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Why Should We Learn and Practice T'ai-Chi Ch'uan?
by Master T. T. Liang

T'ai-Chi Ch'uan, commonly called T'ai-Chi, is an ancient form of Chinese classical dance created about seven hundred years ago by Chang San-Feng, a Taoist priest of the Sung Dynasty. The fundamental principles of this dance fall into four categories: health, self-defense, mental accomplishment, and the way of immortality.

T'ai-Chi for Health

In the Classics of T'ai-Chi it is said, "When the lowest vertebrae are plumb erect, the spirit of vitality reaches to the top of the head; when the top of the head feels as if it is suspended from above, the whole body will be light and nimble." This is the way to strengthen the spine, and by strengthening the spine one not only automatically strengthens the internal organs, but the brain itself.

The T'ai-Chi Classics also say, "The ch'i should be stimulated." The ch'i is an inherent oxygen in the body for stamina and vitality. The stimulation of the ch'i can be compared to the action of the wind on the smooth surface of a lake. As the wind moves across the water it creates waves, blowing them upward and downward in a systematic order of troughs and crests. The ch'i, latent in the body, is not sufficiently forceful of itself to increase the flow of blood, but if the ch'i is persistently stimulated, it produces heat and becomes powerfully effective in activating the circulation of the blood evenly throughout the whole body. The same principle is illustrated by the conversion of water into steam: the invisible power latent in water is made active and effective enough to drive the piston of a powerful engine.

If you want to practice T'ai-Chi, it is best to rise early in the morning and practice outdoors. If you want to rise early in the morning, you must keep far away from the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the gamblers, and get rid of all bad habits. Assimilate the new and excrete the old. Introduce rhythm so that the postures can be practiced to music slowly, effortlessly, and evenly, to create the coordination of body and mind. Early to bed, early to rise, a round of T'ai-Chi morning and evening, makes a man or woman healthy, wealthy and wise.

T'ai-Chi for Self-Defense

When you have attained perfect health, then we can talk about the second fundamental principle: self-defense, practical use. The application or functioning of T'ai-Chi hinges entirely upon the player's consciousness. It is said in the T'ai-Chi Classics, "Take advantage of your opponent's weak points and your own superior position." "Deflect the momentum of a thousand pounds with a trigger force of four ounces." "From the most pliable and yielding you will arrive at the most powerful and unyielding." These are sayings which emphasize mental activity rather than external muscular force.

As a result of practicing the 150 postures of T'ai-Chi, you will develop equilibrium (a firm rooting of the feet). From practicing Pushing-Hands you will come to know how to neutralize and yield; to lose, not to gain; small loss brings small gain; big loss – big gain. You should know all the techniques in the "Song of Pushing Hands" as described in the T'ai-Chi Classics.

"In Ward-Off, Roll-Back, Press, and Push one must know the correct techniques. The lower and upper parts of the body must act in unison so that an opponent would find it difficult to advance and attack. Even though he should come to attack with greater force, use a push and pull of four ounces to deflect a momentum of one thousand pounds. Entice him to advance; when his energy is emptied, adhere to him and issue energy. Adhere, join, stick to, and follow, with no letting go and with no resistance."

From practicing the Two-Person Dance (178 postures) you will develop an intrinsic energy in the sinews and tendons. This intrinsic energy is issued from the spine, the energy in the whole body acting as one unit. If you strike only with the hands, the energy will come from the bones and the whole body will be tense. This is not only ineffective for functional use, but also harmful to one's health. So the T'ai-Chi Classics say, "You have hands everywhere on your body, but it has nothing to do with hands." This is also the way to interpret energy. The T'ai-Chi Classics again say, "After you have learned how to interpret energy, the more you practice the better your skill will be, and by examining thoroughly and remembering silently you will gradually reach a stage of total reliance on the mind.

Eventually the "Sticking Energy" of T'ai-Chi will be developed. The "Sticking Energy" is divided into three levels--lowest, middle, and highest. The lowest level requires that one touch the opponent's body with the hand in order to make him fall--that is, one grasps the opponent's body or hands. There are two methods: one is borrowing his energy to issue your own energy (Receive-Attack technique); the other is to entice the opponent to issue energy, then, after neutralizing all his energy to the side, to knock him over (Rollback technique from Pushing-Hands practice). These types of energy are the most elemental techniques in T'ai-Chi. The middle level of "Sticking Energy" is described by the saying, "As soon as one touches his clothing, the opponent is immediately thrown over." That is to say, as soon as your palm touches his clothing than he is uprooted. "By touching the opponent's cloth, he can be overthrown in any of eighteen ways."

A person with the highest form of T'ai-Chi "Sticking Energy" can use his flat palm to lift anything, without exerting strength through the fingers. One of the T'ai-Chi disciples of Yang's family relied only on the sticking energy of one palm to raise an armchair weighing several tens of pounds from one place and set it down lightly in another. It is said in the T'ai-Chi Classics, "When the mind intends, the ch'i immediately follows." His palm was full of electromagnetism, like a lodestone, to which the armchair was irresistibly attracted.

My teacher, Professor Cheng Man-Ching said that he learned T'ai-Chi for more than seven years from Master Yang Cheng-Fu, the third generation of Yang's T'ai-Chi. Once his teacher told him: there are quite a few people in this world learning and practicing T'ai-Chi. They have to discriminate between the pure and the adulterated because like taking food, the flavor is entirely different.

