The Shamanic origins of T'ai Chi Ch'uan

[Chuangzu]

I have heard various stories about the origins of Tai Chi Ch'uan, some say a Taoist monk Chan San Feng, some say the Chen village story. This is the conventional wisdom. I was wondering, who taught Chan San Feng, who taught the Chen village people? Did they make it up themselves? perhaps they were influenced by other people who have not made it through to the historical records.

After all the recent history of China, The Opium wars, the Boxer Rebellion, the fall of the Empire, the Communist era, the Cultural revolution, have seen to it that the past was not just forgotten but was ruthlessly suppressed and records weren't just lost they were destroyed. Our teacher Chee Soo told us about the origins of our style, it is the Lee style from Shandong, perhaps you have some similar stories you would care to share that might help us shed some light on the matter?

Firstly we were taught Tai Chi 'dance'. It was different to the Tai Chi form of named sequences we also learned, this is what appeared in the book, the 'dance' was not in any book, it was mentioned but not in any detail, it was "not a dance as most Westerners would imagine it." I asked the Old Man how the Tai Chi we did today was different to what he first learned, he said it's exactly the same. He called this Tai Chi dance "Tiao Wu", I didn't know what this meant but more recently I have become more interested in the Chinese language so I looked it up.

Han character Tiao 跳
跳 (radical 157 足+6, 13 strokes, cangjie input 口一中一人 (RMLMO), four-corner 62113, composition ⿰⻊兆)
jump, leap, vault, bounce, dance

Ideogram Wu 舞
(指事): 無 + 舛 (“steps”) – originally a dancer holding two dangling animal skins, roughly 革 + 大 + 革, with dancing steps 舛 below – see 無#Etymology for earlier forms.
Top now simplified to 無, and this character is in fact the origin of 無.

Wu could be cognate with wu 舞 "to dance". Based on analysis of ancient characters, Hopkins (1920, 1945) proposed that wu 巫 "shaman", wu 無 "not have; without", and wu 舞 "dance", "can all be traced back to one primitive figure of a man displaying by the gestures of his arms and legs the thaumaturgic powers of his inspired personality" (1945:5). Many Western Han Dynasty tombs contained jade plaques or pottery images showing "long-sleeved dancers" performing at funerals, who Erickson (1994:52-54) identifies as shamans, citing the Shuowen jiezi that early wu characters depicted a dancer's sleeves.

It would appear that this kind of dancing is somehow related to Shamanism, and I found a page on Wikipedia about people known as Chinese Wu Shamans:
Apparently these Shamans were using dance in order to achieve altered states of consciousness and to contact the spirit world.

Shaman is the common English translation of Chinese wu, but some scholars (de Groot 1910, Mair 1990:35) maintain that the Siberian shaman and Chinese wu were historically and culturally different shamanic traditions. Arthur Waley (1955:9) defines wu as "spirit-intermediary" and says, "Indeed the functions of the Chinese wu were so like those of Siberian and Tunguz shamans that it is convenient (as has indeed been done by Far Eastern and European writers) to use shaman as a translation of wu. In contrast, Schiffeler (1976:20) describes the "untranslatableness" of wu, and prefers using the romanization "wu instead of its contemporary English counterparts, "witches," "warlocks," or "shamans"," which have misleading connotations. Taking wu to mean "female shaman", Edward H. Schafer translates it as (1951:153) "shamaness" and (1980:11) "shamanka". The transliteration-translation "wu shaman" or "wu-shaman" (Unschuld 1985:344) implies "Chinese" specifically and "shamanism" generally. Wu, concludes Falkenhausen (1995:280), "may be rendered as "shaman" or, perhaps, less controversially as "spirit medium"." Paper (1995:85) criticizes "the majority of scholars" who use one word shaman to translate many Chinese terms (wu 巫, xi 覡, yi 毉, xian 仙, and zhu 祝), and writes, "The general tendency to refer to all ecstatic religious functionaries as shamans blurs functional differences."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_(shaman)

Our style is from Shandong which is in Northern China, more specifically Weihaiwei which was a British colony from 1900-1930. There is a book "Lion and Dragon in Northern China" written by the Governor of Weihaiwei Reginald Johnston who was also incidentally the tutor to Puyi the last Emperor of China. https://archive.org/details/liondragoninnort00john It mentions special Yin and Yang xiansheng, and many reports of Taoist temples and various ancient practices, he says that this part of China was a sort of backwater where there were outdated practices that did not appear in any other parts of China.

