For years, the Tai Chi Chuan community has been engaged in a battle for the soul of Tai Chi. The primary contest is what is the real nature – the soul – of Tai Chi? Is it an actual martial art or is it a slow-motion health focused yoga? Tai Chi has an incredible tradition of legendary martial artists. Its early masters were almost superhuman in their martial prowess. So where are these legendary masters now? Why is it that so many Tai Chi teachers have minimal martial ability?
The reality is that mastering martial arts require lengthy arduous study with experienced knowledgeable teachers. It necessitates a prodigious amount of hard work and progress is often slow and painful. It requires uncomfortable interactions with scary people. Focusing on health-related outcomes is seen as easier, more in tune with modern life, and less confrontational. Some Tai Chi practitioners and teachers are averse to the art’s martial aspects. Do they see Tai Chi Chuan's martial aspects as conflict, unharmonious, dangerous, and just unnecessary? Their students say, "Why do I need to contest with others? I just want the health benefits." The health faction sees the soul of the art as health exercises. The martial people see the art as amazing form of self-defense. This dichotomy begs the question; what is the soul of Tai Chi and why is this important?
Much of the problem is that that many teachers and students have little exposure to value of the martial. Many current Tai Chi teachers have no, or very little, martial experience. I have no problem with practitioners focusing solely on the health benefits. You can practice a musical instrument for fun and personal enjoyment. However, you should know that there is much more that can be learned and there are people who can help guide them to higher levels. I believe that the martial aspect is the vehicle to attain the higher levels of Tai Chi. It is the Rosetta Stone that can unlock the secrets of the art. If we lose the martial understanding, then we are in danger of losing an incredibly valuable component that can enable us to maximize the value of Tai Chi Chuan. If we lose our soul, then we have lost our art.
The Journey to Understanding
I was fortunate to come to the internal arts with years of western boxing and hard old school Karate experience. It exposed me to the most immediate value of the martial arts, physical self-defense. Like many, I entered the external martial arts to resolve personal issues. The external arts provided me with an important measure of self-validation, but never addressed my desire for internal growth. I learned physical self-defense, but something was missing. I began a long journey of self-awareness which caused me to redefine my concept of self-defense.
My Tai Chi teachers always stressed the critical value of the martial in understanding the art. My first introduction to Tai Chi was in 1969 with Professor Huo Chi Kwang in Chicago. Professor Huo was an internationally recognized scholar and painter. He was also a superb internal martial artist. When we sparred, my size, strength, and years of boxing and Karate meant nothing. He could dissolve at will and touch me with enormous power. He always stressed that Tai Chi Chuan was boxing but boxing for physical and mental health. The self-defense was secondary. However, one had to master the self-defense aspects in order to attain the understanding necessary to access higher level physical and mental health benefits.
In 1975, I moved to St. Louis, Missouri and was truly fortunate to become a student of Tuey Staples. Tuey had an excellent external background and became a profound internal martial artist and teacher. He teaches that the martial is the key to understanding Tai Chi Chuan. He sees the internal martial arts as a vehicle to be in the now, to be truly present, and able to respond appropriately to any situation, physical, emotional, or psychological. This is what I have grown to see as true self-defense.
Where are we now?
Most current teaching of Tai Chi has very narrow vision, lots of form repetition and some variation of push hands. Unfortunately, one can only harvest limited value from the practice of solo form and push hands. Form is a key beginning point. It's like learning the alphabet. However, without understand Tai Chi Chuan principles and context, form tends to foster a rigidly of thought. The form is ‘always this, never that’ way. Master Somebody always did it this way. So, after time, form trumps function. We take an art of infinite flexibility and make it rigid. We forget the most basic premise of Tai Chi Chuan which is the ability to accept and redirect all energy, and that everything in life is contextual.
To truly grow, one needs to liberate themselves from the tyranny of form. Tai Chi is an art of change based upon the individual practitioner’s interpretation and understanding of principles and context. It is an art of change and constant movement. The intent is the ability to respond to all situations. It is like music. To grow as a musician, you transcend from the rigidity of playing other artist’s music to the ability to jam or listen to other musicians. In time, you make your own music.
Although push hands is an excellent drill for helping interpret your own and your partner’s energy, it is way too limited and structured. It has become a contest of either Tai Chi Sumo or Tai Chi Mush Hands. We have forgotten that push hands is a learning drill, not a domination contest. Tournament safety rules and a fear of litigation has negated the true learning experience. We have become either too limp noodle or too focused on winning.
To learn the internal, you must expose yourself to those with real internal martial experience. One needs to learn how to implement principles within an appropriate context. If you want to learn to swim, you have to get in the water. Once there, you will learn not to fight or fear the water. My teachers use to call Tai Chi land swimming.
Why is the martial component critical?
Back to the question, why study the martial aspects of Tai Chi Chuan? The following are some of the key points that I have learned from the internal martial arts:
The ability to accept and redirect energy. Life is not a game of soft pitch. Life throws all kinds of pitches, at all kinds of speeds, in every direction. Many Tai Chi Chuan practitioners can accept soft slow energy. What happens when opposition is hard, fast, and focused? Unless our art prepares us to address all situations, then it is incomplete. The martial teaches the ability to respond to all types of energy and safely redirect it. This isn't just physical energy, but also emotional and psychological assaults. It isn't just defending against a fellow human; it's dealing with all of life's issues.
The ability to create your own art. Form has important value, but in time one must learn to make their own movements. Form is like a scaffold for a construction project. At some point, the scaffold has to come down, and the entity exist on its own. If you would like a musical analogy; leaning a form is like learning one song. However, if you learn composition, melody, timing, and so on, you can make your own music. There is as much opportunity for creativity in martial arts as there is in any other art form. Understanding martial principles allows creativity under fire.
Accept the unexpected. The martial teaches one to expect and accept the unexpected. Life is constant change. Tai Chi is an art of changes. One learns to detect the energy, blend it and redirect it. The unexpected can cover a universe of encounters, much more than just physical. The martial teaches us to better handle the unexpected moments of life. It is so much more than training for physical encounters with bad people. It is about dealing with the totality of life.
Being in the moment. I have judged a number of Tai Chi tournaments and I’m always dismayed by the lack of focus during form and push hands. So many are just not present. Life is what is happing while one is thinking about the past or the future. We are so caught up the destination, that we lose the present. The martial teaches one to stay focused, centered, and definitely in the present. The martial is true reality therapy and woe to those who can’t stay in the now.
We must never forget that the soul of Tai Chi is martial arts. It is the key for understanding. Remember that fear of the martial that has everything to do with our own perceptions. Lose the fear. Learn to see Tai Chi Chuan as true physical, emotional, and psychological self-defense.
I am enormously grateful to my teachers who showed me the true value of the martial. I have learned that kindness, good, and mercy come from the strong, never the weak. The strong can be elderly, small in stature, any gender, and even disabled. It is not a physical attribute, but a mental one. I have learned to see myself as a warrior. Not for evil, but as a warrior for our better values. Martial arts have made me a better father, grandfather, husband, employer, and human being.
