Interesting article, but I don't see any mention of Zhan Sanfeng in there?[/quote]Heavenly Pattern Boxing
Can't get the staff these days...
New information about the history of Taijiquan
Translated, summarised and edited by Dr Hermann Bohn, following the original by Wong Yuen-Ming: “Taijiquan: Heavenly Pattern Boxing”
The history of the origins of Taijiquan remains controversial and generates much debate, especially in its country of origin. One common motivation here is the protection of one’s own interests.
In order to introduce new aspects into this debate, Wong Yuen-Ming has studied a large number of little-known sources and has found, above all, evidence for links between the Daoist Zhang Sanfeng and martial arts that could have been the forerunners to modern Taijiquan, and for a very early use of the Taiji concept with regard to these martial arts.
Another interesting aspect is the relationship between the Taiji symbol and the stellar constellation of the Great Bear. Dr Hermann Bohn has translated and summarised the article in which Wong Yuen-Ming has published his results to date.
http://www.tqj.de/england/issue43.htmlhttps://books.google.com/books?id=8ZG1t ... ng&f=false
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7959
http://qigonginchina.com/daoist-origins-taiji-quan/Daoism / Guest Post / Tai Chi
The Daoist Origins of Tàijí Quán (太極拳)
Posted by Roy Hanney on January 21, 2014 at 12:20 pm
the daoist roots of tai chi quanThe Daoist Origins of Chinese Martial Arts in Tàijí Quán (太極拳) Manuals published in the West
By: Dominic LaRochelle, Ph.D. Laval University, Quebec City.
In Chinese martial arts circles, differences of interpretation concerning the origins of the art of Tàijí Quán are not new. In fact, they are at the heart of a century-old debate that generally divides scholars and practitioners. Chinese myths and legends have been in great part adopted by Western practitioners. The aim of this article is to analyze how was construed in the second half of the 20th century a complex rhetoric trying to convince Western readers of Tàijí Quán books that their practice has an ancient Daoist origin.
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The fact that no real scientific or historical evidence can be found to affirm that Chinese martial arts (or Tàijí Quán in particular) might have their origins in Daoist traditions is somehow beyond the point of my argumentation. It is not history that is at play here, but legitimation. It is undeniable that Daoist practices, Daoist thinking and Daoist worldview have influenced one way or another, the development of Tàijí Quán, at least in modern times. We could say the same about many others traditions, practices, customs or areas of Chinese daily life (or at least pre-modern daily life). After all, Daoism is one of the major intellectual currents of Chinese civilisation. My point is that the construction of Tàijí Quán as a Daoist spiritual practice is a modern invention that must be understand in a specific historical context: the emergence of Chinese modernity, on the one hand, and the development of Western contemporary spirituality on the other hand.
Tàijí Quán practitioners, whether Chinese or Western, adopted this “spiritual” point of view because it somehow justify and legitimate their practice within their own respective cultural horizon. These practitioners did not adopt Tàijí Quán because it is a spiritual practice whose origins can be found in Daoist traditions. That is what the rhetoric says, but in fact, I believe it is always the opposite that happens; practitioners made Tàijí Quán a spiritual practice by drawing from Daoist traditions the elements that meet their own expectations about what this martial art should be.
Let me be clear here; in my mind, that does not diminish the value or the interest of the martial art at all. On the contrary, it only shows the cultural depth of Tàijí Quán. I do not have any problem with people claiming that they practice Tàijí Quán as a Daoist practice or spirituality. Indeed, it has become for many people in China or in Western countries part of a spiritual path involving Daoist concepts. I am only stating that this claim is culturally and historically construed and is not a universal truth. Other people simply rejects this interpretation and maintains that martial arts are simply a way to learn to defend oneself and his or her family, or to stay healthy, or to simply pass a good time and socialize. All in all, it just shows that the practice of any martial art is not ahistorical and that it evolves constantly following the expectations of the practitioners.
