Long Life, Good Health Through Tai Chi Chuan
The initial aim of Tai chi chuan is to teach the practitioners to relax. Relax does not mean to flop loosely around, but rather to use the body as efficiently as possible, with no muscular tension. The foremost requirement is good posture with relaxed shoulders, an upright back and firmly rooted stance. Tai chi chuan incorporates Chi kung exercises, which encourage deep breathing, improved blood circulation and greater efficiency of the body?s systems. On a mental level, the quiet concentration, required for Tai chi chuan brings a serene state of mind, in which the everyday stresses of life can be placed in their proper perspective. This leads to a more tolerant, even state of mind, and a calm mind is able to respond more quickly and effectively to challenges in any situation.
At this level, the art is accessible to anyone. Age, health or infirmity is not barrier to reaping some of the rewards that Tai chi chuan has to offer. However, to reach the higher levels it is necessary to study the art in its wider context. Practising the martial aspects of Tai chi chuan involves more complex form of Chi kung, body strengthening, practising with another person and various supplementary exercises. Such training is more demanding than basic form practice, but it does bring greater benefits in terms of mental and physical health, as well as providing an excellent self-defense method. At the higher stages the theoretical aspects of the art also become more apparent.
The snake’s actions exemplified the Taoist principles of softness, relaxation, flexibility and naturalness, allied to the ancient breathing exercises to stimulate chi development. However, no one knows whether he actually existed because there is no historical evidence to support the claim that he had anything to do with the creation or practice of tai chi chuan. Some experts claim him as just being a myth, while others argue he did exist and there are monuments to him in China.
It is not until seventeenth century that tai chi can be verified historically. All of the various styles of tai chi chuan which are in existence today can be traced back to a single man, Chen Wangting, a general of the latter years of the Ming Dynasty. After the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty (1644), Chen Wangting returned to the Chen village in Henan Province and created his forms of boxing, and then Henan Province became home to the Chen family of tai chi chuan. This family has been credited with developing the Chen style, from which all the major schools, directly or indirectly, have developed. It is generally accepted that this ‘new’ style of martial art was developed from the popular existing arts at the time.
When practicing Tai Chi Chuan, one must be calmly energetic concentrating within to develop the swirling and turning of the torso. In so doing you will encourage the balance of muscle, sinew, blood and inner strength. These energetic and physical techniques are difficult to master in their entirety. To succeed, one must learn to become a dynamic expression of Yin and Yang in developing both sensitive acceptances (Yin) within expressive action (Yang). In performing Tai Chi Chuan if one uses hardness to resist violent force, then both sides are certain to be injured at least to some degree.
Such injury, according to Tai Chi theory, is a natural consequence of meeting brute force with brute force. Instead, practitioners 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 and yang or yang and yin balance in combat, which means the goal of Tai Chi Chuan training is achieved.