FAQ's About Tai Chi   -   Articles

Tai Chi (also known as Taiji, Tai Chi Chuan or Taijiquan) originated in ancient China. It is an effective martial art (=Wushu) and health exercise system, which is deeply rooted in the Chinese tradition and philosophy. Tai Chi means literally “supreme ultimate” and “quan” boxing or martial art.

As a movement system, Tai Chi is today practiced and enjoyed worldwide with increasing popularity, mostly for reasons of health, exercise and relaxation. The gentle soft flowing way of Tai Chi's movements provide for a great mind/body workout, with practitioners experiencing benefits like stress management, improved balance, flexibility, leg strength, strengthened respiratory and immune funtions etc.

There are five major Tai Chi styles: Chen style, Yang style, Wu style, Wu (Hao) style and Sun style, each displaying different flavours. Chen style is the oldest known Tai Chi style and has retained its martial character by displaying expressed spiral movements, its lively performance with varying paces from almost stand still to fast with explosive expressions of power bursts. Chen style originated in Chenjiagou (Chen village), Henan, China. Yang style and Wu style are the two most widely practiced styles.

Tai Chi can be adapted to fit all ages and interests, whether practiced for exercise & health, as a demanding athletic sport or martial art. Tai Chi's principles and requirements are consequently applied to empty hand forms, weapon forms as well as push-hands (partner exercises) and self-defence applications. While styles, forms and applications may widely vary, the principles are the same for all.

Tai Chi is build on the principle of softness ("...The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff..." Lao Ze). Using Tai Chi principles in daily life means to use softness to overcome stiff force, learning to use balanced energy to complete tasks, dealing with people gently and with respect.

Tai Chi is practiced in a relaxed manner with a number of seemlessly connected movements, called the form. Depending on the Tai Chi style, the forms vary in their outward expression from calm, even paced to vigorous and explosive. The form practice may last from a few minutes to well over 30 minutes, depending on the number of movements as well as the speed at which a form is performed. Tai Chi practice requires awareness, concentration and the use of mind/intent. Beginner forms are simplified and shorter, whereas the traditional forms are longer with more demaning requirements. Hidden within the movements are effective martial art applications which are driven by complex internal processes.

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(References/links below are provided for information only. Ji Hong Tai Chi does neither directly nor indirectly practice medicine or provide medical advice. Nothing on this website shall be a substitute for proper professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment by a qualified medical professional. Always consult your doctor for advice and recommendations prior to starting any Tai Chi exercise programs.)

Tai Chi Could Help Fight Against Type 2 Diabetes
British Journal of Sports Medicine, April 1 2008,

WORLD TAI CHI & QIGONG DAY, Medical Research and Tai Chi and Qigong

(searchable database by health issues benefiting from Tai Chi & Qigong)

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Class Format: The typical format of our classes consists of Tai Chi specific warm-ups, relaxation exercises, movement practice with review and corrections, introduction and practice of new content concluding with a cool-down. We suggest comfortable wear allowing you to move, like track pants, the club T-shirt provided and non-marking indoor shoes.

Before Class: We recommend to arrive on time for your class. The warm-ups are an important part of a class. If you were unable to attend (a) pevious class(es) kindly brief the instructor  to help you catch up. While regular practice is recommended for your enjoyment, benefits and faster progress, there is absolutely no reason to feel nervous about not having found time to practice or not being able to grasp the movements. Just relax and take one step at a time.

During Class: We suggest you attend our classes with simply trying to get used to the class format, to learning the basic requirements and movements step by step as they are introduced by the instructor. We know, as adults we attempt to do everything perfect right away, don't we. Tai Chi is a very different form of exercise, requiring awareness, concentration, patience, mental and physical relaxation. Try not to over-concentrate on the quality of your movements, such details will be addressed at a later stage. If you have problems with the content please feel free to ask your instructor to help you. If you experience what seems to be an injury, stop the exercise and infom the instructor immediately.

After Class: If you have a few extra minutes practice the new movements until you feel comfortable with them. If you need more help please speak to the instructor who might direct you to an assistant to practice with you. Ideally try to practice at home. Depending on your fitness level, muscle soreness might occur. Any pain is no gain, and experiencing anything like this speak to the instructor. Tai Chi should feel good and natural. Forcing your body into postures and/or in low stances is counterproductive.

Everyone is different in terms of fitness, coordination, practice time etc. We encourage you to repeat a class as many times as you wish. It's about you and enjoying to learn more details, improve relaxation, coordination etc.

