Dr. Donald Davis demonstrates
Snake Creeps Down.
(Tai Chi photos by David Bunch) |
Going for an early morning walk in China brings one into contact with people of all ages moving together slowly and serenely in small groups throughout every public park. Their faces display a soft look of contentment and rapt attention while their arms trace graceful arcs in the air. After several minutes the group comes to a stop, all facing the same direction; they stand silently and still, seemingly lost in another world. Most likely you’ve been watching tai chi, one of the great treasures of Chinese culture.
Martial Art and Method for Inner Development
Tai chi, short for tai chi chuan (pronounced tie gee chwan), is a system of physical, psychological and spiritual cultivation developed centuries ago in China as a martial art that fused together methods of self-defense with methods for cultivating internal energy and inner tranquility. Tai chi is rooted in Daoism, China’s oldest wisdom tradition that provides the foundation for Chinese medicine and many Chinese arts such as calligraphy, painting, poetry, and garden design. Tai chi employs slow, rhythmic movement and precise postural alignment coordinated with breathing and mental focus. Deeper and more profound than Western approaches to exercise, tai chi is moving meditation.
Meditation in movement |
The origins of tai chi are uncertain. Some claim Zhang Sanfeng, a Daoist monk who lived during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 C.E.), is the founder. Zhang, it is believed, created the supple movements of tai chi after watching a snake twist and turn to avoid the pecks of an attacking bird. Others claim that tai chi was created during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 C.E.) by the Chen Family, founders of one of the five major lineages of tai chi still practiced today. Yet others claim that tai chi has a more ancient origin, that it was developed by unknown Daoist adepts centuries ago to enhance health and meditation practice by balancing the flow of the body’s internal energy (qi, pronounced chee) much like acupuncture but without using needles.
Although movements that resemble tai chi postures are depicted in manuscripts that date to the second century B.C.E., the tai chi we see today is the product of 20th century innovation. It was only in the 1920s that the Yang family (in particular Yang Chengfu) created a form of tai chi that emphasized slow steady movement that was taught for the first time to the public. This form of tai chi began to be taught in the United States in the 1950s and is the most widely practiced today.
Exercise and Moving Meditation
More than mere physical exercise, with its emphasis only on strengthening the body, tai chi emphasizes integrated strengthening of body, mind and spirit. It employs the two major approaches to meditation—concentrative meditation with focus on some object such as counting the breath and mindfulness meditation with its use of relaxed and unfocused awareness. Poetic names of tai chi movements, such as “Carry Tiger and Return to Mountain,” “Snake Creeps Down,” and “Single Whip,” remind the practitioner of the essence and feeling of each movement that should be cultivated during its practice.
Centuries of practice have provided much anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of tai chi to the Chinese people. In the West, however, scientific research is the preferred method for documenting treatment effects. Researchers have begun to turn their attention to tai chi, and many health benefits have been supported by scientific research. |
