Several viewpoints on the origin of Tai Ji Chuan

There are five different theories about the origin and founder of Tai Ji Chuan: Xu Xuanping in Tang Dynasty, Zhang Sanfeng in Song Dynasty, Zhang Sanfeng in Ming Dynasty, Chen in Qing Dynasty and Wang Zongyue.

During the Tang Dynasty, Xu Xuanping, a native of Shexian County, Anhui Province, traveled to Li Bai Cave. When he saw Xu Xuanping's poems, he thought they were "immortal poems" and visited Shexian many times. Song Jiyong's Chronicle of Tang Poetry says that Xu "walks like a galloping horse and doesn't eat. Every negative salary in the Tang Dynasty was sold in the city. Li Bai's visit was not satisfied. He wrote poems on Wang Xianqiao. There is no evidence that he is the founder of Tai Ji Chuan.

Zhang Sanfeng in Song Dynasty is said to be an alchemist in Wudang, and there are no historical materials in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The Epitaph of Wang Zhengnan written by Huang Lizhou for Wang Zhengnan, a adherent of the early Qing Dynasty and a member of the Boxer Rebellion, is based on the Record of Wang Zhengnan's Words and Actions written by Gao. He believes that the family-run boxing method "was built in the Song Dynasty, and the three peaks were called by Wudang Stan, and the Taoist stalks were not allowed to enter. At night, I dreamed that there was a lack of boxing, and one ding killed more than a hundred thieves. " His words are absurd and unbelievable.

In the Ming Dynasty, when the family pulled Song Huizong, Zhang Sanfeng, the so-called Wudang Stan, was the founder, and had nothing to do with Tai Ji Chuan, the founder of Qing Dynasty.

According to Ji Fang Yi Zhuan in Ming Dynasty, Zhang Sanfeng said, "People from Yizhou, Liaodong. Quan Yi, a Junbao, and Sanfeng's name. Because it is not trimmed, it is also sloppy. " However, The History of the Ming Dynasty also said: "It is said that when people were rich in the early Yuan Dynasty, they studied Taoism with Liu and then in Taiqing Palace." As for Zhang Sanfeng's biography of Tai Chi, it was just a collateral encounter after the Revolution of 1911 (19 1 1).

Wang Zong and Wang Zongyue are two generations. According to the available data, Wang Zongyue was born in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, and is the author of Taiji Zhuan. Wang Zongyue's life will be detailed later.

Chen is the founder of Tai Ji Chuan.

Chen is the ninth in Chenjiagou. His father's name is Fu Min and his ancestors' name is Sigui. They are both good at boxing and martial arts. According to Chen's genealogy, Wang Ting is also known as Zou Ting. "Wu Yao was born in the late Ming Dynasty, and Wen Yao was born in the early Qing Dynasty. He is a famous hand in Shandong ... so is the founder of Chen Quan *. " However, genealogy, tombstones and Wenxian annals are all called "Wang Ting", so they should be called Chen.

Chen was born in a landlord family. According to the Records of Wenxian County, in the 14th year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (164 1), he served as a "village guard" in Wenxian County. After the Ming dynasty, he lived in seclusion in his hometown, made fists in his later years to entertain himself and taught his disciples and grandchildren. For example, the first half of "Last Words" said: "Alas, I was determined to win, and I stumbled several times. It is futile to be blessed; Now I am old and exhausted, and there is only one roll of Huang Ting left. Make a fist when you are free, plow when you are busy, and teach a few disciples and grandchildren when you are free to help you become a tiger. Chen died in the prime of life in the Ming Dynasty, and he was still able to "plow" and "clench his fist" in the case of "old age and physical decline". It can be inferred that he wrote The Legend of Taiji in the 1970s, that is, 30 years after the demise of the Ming Dynasty 1644. Huangtingjing is a guiding breathing method of Taoism, which "shush and suck out of the house and go in and out of the abdomen". From the book Chen Quan Machinery, we can know that Tai Ji Chuan's routines include Tai Ji Chuan (13th style) No.5, Changquan No.108 and Baohammer No.1.. The combination of guidance and breathing has become a school of internal boxing. His "Song of Boxing Classics" summed up the logic of his gloves, which is recorded as follows:

Do not know how to bend and stretch, relying on entanglement, relying on chopping and pushing, relying on progress, relying on unstoppable movement and cutting. Who knows that the hook shed is forcing everyone to know? Pretend to lose, cheat away, and lure back to win. ……

The formula of this song can be found in Chen Ertang's Boxing Score, and the lyrics are deeply influenced by Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese fighter in Ming Dynasty. Qi Jiguang was an outstanding figure in sorting out folk boxing in Ming Dynasty. He summarized and sorted out sixteen famous folk boxing methods in the Ming Dynasty, and absorbed thirty-two of them into the gloves, which was included in Ji Xiaoxin's Book, which was called the source of literati's martial arts. Qi's Boxing Classic has the function of connecting the preceding with the following. As far away as Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin, the 32-style Changquan is short and pithy, with the essence preserved, and it is used with both rigidity and softness. Its boxing method is "the style is unchanged, the enemy will win, and the changes will be endless", which greatly corrected the disadvantages of flashy and flashy boxing that was popular at that time and became a new boxing school.