Authors Biography: Dominic LaRochelle is a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of Laval University, Quebec City, Canada. His research focuses on the history of Chinese martial arts, their reception in Western societies, and their relation with religious traditions. He has been a practitioner of Chinese martial arts (wing chun, Tàijí Quán , bagua zhang and xingyi quan) for more than 15 years.
First published in: Journal of Chinese Martial Arts
NOTE: the article was so badly formatted in the original posting that I have taken the liberty of editing and reformatting it so it makes sense and doesn’t include the repetitions of text. As I have put a fair amount of work into this I feel it is within the bounds of fair use to post the article and I have included attributions where appropriate. Also it is one of the best articles I have found on the subject so worth reposting here I feel. If you are the author or feel you have a claim to the copyright to the article please get in touch and lets have a chat.
Bibliography
[2] Lost T’ai-chi Classics from the Late Ch’ing Dynasty (New York and Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996); T’ai Chi’s Ancestors. The Making of an Internal Martial Art (New York: Sweet Ch’i Press, 1999).
[3] “The Chinese Martial Arts in Historical Perspective”, Military Affairs (December 1981): 173-178; “Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan”, Journal of the Chen Style Taijiquan Research Association of Hawaii 2, no. 3 (1994): [N/A]; “Chinese Boxing. The Internal Versus External Schools in the Light of History and Theory”, Journal of Asian Martial Arts 6, no. 3(1997): 10-19; “Academia Encounters the Chinese Martial Arts”, China Review International 6, no. 2(1999): 319-332.
[4] Tàijí Quán , art martial, technique de longue vie (Paris : Guy Trédaniel/Éditions de la Maisnie, 1981).
[5] “Theater of Combat: A Critical Look at the Chinese Martial Arts”, Historian 52, no. 3 (1990): 411-431; “The Daoist Origins of Chinese Martial Arts”, Journal of Asian Martial Arts 2, no. 1(1993): 10-25.
[6] Daoism and Chinese Culture (Cambridge: Three Pines Press, 2001).
[7] Douglas Wile, “Tàijí Quán and Daoism. From Religion to Martial Art and Martial Art to Religion”, Journal of Asian Martial Arts 16, no. 4 (2007): 8-45.
[8] The “Golden Era” of Chinese martial arts manuals goes from 1912 until 1937.
[9] Wile, “Tàijí Quán and Daoism”, 12, 16.
[10] Wile, “Tàijí Quán and Daoism”, 37.
[11] Westerners (at least English and French speaking people) often take the easy way and translate the Chinese word qi by ” energy “, a term that does not adequately render the complexity and subtlety of the Chinese word in its original cultural context. When it comes to human beings, qi is usually better translated as “breath”. In its cosmological context, it might be better viewed as “life force”, but it still remains a term that defy translation unless one forget all the cultural background this concept drags with it. For the sake of simplicity, I choose the easy way and keep the word “energy”, as most popular authors keep using it.
[12] Barbara Davis, The Taijiquan Classics. An Annotated Translation. Including a Commentary by Chen Weiming (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2004), 113.
[13] Joseph Svinth identified a few cases of Chinese immigrants teaching martial arts in the United States and in Canada, i.e. in 1864, 1922, 1930, 1940 and 1941. However, it seems that all these cases concern Chinese people teaching exclusively to Chinese. Svinth, Kronos: A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports,
http://ejmas.com/kronos/NewHist1900-1939.htm, consulted in May 2012.
[14] Contrary to Japanese martial arts that were introduced to American practitioners as early as the end of the 19th century. Svinth, Kronos, consulted in May 2012.
[15] Stanley Henning, “The Martial Arts in Chinese Physical Culture, 1865-1965″, in Green and Svinth, ed. Martial Arts in the Modern World (Westport, Praeger Publishers, 2003), 27.
[16] With respect to this question, the books written by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manual. A Historical Survey (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2005); Jingwu. The School that Transformed Kung Fu (Berkeley: Blue Snakes Books, 2010), on Chinese martial arts manuals and the history of the Jingwu Association are highly instructive. Also, Andrew D. Morris devoted an entire chapter of his study on the history of sports in Republican China to the modernization of Chinese martial arts at the turn of the 20th century: Marrow of the Nation. A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).