Shandong is also the place where the Boxer rebellion originated, it was a movement which sought to champion traditional values and expel the foreigners from China. At the centre of this was the Righteous Harmony Fist society.
In many cases in this region martial arts were not taught openly and were certainly rarely seen by Westerners, even Chinese only had access to them through secret societies. These sprang up in some cases as the relics of lost dynasties which had fallen out of favour as China grew and was unified into one kingdom.

The Boxers believed that through training, diet, martial arts and prayer they could perform extraordinary feats. The tradition of possession and invulnerability went back several hundred years but took on special meaning against the powerful new weapons of the West.[8] The Boxers, armed with rifles and swords, claimed supernatural invulnerability towards blows of cannon, rifle shots, and knife attacks. Furthermore, the Boxer groups popularly claimed that millions of soldiers of Heaven would descend to assist them in purifying China of foreign oppression.

This is a similar idea to the 'ghost dancers' of the North American tribes, who were also attempting to call upon the spirits of heroes and warriors from the past to expel the foreign invaders. They also used dancing as a way to call upon the spirit world.

...proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits of the dead to fight on their behalf, make the white colonists leave, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Indian peoples throughout the region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dance

Also we can see in the Navajo 'skin walkers' that taking on animal characteristics was used as a way of developing martial arts techniques, probably more like special ops or espionage rather than conventional warfare.

In the Navajo culture there is a clear distinction between a witch and a medicine man. Medicine men practice healing arts, blessings, and the removal of curses. Any Navajo practicing the witchery way is believed to be evil; the intent of such practice is purely to harm others. Skinwalkers are considered to once have been medicine men who were able to reach the highest level of priesthood. These healers, instead of using their abilities to help people, would use their power for works of evil and take on animal form, inflicting pain on others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

These Shamanic practices may be similar to the Chinese Wu Shamans and the Boxers practices because the Northern American Indigenous tribes are all descended from 11 people who migrated from Northern China during the last Ice Age as genetic studies have shown. Even if this is not true it is highly likely that both the modern Chinese and the North American tribes have common ancestors and shared common beliefs and practices, and these were of Shamanic origin.
I recently saw a movie called The Revenant and there is a scene where they are drinking from the sky by sticking their tongues out, this is very similar to a technique Chee Soo showed us for gathering what he called 'macrocosmic energy' from Heaven.

Another thing Chee Soo said is that although we have the modern names of Tai Chi sequences originally the individual stances were named after animals. The Chinese character for Wu shows a person dancing with animal skins. In ancient times people worshipped Nature, they looked to the sky, the Earth, they believed all things including animals and plants had a spirit. It is the dancing and drumming and chanting the Shamans were doing which altered their consciousness and brought them more in tune with the Natural forces around them.

Nowadays we have Science, we rely on machines and technology, everything is written down, but we are becoming cut off from Nature. Tai Chi originated in a different time when people viewed the world in a different way, if we are to fully understand it maybe we need to look at things the way they did.

Your thoughts?

[Bao]

I don't quite understand how shamanism comes into the picture. The exercises that lead to Tai Chi should have rather have been Nei Dan tradition, maybe started with Hua To's five animals. I wouldn't call this tradition anything close to "Shamanism". But we know that Chen Wangting studied daoist manuals as well as Qi Jiguan’s "internal boxing". The movements of Chen style is based on Qi's movements. We also know that there are soft Shaolin arts that resemble IMA, which are older than Chen style. So Chen Wangting probably took bits here and there and based his personal art on both Daoist exercises and principles as well as Shaolin.