Qi Jiguang and Chen are separated by more than half a century, which has a great influence on Chen Tai Ji Chuan's creation. Qi's "Thirty-two Boxing Classics" was absorbed by Chen and incorporated into Tai Ji Chuan's routine. For example, Boxing Classic begins with "lazy clothes", which is the starting point of all seven gloves made by Chen. The words and expressions in Lian Chen's "Quan Pu" and "Quan Jing Zong Ge" are also copied from Qi's "Quan Jing", which shows its far-reaching influence. However, this only refers to inheritance and influence, not to say that Tai Ji Chuan of Chen copied Qi Jiguang and thought that Qi Jiguang created Tai Ji Chuan. Chen's achievement is to inherit Qi Jiguang's boxing heritage, bring forth the old and bring forth the new, and establish a boxing school, namely Tai Ji Chuan. For example, Chen Tai Ji Chuan's double-pushing and double-sticking marksmanship, which specializes in practicing the whole body skin touch and inner body sensation sensitivity, is not recorded in Qi Jiguang's, Yu's, Dou's and other boxing works, and there is no such training method in other boxing styles, but Chen Tai Ji Chuan's unique competitive method.

Five characteristics of Chen Tai Ji Chuan

Looking at Tai Ji Chuan compiled by Chen Chuang, there are the following five characteristics:

1. Combine boxing with guidance and breathing.

China's ancient guidance and breathing has a long history, which appeared in the works of Laozi, Mencius and Zhuangzi as early as several hundred BC. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Liu An, the son of Huainan, edited Six Birds Plays, which was changed to Five Birds Plays by Hua Tuo, a famous doctor in the later Han Dynasty. This is the forerunner of qigong and internal work in later generations and also the basis of Taoist health preservation. Chen organically combined the coordinated movements of hands, eyes, body and footwork with guidance and breathing in boxing, making Tai Ji Chuan a unified internal boxing. This is indeed a creative development for strengthening people's physique and improving boxing.

2. Spiral winding motion is arc-shaped, coherent and round, which conforms to the principle of meridian theory.

Meridian refers to the passage of qi and blood throughout the human body. Meridian originates from viscera and distributes in limbs. Disharmony of qi and blood in zang-fu organs, meridians and collaterals will lead to heart failure and disease, while harmony will lead to smooth qi and blood and strengthen the body and prolong life. Tai Ji Chuan, combined with meridian theory, demanded that "Qi should be guided by the heart and transported" and "Qi should be inflated". The internal qi in "Qi permeates the whole body" starts from the abdomen, turns slightly around the waist to make the two kidneys exchange left and right, turns the waist to the spine, meanders and moves all over the body, so as to practice the pulse (pulse, pulse) through the Ren and Du meridians. Chen, Wang, Wu and Li's Tai Ji Chuan Theory have published their own unique views. All these are based on the meridian theory, which makes Tai Ji Chuan a school of "Family Boxing".

3. Created a competitive sport with two pushers.

Pushing hands, formerly known as thugs, is a comprehensive practice technique in China Wushu. Since ancient times, there have been five kinds of separation techniques: kicking, hitting, throwing, hugging and throwing, but each has its own characteristics. In ancient times, it was called "southern fist and northern leg" and "long fist and short stroke", which shows this difference. At the same time, because the four methods of kicking, hitting, holding and throwing are harmful in practice, most of them are only imaginative or symbolic exercises, which opens the door for fancy tricks, and the level of Wushu is difficult to improve due to lack of practice.

Chen's original pushing technique takes winding and sticking as the central content, and integrates competitive skills such as grasping, taking, throwing, throwing and hitting, and has been developed. For example, the grip method is not limited to holding people's joints, but focuses on the strength of holding people, which is higher than the general grip method.

The appearance of pushing technique has solved the problems of venues, protective gear and special clothing in the process of Wushu practice, and has become a competitive sport where two people can practice hand in hand at any time and anywhere, which has injected new content into the martial arts fighting methods (kicking, hitting, throwing, taking and falling) in China-pushing.

4. Created the basic training methods of persistence, accumulation and transformation.

According to the method of "listening attentively" when pushing hands, he created the double stick marksmanship, which is also one of Chen's original achievements. This instrument training method solves the problem that you can practice real needles without protective gear.

