Taiji

[MastaFighta]

Discussion thread for Taiji. If you would like to add a comment, click the Post Reply button

Edit

Whoops, wrong button.

Either way, I'm going to try to improve upon the article, though I think it should be renamed to "Taijiquan" or "Tai Chi".

Edit #2

Ok, I changed things around, added a link to Stanley E. Henning's article, Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan, and added some information.

[Royal Dragon]

You should mention Lee style Taiji Quan, and Zhao Bao as well. Both of these came about the same time as Chen style.

The Lee brothers were Chen Wangtings cousins who lived in a neighboring village. The three of them went to Qianzi Temple for advanced training and came back to develop Taijiquan in thier own villages.

Zhao Bao has conflicting oral history. The first claims to predate Chen by several hundred years. The other (which I feel is more credible) claims it was developed by a student of the Lee brothers around the time Chen and Lee style came to be.

Taijiquan is built on the combination of a Taoist art called the 13 soft hands from said temple, and Shaolin Tai Tzu Chang Chuan. TZ was an art spread prominently by the military of the time period.

ALL Tai Chi styles that I have seen are built on some sort of Shaolin Tai Tzu. The various Taiji styles often have techniques that are not in other branches, but all Taji techniques of every branch are found in the Shaolin Tai Tzu, and the Long Fist arts derived from it. Particularly the forms of Lao Hong Quan (from Zhao Kuang Yin), 32 posture Tai Tzu Chang Chaun, Xiao Hong Quan, Da Xiao Hong Quan, and the 6 road Da Hong Quan developed from Zao Kuang Yin's notes that were preserved at Shaolin.