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I am impressed with the article by Mr. Dan Mozell on "Objectivity in the Internal Arts", published in the July/August issue of this magazine. It is unusual to find a person who learned taijiquan only two years ago to point out intelligently the several areas of conflict and controversy. If only one percent of taijiquan practitioners will be as skeptical and open-minded, identify the conflicts and make an effort to solve them, there will surely be important progress in the art.

The Origin

First is the origin of taijiquan. The two popular stories that Chang Senfang originated taijiquan come under the realm of fairy tales. In the first story, Chang learned a fighting art in a dream in the twelfth century, and killed one hundred bandits single-handedly the next morning. In the second story, Chang observed, in the fourteenth century, a fight between a magpie and a snake. Imitating the movements of the snake, he designed taijiquan.

The most likely story was that Chen Wangting designed the art in the second half of the seventeenth century. Wang wrote in a poem that, when he had leisure, he worked on designing a fighting art. He also wrote, "Twisting in various ways, my opponent does not know my intention." This twisting technique in self-defense is exactly one of the important characteristics of the taijiquan system. The fact that the Chen family genealogy recorded twenty-eight persons in nine generations after Wangting who were martial arts experts shows the continuity of his art. And Yang Luchan, founder of the Yang style, did learn the art from a sixth generation nephew of Wangting. At present, nobody in mainland China mentions Chang Sanfeng’s name anymore.

The external forms of taijiquan drew from the various schools of martial arts that were in existence in the seventeenth century, including only a few of the forms from the Taizhu Changquan of the tenth century. But it is the special methods of doing the movements which distinguish taijiquan from all other martial arts, not the external forms.

Suppleness, Strength, and the Watered Down Version

A very important characteristic of taijiquan is that the way the self-defense art is performed produces the various health benefits, especially when done leisurely. While each feature of the exercise helps improve health in certain specific aspects, the general health benefits arise from a quiescent mind, the loosened body, the integrated supple strength spiraled upward, and the continuation of internal energy from movement to movement without interruption.

To learn taijiquan well, one had to remove the local, hard strength and replace it with the integrated, supple strength. Although Yang Chengfu taught every student the same way, including his own sons, those persons who have not yet removed their local, hard strength may result in rigidity. Those who succeeded to remove the stiff strength, but not learn the technique of applying the integrated supple strength will appear too weak. The Yang family did not keep any secrets. When Mr. Mozell found the movement of "their arms or sword without connection to the body," the deficiency arises from the lack of the integrated strength which should spiral upward to the arms from the legs and waist. Without this integrated supple strength, one cannot continue his internal energy from movement to movement. And this continuation of internal energy from the beginning to the end of the exercise is considered by the Chinese to produce the utmost general health benefits.

It may be mentioned here that the three short pieces of the taijiquan classic, generally respected and followed by all taijiquan practitioners, repeated the word "strength" fourteen times. One can easily say without the application of the integrated supple strength, it is not taijiquan. Without producing the continuous internal energy, it is not good taijiquan.

To have something to promote and maintain the general health for the large population, the Chinese government in Beijing designed in 1956 a "simplified taijiquan." They selected twenty-four postures from Yang’s series without the essential characteristics of taijiquan. In their written and TV instructions, only the external forms are taught. This permits large scale teaching. The result is that many persons do it either too rigidly or too meekly. This was severely criticized by the prominent taijiquan expert Li Yaxian of Szechuan Province who learned with Yang Chengfu for 18 years. While the government accomplished its original objective, the popular appeal of this series did hinder the healthy development of the real art of taijiquan. This is one of the series Mr. Mozell called the "watered down version." It is no more than a new set of continuous calisthenic movements imitating certain external forms of taijiquan.

Yielding and Following

The special characteristic in taijiquan self-defense is to avoid the contest of force but to yield and follow. This is the main theme of the "Treatise of Taijiquan" by Wang Zongyue. Winning through yielding and following with the twisting integrated supple strength requires prolonged training. Persons whose skill is inadequate but are anxious to win may include the use of local force instead of the integrated strength, the use of hard force instead of supple strength, or fight with force against force instead of yielding and following. Irrespective of winning or losing, he is not truly doing the taijiquan self-defense. It appears, however, more instructors are teaching the yielding and following technique in self-defense than instructors teaching the integrated supple strength in the solo exercise.

