lucidmist

Hey people..

Just want to clarify something on the origins of Taijiquan (or tai chi).

It did not originate from some ancient old taoist named Zhang San Feng. If you do a research on Hong Kong film and television history, you'll learn that Zhang San Feng was actually just a character from popular Hong Kong scripts. He was the leader of the Wudang sect. In the historical records of China, there was a Zhang San Feng, but he was simply a taoist practitioner, with no relation whatsoever to Taiji.
http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/chang1.htm

Taijiquan came about from the Chen family. The family was like a nomadic family, constantly moving around, settling on many locations. They originated from Shangdong (1374), and moved to Henan. The family itself was already well-versed in martial arts, and frequently had to fend for themselves against bandits and robbers (which was VERY common in the hills and forests of China). In the historical records, not only the men, but the women, older folks and teens had to fight together to ward off any attackers.

Not sure what they were trained in, but it was mentioned that the popular styles in Shandong during that period was Chang Quan （長拳）, and Zhong Yi Quan （忠義拳）. It was most likely what they studied because Taijiquan contains traces of both martial arts.

However, Taijiquan only came about during the later (9th) generation of the Chen family. The creator was Chen Wangting. Chen Wangting was a skilled martial artist, and besides being hired on many occasions as a bodyguard, he was appointed as a general to lead armies to fight off bandits and rebels. He was well-versed in Taoist philosophies and from the Huang Ting Jing (黃庭經），he derived breathing techniques and incorporated them into 32 forms of techniques that he extracted from 16 different schools of martial arts. Chang Quan (長拳）was incorporated as well. And from there, he created the original Taijiquan.

From the Chen style Taijiquan, spawned about different variants of Taiji. Initially, they all had hard elements in them. It was only due to commercialization that the hard elements were taken out so that the elder folks could experience the health benefits from the softer aspects.

xuesheng

Interesting that you would know this since there are trained historians in China working on this that cannot come to an agreement as to the actual origin of taiji or about Zhang Sanfeng

I am not 100% sure if Zhang Sanfeng existed or not or if he originated taiji. However there are a lot of Taoists in China that insist he did exist and did develop taiji. However as for what we know as taiji today there is no doubt that the origin of that is the Chen family. As to Zhang Sanfeng being form a movie, I did not see that on the site you posted as proof as the origin. And it would be interesting to know when this alleged movie was made since my Sifu was told by his Sifu (who lived from 1898-1961) and he was told by his Sifu (Yang Chengfu) that the origin of taiji was Zhang Sanfeng. Although the Chen family (today) will unequivocally state that Zhang Senfeng’s credit for creating taiji is a myth and that they are fully responsible for the creation of taiji.

lucidmist

there are many ways to debate about this. as usual, sometimes when it comes to history, it's tough to ascertain many things, especially when things like "my sifu was told by his sifu..." etc etc.

my information came from books, and if you want me to type out passages in Chinese, i really do not have the time for that. in fact, you can find some of the info from the internet. just research thoroughly.

but it's up to you, everyone's got his/her own beliefs. like i said, maybe the government doctored the historical text and cancelled off zhang sanfeng as the creator of taiji, but i don't see a point why they should, since it would definitely sound more impressive if a taoist man who lived over 200 years old in age created taiji.

as for movies and drama series with zhang sanfeng as a character in it, there are plenty! dragon sabre, legend of zhang sanfeng (i'm just literally translating the titles from cantonese/chinese, not sure what the english titles are). but well, i concede that they might be really using a historical figure in the movies (i did say he existed), but it still does not make him taiji's creator.

but like i said, it's really up to you. books, word-of-mouth, whatever it is, no one can be 100% sure. i just shared what i found out. but seriously, the elder generation had tons of superstitions in legends and myths that can really cloud many things. not all, but many.

xuesheng

On this we agree.