When practicing Tai Ji Chuan's gun sticking, the principles of sticking and sticking, winding back and forth, punching back and forth, sealing and throwing, and reciprocating circulation were adopted, which opened up a simple and easy way to improve the gun sticking technology.

5. Developed boxing theory based on the essence of Taiji.

Chen's "Song of Boxing Classics" consists of seven words and twenty-two sentences, which is Tai Ji Chuan's original theory, summarizes the ancient boxing theory of attacking and defending, and expounds the strategy and tactics of attacking and defending, so it can be called the general theory of boxing in Tai Ji Chuan's Seven Fingers Festival. Comparing the Song of Boxing Classics with Qi Jiguang's Thirty-two Styles of Boxing Classics, it is not difficult to see how Chen absorbed the essence summarized by predecessors in boxing theory. However, Chen was not satisfied with absorbing the famous boxing theory at that time, but conducted a series of creative exhibitions on the basis of mastery.

Chen's original achievements in boxing theory are shown in the first two sentences of Song of Boxing Classics:

"I won't bend and stretch, it's all about winding me." "Lean" refers to the eight methods of pushing hands, that is, two people lean on each other's arms, stick and entangle each other with the eight methods of pushing hands to practice the skills of understanding and exerting strength. Through strict and correct practice and repeated practice, we will constantly improve our technical level and reach the advanced technical level of pushing hands. This method of pushing hands and understanding theory are developed on the basis of traditional Wushu. From the appearance of Wushu to "from the inside to the strength", "from the inside to the inside", "from maturity to the strength, from the strength to the spirit", the improvement of this advanced skill is of epoch-making significance in the history of China Wushu. At the same time, it also laid a foundation for Wang Zongyue, Wu Yuxiang, Li Yishe, Chen Xin and other famous Tai Ji Chuan artists to exercise and further develop the theory of attack and defense.

Because Tai Ji Chuan adopts the exercise principle of total body relaxation, and has no intention of exerting force, he wants to change from looseness to softness, from softness to hardness, and just return to softness, so as to achieve both rigidity and softness. The training method of gloves requires slow first and then fast, slow first and then fast, so slow that others can't keep up with me, then fast, and arrive first. In other words, Tai Ji Chuan needs to be slow and fast, flexible and rigid. This view of emphasizing both appearance and concealment also provides a valuable exercise method for improving the level of Wushu.

The emergence and development of Tai Ji Chuan school.

Tai Ji Chuan has been handed down from generation to generation in Chenjiagou since it was initiated by Chen. Chen Shi's descendants are well known to all women and children, and are suitable for all ages. The population of Chenjiagou is getting more and more prosperous, and the wind of practicing Tai Ji Chuan is getting more and more prosperous. The waves behind push the waves in front, and famous boxers are known throughout the ages. Over the past 300 years, with the continuous enrichment and development of Chen's descendants and his disciples, Tai Ji Chuan has become one of the important boxing types in China.

According to Chen's genealogy, Chen's three sons and one grandson have average boxing skills, while his great-grandson Jia Di has excellent boxing skills, but no one has inherited him since then. However, the fourth generation of Chen's descendants are Bingren,,. They are famous Tai Ji Chuan players in Chenjiagou, and like their relatives Chen Zhaogong and Chen Daxing, they are called Sanxiong. However, at this time, the seven kinds of gloves created by Chen have been broken. The original 108 Changquan and Tai Ji Chuan (13) from No.2 Road to No.5 Road have rarely been practiced in Chenjiagou, while No.1 Road, cannon hammer (modern Chen-style Tai Ji Chuan No.2 Road) and tui * have kept improving. When Chen Changxing and Chen Youben were introduced into the Five Dynasties, in order to adapt to different learning objects, the first road of Taiji Zhuan was divided into the old shelf and the new shelf, and Zhao Bao's shelf originated from the Six Dynasties.

The new framework is said to have been created by Chen Youben. The frame is as wide as the old frame, and some difficult moves are gradually abandoned. Chenjiagou called it "abbreviation". Chen Qingping, the nephew of Chen Youben's disciple, also created a set of postures, which were compact and slow. After practice, he gradually added circles. Without changing the routine, he gradually improved the technical difficulty of boxing. Chen Changxing, a contemporary of Chen Youben, inherited the old posture system of his ancestors, which was lenient but difficult until his student Yang Luchan learned boxing in Beijing, in order to meet the needs of health care. Later, Wu-style Tai Ji Chuan developed from Yang-style, and its founder was Wu.

Wu Yuxiang, a native of Yongnian, first learned from Yang Luchan the old Chen-style frame, then learned from Chen Qingping the new frame routine, and later created his own school named Wu Tai Ji Chuan. Later, Wu Shi derived Sun-style Tai Ji Chuan, whose founder was Sun Lutang.