[17] Dominic LaRochelle, “Making the New Appear Old: The Daoist Spirituality of Chinese Martial Arts in Tàijí Quán Manuals Published in North America”. To be published.
[18] Wile, “Tàijí Quán and Daoism”, 10-11.
[19] Kohn, Daoism and Chinese Culture, 6; Isabelle Robinet, “Original Contribution of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought” in Kohn, Livia, ed. Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Michigan: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989), 317-321.
[20] Indication of longevity practices can be found in 2nd century B.C. documents such as the Mawangdui Daoyin tu, or even earlier philosophical texts such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. However, these documents do not talk specifically about martial arts.
[21] Wile, “Tàijí Quán and Daoism”, 22-26.
[22] Tem Horwitz, Tai Chi Ch’uan. The Technique of Power (U.S.A.: Cloud Hands, 2003), 247.
[23] “Pour cette recherche du maintien de la vie, les anciens créèrent diverses disciplines s’appliquant aux différentes activités de la vie. […] Ils élaborèrent donc des techniques alimentaires, sexuelles, respiratoires, gymnastiques, des techniques de massages (sortes de mouvements de manipulation qui permettent, par des contractions et des pressions sur les point précis du corps, d’ouvrir le passage à cette force appelée Chi afin de lui permettre une libre circulation dans le corps tout entier), et, enfin cette danse de la vie qu’est le Tai-Chi.” Charles Anthony, Tai-Chi-Chuan ou la sagesse du corps selon le Tao (Paris : Épi s.a, 1977), 11.
[24] Yang Jwing-Ming, Taijiquan Theory of Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming. The Root of Taijiquan (Boston , YMAA Publication Center, 2003), 40.
[25] Josée Carmona, Le Tàijí Quán des origines. L’enseignement de maître Wang Bo de Shanghai, coll. Les maîtres de l’énergie (Paris, Guy Trédaniel, 1995), 72-73.
[26] Kristopher Shipper, The Taoist Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 [1982]), 100.
[27] In Western contemporary spirituality, health (physical, psychological, but also emotional) is often a synonym of spiritual enlightenment. It is an incarnate spirituality, in which the body becomes a temple, a place where the practitioner can live out his or her spirituality. In this context, for many people, good health becomes not only a concrete and palpable sign that the spirituality is effective, but also literally a form of salvation. See LaRochelle”Making the New Appear Old: The Daoist Spirituality of Chinese Martial Arts in Tàijí Quán Manuals Published in North America”. To be published; LaRochelle, ” Recomposition de l’univers philosophico-religieux chez les jeunes adultes pratiquants d’arts martiaux chinois au Québec. Vers une vision holistique du religieux-vécu “, In Jean-Philippe Perreault et François Gauthier, dir. Regard sur… Jeunes et religion au Québec. Coll. Regards sur la jeunesse du monde. (Observatoire Jeunes et Société, INRS-UCS. Québec, Presses de l’Université Laval), 87-100.
[28] Stuart Alve Olson, T’ai Chi According to the I Ching. Embodying the Principles of the Book of Change (Rochester: Inner Tradition, 2001), 29.
[29] Sophia Delza, T’ai Chi Ch’uan. Body and Mind in Harmony. An Ancient Chinese Way of Exercise to Achieve Health and Tranquility (North Canton, Good News, 1961), 180.
[30] Graham Horwood, Tai Chi Chuan. The Code of life. Revealing the Deeper Mysteries of China’s Ancient Art for Health and Harmony (St-Paul, Dragon Door Publications, 2002), 19.
[31] This philosophical tradition is comprised both of Laozi’s Daodejing and Zhuangzi’s text.
[32] Horwitz, Tai Chi Ch’uan, 81.
[33] Graham Horwood, Tai Chi Chuan. The Code of life, ix.
