Tai Chi
The Origin of Tai Chi
To know the Tai Chi origin, we must clear about the implication of the word—Tai Chi. "Tai" is taixu which means highest, the greatest and remotest, "xu" means emptiness, tai chi (in Chinese) means the greatest void, the universe, absolutely empty, lack of substance, but is full of energy, Tai Chi is the highest and final state at which Kung Fu practitioners long for.
The universal principle is that Tai Chi producing yin and yang which are the two opposing principles in nature, the former feminine and negative, the latter masculine and positive. In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin and yang has wonderful property of unity of opposites, being interdependent, well coordinates and transforming each other. Based on these characteristics, and combining yin and yang, a unique set of exercises was created, so we call it "Tai Chi". If you adhere to the requirements of each posture strictly and study assiduously and perseveringly, you can finally reach the perfect Kung Fu state—balancing yin and yang, that is to say 50% yin and 50% yang, unifying the figure and internal energy just like the Tai Chi pattern— and integral whole Tai Chi boxing originated itself from the Chen village, Wenxian Country.
Chen village located at the Qingfeng mountain range, eastern Wenxian country, the village used to be called the Changyang village over 600 years ago. According to the documents of Wenxian Country history, before Ming dynasty, there were almost no signs of human habitation in Wenxian Country. Later on, more people from other parts moved to this place gradually, as a legend goes until now, "The ancestors of present Wenxian Country came from Hongtong Country, Shanxi province." Chen Bo, the forefather of the Chen family, came from Zezhou Jun (Jincheng city today), and then moved to Hongtong country, Shanxi province. In 1374 Chen Bo moved to Huaiqing Fu (Qinyang city today), called the place he lived "Chenbo village". Descendants of Chen Bo moved to Changyang village (10 miles to the east of Wexian Country) because of much damage and crop failure causes by water logging, later with a flourishing population of Chen family, Changyang village became known as Chen village.
Discussion of Chen-style Taijiquan’s Relaxation and Energy Inducement
- Characteristics of Chen-style Taijiquan.
- The Rational and objective to relaxation-understanding and energy inducement in the state of relaxation.
- Chen-style Taijiquan’s relaxation and effects generated when inducing energy in the state of relaxation.
Introduction
At the present the development of Taijiquan around the world is springing up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Under the policy of reform and opening up, the high speed development of social economy, more exchanging activities on international culture and physical education, and Beijing winning the 2008 Summer Olympics Bid, all provide a great opportunity for traditional Chinese Martial Arts entering the Olympics as formal events. As Tai Chi represents rich, traditional, cultural heritage, it no wonder that it is considered to be the most exquisite flower in the garden of Chinese Martial Arts. Moreover it is becoming popular around the world for its functions of cultural intention, health building, moral character cultivation, self-defense, temperament-molding, entertainment, etc. Taijiquan has been widely favored for its liberal stretching, firm and continuous footwork, natural and smooth, vigorous and soft, quick and slow style. In more than twenty years of teaching both domestically and abroad, I have found that few people have a true understanding of Tai Chi’s relaxation and energy inducement. There for, it is my intention, here, to share my own impressions with Tai Chi practitioners and help them to pin-point and correct mistakes.
Characteristics of Chen-style Taijiquan
Requirements in practicing Tai Chi: stand proper with your shoulders relaxed and arms naturally down, straighten your back down to your waist, relax your mind and breathe naturally. Then loosen your hips, crook your knees, half circle your hipbones, mix vigorous, soft quick and slow movements together. External energy being an arc line and internal energy a spiral line, let the body lead the hands, the waist becomes the axle, then an extremely heavy and flexible internal energy is gradually generated by twining and winding just like wrapping iron and cotton— soft outside and hard inside. There is no stiff straight line, no interruption, no convex and no concave, no jerk or tear in the whole process of boxing. Let the revolving waist lead the shoulder and hips, and the revolving ankles lead the knees. Fold your chest to form a continuous special movement from your head to your feet.
The Rational and objective to relaxation and energy inducement in the state of relaxation.
