Origins of Tàijíquán

In ancient history, martial prowess is recorded in China, but it is not until the Song Dynasty that some specific records of martial arts are mentioned. Then, by the mid-Ming Dynasty, books and chapters start appearing on martial technique, among them works that are famous today, such as the treatises by General Qī Jìguāng (戚繼光). Cheng Zongyou (程宗猶) studied long saber methods from Liu Yunfeng (劉雲峰), who studied a variant of Japanese swordsmanship in coastal China. Cheng published a treatise on the long saber as part of his famous compilation titled Geng Yu Sheng Ji (耕餘剩技).

Over time, certain ideas become more popular in writing, including Yin and Yang, Shi (實; substantial) and Xu (虛; insubstantial), and Soft and Hard.

Internal martial arts ideas developed over time from existing external practices, when people recognized the limits of such practice and began looking for alternatives. Some examined Taoist principles and used those principles to re-evaluate their previous training, slowly changing it into something new. Internal martial arts are not usually the product of a single person, but rather were developed and evolved over time by groups of people who studied Taoist philosophy and added internal training to their martial arts.

Examples of non-Tàijíquán internal skills in China include very high-level wrestlers during the Qing Dynasty. The Shànpūyíng (善 扑营) or "Elite Wrestling Camp," was an official Qing Dynasty institution designed to train elite Manchu and Mongol wrestlers in buku (traditional jacket wrestling). Based in Beijing, these professional wrestlers were state-salaried, with the group famously used by Emperor Kangxi to neutralize Aobai, one of the four regents appointed by Emperor Shunzhi to assist him, in the court where weapons were not allowed. Some small wrestlers were so skilled, that they could not be thrown in open weight class competitions. Yang Luchan, in contrast, taught martial arts to the Imperial Guards Brigade.

In Chinese martial arts, empty hand arts first developed internal ideas and practices and then influenced their associated weapons practice with those ideas. In weapons practice, physical condition is not as important, but one still needs a strong foundation of skills that are determined by the morphology of the specific weapon.

Some arts have completely transformed from external to internal. Examples include Xíngyìquán, Bāguàzhǎng, and Tàijíquán. Some have partially transformed. Examples include Tongbeiquán and Bajiquán. In the case of Shi style Tongbei, the principles of posture are very similar to other internal arts. This makes it easier for Tàijíquán adepts to practice it as a secondary practice, but it still has hard and direct skills such as iron shirt and iron palm training that are typically found in external martial arts groups.

Shísānshǒu

One skilled group was the so-called 13 posture style Shísānshǒu (十三手) developed from Changquán (Long fist) in the Hebei and Hubei areas, which had both advanced principles and form routines consisting of fifty to seventy movements. It dates from the early seventeenth century and used the same posture names as contemporary external schools, including the 32 postures drawn from Qī Jìguāng’s famous martial treatise. Several famous training classics are handed down today from the 13 posture style. These internal principles apply equally to Bagua, Xingyi and Tàijí – they are not Tàijíquán specific ideas. One example believed to arise from Shísānshǒu is the famous adage: “Use four ounces to manipulate one thousand pounds.”

Much of Tàijí practice is concerned with how to actually realize that goal, which refers to the idea that a small force, properly applied, can manipulate a very big force. We want to work to reduce as much as possible the amount of force we need to use in order to control or manipulate an opponent. In Tàijíquán, we use Tàijí ideas to accomplish the goals of internal martial arts. To do this, we need to increase the efficiency of our movements and attempt to reduce the amount of energy we expend when throwing an opponent, while still having a great effect. We can examine ideas like posture, timing, direction (angle), relative position. As our skill improves, we apply increasingly greater levels of detail to our approach, yielding greater results. This process can be related to the Taoist admonition not to struggle or work too hard (over exert oneself).

When dealing with a very powerful movement (strike, grab, etc.) a great amount of our own force may still be required — just not as much as if we had utilized a less efficient approach. Skill level in Tàijíquán can be said to be correlated with how little force we can use, how easily we can take someone's balance to get them off their root. In Tàijíquán to accomplish higher-level skills, we need to have Qì feeling in our body, integration of mind and body, and coordinated movement.

While Shísānshǒu was not itself Tàijíquán, eventually one of its branches was transformed into what is today called Tàijíquán. Tàijíquán uses the Shísānshǒu form names almost in the same manner as the earlier historical practice. However, over time, Tàijí ideas were added to specialize the more general internal ideas of Shísānshǒu into something different.