[34] Indeed a whole collection of books that has appeared on bookshelves in the last 40 years shows that these philosophical concepts can be applied to multiple areas of typical modern American life when loosely interpreted. That why one can find today in almost every bookstore titles such as The Tao of Golf, The Tao of Baseball, The Tao of Love, The Tao of Interpersonal Relationships, The Tao of Business, etc. A study of these books shows that their contents usually highlight a poor knowledge of the authors about Daoism and Chinese religious traditions in general, and present concepts that are closer to Western than Chinese spirituality.
[35] Kohn, Daoism and Chinese Culture, 21-22.
[36] Olson, T’ai Chi According to the I Ching, 31.
[37] ”Push-hands” (tui shou) is the basic two-person practice of Tàijí Quán learned subsequent to individual practice of the basic sequence of movements. In this exercise, the two partners execute movements with their arms stuck to one another, without any muscular force, or one trying to dominate the other. The aim is to harmonize the movement of each partner to develop arms sensitivity, and to develop the ability to sense, to “listen” to an opponent just by being in contact with him or her.
[38] Cheng Man-Ch’ing, T’ai Chi Ch’uan. A Simplified Method of Calisthenics for Health & Self Defense (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1981), 24.
[39] Sophia Delza, T’ai Chi Ch’uan. Body and Mind in Harmony, 182-183. I will not linger here on the problems that pose these legends regarding the historical connection between neijia quan and Tàijí Quán . Others have clearly shown that this connection has been made-up by the Wu and Yang families at the end of the 19th century (see Henning, 1994; Wile, 1996). Recently, however, Wong Yuen-Ming has proposed a new interpretation on the role of Zhang Sanfeng and the connection with Daoist traditions and concepts that might revive the debates (“Tàijí Quán : Heavenly Pattern Boxing”, Journal of Chinese Martial Studies, Issue 2 (Winter 2010): 28-37. My point is essentially to show that these legends made their way to Western practitioner’s mind and have been accepted beside the lack of historical evidence available to them.
[40] Herman Kauz, Tai Chi Handbook. Exercise, Meditation and Self-defence (New York: Doubleday, 1974), 10-11.
[41] Wile, The Making of an Internal Martial Art, 53. The epitaph tells that it was the Chinese God Zhenwu that taught Zhang martial techniques in a dream. The snake and bird fighting version of the legend came later on, probably at the beginning of the 20th century.
[42] Meir Shahar, The Shaolin Monastery. History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, 2008), 175-178.
[43] Bernard Faure, Chan Insights and Oversights. An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1993), 130.
[44] In particular, the fact that the epitaph of Wang Zhengnan might hide an anti-Qing dynasty political manifesto has often been highlighted. On this subject, see the enlightening work of Henning (1981, 1994, 1997), Wile (1996, 1999, 2007) and Barbara Davis (2004).
[45] “Les premiers faits historiques réels qu’on peut connaître sur la pratique de l’art martial de YinYang nous viennent du XVIIème siècle. C’est à cette époque qu’on situe l’existence de Chen Wangting, qui enseignait secrètement cet art à sa famille. La plus vieille école dont nous avons, aujourd’hui, des références concrète est l’École Chen. Un descendant de ce Chen, du nom de Chen Changxing (1771-1853), est à l’origine de tous les styles et écoles connus actuellement […].” Victor M. Becerril Montekio, Le Tàijí Quán d’Est en Ouest (Paris: Guy Trédaniel, 1993), 83.
[46] Olson, T’ai Chi According to the I Ching, 44.
[47] Arieh Lev Breslow, Beyond The Closed Door. Chinese Culture and the Creation of T’ai Ch’i C’huan (Jerusalem: Almond Blossom Press, 1995), 284.
[48] Thomas A. Green, “Sense and Nonsense: The Role of Folk History in the Martial Arts”, in Thomas A. Green and Joseph Svinth, ed., Martial Arts in the Modern World, 4-5.
[49] Clarke, John J. The Tao of the West. Western Transformations of Daoist Thought (London, Routledge, 2000), 138-139.