Yeung wrote:This is one example of a definition of Chinese Internal Martial Arts:
“The Chinese internal martial arts of Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing Yi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang are sister arts philosophically built upon Taoist foundations. They have been practiced in mainland China for hundreds of years, building a reputation as superb health practices and self-defence methods. Although the physical approaches to self-defence and expression of power differ, all three arts devote a major part of training on solo posture work, both static and dynamic, where different postures are performed in a slow, flowing and meditative manner. “ (Antoine Camilleri, Horizons University, Paris, France, 2018)
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... rtial_Arts
Please comment, as there are many areas of interest just on the definition alone before going on to further discussion on the topic of this post.
I do not think that one can develop a widely accepted definition for the internal MA since there is far too much variety and too many differences from one school to another. I think that the thesis linked to took a reasonably good approach in trying to find some common characteristics (as he understands them) and focusing on finding research that may be appropriate for those specific characteristics (whether or not that research was specific to studies on the internal martial arts).
Rather than using the brief introductory statement about IMA, I think that one should use the following as “definitions” for this study (studying only certain aspects of the arts):
This thesis seeks to investigate the multidimensional factors involved in the essence and foundation of the three Chinese internal martial arts; the static and dynamic standing posture training.
and
This work seeks to study and dissect the essential components inherent in posture training common to all three main internal arts, and investigate them separately by searching for and studying scientific papers done on each component.
[If the criteria that the author uses do not seem appropriate to your own studies, then the above can be further defined as being from, or perhaps specific to, the Wang Shu Jin transmission through Mario Borg and Manfred Rottmann.]
Most applicable scientific research will not be specifically studying the IMA, and one will need to extrapolate from studies that appear to address various components that your personal practice indicates may be involved in these arts. This is what the writer of the thesis did.