[I am deeply grateful to Peter Lim
both for his excellent papers on the history of Tai Chi Chuan, and for his
personal communications to me, in providing a background for this historical
overview. Any errors are, however, entirely my responsibility.]
There exists a very ancient history in China of movement systems that are
associated with health and philosophy. In some sense one can see all of
these as contributing to the climate in which Tai Chi was born.
From the very origins of Taoism in the sixth century BC, sages like Lao
Tsu wrote in the Tao Te Ching:
Yield and Overcome;
Bend and be straight.
And
He who stands of tiptoe is not steady.
He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
In this and in the entire tenor of his writings Lao Tsu reflects the
central philosophical underpinnings of Tai Chi Chuan.
Later, in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220 to 265 AD) there was a
physician Hua-tu'o who relied not only on medicine but also taught the
'movements of the five creatures' -- tiger, deer, bear, ape and birds -- a
system he called Wu-chi chih hsi. He believed that the body needed to
be regularly exercised to help with digestion and circulation and only by
doing so could a long and healthy live be achieved. He advocated a system of
imitating the movements of these animals to help exercise every joint in the
body. His teaching, and its connection with the movements of animals, is
probably the earliest pre-cursor of Tai Chi.
Painting of Bodihdharma by Feng Tien: Ch'ing Dynasty.
In the sixth century A.D. Bodihdharma (called Ta Mo in China) came
to the Shao-Lin Monastery and seeing that the monks there were in poor
physical condition from too much meditation and not enough movement, his
Eighteen Form Lohan Exercise. Over time these grew to be the precursors
of the Wei Chia (outer-extrinsic) school of exercise, by which is
meant all the schools of kung-fu and other martial art forms which take an
'external' approach. This is in contrast to the Nei Chia
(internal-intrinsic) school of which Tai Chi is a member, that take a
fundamentally 'internal' approach. In the eighth century AD (the Tang
dynasty) philosophers like Hsu Hsuan- p'ing developed a 'Long Kung-fu' of 37
forms. Of these certain ones such as:
- Play the Pi'pa
- Single Whip
- Step up to Seven Stars
- Jade Lady Works the Shuttles,
- High Pat on Horse; and
- White Crane (originally Phoenix) Cools Wing
Still survive in the contemporary Tai Chi form. There were several other
such forms being practiced in the eighth century (Heavenly-Inborn Style,
Nine Small Heavens Style and Acquired Kung-fu) from which grew the origins
of Tai Chi.
Chang San-feng.
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 longevity's.
Some scholars doubt his historical existance, viewing him as a literary
construct on the lines of Lao Tzu. 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 corresponding to the
eight basic trigrams of the I Ching and the five elements. The eight
'postures' are:
-
ward-off
-
rollback
-
press
-
push
-
pull
-
split
-
elbow strike; and
-
shoulder strike
The five 'attitudes' are:
-
advance
-
retreat
-
look left
-
gaze right; and
-
central equilibrium.
His exercises stressed suppleness and elasticity and were opposed to
hardness and force. They incorporated philosophy, physiology, psychology,
geometry and the laws of dynamics.
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.
Herein lies one of the most contentious and perplexing areas of Tai Chi
history and scholarship. Some scholars feel that rather than bringing Tai
Chi to the Chen village Chiang Fa simply discovered the Chen
villagers practiciing this art. Others maintain that the Chen family's
so-called 'Cannon Pounding' (Pao Chui) was a distinct martial art that
undoubtedly influenced Chiang Fa's teaching but that it was not the same as
Tai Chi.
Another of Wang's students was Chen Chou-t'ung who quarreled with
Chiang Fa. The former then established the so-called Southern School of Tai
Chi, an interesting an colourful branch of Tai Chi which subsequently
disappeared. Chiang Fa continued with the mainstream 'Northern' school of
Tai Chi which survives today.
Whatever their respective contributions, from Chiang-Fa and the Chen
villagers in Honan emerge all of the surviving branches of Tai Chi Chuan:
- One of his students, Chen You-heng, continued what is called
the New Frame Style of Chen Tai Chi.
- Chen Chang-hsing (1771-1853) studied under Chiang-Fa and
combined the Cannon Pounding (Pao Chui) form of the Chen Family with the
Tai Chi taught by Chiang-Fa. Chen Chang-hsing, in turn, was the teacher of
Yang Lu-chan, the originator of the Yang Style of Tai Chi.
- Another Chen family member and student of Chen Chang-hsing was Chen
Gen-yun whose descendants continued the Old Frame Style of Chen Tai
Chi.
- Wu Quan-yu, a Manchu guard in the Imperial Palace at Beijing,
was a student of both Yang Lu-chan and his son Yang Pan-hou. Wu
taught it to (amongst others) his son Wu Chien-chuan (Also written
as Wu Jian-quan). From this stream emerged the Wu Style of Tai Chi.
- Another Chen family member was Chen Yau-pun who veered away
from Chiang Fa's tradition to create the 'new' school of Tai Chi.
Apparently his student Chen Quin-ping was an originator of the
Zhao Bao Style of Tai Chi.
- One of Chen Quin-ping's students was Li Jing-Ting who, in turn
was the founder of the Hu Lei Style of Tai Chi.
- A student of both Yang Lu-chan and Chen Qing-ping was Wu Yu- xiang.
He taught his nephew Lee I-yu who in turn taught Hao Wei-chen.
This gave rise to the Wu Shi Style (or Hao Style) of Tai Chi Chuan.
- One of Hao Wei-chen's students was Sun Lu-tang who also studied
Hsing-I Quan under Kuo Yun-shen and Pa Kua Chang under Cheng
T'ing-hua (himself a student of Dong Hai-chuan, the founder of
Pa Kua Chang). He combined these forms in the new Sun Style of Tai Chi
Chuan.
These are the principal styles of Tai Chi that are in existence in the
present day.
|