The story of Tai Chi is surrounded in mystery. No one knows incisively when it launched. So far, the best guess is the 14th century, which is believed to be the time when its founder Chang San-feng was likely to have lived. A monk of the extremely respected Wu Tang Monastery, Chang is said to have lived a very long life, owing to the practice of the philosophy.
However, there are those who would dispute his existence, claiming that he was more an allegorical figure akin to Homer, the blind Greek poet who is recognized for the Iliad and the Odyssey or William Shakespeare who enriched English Victorian literature. Yet for some reason, the five fundamental tenets of Tai Chi have been enshrined in the the I Ching, or the ancient Chinese classical tracks. Perhaps another weird attribute of Tai Chi is that while it looks like a passive activity, it is in fact a form of martial arts like Kung Fu or Shaolin.
Believe it or not, the literal translation of Tai Chi Ch’uan is extreme fist, which conjures images of extreme sports like boxing for example. Ironically, this philosophy teaches methods to ditch enemies or to use the opponents’ power against them. This is why pliability, elegance, and elasticity are valued traits of the Tai Chi warrior. Basically, this is what separates it from other martial arts in the ancient Chinese arena.
Yet another irony is that it has developed a living history reputation as, over the centuries, it has taken many distinct forms; a kind of branching out, more vibrant than any other martial arts ever seen. For example, in the current time, there exists eight unique schools of thought for Tai Chi. This can be explained by its historical foundation when Chang and his sidekick Chiang Fa happened upon a village and found locals eager to learn the philosophy.
This lead to eight different types of Tai Chi being born: Yang, Old Frame, New Frame, Wu, Zhao Bao, Hu Lei, Wu Shi, and Sun. All eight variations are active today, ripe with training schools and regular exhibitions to enrich the trade while maintaining the purity of every branch. Thus, it could be proclaimed, the history of Tai Chi is alive and well in the world, not only in China where the discipline was born, but in various other countries, thanks in part to nimble and mobile Chinese immigrants.
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