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Report on Tai Chi

Report on Tai Chi Tai Chi is a major branch of Chinese martial arts that is primarily practiced for it’s health benefits, including tension and stress, relaxation and as a form of self-defense. The name Tai Chi comes from the Chinese words meaning “great ultimate.” It is also known as Tai Chi Chuan meaning, “great ultimate fist.” Among martial arts, there are two basic types, one is called hard martial arts and the other one is soft martial arts. Hard martial arts are like karate and martial arts. The soft martial arts are Ba Gua and Tai Chi. The study of Tai Chi Chuan is unique in the sense that it marks the historical event of many centuries of Taoist study known as Chi Kung (“excellence of Energy”). It was primarily dedicated to the physical health and spiritual growth. It was very much needed at the time (about 1,000 A.D.) for monks to defend themselves against bandits and warlords. So at that time came an unusual mixture of healing art/martial art which has been known as the internal practice of Tai Chi Chuan. There are five styles of Tai Chi: The Yang, Chen, Wu, Sun and Woo Schools. Although each of the five styles has characteristics of their own, the essences for all are the same. The most popular style in China is the Yang: the Yang 24 Forms Tai Chi set being the most widely practice. The health benefits have much to do with Tai Chi characteristics. The exercise requires a high degree of concentration, with the mind free of distractions. Breathing is natural, sometimes involving abdominal reparation and its performance is in the rhythmic harmony with body movement. Tai Chi is based on the Chinese principle of yin and yang, in which opposing but complementary forces combine to create harmony in nature. According to traditional Chinese medicine, disease is caused by a disturbance in the flow of qi (chi), of life force. People who practiced tai chi believes that it can promote physical health because it enhances the flow of qi. As being both healing art and martial art, Tai Chi based on the internal condition of the study, which is main point. This shows that the true focus of the study is not only, nor even mainly, on the physical level, but places the importance of the practice more on the mental and energetic levels. The mental part is really the most important because the number one condition that limits an individual from achieving excellence in anything, including his of hers own health, is a state that tradition Chinese medicine refers to as being "weak-minded". This "weak-minded" state shows that the person is easily confused or distracted. So the first quality to be developed in Tai Chi is the strengthening of one's concentration, or better known as to martial artists as being centered. So basically to sum up the this paragraph, Tai Chi was created as a form of mediation and mental exercise in which students learn to center and focus their mental powers. The skill and purpose of centering the mind is to keep the mind interested and involved in what's happening at the present moment. This is understood to be the substructure of Tai Chi because from this state of attention comes the likelihood to change, correct, and heal. To promote this process, Tai Chi uses a physical location, the lower abdomen, which is called the Tan Tien in Chinese. This represents the true body center in the sense that it's the movement and feeling center. With this particular body consciousness, we can start the process of sharing the attention more evenly and equally throughout the body. The ability to spread attention throughout the body is understood in Chinese medicine to be one of the most important elements of good health because it's characteristic of the relationship between the mind and the body. Unlike the common Western view that a person must work hard for the experience of being healthy, in Tai Chi health is understood to be natural (and also effortless) to that individual who has achieved balance and harmony between body and mind. During its 1000 years of development, Tai Chi has been considered to be a movement art. This indicates that it is much more than just physical or even energetic movement. It represents a relationship with the experience of change. The spirit that Tai Chi seeks to restore is an understanding of change as a natural life advances. Through the practice of Tai Chi one allows oneself to become a more willing participant in the process of change, understanding that it is unavoidable any ways. The practice begins primarily as a physical experience, but given time, applies the qualities that we seek to develop physically to the emotional, mental, and spiritual levels as well. The purpose of Tai Chi practice is not just about learning a set of moves, nor to become good at defending one’s self, although these abilities may happen during the course of the practice. The main goal of Tai Chi is to give the person an opportunity to become more aware of the natural laws that handles change. It is not just changes in the body that affects physical and structural movement, but somewhat the principle of change and movement that rule every aspect of our lives and the world around us. The exercises of the practice simply provide us with a chance to explore that process of discovery. Tai Chi emphasizes on complete relaxation and is a form of meditation, or what has been called “meditation in motion.” Unlike hard martial arts, soft, slow, flowing movements that emphasize force, rather than brute strength characterize Tai Chi. Though it is soft, slow, and flowing, the movements are performed accurately. The history of Tai chi is a hard one to record because it is hard to tell which information are facts and which one are legends or stories. There are many legends surrounding the origins of Tai Chi. One states that it was invented in the late 14th or early 15th century, around the second millennium B.C., with the practice of yoga in ancient India. In China, yoga came to be developed in what is called Shaolin chuan (“chuan,” kind of means boxing). In the 13th century A.D., a wandering Taoist monk, Zhang San-feng (Chang San-feng) who had studied martial arts for many years, developed what has come to be known as Tai Chi. The monk observed a fight between a snake and a crane in which the snake won through relaxed, evasive movements and quick counter strikes. Inspired by the snake’s loose but controlled movements, Zhang San-feng created fighting form that emphasized strength, balance, flexibility, and speed. Over the centuries, Tai Chi has evolved into a system of exercise that utilizes soft, slow, relaxed movements. Now and days, Tai Chi is most commonly practiced as a series of flowing movements known as the form. The form consists of a sequence of slow, carefully coordinated movements that flow together into one continuous motion. Single movements have names such as “hand strum a lute,” “part the wild horse’s mane,” and “the white crane spreads its wings.” Tai chi includes other sets of movements as well. One, called “pushing hands,” is a sequence practiced by two people together. In it most advanced form; Tai Chi can also be an extremely powerful form of martial arts. According to tradition, a 19th century Tai Chi teacher by the name of Yang Lu-chuan fought more that 20,000 times without ever losing one single match. Pretty impressive isn’t it. Afterward Tai Chi came to be associated with different families in China. These family names came to designate the different styles of Tai Chi. The Tai Chi family or style from which all other current styles or families of Tai Chi developed was the Chen family. A man by the name of Yang later studied with the Chen family and later modified the Chen style, which developing the Yang style of Tai Chi Chuan. The Yang style is the most common traditional style of Tai Chi Chuan practiced today. The Yang style has three different forms that are practiced: the simplified form, the short form, and the long form. Tai Chi is very much related to health because doing Tai Chi promotes health in a slow and relaxed way. Because it can relieve stress and tension. The person will learn to focus it mind on one thing and become very aware of the things going on around him or her. So that person mind becomes stronger and has more concentrations. Tai Chi regularly enhances the function of the central nervous systems, keeping the joints flexible and improves the function of the internal organs. Tai Chi is also known to slow a person’s aging process. Tai Chi is basically an all-purpose therapy. People practice it for many reasons, whether they want to improve external beauty, mental outlook, or physical health and longevity. Generally, there is no age limits with Tai Chi, everybody can do it. About 20 percent of the world’s population practice Tai Chi. To me, I think older people practice it more often than the younger age. Millions of people practice it in many parks of major cites in China. Since no sports equipment are required Tai Chi could be done at any place and any time. Bibliography:

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