What is Tai Chi Chuan?

Of the three internal styles of Gungfu practiced today, Tai chi chuan has the greatest following. It has been adopted by the west more for its exercise principles than for its combat methods. The word translated means "Grand ultimate Fist" .In effect it employs the Taoist practice of bringing positive and negative forces into harmony between the body and its surroundings through formalized exercises.

The Tai chi form is a continuous slow motion solo exercise whose primary objective in western society is to teach practitioners how to attain spiritual and physical fitness, whereas the combat side of the art is secondary. This is a great loss in the Eastern/Western culture exchange; the combat side of Tai chi embodies the principle of non-resistance to force, or 'Yielding'. By yielding, the practitioner redirect the attack .Tai chi movements when seen by other Chinese martial artists seem similar to look at, however in Tai chi chuan movements are circular, so that an attack is taken around the circle and back to the aggressor. This requires a high degree of skill, and many years of dedicated practice and training.

Even though Tai chi is practiced very slowly and the movements of the solo exercise seem to mesmeric in appearance, these movements are in fact dynamic in their structure, and are potentially very powerful. It is the ability of the practitioner to use the waist, to coordinate the whole body behind the movement to create unbelievable power.

Legend relates that Chang San-Feng founded Tai chi. Feng was a Taoist Alchemist who lived in the mountains during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). After drinking a strange concoction one day, he fell into a deep sleep and had a dream in which he was taught a series of fighting maneuvers all centered around completely yielding to an oncoming attack. He began to practice these each day and within two years his elderly frame began to grow strong and youthfull. He believed he had found the elixir of life itself.

Feng left the mountains to head for civilization and teach his new art to the people. In his journey through the wilderness it is said that many bandits who roamed the area attacked Feng. Feng defeated every one of them.

In later life Chang Sen-Feng took a disciple under his Wing named Chen Chia Kou and taught him everything about Tai Chi. The Chen family kept the secret of the form for over 400 years. Later on, Chen's descendants on the system and the style split into two Branches. One member of the family was engaged by an Herbalist to teach his sons, and the servant of that family, Yang Lu Chan, watched and learned the style in secret until he was finally accepted as a student. Yang later went to Peking and taught the Emporers guard his "internal Boxing". As a result the Yang tai chi form was developed and is now the most practiced all over the world.

The style has changed somewhat from its original form and unlike the Original Chen form the various branches are very dissimilar yet similar at the same time it is usually down to individual instructors interpretation. The true essence of yin-Yang is found in Tai Chi Chuan and therefore all these styles are a good indication of self expression as long as they are based on the original intent which is self preservation and longevity throughout, sometimes you can find practitioners who are not even aware Tai Chi is a martial art this is unforgivable on the part of the teacher as the term Chinese Folk Dance should not be associated with such an integral part of Chinese heritage.

What is Chi?

In China and neighbouring countries, the existence of chi is widely accepted. Many Chinese devote a substantial portion of their time to a discipline called Chi Kung (pronounced chee kung). Chi Kung is the skill of concentrating, circulating and focusing Chi. In China; multitudes of people practise Chi Kung every morning in the parks. There are magazines and books dedicated to Chi Kung. Traditional Chinese medicine takes Chi into account. Even the design of the buildings is based on considerations of Chi.

Chi Kung practitioners experience the ch'i flow along paths in the body called meridians. Acupuncture is based on knowledge of chi and its meridians. At its highest level, acupuncture involves injecting chi at just the right time and place and in the right amount to reinstate its natural flow in the patient.

Chi embodies antithetical qualities: it can be used for healing, or it can be used for breaking stones (or bones). Only the healing aspect of chi will be discussed in this book.

How can it be that many people in one part of the world acknowledge the existence of Chi and even base their system of medicine on it, while those in other parts of the world have no concept of it? What is Chi? How is it experienced? How is it cultivated? Can it be sent from one person to another? Do inanimate objects have chi? Does chi have any scientific basis? Does it need such a basis? These questions will be addressed next.

We think of the physical human body as being composed of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, organs, glands, nerves, blood, lymph, etc. However, there is one more component in living human bodies: chi. Chi is regarded as that which regulates the functioning and mutual interaction of all the bodily organs. When we are physically injured, the obvious damage is accompanied by a 20 of the flow of chi. One of the causes of this interruption is our pain and fear. If the flow of chi is not reinstated, the recovery process is hampered or even absent.

Chi Kung and T'ai Chi Ch'uan practitioners are sensitive to the flow of chi and can reinstate its flow. The time required for healing seems to be proportional to the length of t time that the flow of chi has been disrupted. If a strong flow of chi is reinstated immediately after an injury, the healing process will be very short- perhaps only a few days. Frequently, pain subsides in minutes. However, if a period of time elapses before the chi is reinstated, the healing process may be markedly delayed. Consequently, there are certain types of injuries (such as bruises, sprains, muscle spasms and burns) that have a potential for a much shorter recovery time than is commonly thought.

In addition to hastening recovery from injury and illness, regular practice of Chi Kung promotes a feeling of dynamo-like energy, lessens the need for sleep, reduces the tendency to become sick and makes the whole body physically re silient and strong.

It should be noted that, often, beginners first feel tired rather than energized when they practice T'ai Chi Ch'uan or Chi Kung. This disappointing effect is actually good because it is important to become aware of the body's needs. The tiredness occurs mainly because most people consume fatigue-masking stimulants such as caffeine or "hypnotize" themselves not to experience their fatigue. Once those with an energy deficit relax, they realize how tired they are.

The body becomes inefficient when we postpone the opportunity for it to perform metabolic cleansing, nutritive functions and the balancing of the actions of the various organs. Thus, the energy debt keeps escalating. Chi Kung practice gives the whole body a chance to undergo the beneficial transformations before harm mounts. Bodily and mental energy then gradually increase rather than decline with time.

