T’ai Chi vs. Taijiquan
First of all it is important to know the meaning of the term Taijiquan. To understand, we have to look at the name of the art itself and how it has been rendered into English. Chinese characters are pictographs and there is no alphabet to indicated how a character is pronounced so rendering the sounds into English can be problematic. Chinese also contains many characters with the same pronunciation distinguished only by tone. Transliteration will only provide the pronunciation for the sound of a character not its meaning. Therefore, one can not be truly sure what word is actually meant unless one can see the actual character being used. Most people today use the Pinyin system of transliteration developed in China in the 1950's. With a little practice, it is a much better guide to pronunciation. In Pinyin, the name of the Chen Family Martial Art would be written Taijiquan ( tie - gee - chan). In the West however, it is most often written as “Tai Chi Chuan”. This spelling uses the Wade-Giles system of transliteration which is rarely used by scholars anymore. According to that system, the pronunciation is the same as in Mandarin Chinese, “Taijiquan” but looks different because of the rather odd Wade-Giles spelling conventions. Unfortunately this was the spelling that was used when Taiji was first introduced to the West so it is the spelling most people know. It is therefore still used today. The problem is that most people aren’t familiar with the rules of the Wade-Giles system and tend to mispronounce it as Tai Qi (tai chee) confusing the word Chi (ji/gee) “ultimate” with Ch’i (Qi/chee) “vital energy”.Taiji is a Daoist concept. “Tai” means “great or grand”. Ji means “ultimate” or is sometimes translated as “ridgepole”. It is one of the main concepts in Daoist cosmology. According to Daoism, first there was the Wuji or Great Nothingness, the Void, the Primordial Chaos. From this emptiness arose the One, the Grand Ultimate, or Great Ridgepole. Taiji can seen as the potential for all things; energy, matter, movement. life, etc. From the One, emerged the Two; Yin and Yang, the complementary opposites of dark and light, earth and heaven, heaviness and lightness, male and female, heaven and earth. Yin and Yang are not fixed, unchanging opposites however. As each reaches fullness, it begins to change gradually into the other. All things are infinitely divisible into Yin and Yang.
Therefore we can see that the term Taiji has nothing to do with the martial arts. That is where the Quan part comes in. Quan or “fist” is usually used to denote a martial art. Traditionally martial arts were often known as Quanfa or “boxing” although today Wugong (martial skill) or Wushu (martial art)is more often used. Therefore Quan added to Taiji indicates that is now a martial art, the “Grand Ultimate Fist”. In the West, it is often shortened to just Taiji (T’ai Chi) for ease of pronunciation. It is the implied “quan” that indicates that we are talking about the martial art and not the Daoist cosmology. In Chinese there is no such confusion because the martial art is always called Taijiquan because it is understood that Taiji is the Daoist concept and not a martial art.
The founding of Taijiquan: What we know.
There is the argument that Taijiquan began at the temple on Wudang Mountain in Hubei Provence. We will discuss that in the next blog post. However, the Chen family credit Chen Bu the first of their clan to move to a small village that later became known as Chenjiaguo (literally “Chen Family Ditch”), a part of Wenxian county in Henan province. Chen Bu, is said to have been a skilled martial artist who practiced external forms of martial art known as Tongbei and Changquan (Long Fist). Both are Shaolin based forms and are still practiced today. However the first written reference to the art we now know as Taijiquan has been traced back by Chinese scholars to the 1600's. It was then that a former Ming Dynasty General and garrison commander Chen Wangting (1580 - 1660) a 9th generation of the Chen Family clan developed a martial art that later became known as Chen Taijiquan.Interestingly, Chen Wangting did not actually invent the movements or postures in his new martial art. The postures are based on martial arts movements found in the book “The 32 Forms of the Canon of Boxing” by Qi Jiguang (d. 1587). The Canon of Boxing was a survey of various martial arts in existence at the time. All the arts surveyed were highly influenced by the Shaolin Temple. The Temple, which is often considered the birthplace of external style Chinese martial arts, is not far from Chenjiaguo. Its martial arts were a huge influence in China in general and would certainly been dominant in the Henan area. Research shows that the Chen sets contained twenty-nine of the thirty-two postures found in Canon of Boxing. The Canon of Boxing begins with the postures “Lazily Tying Clothes” and “Single Whip” as did all seven original Chen sets The signature movement of Chen Taijiquan - Buddha’s Warrior Attendant Pounds the Mortar ( Jin Gang Dao Dui) is found in several Shaolin forms. Furthermore, there is no art name Taijiquan mentioned. This clearly helps us date the beginning of Chen Taijiquan. Since it uses movements from a variety of martial arts, it is unlikely that it could have existed before the Canon of Boxing was published.
Since the martial arts of the time were external Shaolin based forms, Chen Taijiquan’s Daoist influence is remarkable. A poem written by Chen Wangting contains the following:
“Now I only have the Classic of the Yellow Palace (huangting jing) to accompany me.
