Ancient Wisdom in a Modern Era
ArielSpeaks.com
Tai Chi Chuan
Training, instruction, Movements
Taijiquan
Health ~ Balance ~ Benefits
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Before this time the Art had no name. It was simply an unusual martial art practised by a little known clan in a small, remote village in Henan province (like hundreds of other martial arts lost to history). The Art was not taught to outsiders as such isolated clans used their family martial art skills to defend their villages from bandits and, in the case of Chen Village, to gain employment as bodyguards to wealthy merchants. Hence, before the time of Yang Luchan, the Art appears to have been generically described by outsiders as "Chen Family Boxing", "Soft Boxing" or "The Thirteen" (this last title may be an anachronism).
The name "tai chi chuan" is held to be derived from the Taiji symbol (Taijitu or T'ai chi t'u, 太極圖), commonly known in the West as the "yin-yang" diagram. This evidences the more urbane, scholarly emphasis placed upon the Art by Yang family and later schools when compared to the Arts more humble, rural origins.
The appropriateness of this more recent appellation is seen in the oldest literature preserved by these schools where the Art is said to
Taijiquan (simplified Chinese: 太极拳; traditional Chinese: 太極拳; pinyin: tàijíquán; Wade–Giles: t'ai chi ch'üan) (literal translation "Supreme Ultimate Fist") is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits. It is also typically practiced for a variety of other personal reasons: its hard and soft martial art technique, demonstration competitions, and longevity. As a consequence, a multitude of training forms exist, both traditional and modern, which correspond to those aims. Some of Taijiquan's training forms are especially known for being practiced at what most people categorize as slow movement.
Overview of Taijiquan
Today, Taijquan has spread worldwide. Most modern styles of Taijiquan trace their development to at least one of the five traditional schools: Chen, Yang, Wu/Hao, Wu, and Sun.Overview
The term Taijiquan translates as "supreme ultimate fist", "boundless fist", "great extremes boxing", or simply "the ultimate" (note that chi in this instance is the Wade-Giles transliteration of the Pinyin jí, and is distinct from ch'i / qì, meaning "life-force" or "energy"). The concept of the Taiji ("supreme ultimate") appears in both Taoist and Confucian Chinese philosophy, where it represents the fusion or mother of Yin and Yang into a single Ultimate, represented by the Taijitu symbol. Thus, tai chi theory
Ancient Wisdom in a Modern Era
Information provided by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
It is purported that focusing the mind solely on the movements of the form helps to bring about a state of mental calm and clarity. Besides general health benefits and stress management attributed to tai chi training, aspects of traditional Chinese medicine are taught to advanced tai chi students in some traditional schools.
Some martial arts, especially the Japanese martial arts, require students to wear a uniform during practice. In general, tai chi chuan schools do not require a uniform, but both traditional and modern teachers often advocate
loose, comfortable clothing and flat-soled shoes.
The physical techniques of tai chi chuan are described in the tai chi classics, a set of writings by traditional masters, as being characterized by the use of leverage through the joints based on coordination and relaxation, rather than muscular tension, in order to neutralize or initiate attacks. The slow, repetitive work involved in the process of learning how that leverage is generated gently and measurably increases, opens the internal
and practice evolved in agreement with many Chinese philosophical principles, including those of Taoism and Confucianism.
Taiji training involves five elements, nei gung, tui shou (response drills), sanshou (self defence techniques), Weapons, and solo hand routines, known as forms (套路 taolu). While the image of Taijiquan in popular culture is typified by exceedingly slow movement, many Taiji styles (including the three most popular - Yang, Wu, and Chen) - have secondary forms of a faster pace. Some traditional schools of tai chi teach partner exercises known as "pushing hands", and martial applications of the forms' postures.
In China, Taijiquan is categorized under the Wudang grouping of Chinese martial arts — that is, the arts applied with internal power (an even broader term encompassing all internal martial arts is Neijia). Although the Wudang name falsely suggests these arts originated at the so-called Wudang Mountain, it is simply used to distinguish the skills, theories and applications of the "internal arts" from those of the Shaolin grouping, the "hard" or "external" martial art styles.
