Qigong & Taijiquan

1. Qigong and the Art of Energy Cultivation

2. Taijiquan, the Mother of Martial Arts

Qigong and the Art of Energy Cultivation

Qigong means "cultivating the inner energy". In a religious and spiritual context, it can be seen as controlling an inner struggle, but it is practically a collection of a large variety of meditative breathing and physical exercises. The pictogram "Gong" refers to a constant practice, the demand for full dedication and perfection. Qigong has developed many branches, of which the religious and medical Qigong are most commonly practiced.

Daoism, Alchemy and the Chinese Medicine

Daoism plays a central role in the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), especially due to its ambitions of life extension. In this alchemy plays a key role. There are two types of Daoistic alchemy: the external alchemy (chin. weijia) and the internal alchemy (chin. neijia).

Weijia resembles the European alchemy in its ambitions to transform the human body in using synthetic elixiers. Neijia on the other hand uses meditative exercies, which aim to conserve the ancestral Qi (chin. yuan-Qi), the Qi of birth.

The oldest Daoistic writting is the Dao De Jing of master Lao-tze (600 BC) which describes the work of the Dao and the virtue (chin. De). Moreover, the silk text from Mawangdui also describe 44 different qigong exercises.

These Daoistic ambitions lead to an immense number of different Qigong exercises and also account to the development of TCM.

Daoistic Qigong from Wudangshan

The most important place for Chinese Daoists are the mountains of Wudangshan in the north west of the Chinese province of Hubei. Since the times of the Tang dynasty there were founded monasteries and temples in Wudangshan.

According to the legend of the Daoist Zhang Sanfeng a fight between a snake and a crane lead to the central martial insight of Daoistic philosophy. The snake was able to defend the enemy by its round, smooth movements and the crane had to give up in the end. This insight lead to the central principle of the internal martial arts, like Taijiquan, Baguazhang and Xingjiquan.

Buddhistic Qigong from Shaolin

In the sixth century lived a buddhist monk with name Bodhidharma who came from India to China. Bodhidharma, in China known as Da Mo, traveld trough the country and came to Shaolin, a monastry, specialised on the translation of Sanscrit texts. Da Mo, who in his radical believes was against writting down the dharma, was banished by the abbot to the gates of Shaolin, where he stayed for nine years in a cave, meditating. In the end, Da Mo was recognised as the First Patriach of Chan-Buddhism.

Da Mo realised that the monks of Shaolin could not follow his meditative instructions and exercises because they were to weak, and he therefor developed a series of Qigong exercises, known as Yi-jin-jing, the classics of muscle and tendon strengthening, and Xi-sui-jing, the classics of bone marrow washing. These exercises became part of all asiatic martial arts.

Qigong Schools

There are innumerable schools for Qigong inside China an abroad. Many new schools are syncretisms of Qigong with other alternative healing methods and not always are of serious competence.

Well known institutions for qigong are the schools of Shaolin and Wudangshan, as well as the family styles of Taijiquan, namly Chen, Yang, Sun, Wu, which all have a repertoire of Qigong exercises. One of the youngest Qigong schools is one of the most successful and also controversal. In 1992 Li Hongzhi founded Falun Gong, a spiritual-oriented Qigong school, having probably 100 Million members. Falun Gong is forbidden in China and Falun members get oppressed. Another forbidden Qigong school in China is Zhong Gong, founded 1987 by Zhang Hongbao, with about 38 Million members.

Scientific Studies about Qigong

The number of proper scientific studies on Qigong is very limited. A collection of these studies is mentioned in Studies on TCM.

Taijiquan, the Mother of Martial Arts

Taijiquan truly is the mother of martial arts. At the same time Taijiquan is the most underestimated martial art of all. This dates from constant simplifications in the Taiji forms, omithing martial application elements, as well as devaluation of the existing forms. According to some Taijiquan masters this shall also lead to severe disturbances of the harmonisation of the vital energy Qi in the body.

Taijiquan counts to the internal martial arts and gratifies more and more people inside China and abroad. The major styles practiced are Chen and Yang. Beside open-hand forms there are also weapon forms: sword (chin. dan jian), double sword (chin. shuang jian), sabre (chin. dan dao), double sabre (chin. shuang dao), fan, stick, long stick, spear and halberd.

Precursors of Taijiquan

Taijiquan developed from different older breathing- and movement exercises. One major place for the devolpment of Taijiquan was Wudangshan and its formost master was Zhang Sanfeng.

Zhang Sanfeng, der legendary Master

Zhang Sanfeng probably was living in Wudangshan in the Chinese province Hubei (10-14C) and is considered to be the major founder of internal martial arts. His existence is not provable, but the legend of the snake and the crane is known by every scholar of neijia, internal martial arts.

Family-Clans further developed Taijiquan

Modern Taijiquan developed in the village Chenjiagou in the clan of Chen. Chen Wangting (1557-1664) was the first provable lineage holder of the clan, who practiced Taijiquan. Chen Changxing (1771-1853) finally excepted Yang Lu-ch'an (1799-1872) as the first scholar not being from the Chen clan. Later, Chen Qingping (1795-1868) tought Wu Yuxiang (1812-1880), the lineage holder of the Wu style.

Yang-Family Style

Legendary are the performances of Yang Lu-Ch'an, of whom is said that he could defeat an enemy without even touching him. His grandson and scholar Yang Cheng-Fu (1883-1936) omithed some of the martial applications, not without the warning not to futher simplify the style.

A modern school of this authentic Yang style is the World Taiji Boxing Association. More information can be read here: www.taijiworld.com.

Scientific Studies on Taijiquan

There is a limited number of medical studies about the benefit of Taijiquan. A major caveat for the design of such a study is the use of the Taijiquan form. So do most studies use some artifical Taijiquan like the short Beijing form of 24 movements, which may not lead to the wanted benefit of Taijiquan. Some studies can be read in the section Studies on TCM.