The arms of a pure T'ai-Chi Master are like iron bars wrapped in cotton, externally flexible but internally strong and heavy. When grasping the opponent's hand as in the Pushing-Hands practice the T'ai-Chi Master's hands are very light but the opponent cannot get away from them. When he issues or releases his intrinsic energy from his spine it is like the bullet shooting out of the muzzle of a gun, swift as lightning, prompt and clear-cut like breaking a dry biscuit, without exerting the slightest muscular force. As soon as the opponent feels a slight stir of his body, he has already been pushed over more than ten feet with no feeling of any pain. When the T'ai-Chi Master only attaches his hands lightly to the opponent's hands without scratching or grasping then it is as firm as glue, impossible to remove and also causes an intolerable aching and numbness of his arms.

On the other hand, if I want to subdue and seize the T'ai-Chi expert, it is like trying to catch the wind and seize a shadow ending up with nothing at all, or like attempting to step on a gourd in the water, so slippery as to provide no firm hold or footing.

This is the meaning of real T'ai-Chi. My teacher Master Yang's words are so accurate and precise that I have tried them out oftentimes and they have proven absolutely true. I cannot but respect him from the beginning to end.

Mental Accomplishment

To accomplish T'ai-Chi physically and technically is relatively easy, but to accomplish it mentally is much more difficult. From my more than thirty years experience of learning and practicing T'ai-Chi, I have formulated ten theorems for my daily guiding principles to help me know how to deal with people and myself:

1) Nobody can be perfect. Take what is good and discard what is bad.

2) If I believe entirely in books, better not read books; if I rely entirely on teachers, better not have teachers.

3) To remove a mountain is easy, but to change a man's character is more difficult.

4) If there is anything wrong with me, I don't blame others, I only blame myself.

5) If I want to live longer, I must learn and practice T'ai-Chi and accomplish it both physically and mentally. To accomplish it mentally is much more difficult

6) I must learn how to yield, to be tactful, not to be aggressive; to lose (small loss, small gain; great loss, great gain), not to take advantage of others; to give (the more you give, the more you have.)

7) Make one thousand friends, but don't make one enemy.

8) One must practice what he preaches. Otherwise it is empty talk or a bounced check.

9) To conceal the faults of others and praise their good points is the best policy.

10) Life begins at seventy. Everything is beautiful! Health is a matter of the utmost importance and all the rest is secondary. Now I must find out how to enjoy excellent health in my whole life and discover the way to immortality.

By learning and practicing T'ai-Chi and following the ten guiding principles for your daily activities, your hot temper will gradually become mild. Hatred, jealousy, anger, and all depraved thoughts will disappear and your evil temperament will be reformed, leaving evil to follow the good. Your mind will be upright and pure. When you arrive at the age of seventy you will enjoy a happy, peaceful, and quiet life. At that age you will realize that fame, wealth, authority, honor are all dust. You will then purify your mind and lessen desires so you can fully enjoy your life and appreciate Nature. That is why I say, "Life begins at seventy." You are wonderful. The world is beautiful!

The Way of Immortality

The ultimate goal of learning and practicing T'ai-Chi is to become an immortal. Let me recount an old legend. When Chang San-Feng had sat in meditation on Wu Tang Mountain for many years, he still could not obtain his final goal: to become an Immortal. One day he got up and began practicing the T'ai-Chi posture, "Step Back to Chase the Monkey Away." After less then thirty minutes, he suddenly felt that all the joints in his body were widely open and his body and soul immediately took flight to another world (Paradise) and he became an Immortal.

Ordinarily the two bones of the buttocks are closed and the ch'i cannot sink downward. When Cheng San-Feng practiced this posture, he put one foot backward with both feet parallel and the toes of both feet pointing directly ahead with the distance between the legs equal to the shoulders, letting the ch'i sink downward to the legs and the bubbling-well points of the soles, thereby pushing the blood through the entire body freely and without hindrance. That is why he finally reached his goal and became an Immortal.

The principles and theories of T'ai-Chi are so profound and abstruse and the applications so subtle and ingenious that you must find the absolutely accurate and correct way to learn and practice. If what you have learned is not quite correct and accurate, the minimal error will keep you handicapped and you will fall behind by ten thousand miles. You will also lose the functional use of T'ai-Chi and it will be useless to talk about mental accomplishments and the way to immortality.

I have had more than ten T'ai-Chi teachers. From the point of view of his art, I must say that Professor Cheng Man-Ching is the best. If you are one of his disciples and practice a formal ritual, you must closely follow his instruction when practicing the T'ai-Chi posture "Step Back to Chase the Monkey Away." This is the absolutely accurate and correct way. Whether we can become immortal or not by learning and practicing T'ai-Chi is not the main concern, but we have the greatest hope of reaching the age of one hundred years or more, the highest level of longevity. Nonetheless, a person's life and death are predetermined; riches and honors are in the hands of Heaven. I strongly believe in cause and effect. While we are living we must live virtuously, try our best to enjoy our life, appreciate nature, and finally wait for our allotment so that we have not spent the best of our days vainly.

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