|
There exists a very ancient history in China of movement systems that are associated with health and philosophy. In some sense one can see all of these as contributing to the climate in which Tai Chi was born.
There exists a very ancient history in
China of movement systems that are
associated with health and philosophy. In
some sense one can see all of these as
contributing to the climate in which Tai Chi
was born.
From the very origins of Taoism in the
sixth century BC, sages like Lao Tsu wrote
in the Tao Te Ching:
Yield and Overcome;
Bend and be straight.
And
He who stands of tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
In this and in the entire tenor of his
writings Lao Tsu reflects the central
philosophical underpinnings of Tai Chi
Chuan.
Later, in the period of the Three
Kingdoms (220 to 265 AD) there was a
physician Hua-tu'o who relied not only on
medicine but also taught the 'movements of
the five creatures' -- tiger, deer, bear,
ape and birds -- a system he called Wu-chi
chih hsi. He believed that the body
needed to be regularly exercised to help
with digestion and circulation and only by
doing so could a long and healthy live be
achieved. He advocated a system of imitating
the movements of these animals to help
exercise every joint in the body. His
teaching, and its connection with the
movements of animals, is probably the
earliest pre-cursor of Tai Chi.
Painting of Bodihdharma by
Feng Tien: Ch'ing Dynasty.
In the sixth century A.D. Bodihdharma
(called Ta Mo in China) came to the Shao-Lin
Monastery and seeing that the monks there
were in poor physical condition from too
much meditation and not enough movement, his
Eighteen Form Lohan Exercise. Over time
these grew to be the precursors of the Wei
Chia (outer-extrinsic) school of exercise,
by which is meant all the schools of kung-fu
and other martial art forms which take an
'external' approach. This is in contrast to
the Nei Chia (internal-intrinsic) school of
which Tai Chi is a member, that take a
fundamentally 'internal' approach. In the
eighth century AD (the Tang dynasty)
philosophers like Hsu Hsuan- p'ing developed
a 'Long Kung-fu' of 37 forms. Of these
certain ones such as:
- Play the Pi'pa
- Single Whip
- Step up to Seven Stars
- Jade Lady Works the Shuttles,
- High Pat on Horse; and
- White Crane (originally Phoenix) Cools
Wing
Still survive in the contemporary Tai Chi
form. There were several other such forms
being practiced in the eighth century
(Heavenly-Inborn Style, Nine Small Heavens
Style and Acquired Kung-fu) from which grew
the origins of Tai Chi.
Chang San-feng.
The apocryphal founder of Tai Chi was a
monk of the Wu Tang Monastery, Chang
San-feng to whom have been ascribed various
dates and longevity's. Some scholars doubt
his historical existance, viewing him as a
literary construct on the lines of Lao Tzu.
Other research and records from the
Ming-shih (the official chronicles of the
Ming dynasty) seem to indicate that he lived
in the period from 1391 to 1459 (he may have
been born earlier and lived later: these are
simply some dates associated with him).
Linking some of the older forms with the
notion of yin-yang from Taoism and stressing
the 'internal' aspects of his exercises, he
is credited with creating the fundamental
'Thirteen Postures' of Tai Chi corresponding
to the eight basic trigrams of the I
Ching and the five elements. The eight
'postures' are:
- ward-off
- rollback
- press
- push
- pull
- split
- elbow strike; and
- shoulder strike
The five 'attitudes' are:
- advance
- retreat
- look left
- gaze right; and
- central equilibrium.
His exercises stressed suppleness and
elasticity and were opposed to hardness and
force. They incorporated philosophy,
physiology, psychology, geometry and the
laws of dynamics.
His theories, writings and practices were
elaborated sometime later by Wang Chung-yueh
and his student Chiang Fa. Wang apparently
took the thirteen postures of Chang San-feng
and linked them together into continuous
sequences, thus creating something which
resembles the contemporary Tai Chi Chuan
form. His student Chiang Fa taught Tai Chi
to the villagers of a town on Honan (almost
all of whom were called Chen) and thus began
the first family school of Tai Chi Chuan.
Herein lies one of the most contentious
and perplexing areas of Tai Chi history and
scholarship. Some scholars feel that rather
than bringing Tai Chi to the Chen village
Chiang Fa simply discovered the Chen
villagers practiciing this art. Others
maintain that the Chen family's so-called
'Cannon Pounding' (Pao Chui) was a distinct
martial art that undoubtedly influenced
Chiang Fa's teaching but that it was not the
same as Tai Chi.
Another of Wang's students was Chen
Chou-t'ung who quarreled with Chiang Fa. The
former then established the so-called
Southern School of Tai Chi, an interesting
an colourful branch of Tai Chi which
subsequently disappeared. Chiang Fa
continued with the mainstream 'Northern'
school of Tai Chi which survives today.
Whatever their respective contributions,
from Chiang-Fa and the Chen villagers in
Honan emerge all of the surviving branches
of Tai Chi Chuan:
- One of his students, Chen You-heng,
continued what is called the New Frame
Style of Chen Tai Chi.
- Chen Chang-hsing (1771-1853) studied
under Chiang-Fa and combined the Cannon
Pounding (Pao Chui) form of the Chen
Family with the Tai Chi taught by
Chiang-Fa. Chen Chang-hsing, in turn,
was the teacher of Yang Lu-chan, the
originator of the Yang Style of Tai Chi.
- Another Chen family member and student
of Chen Chang-hsing was Chen Gen-yun
whose descendants continued the Old
Frame Style of Chen Tai Chi.
- Wu Quan-yu, a Manchu guard in the
Imperial Palace at Beijing, was a
student of both Yang Lu-chan and his son
Yang Pan-hou. Wu taught it to (amongst
others) his son Wu Chien-chuan (Also
written as Wu Jian-quan). From this
stream emerged the Wu Style of Tai Chi.
- Another Chen family member was Chen
Yau-pun who veered away from Chiang Fa's
tradition to create the 'new' school of
Tai Chi. Apparently his student Chen
Quin-ping was an originator of the Zhao
Bao Style of Tai Chi.
- One of Chen Quin-ping's students was
Li Jing-Ting who, in turn was the
founder of the Hu Lei Style of Tai Chi.
- A student of both Yang Lu-chan and
Chen Qing-ping was Wu Yu- xiang. He
taught his nephew Lee I-yu who in turn
taught Hao Wei-chen. This gave rise to
the Wu Shi Style (or Hao Style) of Tai
Chi Chuan.
-
- One of Hao Wei-chen's students was Sun
Lu-tang who also studied Hsing-I Quan
under Kuo Yun-shen and Pa Kua Chang
under Cheng T'ing-hua (himself a student
of Dong Hai-chuan, the founder of Pa Kua
Chang). He combined these forms in the
new Sun Style of Tai Chi Chuan.
These are the principal styles of Tai Chi
that are in existence in the present day. |