Since the first widespread promotion of tai chi's health benefits by Yang Shaohou, Yang Chengfu, Wu Chien-ch'uan, and Sun Lutang in the early 20th century, it has developed a worldwide following among people with little or no interest in martial training, for its benefit to health and health maintenance. Medical studies of tai chi support its effectiveness as an alternative exercise and a form of martial arts therapy.
circulation (breath, body heat, blood, lymph, peristalsis, etc.).
The study of tai chi chuan primarily involves three aspects:
- Health: An unhealthy or otherwise uncomfortable person may find it difficult to meditate to a state of calmness or to use tai chi as a martial art. Tai chi's health training, therefore, concentrates on relieving the physical effects of stress on the body and mind. For those focused on tai chi's martial application, good physical fitness is an important step towards effective self-defense.
- Meditation: The focus and calmness cultivated by the meditative aspect of tai chi is seen as necessary in maintaining optimum health (in the sense of relieving stress and maintaining homeostasis) and in application of the form as a soft style martial art.
- Martial art: The ability to use tai chi as a form of self-defense in combat is the test of a student's understanding of the art. Tai chi chuan is the study of appropriate change in response to outside forces, the study of yielding and "sticking" to an incoming attack rather than attempting to meet it with opposing force. The use of tai chi as a martial art is quite challenging and requires a great deal of training.
The Name Tai Chi Chuan
What is now known as "Tai Chi Chuan" only appears to have received this appellation from around the mid 1800's. There was a scholar in the Imperial Court by the name of Ong Tong He who witnessed a demonstration by Yang Lu Chan ("Unbeatable
Yang"). Afterwards Ong wrote: "Hands holding Taiji shakes the whole world, a chest containing ultimate skill defeats a gathering of heroes." This was the time when Yang Luchan made the Chen clan's martial art known to the world through his own evolved form ("Yang family style").
be a study of yin (receptive) and yang (active) principles, using terminology found in the Chinese classics, especially the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching.
Tai Chi Chuan history and styles
There are five major styles of tai chi chuan, each named after the Chinese family from which it originated:
Chen-style (陳氏) of Chen Wangting (1580–1660)
Yang-style (楊氏) of Yang Lu-ch'an (1799–1872)
Wu- or Wu/Hao-style (武氏) of Wu Yu-hsiang (1812–1880)
Wu-style (吳氏) of Wu Ch'uan-yu (1834–1902) and his son Wu Chien-ch'uan (1870–1942)
Sun-style (孫氏) of Sun Lu-t'ang (1861–1932)
The order of verifiable age is as listed above. The order of popularity (in terms of number of practitioners) is Yang, Wu, Chen, Sun, and Wu/Hao. The major family styles share much underlying theory, but differ in their approaches to training.
There are now dozens of new styles, hybrid styles, and offshoots of the main styles, but the five family schools are the groups recognized by the international community as being the orthodox styles. Other important styles are Zhaobao Tai Chi, a close cousin of Chen style, which has been newly recognized by Western practitioners as a distinct style, and the Fu style, created by Fu Chen Sung, which evolved from Chen, Sun and Yang styles, and also incorporates movements from Pa Kua Chang.
All existing styles can be traced back to the Chen-style, which had been passed down as a family secret for generations. The Chen family chronicles record Chen Wangting, of the family's 9th generation, as the inventor of what is known today as Tai Chi. Yang Lu-ch'an became the first person outside the family to learn Tai Chi. His success in fighting earned him the nickname "Unbeatable Yang", and his fame and efforts in teaching greatly contributed to the subsequent spreading of Tai Chi knowledge.
