Tai Chi

All you want to know about Tai Chi, past and present

You probably have seen it on parks. Groups of people practicing a dance that looks like a slowed down Kung Fu. Or you have probably overheard those noisy neighboring housewives chattering loudly about how it cured almost practically all illnesses. Or you have just stumbled onto an array of sites about Tai Chi but still haven’t got the foggiest about this wonderful art. Let’s take a quick peek about Tai Chi and its inner workings.

Tai Chi is first and foremost a combat art -no frills. The wise hermit Chang San Feng founded the art in ancient china after having a revelation by two heavenly spirits, a crane and a snake. He was so fascinated by the revelation that he made the 13 postures which led to the forms of Tai Chi. And since the day of its inception belonged to an age where wars, strife, and battles are commonplace so it was originally a martial art, second a way of life. Chang San Feng was also Taoist monk; ultimately Tai Chi was influenced deeply by the faith he followed. So, the Taoist principles, weak over strong, slow over fast, and low over high were molded into the art called Tai Chi.

Since that day, certain individuals mastered and made several distinct characteristics of Tai Chi. Hence different Tai Chi styles were born. The most common were the Chen, the Yang, the Wu, the Wu Hao and the Sun style. Of the five mentioned, the Chen style retained most of the original form of Tai Chi, alternately the Yang style is the most widely practiced today.

Slow, Kung Fu style movements characterize Tai Chi. There are several forms, the short consists of 24 postures, mid form has 40, and the long form has 108 postures which only an experienced Tai Chi practitioner can perform flawlessly.  The inner aspects of Tai Chi are much deeper than that of Kung Fu; Tai Chi is all about meditation and fighting under deep meditation. These are the properties that made Tai Chi an invaluable tool for health benefits. Performing the forms properly is similar to doing a fair degree of aerobics and gymnastics as well as boosting the brain functions from the meditation it requires while doing these forms.

Tai Chi is now studied mainly as a health regimen. Though there are others who did take up combat Tai Chi, still health Tai Chi practitioners severely outnumbered those who do Tai Chi as a combat art.