What is Tai Chi?

The word acupuncture is derived from the Latin words acus (needle; the uppermost character of the Chinese letters in the practice's logo) and pungere (to stab; the lower Chinese symbol in the logo literally means 'to prick with a stone').

Acupunture

TAI

Big, Grand, Extreme, ‘a lot of’

CHI

Supreme, Top, Ultimate, utmost

QUAN

Fist

The Tai Chi symbol itself

I Ching, the Book of Change (compiled from four older books by Confucius)

The Tao Te Ching, the Book of the Way and Virtue

The Wu Shing or Five Elements

Ultimately, this teaching of life was integrated into a martial art in China, which has now grown into a movement teaching. The different spellings of Tai Ji, such as Tai Chi, Tai Chi Chuan or Tai Ji Quan, depend on the spelling used, such as PinYin or Wade. The interpretations of the meaning are varied, such as "move-in harmony" or "boxing extreme origin". Sometimes it is said that the origin of Tai Ji Quan lies in Dim Mak, an effective martial art that uses acupuncture points on the body.

In our school, we prefer the translation: Great Life Force.

Yang Ch’eng Fu was born into the famous Yang Taijiquan family, the son of Yang Chien-hou and grandson of Yang Luchan. With his older brother Yang Shao-hou, he was among the first teachers to offer Tai Chi Quan instruction to the general public at Beijing.

Ch’eng Fu is known for having "smoothed" out the somewhat more vigorous training routine he learned from his family and emphasizing a "large frame" with expansive movements in stepping and using large circular motions with the arms. His smooth, evenly paced large frame form and its hundreds of offshoots have been the standard for Yang-style.

Cheng Man-ch'ing or Zheng Manqing was a notable Chinese expert of Tai Chi Quan, Chinese medicine, calligraphy, painting and poetry. Because of his skills in these five areas, considered among some of the traditional skills and pastimes of a Confucian scholar, he was often referred to as the "Master of Five Excellences." Because he had been a college professor, his students called him "Professor Cheng."

Around 1930 Cheng met the well-known master Yang Ch’eng Fu with whom he began to study Yang-style, until Yang died.

He started the Shih Chung T'ai Chi Association in Taipei, where many now well-known students (Benjamin Lo, Liu Hsi-heng, Hsu I-chung, dr Qi Jiang Tao, Robert W. Smith, T. T. Liang, William C. C. Chen, Huang Sheng Shyan and others) trained with him.

Huang Sheng Shyan or Huang Xingxian was born in Minhou County of the Fujian province in Mainland China. He began studying Fujian White Crane with Xie Zhong-Xian at the age of 14.

In 1947 he resettled in Taiwan where he became a disciple of Cheng Man-ch'ing. Huang committed himself to this tradition for the next 45 years.

By the time of his death in December 1992, he had established 40 schools and taught 10,000 people throughout South East Asia. Huang was considered by some to be the most highly achieved student of Cheng Man-Ch’ing.

Patrick A. Kelly began Tai Chi in 1973 and was the only Westerner to be admitted as a personal student of the legendary Master Huang Sheng Shyan.

At the same time, he worked closely for 14 years with the Sufi Naqshibandi Sage Gnostic Abdullah Dougan and for 30 years with the Raja Yogi Mouni Maharaj of Rajasthan, both until their deaths.

Patrick embodies so the meeting point of three major esoteric currents (Asian, Indian and Eastern Europe) and he is, through his teaching around the world, a gateway to the genuine path to ourselves.

Jef Crab has more than 40 years of experience in various martial arts, of which more than 30 years focused exclusively on inner movement. In early 1985 he met Wang Hui Jun (Henry Wang) in Taiwan.

In '86, Jef started his own group at KU Leuven Belgium. The school quickly expanded to over 100 students. First, it grew in Leuven, but later departments in Ghent and Kortrijk followed.

From 1992 Jef also came into contact with Patrick Kelly.

Jef still considers himself a student of both Tai Ji greats, who each have developed their own way of teaching, depth and speciality. His Tai Ji lineage is no doubt in the Yang family, although he increasingly understands that this no longer matters today. After all, the Tai Ji principles are universal, regardless of the style one practices.