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It really depends on one’s health and exercise goals. Chen and Yang style display distinct differences in their features. We suggest watching each style or taking a trial class and then decide which style and program matches your goals best.

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You can start with push-hands training right away, although we recommend studying forms parallel with it. At Ji Hong Tai Chi Forms and Push Hands are integral elements of studying and practicing Tai Chi.

Push Hands is a fun training activity between two cooperating partners with the objective to experiencing a higher level of self-control and at the same time attempting to controlling an opponent. It functions as a gate to understanding Tai Chi as a martial art by safely studying relaxation, sensitivity, timing, coordination, balance and how to generate, leverage, neutralize and redirect various types of forces.

Push Hands is also a competition sport where two opponents try to unbalance each other within a ring and governed by competition rules. This type of activity requires a high degree of physical and mental fitness.

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Chen style Tai Chi changes from fast to slow, uses different working heights, expressed circular movements to partly explosive elements during the form. Yang style displays calm, elegant movements to be best described as linear open/close movements which are performed at a constant speed.

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Yes you can join Beginner Form, Push Hands and Health Program classes at any time.

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Please check our website for current locations and class schedules.

Please contact us to discuss any special class arrangements, private classes, group lessons, corporate programs.

For groups with a minimum of 6 - 8 persons we teach at a location of your choice within the GTA.

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"The Ji Hong Taiji System" is the principal method of instruction at all Ji Hong Tai Chi schools. This method is a systematic and scientifically based approach to teaching basic and advanced Tai Chi theory and practice, and was developed by the late Grand Master Ji Hong Luo.

Grand Master Luo spent more than 30 years researching Tai Chi's vast literature, visited prominent Tai Chi masters in China, and carried out experiments in university medical and science faculties. All this eventually led to the formulation of a total training system for the martial art of Tai Chi reflecting Tai Chi's tradition combined with the viewpoints of modern medicine and science.

Master Hong-Yuan Luo and his wife Master Jennifer Gu have been continuing researching Tai Chi and refining this total training system.

The Curriculum of "The Ji Hong Tai Chi System" includes teaching of basic and advanced Tai Chi Principles and applying these to Tai Chi Forms, Tai Chi Push Hands and San Shou practice.

Examples of training in fundamental Tai Chi Principles are to create an understanding of,

• Yin and Yang; opening/closing; hard/soft; fast and slow;
• connecting; relaxing (song); sinking and finding one's central equilibrium;
• methods to cultivate internal energy (qi), such as silk-reeling exercises;
• the use of the Dantian (elixir field) as the body's center of gravity and focus of internal energy cultivation;
• how to generate, build, transport, and to increase the quality of the Internal Strength (nei jin) being an aggregate of body, mind and internal energy (qi), and to distinguish between external (muscular) power (li);
• methods to increase body's sensitivity, balance and total body & mind control;
• the four stages of Tai Chi practice (rid stiffness to become relaxed; from relaxed to strength; from strength to relaxed; coexistence of relaxed and strength).

Tai Chi forms are composed of a sequence of rhythmic movements. There are empty-handed forms and weapons forms like Tai Chi sword and broad sword. Form practice provides the framework for studying and applying the fundamental Tai Chi principles and cultivating one's mind and body. At Ji Hong Tai Chi, forms training focuses on:

1. Remembering the movements;
   
2. Performing the movements with the requirements of Tai Chi principles
   
3. Understanding the interdependency of one's intent (mind), movements (body) and internal energy (qi);
4. Correcting and refining the forms, learning martial arts applications hidden in the movements, and developing advanced Tai Chi techniques such as trigger force (fa jin) and mind control.

Tai Chi Push Hands is a two-person exercise that provides for the safe integration of Tai Chi forms and actual martial arts applications. In the "Ji Hong Tai Chi System", push hands training combines these fixed and moving step techniques from the Chen, Yang and Wu families of Tai Chi:

• Hand and foot techniques (the eight methods and five steps);
  
• Sensitivity and listening skills such as connecting, joining, sticking, following, and neither letting go nor resisting;
  
• Footwork focusing on maintaining the body’s equilibrium, weight distribution and power generation;
  
• Neutralizing an opponent’s incoming force (know one-self and know the opponent);
  
• Controlling an opponent’s structure and balance (neutralize, control, lock, throw).

San Shou training is for motivated students, interested in learning Tai Chi for free-sparring, fighting techniques following Tai Chi principles including grappling, Chin Na (joint locking techniques), kicking, punching, combined with speed, timing, reaction training and further developent of the intensity and quality of one's jin.