Chen Wangting left us a “lyric metered” poem that is in lines of varying lengths, and dictated by certain tunes and rhythms: “In amour with my sword, I fought courageously…survived several great dangers in the blessing from the Imperial… Now at this old age, I have nothing left but the Book of Huangting (the foremost important Taoist neidan classic). Creating quan when I am idle, cropping in the fields when I am busy… I teach my children and students, so that they would become dragons or tigers as they wish… paying off taxes and debts, am I humble and excising forbearance. People tell me being foolish and crazy, I listen reverently, but I pursue no officialdoms so I sneer at the Marquises… awaken in the wisdom, I roam in the waters and the mountains… victory or fall matters naught… in peace as I am always… who is the immortal?”

....

If the new evidence and the above materials are reliable, which we have not yet received any more concrete investigations and exams, the origin and development of taiji quan would confirm the claims in the Chen Family Genealogy: the oral tradition of practice quan in the Chen village began with Chen Bu, (which was transmitted by the priests of Qianzai Temple,) and Tang Hao’s conclusion: Chen Wangting created the radically new system of taiji quan based on Qi Jiguan’s 戚繼光 (1528-1587) Classic of Pugilism (Tang Hao).

The new evidence of the Li Family genealogy may also fill the gap: the taiji quan transmission began with Chen Wangting and the inputs of the Li brothers, with the Qianzai Temple transmission, which certainly provokes a sense of exalting the whole of Chinese culture. Likewise, Wang Zongyue, the central figure in transmission and development of taiji quan, would have been Li Helin’s student, and thus linked another part of the origins of the taiji quan transmission from the Li brothers. This part of taiji quan lineage may characterize the literati expression by the taiji classic of the Wuyang salt store.

http://www.literati-tradition.com/chen_camp.html

[Chuangzu]

Looking at the link you have posted it would appear that the Chen village versus Wudang story is a hotly contested political debate. What I am suggesting is that maybe this is a product of modern politics and that there are other factors which have been lost which are of more significance.

Our teacher Chee Soo told us that the Lee style is the only pure Taoist T'ai Chi style. In my understanding the Chen village is very close to the Shaolin temple. Maybe this style is more influenced by Buddhism and Shaolin, Taoist styles are more likely to have been influenced from other sources. After all not all Taoism was religious based but many Taoist hermits lived in the mountains precisely to get away from society and be at one with Nature. These kinds of people maybe didn't write stuff down and are not recorded in official sources as such. We know sketchy details about the Druids for example only from the Romans who conquered Britian and wiped out their priests on Anglesey but very little remains of their actual practices other than archaeological remains. Shamanism is a ubiquitous and common practice all over the world, and there is ample evidence of it in Northern China. Shamanism influenced Taoism, which in turn influenced T'ai Chi, or perhaps I should say what we now call T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Alchemy also comes into the picture but Shamanism probably predates it.

Having said that I have been in communication with a researcher from Weihai in Shandong who says that in fact there was a policy of syncretism that means the clear distinctions we like to see between different religions and folk groups may in fact be an illusion and a convenience of modern historians:

The inscription told us the temple was built by monks, but Bixia Yuanjun（碧霞元君） was worshipped there. That means this is a Taoist temple built by Buddhist monks! At first glance you may think it is unconventional and unbelievable. Actually, this phenomenon is not surprising at all in the Ming Dynasty...
By the Ming dynasty, the transition of the syncretism had been mostly completed. “Three religions in one” thought prevailed. Consequently, Buddhism and Taoism were no longer competitors. Three religions shared same temples. In folk society, Taoist temples often worshipped Confucian sages and bodhisattvas and some of them were presided by Buddhists; Buddhist temples usually worshipped Taoism immortals and Confucian sages and some of them were even presided by Taoists ; Confucian temples were sometimes presided by Buddhists or Taoists. So was in government. In the Ming dynasty, the state religion was Confucianism. While all big ceremonies were held in Buddhist or Taoist temples such as Qingshou temple, Lingji palace, Chaotian palace but not the imperial college ---- Confucian temple.

