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"Essentially, the control of your movements at a more advanced level can be viewed as the evenness of the speed rather than at the same speed. In Chen style, fast and slow is intermixed.  The force delivering movements (fa jin) requires speed. But even in this style, there is evenness within all the variations of the speeds. This evenness contained within different speeds is the key to cultivating elasticity and internal power of your force. In Yang and Sun styles, most of the movements appear to be at the same speed, but with close examination you can find almost unperceivable differences between parts of the movements."
-  Dr. Paul Lam, "Variation in Speed,"  Tai Chi Health and Lifestyle Newsletter, May 2003

When you see excellence, you should try to surpass it.
When you see the opposite, examine yourself.
-   Lao Tzu

"The fundamental principles for Chen Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan are summarized as follows:

Keeping the head upright (虚领顶劲, xū ling ding jin)

The waist is an axis (以腰为轴, yi yāo wèi zhóu)

-  Chen Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Wikipedia

"No school of Chinese martial arts is as well known and popular as Taijiquan.  It is suitable for both the young and the old, not only because Taijiquan possesses special features of stretching, flexing the joints, softly twining, exercising both the inside and the outside, dispelling diseases and prolonging life, but it is also the martial art that best reflects Chinese traditional philosophy.  More and more people from other countries, especially those interested in Chinese culture, are beginning to practice Taijiquan.  Taijiquan is becoming popular all over the world.  Because of this, Taijiquan has no national boundary and is beyond the category of culture, and belongs to people everywhere."
-  Fan Chun-Lei and A. Frank Shiery, Traditional Chen Style Taijiquan. 

"The Way begets One;
One begets two;
Two begets three;
Three begets the myriad creatures.

The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin
And embrace in their arms the yang
And are the blending of the generative forces of the two.

Thus a thing is sometimes added to by being diminished
And diminished by being added to.

What others teach I also teach.
'The violent shall not come to a natural end.
I shall take this as my precept."
-  Laotzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 42, Translation by D. C. Lau, 1963

Chang San Feng's Movement Principles:

1. When moving the body, it should be light and nimble, with all its parts linked together like pearls in a necklace.

2. Arouse the qi in the body and extend it; mental awareness (shen) is to be gathered internally.

3. Body postures should be aligned properly with no distortions of any kind. Body movements should be continuous without stops and starts.

4. Internal energy (Jin) should be rooted in the feet, generated though the legs, directed by the waist, and expressed through the fingers.

5. If timing and position are defective the movements will be confused and disordered. The problem is to be corrected in the legs and waist.

6. Up and down, forward and back, left and right should be directed by Yi.

7. When attacking up be aware of down; when advancing forward don’t lose sight of retreating; when striking left pay attention to the right. Movements are to be regulated by Yi and not by brute force. By pulling and pushing the foundation of an opponent, he can be uprooted and fall over.

8. Empty and full should be clearly determined. Where there is one there should be the possibility of the other. The body through every joint should be intertwined together without the slightest break.

9. In Long Boxing, the body moves like water flowing in a great river, or like the rolling waves of a large ocean.

10. Ward off, rollback, press, push, pull, split, elbow, and shoulder are the eight powers equated to the Eight Trigrams. Moving forward, backward, left, right, and central balance are the five directions that relate to the Five Elemental Phases of universal Qi (Wu Xing). These Five and Eight together in Taijiquan are called the “Thirteen Postures.”

11. This treatise was left by the patriarch Zhang Sanfeng of Wudang Mountain so that worthy people everywhere may achieve not only the martial skills which are but the shell of this art, but actually achieve longevity.

Master Chang San-Feng: Taoist Grand Master, Circa 1200 CE Quotations, history, lore, legends, information, bibliography, links, by Michael P. Garofalo.

Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng. Poems by Michael P. Garofalo

The Essential Concepts of Tai Chi Chuan Practice:

1.  Establish and Maintain a Ground Path
2.  The Most Important Energy is Peng Energy and It 
     Must be Maintained at All Times
3.  All Movements Must Be Connected Through the Body
4. Silk Reeling Practice and Skills
5.  Dan Tien Rotation
6.  Opening and Closing the Kua
7.  Maintain a Centered Stance
- Sifu Ken Gullette, Signposts on a Martial Arts Journey

"Taijiquan was created over 360 years ago in Chen village (Chenjiagou), Henan province. It combines fighting techniques from General Qi Jiguang's 'The Canons of Boxing' with Chinese medical knowledge, Qigong, and the Daoist philosophy of yin and yang.  Much of today’s Chen teachings are attributed to Grandmaster Chen Fa Ke (17th generation) who died in 1957. The current head of the Chen family is his grandson Chen Xiao Wang (19th generation).  Practicing Chen Taijiquan is very good for health, but it is also a very powerful martial art that involves both external movement and internal training. Every movement contains spiralenergy (Chan Si Jin); the energy starts from your dantian (centre), twists through your waist, muscles, bones and joints to the tips of your fingers. This is what makes Chen Taijiquan both healthy and powerful. In the form sometimes you move quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes in a high posture, sometimes in a low posture – this is one of the principles of Taijiquan, balance of Yin and Yang."
-  Chen Taijiquan Denmark

"However-- I have to disagree that there is deep meaning in the movements at all, let alone in the Chinese names as opposed to the English translations. This is a martial art; or if it's not really a martial art anymore as it's frequently taught, it still has martial origins. The movements aren't mystical clues a la Dan Brown; they're punches, kicks, throws, blocks, etc. They don't have MEANING, they have PURPOSE. Furthermore, the names for the movements are often misleading, uninformative, or open to interpretation. Chen taiji stylists say "six sealing, four closing"; Yang taiji people say "like sealing, like closing", or shorten the whole thing to "apparently closing". The two phrases sound very similar in Mandarin; they're written with different characters, but the martial artists who originally came up with the names were illiterate, so we don't really know what they had in mind. I'm inclined to think it means six parts sealing, four parts closing, except I don't really understand what the difference is between the two verbs in the first place."  -  Jerry Larson  

"The training exercises of Taiji, like those from all the internal martial arts traditions of China, are designed to build gong.  What does it mean to built gong?  Physically, the accumulation of gong refers to constant improvements in balance, coordination, agility, flexibility, sensitivity, and strength or power.  Mentally and spiritually, the accumulation of gong refers to improved awareness and confidence, and constant advancements toward realizing tranquility of heart and mind.  These physical, mental and spiritual improvements are the benefits and purpose of practice.  The priority of accumulating gong (as opposed to martial technique or trickery) is repeatedly emphasized in many of the most famous sayings from the oral tradition of the Chinese internal martial arts."
-   Yang Yang,  Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power, 2005, p. 5.

"Chen Taiji Quan ( Tai Chi Chuan ) has many varieties that have developed over the years. Some of them are authentic, some of them are bizarre, and some of them are focused on particular areas of development at the expense of other areas. The art integrated techniques of many of the prominent martial arts of Chen Wangting's day. These are techniques that are commonly shared by many martial arts, but the difference is in the method of application and cultivation.  The Chen practice consists of mainly two forms that have been compressed from perhaps seven at some point in the past. The two main sets are first road, Yi Lu, and second road, Er Lu. The first road is sometimes called the negative (Yin) set because it leans more towards internal development and cultivation of internal energy, techniques of yielding, attaching, and changing in relation to opponent's movement. The second road is sometimes called the Yang set as it focuses more on expression of developed internal energy, offensive striking, non attachment and hardness in relation to opponents force and movement. In fact both of these forms cultivate both Yin and Yang elements in regards to martial arts as well as cultivation, but the second (Yi Lu) is often more visibly outwardly aggressive."
-  Chen Gongfu  