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...... internal power is generated through body adjustment. Each joint is set by lengthening the muscles and forming a whole, flexible entity in the mode of the Five Bows. Additionally, by adjusting the yi [意] (intent) and qi [氣] (internal energy), the body becomes an integrated entity in which internal and external are capable of generating a prevailing elasticity that allows an individual to move quickly and efficiently. We call this state “Taiji Readiness State or Condition”...(Grand Master Ji Hong Luo)

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"Knowing others is wisdom
But to oneself is enlightenment
Mastering others requires force
But to master oneself requires courage"

(Laotse, Tao Te Ching)

...Taijiquan is not only a high-level martial art but also a profound art. Father compared his Taiji journey with the example of the other side of the river where hundreds of flowers are blooming in the brilliant sunshine. He took it as his responsibility to seek a shortcut and to lead the latecomers to the other side of the river. He used his knowledge from philosophy, physiology, body dynamics and so forth to create vivid illustrations that would turn the mysterious Taiji theory into clear and charming simple words. Through his years of teaching practice, my father divided Taiji training into two components: Self-control and Control of the Opponent. My father pointed out that one had to control oneself in order to control the opponent.... (The Ji Hong Taiji System)

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........Silk Reeling Enegery (Chan Si Jing) is an inherent characteristic in all forms of Taijiquan, although it is more apparent in Chen style and less in Wu/Hao style Taijiquan......

...........on the nature of spiral force in Tai Chi .......spiral force is vortex force and nothing else. It has an axis force, tangent force and centre force. Therefore the force has directions and at the same time has no directions. When pushed by an external force, spiral force shows the agile and variable spring action as required by the Taiji principles to follow the opponent's change.

.....spiral force objectvely exists as a common property of Taiji as a whole and not as an individual property for a specific Taiji style. Without this common property, Taiji would not be a unique martial art and athletic sport............

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.......to push a thousand pounds with four ounces, one needs to train to have a thousand-pound force. This clarified the adage of four ounces push a thousand pounds and rebutted the old misunderstanding by many people that Taiji did not have to use force to defeat opponents......

....the whole body and its internal power (a thousand pounds) should be focused on pulling the opponent’s ming men (four ounces), with the effect that the opponent loses control and stops resisting. This accurately explains the concept of four ounces overcome a thousand pounds used as a method to control an opponent and is the essence of Taiji as a martial art....(The Ji Hong Taiji System)

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........ Our task should not be the translation of the classic works. Rather we should reveal their essence, observe their internal organic system, illustrate issues and guide our practice....

......It is never easy to put all the principles of various styles into one melting pot. They all originated from the same source and the principles should be the same, yet each style differs from the others, and each has its unique doctrines. Some have different names for the same concept; some are partially similar and partially different, and some are completely opposite, like fire and water. Some masters care only for their own style. Attempting to be different, they mystify their style’s principles. Some have limited knowledge, cheating themselves as well as others. Some are even worse, actively deifying past masters and changing historical facts...... (Grand Master Ji Hong Luo)

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By Lawrence Huang, published in “Inside Kung-Fu” January 2002 edition.

It was 1999 in Virginia. At the annual Taste of China Taiji Tournament, a tiny, 150-pound man was facing an opponent almost twice his size. The audience laughed. It was not a competition! It was a mercy killing.

However, as the game progressed, the spectators were surprised when the smaller man used the force from the bigger competitor to push him off balance again and again. Finally, when the smaller guy won the competition, the audience rose to its feet and gave the winner a standing ovation. This smaller man turned out to be Steve Anderson, a student from Ji Hong Taiji College in Canada. Since master Luo Hongyuan founded the College in 1991, Ji Hong Taiji College has trained a group of elite taiji students who have won numerous international competitions.

