T'ai Chi Ch'uan (or Taijiquan or Tai Chi) is a martial art originating from China. It is widely known for its forms, which are generally practiced as a series of unhurried, flowing movements. Do not be fooled by appearances: correctly taught, there is a lot more to T'ai Chi Ch'uan than meets the untrained eye.
T'ai Chi Ch'uan is an internal martial art, meaning that practitioners focus on relaxation, perception, posture and body alignment. Rather than using localised muscular strength, the structure of the body as a whole is used to generate, neutralise or evade attacks. There is nothing mystical about this, it is simple body mechanics and physics.
Beware of imitations - mastery of T'ai Chi Ch'uan takes many years of dedicated study under a skilled teacher. Many instructors, not having mastered good T'ai Chi Ch'uan skills, teach watered down versions with no practical application, or teach applications from other arts without any real understanding of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
If a student wants to become a master of this martial art he or she not only has to practise the forms on daily basis. To get a full understanding of Tai Chi, Taoism (Daoism) has to be studied as well. The best known symbol for this is the Yin/Yang image. A black and white image with a little of each other in its half. It can symbolise opposites like good/evil, man/woman and heaven/earth. The interaction is not static but changes, sometimes yin is bigger, sometimes yang. While doing Tai Chi, you should be able to distinguish between yin and yang in the form.
Last update : 2003-05-16 19:08:44
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