If the level of skill of the Shísānshǒu increased over time, and became Tàijíquán, when did this happen? The first article of Wáng Zōngyuè (王宗岳) in his classic is regarded by Tàijíquán scholars as describing Tàijí principles completely. From this perspective, Tàijíquán is either based on Wáng's classic or existed at the time of his writing. The date of his work is unclear, but it likely is from the mid eighteenth century. Tàijíquán scholars and researchers argue if he is indeed the author and when the work ultimately dates from, but do not disagree as to whether the content of the work is correct or traditional Tàijíquán.

Other internal arts have different operating principles, but all utilize Taoist ideas to organize their training. In Xíngyìquán, a special skill or approach is the Five Element idea being used to determine how to realize internal martial arts goals. In Bāguàzhǎng, the Bāguà idea of change is used in a similar manner to develop a special skill related to spontaneous change to realize internal martial arts ideals of practice.

Origin Stories

Tang village is likely where Tàijíquán started; they had a Tàijíquán group and a spear group 300 years ago. Wangbao Village Spear (王堡枪) masters went there to learn spear and have family records of Tang village practice. Wangbao spear style is based on the 1787 Wangbao qiangpu yuanliu xu (Preface on the Origins of the Wangbao Spear Manual) and is sometimes called Six Harmonies Spear – they favored a hardwood or willow spear 3-4 meters in length.

The Li Family Genealogy also clearly records that taijiquan was created, jointly, by Li Zhong, Li Yan, and Chen Wangting. At that time, the founding ancestors of the Li family (two brothers of Li Qingjiang and Li Qinghe), along with the founding ancestor of the Chen family from Chen Village (Chen Bu), the founding ancestor of the Haozhuang village (Chen Hou), and the founding ancestor of the Liu village (Jiang Peili); all migrants from Hongdong, gathered at the Thousand-Year Temple in Boai County to worship and made a solemn oath.

cf. Julian Chu, 2023.

This may indeed be where Jian Fa learned martial arts, who later taught the famous master and Chen village patriarch, Chen Wangting (陳王庭) in addition to what Chen received from his ancestor Chen Bu. In the analysis above, Tàijíquán is then not originally from Chen Village in this telling of history but instead passed through Chen village. It also was said to have been taught in Zhaobao village around the same time.

In the 1928 Wu family Tàijí manual titled "Tàijí Gong Family Manual", there are 5 styles of Tàijí Gong mentioned. This provides additional evidence that Tàijíquán is not only the provenance of a single family or village, even at the time masters like Yang Luchan trained. There may have been up to five historical lines of Tàijíquán – arts that succeeded in developing a method of internal training by incorporating Tàijí idea from Taoism into their practice, but only descendants of the 13 posture style survive to this day. The other Tàijí schools would have had their own postures, principles, names, but all belong to the broader grouping of being Tàijíquán. They all elevated their art by adding Tàijí principle to their practice, which radically changed their practice into a form of internal martial arts practice, transforming it over time.

Chen Wangting promoted the idea of there being a single overall lineage of Tàijíquán from Chen to Yang, but writings exist in other old families (such as the Li family document quoted above) with references to the same general line of Tàijíquán being practiced also outside of Chen Village. Regardless of specific villages (Tang, Zhaobao, Chen, etc.), we can say that a line of Changquán became Shisanshou and then led to the development of the surviving lines of Tàijíquán today.

The Quanzhen school of Taoism originated with Wang Chongyang around 1167-1170 CE in Shandong province and spread to the Wudang area. At Wudangshan, it is believed that internal Tàijí ideas were added to 13 posture style. This is why people will sometimes say that Zhang Sanfeng, a reclusive figure who lived on Wudangshan, founded Tàijíquán. Since Taoism is important in Tàijíquán, many people revere a famous Taoist master such as Zhang Sanfeng as its originator, even though he lived during the 12th to 14th century, before Tàijíquán was developed.

Lineages of martial arts often cite a famous historical person as inspiration. For example, in the case of Xíngyìquán, Yue Fei, who was a brave and courteous hero, is regarded as a founder, even though his time predates Xíngyìquán practice by several hundred years. Dong Haichuan credits a wandering Taoist for his training, but that figure is likely fictitious rather than historical: crediting a mysterious Taoist would be a polite way for Dong to say he himself invented Bāguàzhǎng.

In summary, while we recognize the role of legendary founders in Chinese culture, and the strong familial bonds within single family groupings, we do not in general believe these arts were actually created in a single generation by a single person, especially not an art as sophisticated as Tàijíquán.