"The technique I have developed to work directly with my Grinch (inner critic) is first to acknowledge its reaction and then ask a question. For example, if my Grinch says, "That was lousy." I reply, "Yes, that's true, it was lousy. And, if there were more smoothness in my body, what would it feel like?" This is what I call the "Yes, ... And, ..." technique." By acknowledging the negative voice, we blend with it. We soften the negative blow by going with it and not resisting. Then we shift our attention by using the conjunction "and." Using "and" affirms that we can simultaneously hold our vision of how we want to perform without excluding our negative assessment. Asking the question leads our attention toward exploring the sensation of what we want to develop instead of fighting against our Grinch. ...
    I do not delve into the content of what the Grinch has to say, but instead I choose to put my attention on the rush of energy in my body. From using the basic practice techniques, we know something about working with energy. When we feel the rush of energy or notice that we are tensing or speeding up, we can stop, focus on our breath, balance our energy field, feel gravity, and evoke our quality. When we stabilize and soften in this way, the energy can begin to self-organize in a way that allows us to deal with the situation more skillfully. ... Pause and feel any sensations that arise. A new perspective on the situation may come with the sensations."
- Wendy Palmer, The Intuitive Body: Aikido as a Clairsentient Practice, 1994, p. 48 

"Centuries later, Chen Wang Ting had been an army officer in Shan Tung Province in 1618, and had become an accomplished martial artist. In 1641, three years before the fall of the Ming dynasty, he became the militia battalion commander of Wen County (cited in Gazetteers of Wen County and Huaiqing County), where it appears that he was exposed to Chang Nai Chou’s Nei Jia Quan (the almost lost Chen 108 Techniques Long Form has many similarities to Chang’s style). When he returned to the Chen village in 1644, according to recent research in China of the very recent discovery of lishi jiapu, or the Li Family Genealogy, Chen took the boxing methods he learned from various sources and began to refine and perfect them with his cousins from the Li family, at the Qianzai Temple, about 30 miles from Chen village.

These researchers (Yuan Quanfu; Li Xiangyi; Li Bing; Qu Jian) examined very ancient Li family . Ming historian Wang Xingya of Zhengzhou University spent a year tracing and studying the origin and the authenticity of the Li Family Genealogy. He concludes that “the Li Family Genealogy was edited by the tenth generation Li Yuanshan in 1716, and is taken from eye witness accounts.” According to the Li Family Genealogy, the early patriarchs of Li, Chen (Chen Bu), and three other families became sworn brothers on their migration from Shanxi in the fourteenth century. This event took place in the Qianzai Temple of Tang Village in Boai County, which is about 30 miles away from the present Chen Village. By the ninth generation, the Li patriarchs Zhong and Xin, and their inter-marriage cousin Chen Wangting again swore themselves to be brothers like their forefathers, and took the abbot Bogong Wudao as their master at the Taiji Gate of Qianzai Temple. The contents of the papers day that Chen and the Li brothers created taiji yangshen gong, or "the art of Taiji Cultivating Life," and practiced and transmitted wuji yangshen gong, or "the art of Wuji Cultivating Life," shisanshi tongbei gong , or "the Thirteen Postures Boxing." "The art of Wuji Cultivating Life" and "the Thirteen Postures Boxing" had been created by the Qianzai Temple priest Shi Li (614-741), or Li Daozi, according to stone tablets at the temple, who well studied the Three Teachings, Qianjin yifang: "Revised Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold;" daoyin: "guiding and pulling"; and tunai: "expelling the old breath and drawing the new."

It is said that various martial art postures (from nearby Shaolin and other sources, such as the Chang Nai Chou’s Nei Jia Quan, from the neighboring Wen county) were combined with classic Chinese internal health theories of passages of blood, air flow, and energy. This new art eventually became known as Chen family boxing. By the 1700's, Chen Wang Ting's style had developed into the Five Routines of Pao Chuoi and Hong Quan, a 32- and a 108-posture Tai Ji form, and one Duan Da (short strike) form. Over time many of these forms were said to have been lost. By the end of the century, the art had been passed to Chen Chang Xing, 14 th generation, who united and simplified the various routines. It is said by some that Chen Chang Xing re-introduced Nei Jia Quan into his Chen family art via teachings from Wang Zong Yue and Jian Fa. According to an interview (by Yuan Quan Fu) with Li Libing, the present eighteenth generation of Li family, Wang Zong Yue came from Shanxi, and lived in the Tang village as a schoolteacher for five or six years. There, Wang studied martial arts with Li Helin, who was born in 1721, the twelfth generation of the Li Family. (Chen Chang Xing was also the teacher of Yang Lu-chan, originator of Yang Tai Ji Quan. What is very interesting is that the Chen linage, Yang Lu Chan, and Wu Yu Xiang and his brothers, ALL had learned Shaolin Hong Quan in their youth. Many of the ideas and movements seen in Yang style, but not obvious in Chen style, can be found in Hong Quan forms, especially the Xiao Hong Quan form. The concept and movements of Tai Ji Quan’s Push Hands are also found in the Step Forward Push Palms postures in Xiao Hong Quan, along with the Fair Lady Works at Shuttles movement.)

