• AS A DEFINITION
• AS FOR THE NAME: TAI-CHI CHUAN OR TAIJIQUAN
• INTRODUCTION
• THE FORM
• THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TAI CHI CHUAN
• THE TAI CHI CHUAN STYLES
• PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS WHICH SUSTAIN THE TAI-CHI CHUAN THEORY
• TAOÍSM AND THE ORIGIN OF TAI CHI CHUAN
• THE CHI (QI)
• THE TAN-TIEN (or dan tian)
• INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS
• NEI-GONG
• QIN-NA
• TUI-SHOU

  
  

TAOISM AND THE ORIGIN OF TAI-CHI CHUAN (future link)

Tai-chi chuan is intimately related to ´´Taoism´´, where it comes from, although there is an official Chinese version- the source coming from the People’s Republic of China- indicating that tai-chi chuan is originated from the Chen family (XVII century). However, it can be gathered from documents evidencing that the origin is way back before, mentioning a Taoist monk, named ´´Zhang San Feng´´ (XIII century) who is considered the founder of this technique. He is also surrounded by numerous legends; even his real existence is being questioned. Whatever it is, what seems to be certain is that taijiquan (tai-chi) is a rather remote art developed in Taoism.

One of the legends that is most widely told is that one day Zhang San Feng saw a fight between a snake and a crane. No matter how the crane tried to peck its sharp peak towards the snake, it slipped away, it did not do more than just gliding swiftly in circles, always avoiding the crane. This was what Zhang observed and gave him the tai-chi chuan inspiration. Later, tai-chi chuan was always transmitted for a long time among the Taoists. The significant Taoist figures within tai-chi chuan, were also Wang Zong Yue and Jiang Fa who wrote individual works.

The fundamental and differentiating factor of tai-chi chuan is exactly that of this internal Taoist practices which confer the potential and effectiveness that it enjoys, without these, it would simply be just gymnastic or another martial art.