Tai Ji Chuan in Shaolin and Wudang

Chen Tai Ji Chuan was founded by Chen Wangting in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In 1367, Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to the Northern Expedition, crossed the Yellow River and unified China. In the fifth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (AD 1372), Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered the immigration from Hongdong County, Shanxi Province to Huaiqing Prefecture. Among the immigrants, there was a young man named Chen Bu, whose ancestral home was in Dongtuhe Village, Zezhou County, Shanxi Province. When his hometown suffered disasters for years, he fled to Hongdong, was wrapped in the immigration team with his wife and children, and was brought into Huaiqing House. He settled down 1 kilometers northeast of Wenxian County, and named this village Chen Buzhuang.

Chen Tai Ji Chuan was founded more than 3 years later than Wudang, and it was not mentioned in Qi Jiguang's famous martial arts book Ji Xiao Xin Shu Quan Jing Jie Yao in 1561, but Qi Jiguang's 32-potential long fist was recorded. It is generally believed that Qi Jiguang's long fist is an important source of Tai Ji Chuan.

Wang Zongyue, another important founder of Tai Ji Chuan, lived in Luoyang and Kaifeng, Henan during the fifty-six to sixty years of Qianlong (1791-1795). Proficient in boxing, swordsmanship and marksmanship, I have studied for decades and have gained a lot of experience. On Tai Ji Chuan, a book of Tai Ji Chuan, inherited the essence of Taoist martial arts.

In fact, the 3-4 years after the establishment of Wudang Sect was the period of the revival of the Han regime and the great development of Wushu. The Ming Dynasty attached great importance to Taoism as it did to Taoism in the early Han Dynasty. With the development of Taoism, Wushu has changed from simple techniques of attack and military skills to Chinese Wushu, which is both internal and external.

wu-tang clan himself has Tai Ji Chuan. Although there are many differences between the posture routines and Chen Tai Chi, the Yin-Yang, Five Elements and Tai Chi in Tai Ji Chuan's theory are all unique features of Wudang Taoist Kung Fu, and they are more abundant according to Taoist principles than those in Tai Ji Chuan. In fact, no matter who was the last founder, Tai Ji Chuan inherited the tradition of Wudang Taoist Wushu.

It can be seen from this that the development of Tai Ji Chuan may draw lessons from Qi Jiguang Changquan and other practical boxing systems with the characteristics of being soft and hard. However, the internal strength and theory obviously came from Taoist martial arts, and a special book "On Tai Ji Chuan" began to be published during the Qianlong period. The Chen family attached importance to martial arts because of fleeing, and formed a martial arts family. In Henan, which is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, they became a martial arts master with a hundred schools of thought. The miscellaneous things they learned naturally included martial arts routines with strong actual combat, such as Changquan. However, Tai Ji Chuan's complicated internal mind method and Taoist principles can't be created by ordinary martial artists, but must be tempered by wu-tang clan for hundreds of years. Tai Chi originated from Wudang, which is very natural from the characteristics of martial arts development, but it does not rule out that Wudang has absorbed other boxing methods in turn and developed its own Tai Ji Chuan. In the end, Tai Ji Chuan must have absorbed the essence and principle of internal strength from Wudang Taoist martial arts, and rose from simple fist theory such as Changquan to Tai Ji Chuan theory. In the meantime, Wang Zongyue should be the key person. This is why his On Tai Ji Chuan became the first monograph on Tai Ji Chuan Theory. Tai Ji Chuan, a descendant, should be the product of the combination of Taoist Taiji and actual combat application, and become a wonderful martial art work in China and the world.