Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) is a Chinese ‘internal’ martial art, widely practised as a mind-body exercise for health and wellbeing – it is often referred to simply as ‘Tai Chi’ – the word ‘Chuan’ translates as fist or boxing. The exact origins of Tai Chi Chuan are still debated and historically was known by other names, such as ‘Cotton Boxing’.
Tai Chi, Yin & Yang
The name Tai Chi Chuan appears to have been adopted around the mid-1800’s, when the art was named after the philosophical concept of Tai Chi (Taiji) – an ancient concept from Chinese (Daoist) philosophy and cosmology, depicted in the well-known ‘Tai Chi Tu’ or Yin / Yang symbol. The word ‘Tai’ translates as great, ultimate or supreme, and ‘Chi’ or ‘Ji’ as pole or polarity. The term Tai Chi literally means ‘great polarity’ (note the word ‘Chi / Ji’ in the term Tai Chi / Taiji is a completely different word from the ‘Chi’ in Chi Kung / Qi Gong).
In Tai Chi Chuan practice, the Yin / Yang concept is relevant to interaction, relationship, balance and harmony, pairs of opposites, polarity or duality – e.g. up & down, left & right, forwards & backwards, lightness & heaviness, harness & softness, etc.
Tai Chi & Wu Chi
Traditional writings on Tai Chi Chuan (known as the ‘Tai Chi Classics’), contain the following phrase:
‘Tai Chi comes from Wu Chi and is the mother of Yin and Yang. In motion, Tai Chi separates, in stillness, Yin and Yang fuse and return to Wu Chi’
Wu Chi is symbolised by an empty circle and translates as ‘no polarity’, referring to wholeness, non-duality, resolution, integration of opposites and unity beyond apparent differences – ‘Wu Chi’ therefore has a equivalent meaning to the word ‘Yoga’.
The practice can be seen as a journey from Tai Chi to Wu Chi – for example, through the process of integrating of discrete awareness of separate elements (Tai Chi) into whole body awareness (Wu Chi), or in the journey from uncomfortable and awkward initial stages of learning, to the point where the practice becomes more natural and effortless (Wu Wei).
Tai Chi Chuan
Tai Chi Chuan practice includes solo exercises, flowing movement sequences (forms), partner exercises and martial arts training.
The main styles of Tai Chi Chuan are Chen, Yang, Wu and Sun, plus a few other variations – these refer to historical teachers’ names or families of teachers e.g. Yang style was founded by Yang Lu Chan (1789 to 1872), and carried on by future generations of the Yang family and their students. Beyond the main styles, there are many variations, offshoots and sub-lineages, created by subsequent generations of teachers, which continues to the present day.
Internal Martial Arts & Beyond – The Wider Context
Tai Chi Chuan is included within a wider group of Chinese ‘internal martial arts’ collectively termed ‘Neijia’, which includes generally less well known arts such as Baguazhang, Xingyiquan and Yiquan – and beyond this grouping, these arts sit within the vast culture of ‘Chinese Boxing’. Wider still, there are other (internal) martial arts and body-mind practices from Asia & other cultures which share common ideas (e.g. aikido, silat, systema, hatha yoga, somatic, body-mind practices).
My Tai Chi & Internal Martial Arts Background
My main Tai Chi Chuan lineage comes from Cheng Man-ch’ing (1902 to 1975), a branch of Yang style Tai Chi Chuan – I’ve met and trained with many teachers in this approach since 1997, originally within Bob Lowey’s school via his student, my first teacher, David Barbour – I should also give credit to Bob Neeson, another local teacher and important influence who I trained with around 1999-2000. Over those early years, I attended several short workshops and longer camps with some of CMC’s first generation students – including Wolfe Lowenthal, Ken Van Sickle, William CC Chen, Hsu Yee Chung, Benjamin Lo, Chu Hong Bing and CMC’s daughter Katy Cheng. I also met and trained with notable second generation students (e.g Stanley Israel’s student Mario Napoli), but primarily with local teachers Jan Kauskas, Gordon Ewing and Margaret Russell, who I trained with intensively for around 10 years through the 2000’s
The primary influence in the CMC approach in more recent years has been Bret Hall, who was a student of Carol Yamasaki, Benjamin Lo and Liu Xiheng – I have co-hosted Bret with my friend Redmond Entwhistle numerous times in Scotland since around 2019 to the present. Bret is perhaps the most ‘internally’ uncompromising and refined practitioner I’ve met in this lineage – with a focus on deep listening, and using the mind/yi to create openness, space & release – his practice most clearly embodies the principle of ‘use the mind not force’. Redmond himself has travelled widely, around the UK. US, Europe and Taiwan training with CMC’s first and second generation students. He attended film school in NYC, where his primary Tai Chi teacher was CMC’s close student, Maggie Newman.
From 2012 onwards, I spent around five years intensively exploring the Huang Sheng Shyan branch of the CMC lineage (which really is a separate style in it’s own right) – initially with Wee Kee Jin’s school, as well as training with some of Patrick Kelly’s students, and hosting a couple of short workshops with James Lau K King. From 2014 to 2017 I hosted workshops with Adam Mizner and his student Andy Mack, and was for a short time affiliated with his Heaven Man Earth Taiji school working through his online syllabus. I also briefly trained with Torben Bremann, close student of Sam Tam, Wee Kee Jin and others.
In the past few years, I’ve also been learning Baguazhang and Wu Style Tai Chi with Paul Rogers and his local training group led by Paul Britten. Paul Rogers is an exceptionally knowledgeable and skilled practitioner of Chinese Internal Martial arts – since the early 1990’s, he spent many years living in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Tainjin (mainland China, where he also studied Traditional Chinese Medicine). He is an inner door lineage disciple of exceptionally skilled, old school masters (whose names are unknown in the west, some of whom have since passed away) – as a westerner, fluent in Chinese, he is unusually close to the original sources of these arts and associated culture – like no one else (western) I’ve met in 30 years of training. Local group leader Paul Britten has an extensive background in internal martial arts since the 1980’s, having been a senior student of Dan Docherty, as well as training in Aikido and other arts.
My Teaching Approach
I teach the 37 Tai Chi Form sequence, a simplified ‘Yang style’ Tai Chi form developed in the 1940’s by Cheng Man-ch’ing of around 60-70 movements – as well foundation Qigong & Neigong exercises- including Huang Sheng Shyan’s 5 Loosening Exercises, Liu Xiheng’s Tai Chi Exercises, Shibashi Tai Chi Qigong – and Tai Chi Partnerwork (Foundation Practices & ‘Pushing Hands’) – the workshop programme also includes introductory sessions on Baguazhang and Wu Style Tai Chi, as taught by Paul Rogers (with his kind permission).
See also About Tai Chi Partnerwork section