Oriental Medicine and Health Services

T’ai Chi

What is T’ai Chi?

• Originally a martial art
  • Chen family village, China
  • Chen Wangting (1600-1680)
• Based on thousands of years of Chinese history, culture, medical theory, and philosophy
• Now popularly taught and practiced as a health exercise

Neijia (Internal Gongfu Styles)

• Soft styles
  • Use Qigong to cultivate a strong, relaxed structure
  • Iron wrapped in cotton
  • Use softness to overcome opponent’s force
  • 3 main styles of internal martial arts
    • T’ai Chi Ch’uan
    • Xingyiquan
    • Baguazhang

5 Styles of T’ai Chi

• Chen
• Yang
  • 37-posture form
  • Zheng Manqing
  • Taught at OMHS
• Wu
• Wu Hao
• Sun
• Also modern wushu t’ai chi
  • Standardized competition routines
  • Combines aspects of the 5 styles

T'ai Chi Ch'uan...What is Ch'uan?

• Ch'uan literally means "fist"
• It is used when referring to various "styles" or “systems” of martial arts

T'ai Chi Ch'uan or Taijiquan?

• T'ai Chi Ch'uan - older outdated Wade-Giles transliteration
  • Sounds like "tie gee chwen"
  • NOT "tie chee chwen"
  • Apostrophe after consonants makes "hard" sounds
    • t' = "t"
    • ch' = "ch"
  • No apostrophe after consonants makes "soft" sounds
    • t = "d"
    • ch = "j"

Modern Transliteration

• Taijiquan - pinyin transliteration
  • Still sounds like "tie gee chwen"
  • q = "ch"
• Same exact Chinese calligraphy (hanzi)
• This is the modern correct and official method
• OMHS uses pinyin for most Chinese transliteration except for "T'ai Chi" because that is what the USA public is used to seeing