In times of leisure I invent martial arts,
In times of activity I farm the fields,
And teach my children and grandchildren to be strong and healthy to meet life’s expediencies.” (2)
The Huangting Jing is a seminal Daoist text from the 2nd century. It contains many Qigong and meditative exercises and is said to be part of the Nourishing Life (yangsheng) tradition. That Chen Wangting would spend so much time studying this ancient Daoist work, and mention it in a poem demonstrates his obviously deep connection to Daoist philosophy.
Originally, Chen Taijiquan was made up of five empty hand forms, one set of Long Fist (changquan- 108 movements) and one set of Cannon Fist (paochui) along with weapon sets for most, if not all, of the 18 traditional Chinese weapons. Although the movements in the routines were Shaolin based hard style techniques, Chen Wanting is credited with creating an unique martial arts system by adding concepts based on Daoist philosophy and internal energy practices. He added the concepts of Daoyin (dynamic Qigong) and Tuna (meditative breathing exercises), incorporated concepts from Chinese Medicine, and made prominent the Daoist concept of Yin/Yang. Observing the movement of Qi in the body, he developed the concept of chansijing or reeling silk energy; moving the Qi in spiral patterns to increase the effectiveness of the grappling movements found in the form. He also created the tuisho (push hands) exercise to teach the concepts of sensitivity and stickiness so that the techniques could be practiced safely.
For many generations the art was taught only in the Chen Village. Over the years it went through changes and refinements. Chen Changxing (1771 - 1853, 14th Generation) a 14th condensed the original five routines into two; the First Routine (yilu) and the Second Routine (erlu) also know as Cannon Fist (paochui). These routines are still practiced today and are virtually unchanged from the 1800's. It is also at this time that the first known outsider was able to learn the Chen Family martial art. Yang Luchan, a native of Hubei, went to the Chen Village to learn Taijiquan. He eventually moved to Beijing and began to teach Chen Taijiquan openly. We will discuss Yang Luchan and his legacy in another blog post.
Around 1900, Chen Xin (1849-1929, 16th Generation) spent twelve years of his life writing “The Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taijiquan”. This book, which is still available today in both Chinese and English, described both the theory and practice of the martial art. He includes sections concerning the relationship of Chen Taijiquan to the Yijing (Book of Changes) as well as the flow of internal energy and the theory of Yin/Yang. Also included are detailed descriptions of many of the key movements of the two routines complete with line drawings. While not an easy book to read, it contains the core of Chen Taijiquan and is an essential reference for all advanced practitioners.
The next major change came with Chen Fake (1887-1957, 17th Generation). He made changes to the original routines highlighting the spiral Qi movements of Silk Reeling energy which were much less apparent previously. This made the forms easier to learn and understand for beginners. In addition to changing some of the intentions and applications of some movements, he also added a few, increasing the total of the 1st Routine from 75 to 81. The new routines eventually came to be known as the New Frame (xinjia) while the original two are called the Old Frame (Laojia). Chen Fake taught mainly in Beijing and became very well known and respected in the martial arts community.
Chen Fake taught the new routines to his children including his youngest son Chen Zhaokui (1928 - 1981, 18th Generation). Born in Beijing, in 1973 he returned to Chenjiaguo and began teaching the New Frame routines to the next generation of practitioners.
Perhaps the most influential teacher and promoter of Chen Taijiquan was Chen Zhaopi (1893 -1972, 18th Generation). Zhaopi, also known as Jifu, was an accomplished practitioner of the Old Frame and taught openly in many places in China. He wrote several books on the art and returned to the Chen Village in 1958. By all accounts a generous and patient instructor, he was the primary teacher of the four Grandmasters of the 19th Generation.
The four living Grandmasters are:
Chen Xiaowang 1945 -
Chen Zhenglei 1949 -
Zhu Tiancai 1944 -
Wang Xian 1944 -
In addition, Chen Xiaoxing 1952 - , Chen Xiaowang’s younger brother, is also a well respected master who has administered the Chen Taijiquan Martial Arts School in Chenjiaguo for over 35 years.
These Masters have taught all over the world and are credited with bringing Chen Taijiquan out of obscurity and into the modern world. The popularity of Chen Taijiquan, the Chen Family Martial Art, is increasing every day both inside China and abroad. Thanks to modern scholarship and the teachings of these four Grandmasters, Chen Taijiquan is finally being recognized as the original martial arts system known as Taijiquan.
Note: Sometimes generations of Chen Taijiquan students are dated from Chen Wangting which would make the current Grandmasters part of the 11th Generation
1. Chen Style Taijiquan, Zhaohua Publising House, Beijing. 1984
2. Li, Wen Tao - “Introduction to Tai Chi Quan and Tai Chi Chi Kong”, Guang Quing Publications, Kowloon, Hong Kong 1986
