What Is... Tai Chi?

Tai Chi is an internal chinese martial art. This means, that it is
mainly concerned, up front and from the beginning, with the
generation of internal strength and energy or Chi. Tai Chi
creates it's power by moving the body as one, and absorbing
and deflecting, rather than confronting any direct powerful onslaught.

Tai Chi Chuan means the Grand Ultimate Fist, a title bestowed upon
it because the fighting ability of it's most famous exponent, Yang Lushan.

There are three main styles of Tai Chi Chuan. Chen style, of the Chen
family or clan, who are centered around the Chen family village. The Chen
family taught one of their servants, Yang Lushan who created Yang Style.
One of the students of Yang family was a Manchu bodyguard called Wu
Quan You, who created the Wu family style. These are the main styles
of Tai Chi. There are smaller styles, like the directly Chen derived style
of Wu (Hao family) lineage, and Sun Lu Tang's internal combination.

Chen style is very interesting, as it has both a slow moving form, and
is very open about it's fast moving form or Pao Chui. Yang and Wu
style also have their fast moving forms.

Yang Style Tai Chi had four most import practitioners;

- Yang Lushan, who founded the art. He had two sons, Yang Ban Hou
and Yang Jian Hou.
- Yang Ban Hou was a very rough practitioner of Tai Chi
as a fighting art. Because his students often ended up injured,
very few endured his harsh training. Brother Yang Jian Hou had
several sons, but the most famous were...
- Yang Shao Hou. Shao Hou was very much like his uncle Ban Hou,
and like him, very few students could stand the training slash beatings
they were dealt as a matter of routine. As a result, very few remember
this old codger, and his surviving students can be counted on the digits
of a three fingered hand.
- Yang Cheng Fu, the hefty brother of Yang Shao Hou, who created a kinder,
gentler Tai Chi by leaving out all of the fast movements and leaps,
and concentrated on teaching the grateful masses the slow, long form,
and push hands.

Wu style was created by Wu, Jian Quan, who learned his art
from Yang Ban Hou and Yang Lushan. His form is a "small frame"
Tai Chi that is very easy on the joints, and also has some measure
of combat effectiveness because the natural, narrower stances do
not over commit you in a fight. There is also a southern Wu style from
Shanghai/Hong Kong with high stances that looks like Chen style or
Wu (Hao) style. (See The Wu Style Of Tai Chi Chuan by Tinn Chan
Lee, from Unique Publications.)

There are other, less popular styles, like the Wu (Hao) style that is
directly descended from Chen style, and the personal style of the
famous internal martial artist Sun Lu Tang, Sun Style, which is a
combination of Wu (Hao), Hsing Yi and Pakua (Bagwa).

When I started off by saying that Tai Chi is an internal martial art,
it should be clear that there is quite some overlap between internal
and external styles. Tai Chi is often grouped with Pakua and Hsing
Yi (and the combination of these styles called Liu Ho Ba Fa), because
at the turn of the last century, many masters of these disciplines used
to train together, exchanged techniques and training methods. As a
result, they can be quite similar.

However, many "external" styles can be quite internal at advanced
levels, where they emphasize the building of chi, and the energy root,
and fight by attacking the energy points at the meridians. Wing Chun
is like that, as is Praying Mantis. Then, many of the hardest, external
styles have internal forms that are seen as the ideal. Hung Gar has
it's Iron Wire Set (Tit Sin Kuen), and many other Southern Chinese
styles have forms similar to Sanchin of Okinawan Karate.

The big difference between internal and external styles, is that internal
styles move from the root or feet, where external styles move and pivot
from the Dan Tien or waist. That's just my personal observation, but I
think it is valid.

Another explanation of internal versus external, is that in China, internal
arts are indigenous Taoist arts (from inside the country), whereas
external styles are buddhist and Shaolin based (buddhism came from
India, therefore, outside the country). This works out neatly, as Tai Chi,
Pakua and Hsing Yi are Taoist. They are of course, not the only Taoist
styles.

Another way to categorize Tai Chi styles is in to the height of the
stances. Large frame (low), Medium Frame, and Small Frame (high)
are ways to describe both the Chen styles, as well as the Yang/Wu styles.

In the end, they all aim for the same goal, namely becoming softer,
more energy oriented in both attack (pressure points) and defense
(rooting power, sensitivity).

Modern Tai Chi is quite a mixed bag, as it was taken up by the new
age movement in the seventies. Many people who wouldn't know
flowing energy from a stick in the ground have neglected the warrior
aspect that landed the art with the name "Grand Ultimate Fist".

There are however, still hard-core practitioners who take the combat
side of Tai Chi very seriously, such as various Chen practitioners,
Erle Montaigue's version of Yang style, and some of the Wu stylists.