CHANQUANSHU

Why Practise Taijiquan?

All Taijiquan exercises are performed softly. To use only those muscles required to perform a particular act and not to use other muscles is to be efficient. To relax is to conserve energy. In this way softness will promote greater efficiency. To be soft is to have efficient muscles, which promote muscle flexibility. Softness also alleviates anxiety and aids clear thinking by relaxing the mind.

Adequate muscle tone and a well-balanced interplay of tension and release are usually associated with general well-being and emotional stability. From motion you obtain serenity and stability by the release of tension through the continuous shifting of weight from one foot to the other.

Meditation, health and self-defence seem contradictory and incompatible, but nothing could be further from the truth. The practice of all three involves the training of both mind and body.

Self-defence like meditation requires that one becomes aware of one’s body. The body must be conditioned to become flexible and strong. Taijiquan is both meditation and self-defence at the same time; the system is designed so that the two are inseparable. When you are practising one, you are practising the other.

Qi is not quite life-force but it is an aspect of life-force. It is intrinsic energy, inner power, and a vital force that is inherent in all human beings. Once this vital force is released in the individual it is supposed to bring him robust health, strength and longevity. For all the Chinese ‘internal boxing’ schools the power that Qi brings is applied not only for meditation and enlightenment but also for health and self-defence.

The principal technique for the development and cultivation of Qi in Taijiquan is in the practice of Taijiquan movements. Unless the movements are practised properly the cultivation of Qi is not possible. The combination of relaxation and proper breathing within the movements is the key to Qi.