From 1995-to-1998, Ji Hong Taiji College students entered 15 North American competitions and took home five Grand Championships and 209 gold medals. In addition, at the 1998 Taiji Legacy International Competition in Dallas, Texas, one student captured four gold medals in push hands competition.
At the 1999 Taiji Legacy Competition, one student won six gold medals in form performance, and another student won a gold medal in push hands competition. Again in 1999 at the Taste of China Taiji competition in Virginia, the school won four of the five push hands gold medals, as well as laying claim to the overall championship in men’s restricted step push hands. And last year, the school captured six gold medals in the highest level of taiji competition in Chen’s Village.
Finally, in 1997 and 1998, the Ji Hong Taiji School won gold medals in two weight levels of full-contact fighting at the Canadian National San Shou team member selection competition. This proved once and for all that the school was equally adept in forms, push hands and full-contact fighting.
The magic behind these accomplishments can be found in the ji hong taiji theory system. This new generation of taiji elite has been academically built and practically improved and perfected. Following is a brief introduction to this ji hong theory regarding all the aspects of the structure of this complex system:

1. Five Bow Theory
Master Luo published the article, “Five Bow Theory” when he was teaching in South China Teachers’ University. Traditionally, the spinal column or the backbone forms the main bow, while the hands and legs form the other four bows. Like a fully drawn bow, the spinal column, hands and legs, when stretched, carry potential energy. Then the dan tien (lower belly) directs the internal energy to the five bows.
However, master Luo improved on this concept. In the movements of the limbs, the dan tien takes on the important duty of energizing the limbs, transferring the internal energy (qi) through the spinal column to the hand bows and the leg bows, and finally reaching the tips of the limbs. The result is that the five bows form one unified system, converging all the powers into one single point. Thus, it releases tremendous and explosive power over the opponent.
Master Luo also compares the forming of these five bows into one with an automobile tire. Five bows are like the steel wires in the tire, forming a structure to contain the air pressure. This lays down a solid foundation for a powerful internal force (jin), and further for the generation and exercise of energy (qi).
2. Pressure Theory
Five bow theory sets up a framework for this pressure theory. Like an automobile tire, it cannot hold the air without its steel wires and the rubber frame. Master Luo compares the body to a tire. Bones and flesh are the steel wires and rubber, and dan tien is the air pump, which fills energy into the body like an air-pressured tire. Then the taiji system transforms the body into a strong tire-like air ball. This air ball could work only when it is under pressure. “Qi” (energy) itself does not do any work. It is only when “qi” is under pressure that it transforms itself into power “jing”. This is the energy of taiji (qi).
3. Energy Column
After the forming of the air ball, master Luo develops the theory to include the energy in front of the body circumvented by both arms and thighs. This forms an energy column (air column) held by the body. In the pressure theory, this also forms a bigger air ball with our body, arms, and thighs as half the ball, linking the missing half with our mind. This is more commonly called “Hit with qi (energy), hit with yi (mind).”
Master Luo is credited with developing this concept of energy column with rotating axis within the column. Like the earth and moon, all cylindrical objects move around a supposed axis. The central axis is placed along one’s spinal column; the external power would reach one’s backbones and thereby upset his balance. However, if the central axis is removed outside our system and into the opponent’s backbone, one can easily control and upset the opponent’s balance.

4. Theory of Rootlessness
After finishing the structuring process, Luo moves to rootlessness. In a fighting situation, if we root ourselves and the opponent is powerful, we will be uprooted. The taiji ball goes without roots. Then when the opponent pushes or hits the ball, the ball will turn and transfer his force back on him while ball remains intact.
According to Luo, one needs to remove all the roots to remain stable. As explained in classical taiji theories, you must move like walking on ice or ca cat prowling before catching a mouse. Both theories suggest a state of rootlessness.
When we feel external pressure, such pressure will be directed from our body, utilizing the qi column theory, but we should never allow the external pressure to reach to our feet. On the other hand, we will reach our opponent’s feet through push hands.
Master Lou further emphasizes the concentration of the energy in dan tien. When we build a heavy and solid dan tien, we will free our legs from rooting to the ground, leaving our opponents no change of “touching our legs” to uproot us.

5. Principle of Dynamics
Once we adjust ourselves, we can use the pressure created from dan tien to lock our opponent from his legs to the ming men (lower back). Once the opponent is under control, it becomes a matter of dynamics. Simply take the opponent’s ming men as the supporting point and his leg as the point receiving the force. Using the opponent’s ming men support impacts this legs and allows you to throw him yards away. This is the secret principle that makes taiji so powerful, so invincible.
Master Luo Hongyuan used these five points to develop a complete system for taiji practice and training. He complements this system with practical training methods in forms, push hands, and full-contact fighting. The goal, according to Luo, is to structure a new system that will cultivate a new generation of taiji students.
Many claim the taiji practiced in North America will never reach the standards found every day in China. But master Luo Hongyuan disagrees. He insists the Ji Hong Taiji system is perfect for developing a new legacy that will be used and copied for centuries.

Lawrence Huang is a martial artist and freelance writer.

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