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Tai Chi Chuan (Grand Ultimate Fist) has many origins. The most popular theory is that the style was created by Chang San Feng, who lived during the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1279 – 1368), after watching a fight between a crane and snake. He imitated these moves and based the newly created Tai Chi postures on these two animals. He was a monk at the WuDang Temple located in the WuDang mountains. This temple was recently made famous by the movie ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.’ The temple still exists today, and the monks still teach various forms of internal boxing.
The art later made its way to the Chen village, which was close to WuDang mountains. Jiang Fa, a monk at the temple, is credited with teaching the Chen family members. At the time, the art was not referred to as Tai Chi but was called Zhao Bao. This art used slow deep postures. The art, perfected by the Chen family members, was kept secret from outsiders for generations.
Eventually, the art was learned by Yang Lu Chan, who was a houseboy for the Chen family. Although there are many different versions of the story, this is the most popular version: Every evening, the Chen family members would practice under the guidance of their grandfather, Chen Chang Xin. There was a walled courtyard so that no one could see their techniques. Yang Lu Chan was very curious and secretly climbed the wall to observe the practice sessions. Afterward, he would secretly practice on his own.
Eventually, he got caught. Later, he joined the other family members at practice, and Chen Chang Xin found Yang Lu Chan had surpassed many of the Chen family members. He began to teach Yang Lu Chan privately to show him the inner workings of the Chen family art.
Yang Lu Chan began to teach at the Imperial court. While there, the art became known as Mien Quan (Cotton Fist) or Hua Quan (Neutralizing Fist). Later, a scholar by the name of Ong Tong was so impressed with the way Yang Lu Chan executed and performed his techniques that he wrote a verse to embody the motions that he saw.
Hands Holding Tai Chi shakes the whole world, a chest containing ultimate skill defeats a gathering of heroes.
From that point on, the art became known as Tai Chi. Since Yang Lu Chan was the teacher, the art was specifically called Yang’s Tai Chi.
When Yang Lu Chan began teaching at the Imperial Court, he had to modify the routine to accommodate the long robes of his students to make it more effective in combat. He created a smaller frame of the original form. The movements were smaller, which allowed the students to perform them more quickly and to be faster in combat while wearing the long ceremonial robes.
Quan Yu (1834 – 1902) was one of Yang Lu Chan’s top students. He created his form of Tai Chi based on the smaller Yang movements. The art became known as Wu Jian Quan named after his son of the same name, Wu Jian Quan (1870 – 1942). He started teaching his style of Tai Chi at the Chen Wei Ming’s Zhi Rou Association in Shanghai along with the famous master Yang Cheng Fu. Wu Jian Quan continued to develop his skills and improve his art. Later he added a faster version of the form to enhance flow and internal strength. The art became popular and was learned thereby Ng Wai Nung and passed on to his grandson in Hong Kong, Leung Shum. Grandmaster Leung Shum passed the secrets of Wu and Yang Tai Chi to Master Rothrock.
Today there are many popular styles of Tai Chi. Most are named after the practitioners that modified them. The most popular methods today are Yang, Chen, Wu, and Sun. Of course, there are many derivatives of these forms.
Many people see only the beautiful and graceful movements of Tai Chi as a form of exercise for health. However, Tai Chi is a self-defense system and a complete art that takes years to master. Tai Chi has partner practice called pushing hands that teaches the principles of self-defense by teaching you to feel your opponent’s force and then using this force against them. Two-person Tai Chi has two practitioners emulate a fight using Tai Chi moves. That teaches you how to use the postures for self-defense. Tai Chi even incorporates some weapons such as the straight sword and saber.