Relaxation, softness and slowness are the unique ways and manner of practicing Tai Chi. The final objective is to smooth Jingluo (main and collateral energy channels in the body). Through relaxation, softness and slowness, you can make internal energy external figure become and organic whole. With your mind leading internal energy which in turn leads your body, it’s based on internal energy to move or stop, and gradually make it full, strong and energetic. That is to say, your internal energy controlled by the diaphragm becomes substantial, just as the old Chinese saying goes, "The small streams rise when the main stream is high". Channel your internal energy to all the limbs and bones, and let it move in endless cycles. Only through the above way can you get the real function of health building and self-defense. The most important point is that Taijiquan pursues the innate and natural internal energy, no an acquired energy…
What does the acquired energy mean? That is to say, in order to survive after birth, you get a kind of energy from the food you eat, but if you want to practice Tai Chi you must abandon your pursuit of and reliance upon this kind of energy. The earlier you know about it the more quickly you can abandon it and the sooner you can begin to make progress in cultivating the innate and natural internal energy…
How can you let go of your reliance upon the acquired energy quickly and get real relaxation in practicing Taijiquan? You should do the following: stand proper with your shoulders relaxed and arms naturally down, then loosen your hipbones and slowly crook your knees, relax your muscles in your shoulders, back stomach and ribs. When practicing Single Whip, for example, your internal energy rises up in three places; Baihui acupuncture point (on the middle top of your head), the upper part of your right wrist, and the end of your left middle finger. Then relax the rest of your body and exhale naturally. If you practice inducing energy in this state, eventually, you can channel the internal energy, controlled by the diaphragm, to the fronts of the fists and backs of the elbows instantaneously. Only in this way can you embody the real characteristics of Chen-style Taijiquan.
It requires full relaxation in the whole body, so there will be less power lost in the process of internal energy arriving at the ends of the whole body smoothly. Just like the principle that when conducting electricity, the results are completely different when using iron instead of copper as the conductor.
Chen-style Taijiquan’s relaxation and effects generated when inducing energy in the state of relaxation.
It will generate a strong and great biological electromagnetism around your body, once you fully master the relaxation principle of Chen-style Taijiquan, so you can obtain a kind of inspiration which will bring you an acute sense of touch and reaction, at the same time you can get the following beneficial results: In the aspect of health building, you can not only become very energetic, full of vigor, enhance your skin elasticity and improve your looks, but you can also increase skeleton density, toughness and postpone bone degeneration and fragility. In a word, through relaxation and long term practice, you can effectively defend and enhance the function of the nervous system, digestive system, circulatory system, muscle and bone framework in your body, thus you can realize your dream for a long, healthy life.
By relaxing the muscles of your whole body, you can improve your inspiration and enhance your sense of muscles reaction. The following test proved the fact. At the First Taijiquan Master Seminar held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in December 1986, the three state units, Sichuan Chengdu Physical Culture College, Sichuan Provincial Scientific Research Institute for Physical Culture and Liberation Army Scientific Research Institute Sichuan Office, tested muscle in its normal state and during the use of explosive force in Chen-style Tai Chi Routine. My cousin Master Chen Xiaowang, and I were tested by electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram and electro-muscle gram, the results were that Chen-style Tai Chi’s exercise amount and intensity are stronger and return to normal states more quickly than other exercises. In the electro-muscle gram test, it took only 0.015 of a second, for a muscle, to return to its normal, relaxed state from a tensed state. So Chen-style Tai Chi can generate incredible speed and power which, of course, is what most practitioners are looking for.
By relaxation in the spiral part of Chen-style Taijiquan, you can naturally use three kinds of force: permeating force, dissolving force and penetrative force. I’ve already explained them in "Discussion of Spiral Force"; however, here I want to make a further brief introduction to the numerous Tai Chi Practitioners.
There are three manifestations when using Chen-style Tai Chi spiral force in attacking and defending. The first is that of using permeating force to permeate the attacking one. If the rest of the attacking force doesn’t disappear at once, you are still able to let your opponent fail and fall down by adding your strength. The opponent may take force back at once if they feel that their force has been permeated. What you should do, at this time, is to add returning force at once to make your opponent tumble quickly. The second is dissolving force at once to make your opponent tumble quickly. The second is dissolving force used in an attack. You should concentrate all your strength in a fixed point and inducing energy in a spiral line, hit out just like a bullet being fired. The third one is penetrative force, which is used in the condition of being controlled by your opponent. You should avoid the strong points and attack weak points, and seize every opportunity to dissolve the attacking force, following it to control your opponent instead.
I hope you can get further knowledge about the relaxation and energy inducement of Chen-style Tai Chi studying this discussion and make much progress in your training. Thus your may get twice the result with half the efforts.
Thank you,
The Chen Family