When tracing tai chi chuan's formative influences to Taoist and Buddhist monasteries, there seems little more to go on than legendary tales from a modern historical perspective, but tai chi chuan's practical connection to and dependence upon the theories of Sung dynasty Neo-Confucianism (a conscious synthesis of Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian traditions, especially the teachings of Mencius) is claimed by some traditional schools. Tai chi's theories and practice are believed by these schools to have been formulated by the Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng in the 12th century, at about the same time that the principles of the Neo-Confucian school were making themselves felt in Chinese intellectual life. However, modern research casts serious doubts on the validity of those claims, pointing out that a 17th-century piece called "Epitaph for Wang Zhengnan" (1669), composed by Huang Zongxi (1610-1695 A.D.), is the earliest reference indicating any connection between Zhang Sanfeng and martial arts whatsoever, and must not be taken literally but must be understood as a political metaphor instead. Claims of connections between Tai Chi and Zhang Sanfeng appear no earlier than the 19th century.
Training and techniques
The core training involves two primary features: the first being the solo form (ch'üan or quán, 拳), a slow sequence of movements which emphasize a straight spine, abdominal breathing and a natural range of motion; the second being different styles of
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pushing hands (tui shou, 推手) for training movement principles of the form with a partner and in a more practical manner.
The solo form should take the students through a complete, natural range of motion over their center of gravity. Accurate, repeated practice of the solo routine is said to retrain posture, encourage circulation throughout the students' bodies, maintain flexibility through their joints, and further familiarize students with the martial application sequences implied by the forms. The major traditional styles of tai chi have forms that differ somewhat in terms of aesthetics, but there are also many obvious similarities that point to their common origin. The solo forms - empty-hand and weapon - are catalogs of movements that are practiced individually in pushing hands and martial application scenarios to prepare students for self-defense training. In most traditional schools, different variations of the solo forms can be practiced: fast–slow, small circle–large circle, square–round (which are different expressions of leverage through the joints), low-sitting/high-sitting (the degree to which weight-bearing knees are kept bent throughout the form), for example.
The philosophy of Tai Chi Chuan is that, if one uses hardness to resist violent force, then both sides are certain to be injured at least to some degree. Such injury, according to tai chi theory, is a natural consequence of meeting brute force with brute force. Instead, students are taught not to directly fight or resist an incoming force, but to meet it in softness and follow its motion while remaining in physical contact until the incoming force of attack exhausts itself or can be safely redirected, meeting yang with yin. Done correctly, this yin/yang or yang/yin balance in combat, or in a broader philosophical sense, is a primary goal of tai chi chuan training. Lao Tzu provided the archetype for this in the Tao Te Ching when he wrote, "The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong."
Tai chi's martial aspect relies on sensitivity to the opponent's movements and center of gravity dictating appropriate responses. Effectively affecting or "capturing" the opponent's center of gravity immediately upon contact is trained as the primary goal of the martial tai chi student. The sensitivity needed to capture the center is acquired over thousands of hours of first yin (slow, repetitive, meditative, low-impact) and then later adding yang ("realistic," active, fast, high-impact) martial training through forms, pushing hands, and sparring. Tai chi trains in three basic ranges: close, medium and long, and then everything in between. Pushes and open-hand strikes are more common than punches, and kicks are usually to the legs and lower torso, never higher than the hip, depending on style. The fingers, fists, palms, sides of the hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, shoulders, back, hips, knees, and feet are commonly used to strike, with strikes to the eyes, throat, heart, groin, and other acupressure points trained by advanced students. Joint traps, locks, and breaks (chin na) are also used. Most tai chi teachers expect their students to thoroughly learn defensive or neutralizing skills first, and a student will have to demonstrate proficiency with them before offensive skills will be extensively trained. There is also an emphasis in the traditional schools in which one is expected to show wu de (武德), martial virtue or heroism, to protect the defenseless, and show mercy to one's opponents.
In addition to the physical form, martial tai chi chuan schools also focus on how the energy of a strike affects the other person. A palm strike that looks to have the same movement may be performed in such a way that it has a completely different effect on the target's body. A palm strike that could simply push the opponent backward, could instead be focused in such a way as to lift the opponent vertically off the ground, breaking his/her center of gravity; or it could terminate the force of the strike within the other person's body with the intent of causing internal damage.
