Tai Chi

**Fantasy Warrior** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 4:24pm

Nope, tree hugging taiji is good by me. if I wanted to learn fighting I'd go to.... um...

**Cullion** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 4:26pm

Originally Posted by kickcatcher

Nope, tree hugging taiji is good by me. if I wanted to learn fighting I'd go to.... um...

Ooh! Gong Sau!

Are you coming to the Oxford throwdown ?

**Shinigami** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 5:08pm

Matt Stone - Wow, I practice Tai Chi, so obviously I should know EVERYTHING about its history. I heard a vague legend about it once, and I even said I wasn't sure about it. Now you're trying to quote me like I was trying to act like a know it all and biting my head off about it. Grow up.

Cullion - There's a pretty good teacher if you live in the Lacey area of Washington. He doesn't speak english though, and he has to rent out a sorta small room in a ballet school, but he definetly knows his ****. We already did the slow form, we're doing the fast form now which is comprised of lots of punches, kicks, and other stuff you normally wouldn't associate with Tai Chi.

Meng Mao - Hearing a mistranslated legend and mentioning it (and referring to it as a story I was unsure of) is hardly "woefully misinformed"

lifetime - ... and then sifu showed us how to collapse people's lungs with mystical chi energy from his feet!... does that mean I get a 1/10 now?

Planktime - I've been visiting this site for well over a month now, mainly reading up on the articles by Phrost and PeeDeeShaolin (crude in language, but still informative) So far the running idea is that Tai Chi is an old person's stretching routine and nothing more. It's not, that's BS, and that's why I'm posting it on a BS forum. And obviously you care very much because you seem to be so pissed off at me, and I hardly know you.

Liokault - That's because it's been sterotyped as a form of yoga... because of that, that's about all you'll find now days.

kungfujew - Tai Chi is practiced sometimes in a kata, like karate also does. If you still think that means I say they're the same, then learn grammar before you guy keep flaming me to death

kidcatcher - yep, that's what lots of people do now days. That's because the beginning style (or whatever you want to call it) is simple enough to pick up, is good for you, and not as painful as yoga.

**Cullion** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 5:13pm

Originally Posted by Shinigami

Cullion - There's a pretty good teacher if you live in the Lacey area of Washington. He doesn't speak english though, and he has to rent out a sorta small room in a ballet school, but he definetly knows his ****. We already did the slow form, we're doing the fast form now which is comprised of lots of punches, kicks, and other stuff you normally wouldn't associate with Tai Chi.

Liokault - That's because it's been sterotyped as a form of yoga... because of that, that's about all you'll find now days.

Dude, I am one of the nicest, kindest, sweetest people on Bullshido, so please listen to me before the big nasty people get to you and threaten you with gong sau followed by anal rape.

1) Read people's avatars. I clearly state I live in the UK.

2) Read people's avatars. Liokault and I both state we practice Tai Chi in our avatars.

3) Read people's posts. I have already posted in this thread that I currently practice Tai Chi.

**Shinigami** · Posted On: 11/02/2005 9:10pm

Firstly, My general experience with forums is that half the people who actually list where they live don't actually live there. Not sure if this applies to this forum, but you never know.

Secondly, I wasn't talking to you. Remember when you said
"You don't need to defend Taichi. Everybody loves it and they are just waiting their turn for me to tell them where a reputable school near them is so they can take it up"
well I was offering up an opinion on a good school in case anyone was interested because any school you go to, people here likely wouldn't benefit from due to how far they'd have to travel just to get to class. I know you practice Tai Chi, you've mentioned it like four times already.

**meng_mao** · Posted On: 11/03/2005 7:31am

Shingami, somebody who refuses to browse the site (or the web) and learn about Kyokushin and instead sits around waiting to see videos of it against one particular style, yes, that's misinformed. You have not demonstrated any willingness to find good sources of information, and mostly draw on mal-formed crap in your head.

One incident of quoting an apocryphal story doesn't make you misinformed; a series of ignorant posts and refusal to learn do make you misinformed.

**Jekyll** · Posted On: 11/03/2005 10:06am

Originally Posted by Shinigami

Cullion - There's a pretty good teacher if you live in the Lacey area of Washington. He doesn't speak english though, and he has to rent out a sorta small room in a ballet school, but he definetly knows his ****. We already did the slow form, we're doing the fast form now which is comprised of lots of punches, kicks, and other stuff you normally wouldn't associate with Tai Chi.

Everything you've said sugests you're just doing forms and think you're learning martial tai chi.

Come on, tell me I'm wrong.

**Matt Stone** · Posted On: 11/03/2005 5:57pm

Originally Posted by Shinigami

Matt Stone - Wow, I practice Tai Chi, so obviously I should know EVERYTHING about its history.

