Chang San-feng, a Taoist priest who lived in 14th Century China is traditionally regarded as being the founder of Tai Chi Chuan. It is said ‘god’ taught him Tai Chi Chuan in a dream, which was synchronized in a scene that he witness shortly afterwards…

A crane and a snake were engaged in mortal combat. He noticed how the snake would recoil to avoid the crane’s attack before striking and how the crane would use its wings to softly cover the snake. He then had an insight about the practicality of yielding, pliability and softness. As a result, many of the postures and movements in Tai Chi were conceived through observations of nature. Hence posture names such as ‘White Crane spreads its Wings’, ‘Repulse Monkey’, and ‘Snake creeps down’.

Although there were several ‘internal’ martial arts before Chang San-Fen, it was he who achieved their union by incorporating Taoist breathing techniques and directly relating the practice of Tai Chi Chuan to the Taoist philosophies contained in the I-Ching (or ‘Book of Changes’). This served to broaden the appeal of Tai Chi to help people enjoy a long and healthy life.

The first documentary evidence of Tai Chi was from the Chen (family) village at the end of the 16th Century. Chen Tai Chi involves spiraling movements with low stances and is a very powerful form of Tai Chi practice. All other styles of Tai Chi have their origins in Chen style.

Yang style Tai Chi developed from Chen style in the 18th Century. Yang Lu-Chan, who was the founder of Yang style Tai Chi, studied with the Chen family for many years before returning home to teach both his family and members of the Imperial Court. Yang developed his own style, which became very popular and it was during this time that Tai Chi began to be practiced more for health and fitness purposes than as a martial art (although to this day it is still an extremely powerful and effective martial art).

Yang Chen-Fu (1883-1936) is the person most responsible for popularising Yang style Tai Chi. He realised that Tai Chi could not only improve his health but also could be of benefit to the physical well-being of the community.

Nowadays there are five main traditional schools of Tai Chi (with many variations), being Chen, Yang, Wu, Wu-Hao, and Sun. [Other popular styles in the West include Lee Family style and Cheng Man-Ch’ing].

Now read: Tai Chi in practice