[cloudz]

Check out some of D_Glenns posts about Shen quan.
Interesting stuff.

Try this thread to start http://www.rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21702

I think I have seen some Chinese 'spirit boxing' at some point, but the kind that seems to be spontaneous and chanelled rather than a set, if my understanding was correct.

I think through the ages, people chopped and changed parts of systems as they saw fit, gave them new names etc.. The family styles we see today in TCC lines is probably somewhat different to what came before. The 32 postures (Chen) and subsequently the 37 postures (Yang) rather than being a proto type (or starting point) for TCC are as likely to be like a container or vehicle for the arts inner qualities that were adopted and adapted. There is some information about the origins of the 32 postures that i don't recall very well, but they may have come from a military training manual iirc. and they are by no means unique to TCC. Which is why you see similarities in sets like longfist, rou quan etc. ( i think..)

The oral history/ tradition (northern lineage) as it was in the early 20th century:

Below is a brief introduction to the account of Taiji Quan history popular in the early part of the 20th Century. We have included this to give the reader some background information and context to Song Shuming’s claims.

According to traditional beliefs, there were originally five styles of Taiji Quan. Although the movements are different, they were all based on the same Daoist philosophy. Most Taiji Quan practitioners of Song Shuming’s time believed in this. The five original styles are:

(1) Xiao Jiu Tian (Small Nine Layer Heaven):
The oldest of the five styles, it came from Han Gongyue of Liang Dynasty roughly 1,600 years ago. No one knows if he learned it from someone else or he created it himself. Of his students, Cheng Lingxi was famous. Cheng lived in Xiouning County of Hui Zhou. For meritorious service in battle, he was reward the governorship of a Jun (consists of five counties). After Cheng Lingxi, there were no famous people in this style until Cheng Bi. Cheng Bi was a high-level official during the Song Dynasty, around 1140 AD. It was he who gave it the new name of Xiao Jiu Tian, instead of just Taiji Quan, and wrote some articles about its principles.

(2) San Shi Qi (Thirty-Seven Postures):
Xu Xuanping was a hermit who lived in Chengyang Mountain during Tang Dynisty around 1,400 years ago. He was described as tall, with long flowing beard and hair. He was said to be able to run as fast as a horse. Everyday he came down from the mountains with firewood to exchange for alcohol in the town below. Li Bai, one of the most famous poets in Chinese history, wanted to meet Xu, but was never able to find him.
Xu’s Taiji Quan had another name, San Shi Qi, or Thirty Seven Postures, since it consisted of thirty seven postures. Movements in today’s Taiji Quan bear striking resemblance to this style. When people studied this style, they would practice each posture individually, and then they would combine the movements together into forms freely; it may be long, short, or never-ending. For this reason people called it Chang Quan - long fist. Xu wrote several famous poems on Taiji Quan principle.

It is said that after another nine hundred years, Song Yuanqiao became famous for this form. And that his distant descendent Song Shuming brought this style to Beijing in the 1910’s. There is an article titled “Description of Song Style Taiji Quan Lineage and Branch” by Song Yuanxiao and brought to us by Song Shuming, that listed the names of all postures within Song Style Taiji Quan as well as some lineage information.

(3) Xian Tian Quan (Pre-Birth Fist):
Li Daozhi was a Taoist priest in Nanyan Temple of Wudang Mountain during the Tang Dynisty. His style was known as Xian Tian Quan, Xian Tian meaning back to nature. Later on it was passed onto the Yu family, who lived in the Jing County of Ningguo Fu. Several of the Yu family members, such as Yu Qinghui, Yu Yicheng, and Yu Lianzhou, became famous for this style. Li wrote a poem about its high-level principles called Shou Mi Ge, or Song of Secrete Transmission. In it he described the relationship between Dao, qigong, and martial arts.

(4) Hou Tian Fa (Post-Birth Method):
Hu Jingzhi lived in Yangzhou during Tang Dynasty. His style was known as Hou Tian Fa, which means the training methodology for going back to nature. Within this style, there are sixteen elbow striking techniques. All of them are very useful for real fighting. Of his students Song Zhongshu was famous. In later generations, Yin Liheng was very famous.

