Comprehensive Tai Chi Knowledge

Do you know Jack Ma? He's the founder of Taobao, Alibaba and Alipay. This big-name entrepreneur is actually going to star in the leading male role of a Kungfu movie, even teaming up with a famous Chinese singer to record the theme song. Let's take a quick look at what's going on here.

On the afternoon of October 28th, 2017， Ma made a post to his personal Weibo page. It was a movie poster, and on it, Ma himself was standing dead center, a host of action movie stars and martial arts masters at either shoulder. This was the final confirmation people had been waiting for. The rumors are true: Jack Ma is going to star in a movie. Other information accompanying the post brought the truth to light – it seems like entrepreneur billionaire is actually going to star as the hero of a film named 'Gong Shou Dao'.

Ma commented: In creating this film, the goal is to pay due to respects to traditional culture and aid the world in understanding the Chinese martial art of Tai Chi.

Jack Ma has always been an avid Kungfu fan and admirer of the Kungfu hero spirit. One of the most interesting rules at Alibaba is all employees are given a "nickname". Jack's is "Feng Qing Yang" –taken from the grandmaster of swordsmanship (a character of famous Chinese martial arts novelist Jin Yong).

When it comes to Tai Chi, Jack's affections are going particularly deep. Starting with self-practice back his university days, Jack has been practicing Tai Chi Boxing for almost 30 years, and to date has trained with no less than 8 teachers. In 2009, a personal assistant of Ma's was sent to the birthplace of Tai Chi Boxing – a place named "Chen Jia Gou", their mission: to find a grandmaster of the artform. That same year, Jack Ma began formal training with the 19th generation inheriting master of the Chen family clan, Master Wang Xi An.

To Mr. Ma, Tai Chi has become a philosophy and source for life wisdom, and he thinks that Tai Chi concepts like "Ying and Yang", "the touching of extremes" and "naturalness in action" all draw clear parallels in the world of business management.

So, with this, let's take a moment to deepen our understanding of Tai Chi!

| What is Tai chi |

Tai chi is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training, its health benefits and meditation. The term Taiji refers to a philosophy of the forces of yin and yang, related to the moves.

Yin and Yang

Though originally conceived as a martial art, it is also typically practiced for a variety of other personal reasons: competitive wrestling in the format of pushing hands (tui shou), demonstration competitions and achieving greater longevity.

Pushing hands (tui shou)

Pushing hands (tui shou)

As a result, a multitude of training forms exist, both traditional and modern, which correspond to those aims with differing emphasis. Some training forms of tai chi are especially known for being practiced with relatively slow movements.

Slow movements

| Historical origin |

From a modern historical perspective, when tracing Tai chi's formative influences to Taoist and Buddhist monasteries, there seems little more to go on than legendary tales.

Nevertheless, some traditional schools claim that tai chi has a practical connection to and dependence upon the theories of Song dynasty Neo-Confucianism (a conscious synthesis of Taoist,Buddhist, and Confucian traditions, especially the teachings of Mencius). These schools believe that Tai chi's theories and practice were formulated by the Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng in the 12th century, at about the same time that the principles of the Neo-Confucian school were making themselves felt in Chinese intellectual life.

However, modern research casts serious doubts on the validity of those claims, pointing out that a 17th-century piece called "Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan" (1669), composed by Huang Zongxi (1610–1695), is the earliest reference indicating any connection between Zhang Sanfeng and martial arts whatsoever, and must not be taken literally but must be understood as a political metaphor instead. Claims of connections between tai chi and Zhang Sanfeng appeared no earlier than the 19th century.

History records that Yang Luchan trained with the Chen family for 18 years before he started to teach the art in Beijing, which strongly suggests that his art was based on, or heavily influenced by, the Zhang Sanfeng Chen family art. The Chen family are able to trace the development of their art back to Chen Wangting in the 17th century. Martial arts historian Xu Zhen believed that the tai chi of Chen Village had been influenced by the Taizu changquan style practiced at the nearby Shaolin Monastery, while Tang Hao thought it was derived from a treatise by the Ming dynasty general Qi Jiguang, Jixiao Xinshu ("New Treatise on Military Efficiency"), which discussed several martial arts styles including Taizu changquan.

What is now known as tai chi appears to have received this appellation from only around the mid of the 19th century. A scholar in the Imperial Court by the name of Ong Tong He witnessed a demonstration by Yang Luchan at a time before Yang had established his reputation as a teacher. Afterward, Ong wrote: "Hands holding Tai chi shakes the whole world, a chest containing ultimate skill defeats a gathering of heroes." Before this time the art may have had a number of different names, and appears to have been generically described by outsiders as zhan quan (沾拳, "touch boxing"), Mian Quan ("soft boxing") or shisan shi (十三式, "the thirteen techniques").

| Tai chi today |

In the last twenty years or so, tai chi classes that purely emphasize health have become popular in hospitals, clinics, as well as community and senior centers. This has occurred as the baby boomers generation has aged and the art's reputation as a low-stress training method for seniors has become better known.

As a result of this popularity, there has been some divergence between those that say they practice tai chi primarily for self-defense, those that practice it for its aesthetic appeal (see wushu below), and those that are more interested in its benefits to physical and mental health. The wushu aspect is primarily for show; the forms taught for those purposes are designed to earn points in competition and are mostly unconcerned with either health maintenance or martial ability. More traditional stylists believe the two aspects of health and martial arts are equally necessary: the yin and yang of tai chi. The tai chi "family" schools, therefore, still present their teachings in a martial art context, whatever the intention of their students in studying the art.