tai chi chuan definitions

[bruce]

i think many online communication problems online stem from people having different definitions for the same words or ideas.
i would be curious to hear how ya'all define the following.

what is tai chi chuan?
my answer is tai chi chuan is a martial art from china that uses the yin yang concepts as a guide to use physical positions of your body to defend your self from violent attack.

what is the purpose of tai chi chuan?
my answer is to have the ability to protect oneself and others from violent attack and to become physically and mentally fit.

what isn't tai chi chuan?
my answer is tai chi chuan is not a mystical health exercise.

what is push hands?
my answer is push hands is a practice method to understand the moment in time when you make contact with an attacker. push hands is a drill to understand distance, timing, leverage, listening ability and sensitivity to change. push hands is a controlled method to study fighting positions. push hands can be done as a controlled drill for specific skill development and also as a free form drill.

[Dmitri]

Hehe... This is gonna be one busy thread...

My answers pretty much match yours. (As you probably guessed. ) I'd probably replace "a martial art" with "an internal martial art", just for posterity. Although come to think of it, that word would require a whole 'nother (doomed) thread to define and sort out (and fail miserably at it)... So yours is probably a better one.

I would also add that I recognize all the other definitions (health/hippie/etc.) and I don't think mine (or any other) is any more valid than the rest.

[Bao]

Hehe... This is gonna be one busy thread...

Don't know. Most people regard it as it has BTDT 1000 times before.

But I still want to have a shot at it!

”what is tai chi chuan?”

A name.
A name of a Chinese martial art
A name of a martial art built on the philosophical Neo confucian concept ”T’ai Chi”, meaning the dynamic interplay between Yin and Yang, and ”Ch’uan” which means ”boxing.
A name coined by a student of Yang tai chi creator Yang Luchan.

”what is the purpose of tai chi chuan?”

The translation to ”Great Ultimate” s a great mistake. For Zhou Dunyi, Tai Chi bears about the same meaning as daoist concept ”de” which can be understood as ”potential”. So the purpose of tai chi chuan is anything you can make it a potential for.

”what isn't tai chi chuan?”

As a Yang Style practitioner coined the name Tai Chi Chuan for the art of his teacher, Tai Chi Chuan starts with Yang style.
... Which means that Chen style is not Tai Chi Chuan...

what is push hands?

A name of a Tai Chi Chuan specific exercise where all aggression and competition is put away in favor for practicing Shenfa and Tai Chi foundations against a partner.

[yeniseri]

What is known as taijiquan today originated in Chen village (Chenjiagou) around 500 years ago. The family began in Shanxi province and ended up in Henan province, home to a nearby Shaolin Temple. Over time, Chen family art incorporated Shaolin inspired systems of the era and the Daoist symbolism of those who became acquainted with it (read Li family). Apparently at some stage of synthesis and development, the descriptive shifted from Chen family art to a more 'globally reformed" neo Daoist name of what is now known as tai chi chuan (taijiquan)!

[willywrong]

what isn't tai chi chuan?
my answer is tai chi chuan is not a mystical health exercise.

I can't agree with this one because if you train with incorrect method you never going to receive any of the physical or mental benefits from your practice and therefore for those in that boat it is a mystical health exercise.

[Miro]

Again? OMG.

Taijiquan should be correctly called liangyiquan - because practitioners of this art usually work with principle of liangyi (yin-yang, right-left, up-down, front-back etc.). But it is called taijiquan because ultimate aim/goal/ideal is to reach taiji, creation, oneness (including with oponent). If one stays in duality or liangyi (left or right or my oponent versus me), it is not taijiquan, if one still keeps his fighting mind, it is not taijiquan - and never will be.

Purpose of taijiquan is to know oneself, know others, know society, to be able to find useful life in that society and to reach spirituality or Dao by way of learning martial arts. It is the Way for those who did not have better chances in their lives.

Taijiquan is not fighting and it is not physical movement.

Push hands is learning how it is useless to push people, how it is useless to be pushed by them, and how to find that those two people can become one - or more precisely, it is learning how to communicate with other people, how to work with them, how to lead them so that you can learn from them more.

[WVMark]

i think many online communication problems online stem from people having different definitions for the same words or ideas.
i would be curious to hear how ya'all define the following.

As Dmitri noted, this could be a busy thread. And even if it has btdt, it's still worth reliving.

Just for clarity, I don't train tai chi chuan. So, my answers are from an outside perspective.

what is tai chi chuan?

You have yin. Let's say it's all in one direction. Then you have yang. It's the opposite direction. Once you add yin and yang, there is an infinite area between the two. It is this "void" ... not the right word but it's the border area where both meet, hence not one nor the other, where man should be standing. Man can only be there using intent. Tai chi chuan is the entirety of this ideology of what I just wrote but in a strictly internal martial art capacity.

So, if you have just yin. No tcc. If you have just yang, no tcc. If you try to have yin/yang but do not understand intent, the body will not change and yin/yang will not be realized. If you try to become one with your opponent, then you have violated yin/yang and thus, no tcc. Instead, the opponent should become a part of your universe and move according to your will.

what is the purpose of tai chi chuan?

