HISTORY OF TAI CHI CH'UAN

Tai Chi Ch'uan (also spelled Taijiquan) translates to "Supreme Ultimate" or "Undifferentiated reality" for Tai Chi, and "Fist/Boxing" for Ch'uan (in boxing the Chinese understand a broader and deeper fighting art than the term implies in the West). Along with Bagua and Xing-Yi, Tai Chi is one of three fighting arts that are classified together as applications of internal kungfu. By internal, we mean that the art develops inner strength through the careful attention to internal sensations and linkages, and to their causes. This is in contrast to developing muscular strength, toughening the outer body, and learning set techniques, as in the external martial arts. Central to these interal styles is the development of Qi (also spelled Chi, though not the same word in Chinese as the Chi in Tai Chi), which can be tought of as a form of internal energy. This internal energy makes possible all the activities of the body and mind, from blood circulation to movement to thought and to everything in between.

The history of Tai Chi proper begins with the founding of the art that became known as Chen style. Like many Chinese martial arts, the exact history of Chen style has a few variations, but the most commonly mentioned traces the origin to Chen Chang Xin, of the Chen village in Wen County, Henan, China. As a member of the Chen family, Chang Xin had been taught the family's Pao Chui style of boxing when he met and later trained under Jiang Fa, whose master was Wang Tsung Yueh and who's linage can be traced back to the Wudang Internal Boxing sstyle founded by Chang San Feng, a Taoist residing on Wu Dang Mountain. Wu Dang is one of the 3 'holy mountains' in China, and the style of boxing developed there was second in popularity only to the kung fu developed near mount Song by the Shaolin temple. Wudang-style boxing contained a much more internal focus than did Shaolin, and it fit well with Chen's Pao Chui style boxing. Over many years, Chen Chang Xin created the style that would become known as Chen Tai Chi (though the term Tai Chi would not be coined for years to come).