technique meets force with force; either with a head-on-force blocking technique, or by diagonally( 成对角地 ) cutting the strike with force.

karate or kickboxing

Soft technique  The goal of the soft technique is turning the

attacker’s force to his or her disadvantage, with the defender exerting minimal force. With a soft technique, the defender uses the attacker’s force and momentum against him or her by leading the attacker in a direction to where the defender will be advantageously positioned and the attacker off balance.