The Story of Yang Tai Chi

The Story of Yang Tai Chi

Disclaimer: I want to say upfront that I do not know that the particulars of this story are the unconditional truth. I relay this story as it was told by one of my Tai Che instructors and reinforced by another.

Tai Chi was created in China.

The word Tai Chi was first documented in “The Book of Change” in the 1100s. The phrase stated that “all change is possible with Tai Chi.”

The word Tai Chi means “ultimate force or ultimate of ultimate.” The word force is speaking to the force of nature.

Tai Chi is based on two principles: Taoism and the belief that all things in the universe are connected.

The Philosophy of Taoism states that everything in the universe has a complementary opposite that is equally as powerful. This concept is called Yin-yang.

“Yin-yang describes the two complementary forces—yin and yang—that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. It encompasses the actual process of the universe and everything in it. Yin and yang are depicted as a circle’s light (Yin) and dark (Yang) halves.”

Many Westerners know the Yin-yang symbol, but very few understand its importance.

The Yin-yang symbol is to Taoists what the cross is to Christians. Although the circle has complementary white and black halves, the line separating the haves does not run straight down the middle; somewhat, it is shaped like the letter “S.” This gives the two halves a swirling effect this effect is meant to resemble the force of nature where all things are connected.

Looking at the two halves of the circle, one notices that the white half has a black spot, and the black half has a white spot. This, in effect, represents that each complementary half has a bit of the other.

The black half represents the twelve hours of nighttime darkness, while the white half represents the twelve hours of daytime light. The night has a white dot representing the moon, and the day has a black dot representing an eclipsed sun.

 In life, there are complementary halves: boy–girl, love-hate, wet-dry, hard-soft, good-bad, night-day, and so on. The round, circle shape of the Yin-yang symbol represents the planet Earth. The Yin-yang symbol is representative of the yin-yang concept prevalent in Taoism.

Taoist priests believe that meditating can harness the force/power of nature and energize the body. Meditating resembles sleeping: your body becomes limp, you breathe deeply, almost to the point of snoring, and your mind becomes blank.

In 1670, there was a man named Chen Wangting. He was a soldier in the royal guard who had retired to become a farmer. He also believed in Taoism. He was looking for a way to negate the deleteriousness of getting old.   He surmised that if he combined the properties of meditation with his martial arts, he would create a connection to the force of nature.

In modern-day terms, his process might resemble this: A phone is a handheld computer with a battery power source. After a certain length of time, the battery runs out of power. When that happens, you use an adapter to plug the phone into a wall socket to connect to the power source (electricity) to recharge the battery. With that thinking, Chen surmised that the body is the phone, nature is the power source, and Tai Chi is the adapter.

Wangting was a Taoist who practiced Taoist philosophy. As such, the Tai Chi he created had complementary parts of hard and soft punches, kicks, and deep stances. Although the concept was novel, the high-impact punches, kicks, and deep stances did not do well for seniors with arthritis and other illnesses.

Yang Lu-Chan (1799-1872) created the Yang system of Tai Chi in the early 19^th century. Rumor has it that because Yang was not a nobleman or imperial guard, he initially learned Tai Chi by hiding and spying on people who practiced the Chen system. His determination to learn was so admired that once he was discovered, instead of being put to death, he was allowed to join the nobleman and guardsman and openly learn the art.  Unlike Chen’s system, Yang’s style has no high impact moves or deep stances; therefore, Yang’s new system was readily accepted by older people and has since grown into the most popular form of Tai Chi practiced today.