Other training exercises include:
- Weapons training and fencing applications employing the straight sword known as the jian or chien or gim (jiàn 劍), a heavier curved sabre, sometimes called a broadsword or tao (dāo 刀, which is actually considered a big knife), folding fan also called san, wooden staff (2m. in length) known as kun (棍), 7 foot (2 m) spear and 13 foot (4 m) lance (both called qiāng 槍). More exotic weapons still used by some traditional styles are the large Dadao or Ta Tao (大刀) and Pudao or P'u Tao (撲刀) sabres, halberd (jǐ 戟), cane, rope-dart, three sectional staff, Wind and fire wheels, lasso, whip, chain whip and steel whip.
- Two-person tournament sparring (as part of push hands competitions and/or sanshou 散手);
- Breathing exercises; nei kung (內功 nèigōng) or, more commonly, ch'i kung (氣功 qìgōng) to develop ch'i (氣 qì) or "breath energy" in coordination with physical movement and post standing or combinations of the two. These were formerly taught only to disciples as a separate, complementary training system. In the last 60 years they have become better known to the general public.
Modern Tai Chi
With purely a health emphasis, Tai chi classes have become popular in hospitals, clinics, and community and senior centers in the last twenty years or so, as baby boomers age and the art's reputation as a low-stress training for seniors became better known.
As a result of this popularity, there has been some divergence between those that say they practice tai chi primarily for self-defense, those that practice it for its aesthetic appeal (see wushu below), and those that are more interested in its benefits to physical and mental health. The wushu aspect is primarily for show; the forms taught for those purposes are designed to earn points in competition and are mostly unconcerned with either health maintenance or martial ability. More traditional stylists believe the two aspects of health and martial arts are equally necessary: the yin and yang of tai chi chuan. The tai chi "family" schools, therefore, still present their teachings in a martial art context, whatever the intention of their students in studying the art.
Tai chi as sport
In order to standardize tai chi chuan for wushu tournament judging, and because many tai chi chuan teachers had either moved out of China or had been forced to stop teaching after the Communist regime was established in 1949, the government sponsored the Chinese Sports Committee, who brought together four of their wushu teachers to truncate the Yang family hand form to 24 postures in 1956. They wanted to retain the look of tai chi chuan but create a routine that would be less difficult to teach and much less difficult to learn than longer (in general, 88 to 108 posture), classical, solo hand forms. In 1976, they developed a slightly longer form also for the purposes of demonstration that still would not involve the complete memory, balance, and coordination requirements of the traditional forms. This became the Combined 48 Forms that were created by three wushu coaches, headed by Professor Men Hui Feng. The combined forms were created based on simplifying and combining some features of the classical forms from four of the original styles: Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun.
As tai chi again became popular on the mainland, more competitive forms were developed to be completed within a six-minute time limit. In the late-1980s, the Chinese Sports Committee standardized many different competition forms. They developed sets to represent the four major styles as well as combined forms. These five sets of forms were created by different teams, and later approved by a committee of wushu coaches in China. All sets of forms thus created were named after their style, e.g., the Chen Style National Competition Form is the 56 Forms, and so on. The combined forms are The 42-Form or simply the Competition Form. Another modern form is the 67 movements Combined Tai-Chi Chuan form, created in the 1950s; it contains characteristics of the Yang, Wu, Sun, Chen, and Fu styles blended into a combined form. The wushu coach Bow Sim Mark is a notable exponent of the 67 Combined.
These modern versions of tai chi chuan (sometimes listed using the pinyin romanization Tai ji quan) have since become an integral part of international wushu tournament competition, and have been featured in popular movies starring or choreographed by well-known wushu competitors, such as Jet Li and Donnie Yen.
In the 11th Asian Games of 1990, wushu was included as an item for competition for the first time with the 42-Form being chosen to represent tai chi. The International Wushu Federation (IWUF) applied for wushu to be part of the Olympic games, but will not count medals.
Practitioners also test their practical martial skills against students from other schools and martial arts styles in pushing hands and sanshou competition.