In the words of the son of a well known Chi kung Master, "My father says that if he did not wake up every morning at five o'clock and do an hour of Chi Kung, he would not be able to work fourteen hours a day".

The most common description of chi is a tingling or squirming sensation. Beginners to be that of the circulation of the blood often mistake this sensation, but the movement of blood causes more of a pulsating feeling.

As the practitioner becomes more adept, a swelling sensation begins to appear. The swelling has a supportive quality that pervades the entire body without any gaps and makes it possible to exert surprisingly large amounts of external force in a totally relaxed and natural manner.

Advanced practitioners experience chi circulating through the body. The circulation of chi is enhanced by movement or by mental intent.

While some research has been conducted, scientists have not yet satisfactorily identified, measured, or explained chi. Therefore, it is misleading to try to describe chi using words like energy or force. Such words have precise scientific meanings that may not apply. However, chi is not altogether without scientific basis. Here is a biological interpretation of chi, based on ideas taught to me by Elaine Summers, with who I studied "Kinetic Awareness" in New York City in the mid 1970's.

When we look at dead cells under a microscope, they are motionless. We know about their changes by seeing them frozen at different stages of development. However, there is a dynamic attribute of living cells similar to that seen in living, single-celled organisms such as amoebas. Living cells undergo a movement that is termed protoplasmic streaming. Streaming allows oxygen, nutrients and metabolic wastes to pass in their appropriate directions through the cell wall. In tissues comprising many cells, there may be a similar activity involving masses of cells in unison- a sort of wave like undulation. The effect of a combined, intelligent, unified motion may well transmit vital information from each organ and gland to every other organ and gland. This explanation is consistent with the concept that chi, blood and breath are related and that chi harmonises the essential bodily functions. It is also consistent with the fact that chi is often experienced as a tingling sensation and its flow is experienced as a wave.

The idea that chi involves such vital cellular activities explains why its presence is associated with a healing effect. When protoplasmic streaming is arrested, it stunts normal physiological processes dependent on this streaming. Reinstated normal streaming then causes those physiological processes to resume. If this interpretation is correct, then exercises that cultivate the flow of chi benefit cells individually as well as allowing them to harmonise collectively.

At present, some people who work with chi say that it involves electromagnetic energy. Electronic devices have been designed that are purported to sense chi. These devices are used by some acupuncturists to locate the acupuncture nodes. While chi may well involve electromagnetic energy, this involvement is certainly not the whole answer. When it comes to pursuits of self-cultivation, we must be careful that scientific clarity and efficiency do not limit that which is ideally experienced directly.

Chi is a subtle phenomenon that occurs in all of us. If your chi stopped, you would cease to be alive. If chi is such a natural part of life, why is it that many people do not feel it without some sort of training? One explanation is that, because we experience chi from the very inception of our lives, we become so used to it that it goes unnoticed. This disregard is true of other familiar natural processes such as the flow of the blood throughout our body, changes in concentration of oxygen of the blood from breath to breath, the flow of digestive juices, the absorption of nutrients after they are digested, and the emptying of the stomach. As long as these processes are not under stress, we are not usually aware of them. However, those who study teachings such as Yoga or T'ai Chi Ch'uan become highly attuned to all of these processes and more.

There is another reason that awareness of biological activities is often faint. Such an awareness saps energy from practical tasks. If we were consciously aware of every beat of our heart, every movement of our digestive tract, and other processes, we would be so distracted that we would be aware of little else. Fortunately, the mind has the ability to cut of its awareness of certain things almost totally. For example, while you are reading this page, there are many stimuli that do not enter into your awareness. There is the pressure of the chair against the back of your thighs (if your sitting); there may be sounds of automotive traffic, airplanes, animals, insects, music and speech. In order to concentrate on what is of immediate importance, it is necessary to suspend the processing of extraneous stimuli. Often we do this so well that even important sensory input is obliterated.

Each of us has been exposed to our own internal circulation of shortly after the egg from which we grew was fertilized. However, the fact that the blood circulates was discovered by Western medicine only a few hundred years ago. Therefore, it should not be surprising that without special training, many people do not experience the similarly subtle flow of chi.

Probably the most important precondition for the serious cultivation of chi is a state called sung. Sung is can be considered as a state of inner relaxation without any compromise of our outer shape. Once a certain degree of sung is attained, it is then helpful to notice the circulation of the blood and its oxygenation. Another help is to feel the flow of air over the skin during slow movement. This feeling is somewhat similar that of chi. A third help is to gently squeeze and stretch the space between the fingers. This squeezing can also be applied to the space between the hands and to the space between the arms and the body. Achieving the correct degree of tension and openness will result in a distinct energising and tingling of the parts involved. After one's movements are sufficiently relaxed and fluid, it is important to notice subtle changes of internal pressure that occur with every movement. The practitioner will then begin to sense a flow of chi. eventually; awareness of the familiar route that the chi takes will become strong. This awareness is then used to make minute changes in the speed, tension and the shape of the movements to increase the strength of the natural flow of chi. Developing this awareness is called cultivating the chi.

In the T'ai Chi Ch'uan form, the mind indicates the flow of chi, which, in turn, initiates each movement. However, each movement intensifies the chi. Thus, there is a synergistic effect that greatly escalates the flow of chi over time.

An interesting phenomenon is that one person can experience and influence the chi of another without any physical contact. There are certain people who can 'direct their chi' to another person. The other person will feel both the chi and a consequent reduction of the pain of an injury. It is quite a mystery how the mind of one individual can effect the chi of another at a distance. Chi is and always will be fundamental in achieving good Gungfu.