As the name T'ai Chi Ch'uan is held to be derived from the T'ai Chi symbol, the taijitu or t'ai chi t'u, commonly known in the
West as the "yin-yang" diagram, T'ai Chi Ch'uan techniques are said therefore to physically and energetically balance yin (receptive)
and yang (active) principles: "From ultimate softness comes ultimate hardness."
The core training involves two primary features: the first being the solo form or quan or ch'uan, a slow sequence of movements
which emphasise a straight spine, relaxed breathing and a natural range of motion; the second being different styles of pushing hands
or t'ui shou for training "stickiness" and sensitivity in the reflexes through various motions from the forms in concert with a training
partner in order to learn leverage, timing, coordination and positioning when interacting with another. Pushing hands is seen as necessary
not only for training the self-defense skills of a soft style such as T'ai Chi by demonstrating the forms' movement principles experientially,
but also it is said to improve upon the level of conditioning provided by practice of the solo forms by increasing the workload on students
while they practise those movement principles.
The solo form should take the students through a complete, natural, range of motion over their centre of gravity. Accurate, repeated practise
of the solo routine is said to retrain posture, encourage circulation throughout the students' bodies, maintain flexibility through their
joints and further familiarize students with the martial application sequences implied by the forms. The major traditional styles of T'ai Chi
have forms which differ somewhat cosmetically, but there are also many obvious similarities which point to their common origin. The solo forms,
empty-hand and weapon, are catalogues of movements that are practised individually in pushing hands and martial application scenarios to prepare
students for self-defence training. In most traditional schools different variations of the solo forms can be practiced; fast/slow, small
circle/large circle, square/round (which are different expressions of leverage through the joints), low sitting/high sitting (the degree to
which weight-bearing knees are kept bent throughout the form), for example.
In a fight, if one uses hardness to resist violent force then both sides are certain to be injured, at least to some degree. Such injury,
according to T'ai Chi theory, is a natural consequence of meeting brute force with brute force. The collision of two like forces, yang with yang,
is known as "double-weighted" in T'ai Chi terminology. Instead, students are taught not to fight or resist an incoming force, but to meet it in
softness and "stick" to it, following its motion while remaining in physical contact until the incoming force of attack exhausts itself or can
be safely redirected, the result of meeting yang with yin. Done correctly, achieving this yin/yang or yang/yin balance in combat (and, by
extension, other areas of one's life) is known as being "single-weighted" and is a primary goal of T'ai Chi Ch'uan training. Lao Tzu provided
the archetype for this in the Tao Te Ching when he wrote, "The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong." This soft "neutralization"
of an attack can be accomplished very quickly in an actual fight by an adept practitioner. A T'ai Chi student has to be well conditioned by many
years of disciplined training; stable, sensitive and elastic mentally and physically in order to realize this ability, however.
Other training exercises include:
- Weapons training and fencing applications employing the straight sword known as the jian or chien or gim, a heavier curved sabre,
sometimes called a broadsword or tao, which is actually considered a big knife), folding fan, staff, 7 foot (2 m) spear and 13 foot
(4 m) lance. Less commonly known weapons still in use are the large Da Dao or Ta Tao or Bagua sabre, halberd, cane, rope-dart, Three
sectional staff and steel whip.
- Two-person tournament fighting;
- Breathing exercises; nei gong or nei kung or, more commonly, qigong or ch'i kung to develop qi or ch'i or "breath energy" in
coordination with physical movement. These were formerly taught only to disciples as a separate, complementary training system.
In the last 50 years they have become more well known to the general public.
T'ai Chi's martial aspect relies on sensitivity to the opponent's movements and centre of gravity dictating appropriate responses. Effectively
affecting or "capturing" the opponent's centre of gravity immediately upon contact is trained as the primary goal of the martial T'ai Chi student,
and from there all other technique can follow with seeming effortlessness. The alert calmness required to achieve the necessary sensitivity is
acquired over thousands of hours of first yin (slow, repetitive, meditative, low impact) and then later adding yang ("realistic," active, fast,
high impact) martial training; forms, pushing hands and sparring. T'ai Chi Ch'uan trains in three basic ranges, close, medium and long, and then
everything in between. Pushes and open hand strikes are more common than punches, and kicks are usually to the legs and lower torso, never higher
than the hip in most styles. The fingers, fists, palms, sides of the hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, shoulders, back, hips, knees and feet are
commonly used to strike, with strikes to the eyes, throat, heart, groin and other acupressure points trained by advanced students. There is an
extensive repertoire of joint traps, locks and breaks (chin na), particularly applied to lock up or break an opponent's elbows, wrists, fingers,
ankles, back or neck. Most T'ai Chi teachers expect their students to thoroughly learn defensive or neutralizing skills first, and a student will
have to demonstrate proficiency with them before offensive skills will be extensively trained. There is also an emphasis in the traditional schools
on kind-heartedness. One is expected to show mercy to one's opponents, as instanced by a poem preserved in some of the T'ai Chi families said to be
derived from the Shaolin temple:
"I would rather maim than kill
Hurt than maim
Intimidate than hurt
Avoid than intimidate."
Notes:
- Source: wikipedia.org
- Copyright of this article is under the
GNU Free Documentation License
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