Playing, or Training, in Taijiquan

The Chinese experts say they train themselves in taijiquan. One may ask his friend, "Have you trained yourself in taijiquan this morning?" The Chen family taijiquan expert Chen Fake (1887-1957) trained himself in taijiquan thirty rounds a day. At age forty, he still trained himself twenty rounds a day. This is recorded in the book Chen Family Taijiquan by Shen Jiazen and Gu Luixing, 1963. The Chinese term used is lian-quan , where lian means "train".

To continuously improve your performance, you must have a serious attitude. This is the way to improve your internal strength, or gongfu. The centenary taijiquan expert Wu Tunan (born 1884) attributed his longevity and good health to the persistence and correctness of his taijiquan. He said, "By persistence, I mean life-long persistence. By correctness, I mean full accordance with the fundamental principles set in the taijiquan classics." At age 102 he still trained himself half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. The tern lian-quan is also used in Wu’s Chinese book, Research Into Taijiquan , 1984.

In the United States, the term "playing taijiquan" is sometimes used. This term has a tendency of inducing the "players" to do taijiquan with a playful attitude, and may have the potential of ultimately reducing the taijiquan into what Mr. Mozell called the "watered down version."

Breathing

Mr. Mozell pointed out a very interesting fact. Although both T. T. Liang and William Chen learned from Chen Manching, the breathing methods of the three are all different and conflicting. Before 1940, no literature on taijiquan included breathing, nor did any expert ever teach it. To avoid my views being considered personal and subjective, let us quote from a recent teacher and author.

Mr. Erle Montaigue, Sydney, Australia, said it was his own experience to have to match the breath from the very beginning. He wrote, "The breath matching sent my practice sky high, but after about six years I lost all feeling of balance and power. This was the time to stop the breath and let it happen." (Tai Chi , August, 1984.) His experience shows that matching breathing with movement in taijiquan is not compatible to the higher accomplishment. On the other hand, beginners learning the real taijiquan have many subtle things to attend to. Matching breathing will only delay the progress. In the worst, it may reduce one’s taijiquan into a breathing-oriented calisthenic.

Around 1914, both Yang Chengfu and Wu Jianquan did one round of taijiquan in a little more than eight minutes. At present both series are usually done in about twenty minutes. With the same movement, if the early masters inhale and exhale about eighteen times a minute, their grand students at present must slow down the inhalation and exhalation to seven times a minute. This is not realistic.

According to experts in the field of sports medicine, the respiratory center of the brain behaves like a good computer that automatically regulates the rate, depth, and pattern of the respiration under various conditions. It is believed artificial regulation of breathing during physical exercise is not the best for health. (Journal of American Medical Association, 246:1967, 1981.)

Readers who want to know more about breathing and taijiquan may read my articles in Tai Chi , December, 1983 and April, 1984.

A Healthy Challenge

Finally, let us quote some finding of sports medicine as summarized in Dr. Painter’s article in the July/August issue of IAM . He wrote, "Exposing yourself to new ideas and challenging activities increases awareness and consciousness. The brain will produce extra dendrite fibers in the neurons, resulting in a greater mental awareness with stimulation from challenging learning activties. Conversely, activities that are routine and boring cause the dendrite fibers to atrophy, eventually resulting in a reduction of awareness and consciousness." These conclusions add another benefit during the learning process of the well-conceived, high quality taijiquan. Your further improvement in this art being unlimited, you get continuous challenge from your daily practice. Taijiquan is rightfully considered a lifetime health conditioner.

Substance in this note related to taijiquan is taken from the forthcoming book, Methods of Taijiquan; A Textbook for Beginners and Reference Manual for Instructors — An Exercise for Internal Training , by Wu Ta-yeh and Wu Teng Shu-hsien. The book gives the most detailed, concrete, and practical instructions on the methods of achieving mental tranquillity, physical relaxation and loosening through the awareness and feedback of the internal feelings, application of the integrated supple strength spiraled upward section by section through the hips and waist to the upper limbs with energy filling the whole body like air in a balloon, and continuity of the internal energy through the twisting and folding from movement to movement without interruption for the whole length of the exercise. From taijiquan, you may continue to meditate until you reach the state of trance, or to do qigong until you pass your internal energy, evidenced by a stream of warmth through the major meridians. The manuscript is now being continuously tested by six instructors in actual teaching of taijiquan to various classes in Palo Alto, California.

About the Author

Wu Ta-yeh is the director of the Taijiquan Exercise Tutorial in California, started by his wife, the late Wu Teng Shu-hsien, in 1972 after his retirement as a Professor of Economics working with the United Nations. From 1973 on , the Wus published approximately 50 articles in English on taijiquan. They started their book in 1973. It includes many advanced techniques of the exercise, with special emphasis on the continuity of energy from posture to posture.