Tai chi chuan is one of the famous branches of Chinese martial arts.It is well-known and widely practiced in the world today; however its origin is confused. There are many conflicting accounts as to its origin.
The most common of these accounts is that the founder was the Taoist monk Chan San Feng, who lived in the Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279). The legend states that Chan San Feng watched a battle between a snake and a crane ten times its size. As the crane lunged at its prey, the wily reptile dodged and weaved, lashing back at its tormentor with relaxed lightning speed. Eventually the exhausted crane flew off for easier prey. In that instant the art of tai chi was said to have been born. Chan San Feng, a master of the bard Shaolin martial arts, applied the principles he had witnessed in the actions of the snake to his martial arts expertise. The snake's actions exemplified the Taoist principles of softness, relaxation, flexibility and naturalness, allied to the ancient breathing exercises to stimulate chi development. However, no one knows whether he actually existed because there is no historical evidence to support the claim that he had anything to do with the creation or practice of tai chi chuan. Some experts claim him as just being a myth, while others argue he did exist and there are monuments to him in China.
It is not until seventeenth century that tai chi can be verified historically. All of the various styles of tai chi chuan which are in existence today can be traced back to a single man, Chen Wangting, a general of the latter years of the Ming Dynasty. After the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty (1644), Chen Wangting returned to the Chen village in Henan Province and created his forms of boxing. So Henan Province became home to the Chen family of tai chi chuan. This family has been credited with developing the Chen style, from which all the major schools, directly or indirectly, have developed. It is generally accepted that this 'new' style of martial art was developed from the popular existing arts at the time.
Originally, the Chen tai chi chuan was only taught family members of the Chen clan until a promising young named Yang Lu Chan wished desperately to learn the art of the Chens'. Knowing that he would be refused if he asked to study with them, he became a servant in the household. He watched secretly as they trained at night, and during his free periods be would imitate the techniques be had seen. Later, he was caught spying on the Chens. When be was ordered to vie against the family members, he managed to throw his adversaries to the ground. Chen Chan Sheng was so impressed that he immediately offered to teach Yang as if he were a family member. After mastering the Chen tai chi chuan, Yang Lu Chan modified the original Chen style and created the Yang style of tai chi chuan, the most popular form practiced in the world today.
Wu Yu Xiang leaned from Yang Lu Chan and a variation of the original Chen form from Chen Ching Ping and created the Wu style. A man named Hao Wei Zhen, learned the Wu style from Wu Yu Xiang's nephew and taught the style to Sun Lu Tang, who in turn created the Sun style. Yang Lu Chan had another student, a Manchu named Quan You, who in turned taught the art to his son, Wu Jian Quan. Wu Jian Quan popularized his variation of the Yang style, which is commonly referred to as the Wu Jian Quan style. In recent times (this century) there have been many other variations and modifications of the art, but all may be traced back through the above masters to the original Chen family forms.
The various forms of tai chi chuan, despite having different characteristics and style, have the same training principle: execution of relaxed actions to create a state of softness, which is accumulated to produce firmness, creating a state of firmness and softness complementing each other.
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