(5) Shi San Shi (Thirteen Postures):
Zhang Sanfeng’s Taiji Quan is known as Shi San Shi, or Thirteen Postures. It is said that this style was separate to two main branches, one is called northern style and the other is called southern style. In the southern style, during several hundred years in different generations, Zhang Songxi, Wang Zhengnan, Huang Baijia, and Gan Fengchi etc, were very famous. But today this style is lost4. In the northern style, Chen Zhoutong, Wang Zongyue, Jiang Fa, Chen Changxing, and Yang Luchan etc. were famous5. All Taiji Quan as practiced today come from this style. So today when people say Taiji Quan, most of the time they meant the northern style of Zhang Sanfeng’s Taiji Quan. The popular descendents of this style today are Chen style, Yang style, Wu (Quan Yu) style, Wu (Wu Yuxiang) style, and Sun style.
Except for the Zhang Sanfeng style, the other four original styles of Taiji Quan are almost extinct. Only a handful of old masters may know something about them.

Note:

1. According to legend, Song Yuanqiao was a famous Taiji Quan master who inherited Xu Xunping’s Thirty-seven Postures Taiji Quan about five hundred years ago.

2. Xu Yusheng was a famous martial art educator. He learned Taiji Quan from Yang Jianhou. In 1911, he set up a martial arts school, the first of which that adopted the modern approach to education, and invited famous masters to teach their respective styles. Yang Shouhou, Yang Chenfu, and Wu Jianquan taught Taiji Quan in his school. It was in his school that Taiji Quan was first taught to the public. **

3. Xiangcheng is a special name of Yuan Shikai, the president of China at the time. Xiancheng is the name of Yuan’s hometown, so people often referred to him as Yuan Xiangcheng or just Xiancheng. This is a popular traditional custom.

4. Today many people believe that actually the southern style of Taiji Quan is Nei Jia Quan – Internal Fist. It has no any relationship with Taiji Quan.

5. Some people doubt this traditional version of northern style Taiji Quan lineage. They believe Taiji Quan was invited by Chen family in Chenjia Gou Village of Wen County in Heinan province around middle of seventeenth centenary.
*Song Shuming left Beijing with the fall of Yuan Shikai and settled in Baoding where he passed away.
Wang Xinwu, disciple of Xu Yusheng at the Beijing Academy, explains this in his work in the early 40ies.

**Taijiquan was first taught to the public in Tianjin in 1910 at the 'Tianjin Zhonghua Wushi Hui".
Xu Yusheng's school came second and was partially modelled on the Tianjin school

originally posted by Wuyizidi

[GrahamB]

You should read this book if you're interested in the ritual/dance/shamanism/opera/theatre aspects of the origins of Chinese martial art:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Possib ... le+origins

[yeniseri]

I see more of a shamanic backgroung in what is called qigong today but not in Chen shi taijiquan. I will admit to folk influence based on Li Family?Chen Family synthesis /borrowing of martial systems but I am sure somewhere when Zhang Sanfeng is mentioned, there is a strtech to claim this........SInce taijiquan has some base level of previous neigong/yangsheng stuff then one may claim the shamanic origin.
Personally, I don't see it based on Chen shi taijiquan but I do see the various folk traditions that influenced taijiquan according to Mr Marnix

[C.J.W.]

It was common practice among CMAists to associate the origins of their systems with mythical figures from ancient times in order to lend prestige to themselves. AFAIK, there's very little evidence to suggest that the Taoist ZSF actually existed and even less evidence that shows he knew martial arts.

[taiwandeutscher]

You should read this book if you're interested in the ritual/dance/shamanism/opera/theatre aspects of the origins of Chinese martial art:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Possib ... le+origins

Oh my god!

[Strange]

Oh my god!

exactly

[GrahamB]

It's next on my reading list - if you have any useful criticisms beyond "oh my god" I'd like to hear them.

Have you read it?

[Patrick]

Please, find a real master Graham. Stop thinking for yourself.