Health benefits of Tai Chi
Before tai chi's introduction to Western students, the health benefits of tai chi chuan were largely explained through the lens of traditional Chinese medicine, which is based on a view of the body and healing mechanisms not always studied or supported by modern science. Today, tai chi is in the process of being subjected to rigorous scientific studies in the West. Now that the majority of health studies have displayed a tangible benefit in some areas to the practice of tai chi, health professionals have called for more in-depth studies to determine mitigating factors such as the most beneficial style, suggested duration of practice to show the best results, and whether tai chi is as effective as other forms of exercise.
Chronic conditions
Researchers have found that intensive tai chi practice shows some favorable effects on the promotion of balance control, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, and has shown to reduce the risk of falls in both healthy elderly patients, and those recovering from chronic stroke, heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attacks, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and fibromyalgia. Tai chi's gentle, low impact movements burn more calories than surfing and nearly as many as downhill skiing.
Tai chi, along with yoga, has reduced levels of LDLs 20–26 milligrams when practiced for 12–14 weeks. A thorough review of most of these studies showed limitations or biases that made it difficult to draw firm conclusions on the benefits of tai chi. A later study led by the same researchers conducting the review found that tai chi (compared to regular stretching) showed the ability to greatly reduce pain and improve overall physical and mental health in people over 60 with severe osteoarthritis of the knee. In addition, a pilot study, which has not been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, has found preliminary evidence that tai chi and related qigong may reduce the severity of diabetes. In a randomized trial of 66 patients with fibromyalgia, the tai chi intervention group did significantly better in terms of pain, fatigue, sleeplessness and depression than a comparable group given stretching exercises and wellness education.
A recent study evaluated the effects of two types of behavioral intervention, tai chi and health education, on healthy adults, who, after 16 weeks of the intervention, were vaccinated with VARIVAX, a live attenuated Oka/Merck Varicella zoster virus vaccine. The tai chi group showed higher and more significant levels of cell-mediated immunity to varicella zoster virus than the control group that received only health education. It appears that tai chi augments resting levels of varicella zoster virus-specific cell-mediated immunity and boosts the efficacy of the varicella vaccine. Tai chi alone does not lessen the effects or probability of a shingles attack, but it does improve the effects of the varicella zoster virus vaccine.
Stress and mental health
A systematic review and meta-analysis, funded in part by the U.S. government, of the current (as of 2010) studies on the effects of practicing Tai Chi found that, "Twenty-one of 33 randomized and nonrandomized trials reported that 1 hour to 1 year of regular Tai Chi significantly increased psychological well-being including reduction of stress, anxiety, and depression, and enhanced mood in community-dwelling healthy participants and in patients with chronic conditions. Seven observational studies with relatively large sample sizes reinforced the beneficial association between Tai Chi practice and psychological health."
There have also been indications that tai chi might have some effect on noradrenaline and cortisol production with an effect on mood and heart rate. However, the effect may be no different than those derived from other types of physical exercise. In one study, tai chi has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in 13 adolescents. The improvement in symptoms seem to persist after the tai chi sessions were terminated.
In June, 2007 the United States National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine published an independent, peer-reviewed, meta-analysis of the state of meditation research, conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center. The report reviewed 813 studies (88 involving Tai Chi) of five broad categories of meditation: mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong. The report concluded that "the therapeutic effects of meditation practices cannot be established based on the current literature," and "firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence.
The Online Tai Chi & Health Information Center
In 2003, the National Library of Medicine, the largest medical library in the world and subdivision of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded a grant to American Tai Chi and Qigong Association to build a website titled "The Tai Chi & Consumer Health Information Center". The information center was officially released in 2004 and has since then been providing scientific, reliable, and comprehensive information about various health benefits of Tai Chi - for arthritis, diabetes, fall prevention, pain reduction, mental health, cardiovascular diseases, fitness, and general well-being.
Tai chi chuan in popular culture
Tai Chi Chuan plays an important role in many martial arts and fighting action films and series, novels, as well as video games, trading cards games, etc., especially in those ones which belong to the wuxia genre. Fictional portrayals often refer to Zhang Sanfeng, who is reported to be the first one harnessing and operationalising the benefits of the 'internal', and the Taoist monasteries of Wudang Mountains, where he lived.
