What is tai chi chuan?

Tai chi chuan is a Chinese martial art. It is performed slowly, compared to other martial arts, and with great attention to every detail and movement.

Chinese martial arts, or chuan shu, are divided into two categories: the external school, like shao lin chuan or kung fu, which stress the development of strength, speed, and endurance; and the internal school, like tai chi chuan or xing yi chuan, which stress the coordination of natural breathing with slower movements and the development of both mind, body, and spirit.

Though tai chi chuan is the most widely practiced and well-known of the internal school of chuan shu, many people aren’t sure what it is or why they should ever take the time to learn it.

The 64 tai chi chuan movements are circular and shift with fluidity and grace from one to the next—feet, knees, legs, waist, hands, and head progressing in harmonious sequence, changing from yin to yang and yang to yin, seeking balance between the two elemental forces, embodying the tai chi which is created with yin and yang’s fusion. Therefore, the traditional style of tai chi chuan is not too fast, not too slow in pace; not too hard, not too soft in manner of execution. And just as all things in the universe, though continuously moving and restless, will ultimately return back to the quiet source, so, too, the sequence of movements ends as it began, standing still in a posture both relaxed and alert.

Which style of tai chi chuan do I teach?

Tai chi chuan has many styles. If a style is named, it usually refers to the family name of its practitioners—in China’s olden days, practitioners of a form were nearly always members of the same family.

The style of tai chi chuan that I teach has 64 steps, comparable to Daoism’s 64 hexagrams, and is notable for being unchanged by its practitioners for centuries.

Kuo Lien Ying, my teacher’s teacher and husband, had many students, many of whom have gone on to do many wonderful things in the martial arts and in the world. Some of his students teach a form called Guang Ping style, named after the birthplace of Kuo Lien Ying. However, the Kuo Lien Ying Tai Chi Chuan Academy does not teach Guang Ping style. Our school teaches an unchanged and unnamed tai chi chuan style that was taught to Kuo Lien Ying by Wang Chou Yee and to him by Yang Ban Ho. (More: History)

Is tai chi chuan the same as qi gong?

Tai chi chuan is often confused with qi gong, which is primarily focused on the breath, or even yoga. The qi in qi gong is the same qi (ki in Japanese) as the ki in aikido, and translates most generally as “breath.” That’s different than the chi, or ji in Mandarin, in tai chi chuan. Chi, though very similar in sound, means infinitely vertical, the ultimate or extreme point in the universe, the farthest up we can go in the sky. Paired with tai, which means infinitely horizontal, vast and all encompassing, the two mean balance, the origin of all things, forever constant, and existing in all things. Although we’re aware of our breath in tai chi chuan, we allow it to move naturally, which sets it apart from the controlled breathing exercises of qi gong and aikido.

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