[GrahamB]

Please, find a real master Graham. Stop thinking for yourself.

I was not born to follow. It seems to keep getting me into hot water

[Chuangzu]

I think I have seen some Chinese 'spirit boxing' at some point, but the kind that seems to be spontaneous and chanelled rather than a set, if my understanding was correct.

I think through the ages, people chopped and changed parts of systems as they saw fit, gave them new names etc.. The family styles we see today in TCC lines is probably somewhat different to what came before.

My teacher Chee Soo taught us that the T'ai Chi sequences we see today are all derived from eight original stances or techniques, this was later expanded to thirteen, probably dating back as far as 1,000 BC. These basic stances can be combined in a variety of ways to generate what we see now are the favourite techniques of masters which have survived and become popular in the present day. I once met a T'ai Chi practitioner who did not have any forms in their style at all but instead relied on spontaneous movements. We could even postulate that the forms are not as important as the partner techniques which have generated them - what we call 'sticky hands' - and other exercises designed to improve reflexes and the feel of working with the reactions of a live subject. If we are to believe that indeed T'ai Chi's main influence was Taoism then it's most likely that the spontaneous side is more relevant than learning pre-arranged sets of techniques parrot fashion from a teacher.

[wushutiger]

He called this Tai Chi dance "Tiao Wu", I didn't know what this meant but more recently I have become more interested in the Chinese language so I looked it up.

Chuangzu, Tiao wu in chinese means dancing. Thats all.

[Pandrews1982]

Graham - Ed Hines reviews the book Possible Origins here http://www.i-bagua.com/book-review-possible-origins-a-cultural-history-of-chinese-martial-arts-theater-and-religion/

On shamanism.

My practice of Xing Yi Quan has shamanic aspects, it's not "shamanism" but has things within it that could be described as shamanic techniques and it heavily leans on a base of animistic understanding. I was taught that this comes from influences of Chinese Folk Traditions and practices which in some instances preserved shamanic and animistic teachings. There are remnants of these earlier modalities of understanding nature through altered consciousness in many traditions that continue today including the major religions. Daoism, nei dan, qi gong, all have some things which may have once been part of a more animistic/shamanic whole.

As part of my training I was taught an art my teacher called Yan Yi (Study/research intention) - which may be known by other names but this is what he called it and i s meant to become over time a practice involving an altered state of consciousness. It is very similar to Yi Quan's ~"Jian Wu" - Health dance (except our Yan Yi usually has less or no "fa li" which the Yi Quan guys often add spontaneously). So it doesn't surprize me that there are other similar dances/movement exercises with an animistic/shamanic undertone.

For those interested in Shamanism my student Josef Sykora somehow managed to get my mentor and Xing Yi teacher Damon Smith to talk about his shamanic training and understanding in a series of podcasts. Damon does occasionally touch upon aspects of martial arts and Xing Yi training in the series but it is mainly focused on his understanding of shamanism. He was lucky enough to encounter a number of mentors that taught him various traditions with shamanic aspects. His first Xing Yi teacher was a Malaysian of Chinese decent (apparently his grandfather was taught Xing Yi by Guo Yun Shen) and he was heavily animistic. He was also taught Mongolian wrestling and fighting arts by a Mongol who was his supervisor at university including further understanding of Mongolian shamanic traditions. He studied shamanism at university academically. He was taught by a Japanese guy Japanese martial arts including some really interesting Japanese traditions with shamanic aspects. And he has another Japanese teacher (that is also another mentor of my own) from a Japanese tradition which was based on shamanic methods (though today has become more ritual than real practice). So all in all he's got a shed load of experience with esoteric and shamanic traditions and the podcast is worth listening to. He's a really private guy and listening to the first episode or two he's a little reluctant to talk freely but as the series goes on he gets into it and can't stop talking, telling people stuff that took me years to weed out of him, things like Daoist Yuan Cheng teachings which he explains in one episode but wouldn't tell me about until years into my Xing Yi training!! Anyway link is here https://wovenenergy.com/