In the 1980 Hong-Kong television series Tai Chi Master (RTV), the story evolves around a young man (Alex Man), who starts as a young monk from Shaolin Monastery but soon develops knowledge and skills of Tai Chi Chuan. The popularity of this series spawned in 1981 the direct Chinese knight-errant sequel Tai Chi Master II, which shares the same action director, Yuen Wo Ping, with The Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill 1 and 2 and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and in which the protagonist, Wu Jing, uses his Tai Chi Chuan skills to fight the villains of the story.
Almost one decade later, in 1993, in another reproduction, the Kung Fu Cult Master (aka Kung Fu Master, The Evil Cult and The Lord of Wu Tang) starring Jet Li, Sammo Hung and Sharla Cheung, Jet Li with the help of Sammo Hung resembling Zhang Sanfeng in appearance realises and accepts the benefits of the 'internal' and its complementarity if not its superiority to the 'external' and manages to fight against opponents of various martial arts.
In 1993, The Tai Chi Master (aka Twin Warriors) starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li leaves behind the hard aspects of the Shaolin practices to which he was used when he was learning martial arts in the Shaolin Monastery and develops and even mentions explicitly the name of his new martial art, Tai Chi Chuan, thus fighting and winning his old friend from the Shaolin Monastery but current evil military general.
In the semi-documentary film in 1996 The Tai Chi Master, Wu Jing enacts Yang Luchan showing how he managed to become the originator of the Yang-style tai chi chuan, although in this film Wu Jing's Tai Chi Chuan style actually seems to be Chen rather than Yang.
In 2007, in Fatal Contact starring Wu Jing again, his best friend and co-fighter (Ronald Cheng) is a Tai Chi Chuan master and Wu Jing realises and mentions it when he sees him fighting against many members of a gang in the underground.
Another less famous movie, which features as its lead character a traditional Chinese Tai Chi Chuan master moving to New York and having to get used to a different way of life there, is Ang Lee's first Western movie in 1992, Pushing Hands. Various aspects of the fighting style and philosophy of Tai Chi Chuan and of neijia in general are also dispersed although not explicitly acknowledged in Ang Lee's 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and in the 2004 one House of Flying Daggers starring Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Through exaggeration, various internal concepts of martial arts and Tai Chi Chuan may reach out a much wider and younger audience, but at the same time they may lose validity and reliability and even end up being the subject of parody, and Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer might be taken to be examples of this sort.
In the Street Fighter martial arts video game series, Chun-Li uses a variant of Tai Chi Chuan. In 1994, in the Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Chun-Li's Tai Chi Chuan is much more obvious. In another film reproduction in 2009, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the protagonist (Kristin Kreuk), is shown to practise barehand and sword Tai Chi Chuan forms with her father (Edmund Chen) in their garden.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (aka Mortal Kombat V: Vengeance or simply Mortal Kombat 5) introduced Li Mei, who in her bio-card has her hands in a posture representing the symbol Tai Chi Tu and who uses a variant of Tai Chi Chuan as well. A closer variant of Tai Chi Chuan is used by the Tekken character Ling Xiaoyu, introduced in Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament. In Dead or Alive, Lei Fang uses Tai Chi Chuan and this is also mentioned in her bio-card. Before fighting some of her opponents, Lei Fang gets ready by doing some Tai Chi Chuan moves such as 'immortal pounds mortar', so one could say that she uses Chen-style tai chi chuan in particular.
Tai Chi Chuan is also the basis for the magic art of Waterbending in the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime show and trading card game, Tai Chi Chuan is used by the Tai Chi Fighter Monkey, as it is mentioned in his bio-card. In Pokemon, Taichi is a young albeit hotheaded and not very clever hero but at the same time a powerful card.
Tai Chi Chuan plays a role in Jeff Stone's book series The Five Ancestors as a work-out of many people, especially of elderly ones, due to the slow pace of doing its form in order to learn it. Tres Navarre, the detective in the popular mystery novels by Rick Riordan, is a Tai Chi Chuan master too.