To change the body such that one can stand within the center of yin/yang in a martial capacity. The side benefit of using intent to change the body via yin/yang is better health.

what isn't tai chi chuan?

There are many martial arts that use various training methods involving intent (or used to, historically) to change the body and train a martial system. Tai chi chuan is not those other systems.

what is push hands?

Forms are there to use intent to change the body. Since the body requires a lot of changes, there are different forms. You can work open, close, open/close. You can work the bows. You can work elbow power. Dantien development. Uplifting (japanese aiki age). Solidifying, I guess would be a good descriptor as the Japanese would use aiki sage. Etc, etc, etc. Lot of work to do using intent to change the body. Forms are the primary purpose of doing this. Without intent, there can be no changed body. Without the changed body, there can be no martial mastery in the sense of what the founders of these systems used. (Of course, it goes without saying that one can attain other skills. A great fighter doesn't need internal skills to be a great fighter.) Forms are both stationary and moving. But, they are solo training.

Push hands is the next stage of training where you take your changed body and start to apply it in a more dynamic manner. Basic push hands allows one to use intent where one is receiving energy from another person. As push hands progresses, one is able to work in more stressful situations. But it's all to make sure that one is progressing via intent training in changing the body in a martial manner and learning how to use that changed body to create openings, take advantage of openings, and withstand force.

After that ... it's on to actual freestyle stuff.

[bruce]

i like that people are giving different definitions and opinions.
some of the answers seem to be read out of a book and other answers seem to be from personal experience.

[Bhassler]

What skill is unique to taijiquan that is not present in other arts?

[bruce]

What skill is unique to taijiquan that is not present in other arts?

ha this is a tough question for me.
i don't think any martial arts are unique. it just depends on ones purpose of practice. if self defense is the purpose the names of styles have less meaning. if carrying on a tradition is the purpose the name has more meaning.

a rare skill is the ability to redirect stick and return force but i don't think it is unique to tai chi chuan.

tough question ... i need to think about this.

[johnwang]

a rare skill is the ability to redirect stick and return force but i don't think it is unique to tai chi chuan.

The "arm drag" is redirect, stick, and return force.

[Miro]

What skill is unique to taijiquan that is not present in other arts?

Maximal abstraction. Every martial arts includes taijiquan, but only taijiquan includes only taijiquan - and nothing more. Xingyiquan contains unnecessary animals (unnecessary from the view of taiji, maximal abstraction) and wuxing is just more complicated liangyi (there are five movements instead of two) but otherwise wuxing is what we call taiji. Baguaquan contains eight gua and four xiang and the rest is what we call taiji. Other styles contains even more of what is unnecessary.
Some people like maximal abstraction of taiji, some not. Some people like those unnecessary things, some not. Both views are okay because everything is beautiful.

[bruce]

a rare skill is the ability to redirect stick and return force but i don't think it is unique to tai chi chuan.

The "arm drag" is redirect, stick, and return force.

that teacher moves well. he defiantly shows redirect, stick and return.

[northern_mantis]

i think many online communication problems online stem from people having different definitions for the same words or ideas.
i would be curious to hear how ya'all define the following.

what is tai chi chuan?
my answer is tai chi chuan is a martial art from china that uses the yin yang concepts as a guide to use physical positions of your body to defend your self from violent attack.

what is the purpose of tai chi chuan?
my answer is to have the ability to protect oneself and others from violent attack and to become physically and mentally fit.

what isn't tai chi chuan?
my answer is tai chi chuan is not a mystical health exercise.

what is push hands?
my answer is push hands is a practice method to understand the moment in time when you make contact with an attacker. push hands is a drill to understand distance, timing, leverage, listening ability and sensitivity to change. push hands is a controlled method to study fighting positions. push hands can be done as a controlled drill for specific skill development and also as a free form drill.

Really like this. Any beginner would be well set going in to training with this understanding. Personally I think it could be added to push hands that it is a competitive format in its own right. I know many don't agree with this but I think it is a lot of fun and safe for those that don't wish to take the fighting element any further. Plus with the right set of rules no further removed from full contact fighting than wrestling for example.

And maybe something in there to stifle the expectation that any martial art should and will turn you in to a complete badass. Just recognising here are a range of approaches and reasons for training and martial arts are a systemised method of combat full of cultural references rather than just fighting.

Finally being a Taoist art there is going to be an esoteric side to it but that doesn't necessarily have to evade a well
constructed coherent definition as you have done with all other aspects.

[mixjourneyman]

what is tai chi chuan?
aside from the obvious, which is that tai chi is up to the individual to understand, and that it can be understood in many different ways (thus the bickering on message boards), tai chi chuan seems to be a series of movements performed by a human being (waiting on the tai chi cats video, but haven't seen one yet).

what is push hands?
a series of exercises that two people can do which helps people improve their skill in physical relationships with other people.

what isn't tai chi?

a tea pot (although tai chi can happen inside of a tea pot).