No, you shouldn't necessarily know "everything" about your art. However, if you presume to present yourself as speaking authoritatively, it might be a good idea to have your information in line before you do so.

How long have you been studying that you are unclear on the Chang San-feng myth?

I heard a vague legend about it once, and I even said I wasn't sure about it.

If you are unsure of the validity of a particular claim, story, etc., perhaps presenting it, even with a caveat to its legitimacy, isn't the best foundation for a response on this forum.

And for clarity, what you said was:

Origonally Tai Chi was invented after a monk (or somebody like that) witnessed a snake fighting with a crane, so the story goes. He invented a basic routine to emulate as best he could. The first form only had around 12 or so moves. I dunno, I just remember the form origonally included a lot of spinning and stamping, but was a hell of a lot shorter, until it was adapted into I believe Yang style by someone else.... I should find that site again...

Note that your caveat for the validity of this story is in bold, above, and simply states "so the story goes." That could be interpreted as either implying it is a questionable tale, or that the accepted history is as stated.

Now you're trying to quote me like I was trying to act like a know it all and biting my head off about it. Grow up.

I didn't "bite your head off." I simply pointed out that listing the Chang San-feng myth called into question your understanding of Taijiquan. It's akin to someone making an authoritative statement about geography, and then relating the flat earth theory as potentially legitimate. It would equally tarnish any other information presented.

Cullion - There's a pretty good teacher if you live in the Lacey area of Washington. He doesn't speak english though, and he has to rent out a sorta small room in a ballet school, but he definetly knows his ****. We already did the slow form, we're doing the fast form now which is comprised of lots of punches, kicks, and other stuff you normally wouldn't associate with Tai Chi.

Are you from WA? Since I am from Fort Lewis, just north of Lacey, I'm curious to know where this teacher is located... I practice Xingyi, Taiji and Bagua, and I'm always keen on knowing where other internal arts teachers are located (in the event someone I meet has an interest, I can provide them information and directions to schools that meet their interests and needs).

In relation to the rest of your comments to other members, you have to admit that Taijiquan has legitimately earned the bad reputation it currently enjoys... You and I know it is a fighting art, but to the other 99% of the people in the world it remains a "health maintenance" regime alongside yoga and low impact aerobics. I understand and share your frustration about this, but if you train your art in an "alive" fashion and test yourself against people from other styles, no one here at Bullshido is going to give you grief...

Thick skins are a requirement. It should say so on the front page...

:XXbazooka

**Shinigami** · Posted On: 11/03/2005 6:25pm

Meog_mao - Refusal to learn? Since when? I was curious to see the video, and I wanted to see it in action before I went and read about it.

Jekyll - Okay, you're wrong

Matt Stone - Wow, where did you learn to interpret things?... Okay, one thing at a time now.
Yes, I speak authoritatively on the fact that Tai Chi is not ONLY a series of very slow movements. I know this because we're doing Tai Chi right now, and it's not slow. That's all I've actually claimed to know for sure. The rest is speculation, and I've even told you its speculatoin.
That bit about the story was just to let you know someone told me a story. My main arguement is that in its origonal (as in newly created) form, it was very short. So far every source on the history of Tai Chi I've gone over agrees with this fact at least. The rest, like I already said, is unclear to me.
In this part of the rant, I was supposed to bit back about me never saying I believed any part of the story... but going back over it, I realize that I actually did. It was supposed to be just for effect, but using the word "I believe" is still bad enough, so I'll give you that one.
And if you want to find the teacher, go to his website IOCMA.com his name is Zhu Bi-Sheng.

And there's only actually one reason I'm being pissy about this.
My arguement is Tai Chi is not only a slow form. My supporting answer is that I'm doing Tai Chi, and we've graduated beyond slow to fast, which is proof that it is not only a slow form.

Do people accept this? Well, I don't know. They haven't actually mentioned it much, they've only tried to call my personal integrity into question. Don't ask me why, I honestly don't know, maybe it's just fun.

**Shinigami** · Posted On: 11/03/2005 6:30pm

Matt Stone - Oh yeah, I'll just add this
*Sigh* sadly, because of a former accident where one of his students broke another one of his student's collar bones (from before I enrolled), our master won't allow us to actually spar until we've learned EVERYTHING... To that end, I'm staying in class for the entire day instead of just my normal one hour slot. I'm hopelessly behind in class hours 2-3, but in 1 and 4 I've got it all down. If you wanna stop by and check it out, you're allowed one class free to try it out, after that you can talk to him about enrolling if you want, or just not show up again if you don't.