A Brief History of Tai Chi

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 longevities. Some scholars doubt his historical existence, but 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.

His exercises stressed suppleness and elasticity and were opposed to hardness and force. 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. The Chen style is the oldest form, with all other styles deriving from this either directly or indirectly.

There is also a school of thought that Tai chi (or more correctly tai chi chuan or tai’ji quan) may be a modern version of something much older.

The Major Styles

The five major styles of tai chi are generally viewed as being Yang, Chen, Wu (Hao), Wu (Jian Chuan) and Sun.

While it has become fashionable to view Tai Chi as purely a health exercise, this is not the correct way to view the art. Even practitioners who are exclusively interested in the health benefits of tai chi should be aware that all tai chi styles were created as powerful martial arts and should be approached as such, with each style including weapons training.