Much talk surrounds the form found in the Ming imperial general Qi Ji Quan's (1528-1587) famous book, Classic of Pugilism (Tang Hao), as being a source for the moves in Chen Tai Ji Quan. Qi claimed to have collected and surveyed about sixteen both ancient and contemporary boxing styles, and synthesized them into a thirty two-posture form intended for troop training. Tang Hao and Gu liuxin listed twenty-nine postures from Qi's Classic of Pugilism that can be found in the Chen Family forms, along with the language paralleling that in the Classic. Other researchers say that the form shown in Qi's book was an actual Tai Tzu Quan form, not a synthesis of styles."
-   The Hidden Song Taizu Chang Quan Roots of Chen Taiji.  By Salvatore Canzonieri.  Shaolin Kung Fu Magazine, January/February, 2007, Article #30. 

The Solo Practice of Taijiquan: Principles, Guides, Somatic Emphasis, Reminders

The Principles and Practice of Taijiquan: The Solo Form by Andrew Townsend, 2018

1.  Suspend the Head-top
2.  Level the Pelvis
3.  Round the Crotch
4.  Contain the Chest and Raise the Back
5.  Maintain Central Equilibrium
6.  Sink the Shoulders
7.  Drop the Elbows

-  Chen Ziqiang, "What characteristics do we need to make a success of our Taijiquan training?"

"In order to learn Taiji well, the first requirement must be diligence and perseverance.  Taiji classics state: "Without perseverance there can be no gain" and "Learning Taiji is like rowing a boat against the flow of water; if you do not go forward, you will drift back."  In order to glimpse the full wonder of Taiji and to attain a high level of skill, one must possess a will to carry on despite hardships, setbacks, frustration and boredom.  From the beginning, students must be willing to commit themselves to a long-term goal and be patient during the process of achieving that goal.  The process of learning takes time, and the necessary length of time must be allowed to understand the content of the teaching.  One will not succeed if focus is only on the final product."
-  Sim and Gaffney, Chen Style Taijiquan: The Source of Taiji Boxing, 2002, p. 212

"In the Hun Yuan Chen Taijiquan Form, each movement flows into the next in an endless circle of energy.   The first stage of learning involves remembering the individual movements which are all based on the following Tai Chi principles:

1.  Keep the spine straight and relaxed - not tense.
2.  Bend your knees to enable weight transfer.
3.  Let your weight sink down to the soles of the feet - not held in the upper body or the thighs.  Develop natural weight transfer – from ground to ground.
4.  Legs are the foundation.  Each movement starts from the legs, to the waist (which also enables the spine to rotate) and then to the arms.  The waist controls the upper body. 
     Avoid leaning with the upper body.
5.  Distinguish between empty and solid.  Control your centre of gravity.  Step out empty with no weight, so that you may be able to retrieve your step if necessary. 
6.  Be aware of relaxing the shoulders. 
7.  Use minimum amount of strength to move the body.  Anything more is tension.  Relax, relax, relax.         
8.  Coordinate the lower and the upper body.
9.  Distinguish between open and close within the movement.  Feel your back and chest.  Avoid leaning.
10.  Use your mind, that is, your intention, to lead the movement."

-  Brett Wagland, Experiencing the First Stage of Hun Yuan Tai Chi

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The information on this webpage was first published on the Internet in February of 2010. 

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