Today marks World Tai Chi and Qigong Day. This month, I’ve also been practicing tai chi for 22 years; in May, I will have been practicing Chen style tai chi for 11 years. I am forever grateful for the ways tai chi has changed my life over the past 22 years. I firmly believe in the power and potential of tai chi to change the world as well. Today, to honor both World Tai Chi Day and the milestones in my own practice of tai chi, I offer 5 ways tai chi can change the world.
Health Cultivation
The practice of tai chi for health purposes is well-known. There have been several medical and scientific studies documenting specific ways in which tai chi can help improve health. More fundamentally, however, tai chi places an emphasis on health over fitness. Many movement practices place an emphasis on fitness, being able to perform specific movements well, without attention to overall health. This runs the serious risk of over-training and resulting injuries. Tai chi, in contrast, places an emphasis on health. Improving the holistic well-being of the body is important in tai chi practice. The movements are still physically demanding but the principles allow adaptation to all types of bodies. Overtraining is still a risk, but there are several measures in place to prevent it. Practicing tai chi can bring great health benefits while avoiding the types of injuries that are common in other movement practices.
Physical Literacy/Somatic Vocabulary
Practicing taijiquan involves expanding one’s physical literacy/somatic vocabulary. The principles of taijiquan are potent in and of themselves. They also conflict in a variety of areas with the ways we tend to move our bodies through the world. Learning to practice and embody taijiquan principles can cultivate different and arguably better ways of balancing. It also improves a host of physical literacy skills such as proprioception and situational awareness.
In Europe and North America right now, conflicts around gender and sexuality are omnipresent. A report recently broke covering a “rape academy” where husbands received lessons online on how to have sexual relations with unconsenting spouses, often without their knowledge. The influence of the digital manosphere and various related concepts continues to lead to problematic effects in the real world.
One way to mitigate and prevent sexual and gendered harm and to cultivate healthy, flourishing communities is by improving physical literacy. A variety of forces have resulted in a disconnect between many people and their bodies. Taijiquan offers a potent way to reconnect with one’s body and to cultivate the physical literacy skills that can reduce microaggressions, maintain appropriate boundaries, improve physical and mental resilience, and generally mitigate/prevent both intentional and unintentional harm.
Cultural Literacy
Geopolitical conflict is currently increasing in both likelihood and actual occurrence. Rhetoric around immigration and national sovereignty is growing more heated. At such times, and with a highly integrated socioeconomic and geopolitical global system, improving cultural literacy is of utmost importance. Cultural literacy has the potential to mitigate and reduce sources of interpersonal and geopolitical conflict. Taijiquan, arising from a Chinese context, involves learning cultural concepts and practices that arise from both the taijiquan community specifically and the Chinese culture more generally. In the world outside China, many taijiquan instructors are not themselves Chinese and there have been shifts to adapt taijiquan instruction to cultures all over the world. This is, however, insightful in and of itself, as cultures is far less static and far more dynamic than it is often conceived and portrayed. The unique aspects of taijiquan and Chinese cultures do remain present in most taijiquan schools and communities; the ways in which some aspects are preserved and maintained, while others are adjusted to the cultures in which taijiquan finds itself around the world are instructive and rich areas to explore.
Martial Capability
Taijiquan is primarily a martial art. The taijiquan forms, when faithfully preserved, provide a dictionary of martial principles and an encyclopedia of martial applications to draw upon and refine. Partner work like push-hands provide relatively controlled bridges to free sparring that allow partners to refine key martial abilities like close contact, various methods of “reading” an opponent, grappling techniques and joint locks while minimizing the number of variables and mitigating the risk of lasting harm. Free sparring introduces more variables and greater risk while still having agreed upon restraints. The taijiquan curriculum first develops physical and emotional skills to increase resilience and decrease the potential for harm, and then develops the martial capabilities to defend oneself and others through physical action. As a combat system, taijiquan contains a variety of techniques but is generally classified as upright grappling. As an upright grappling system, the real world potential for self-defense is potent. Systems that emphasize ground grappling are effective in one-on-one confrontations but may not have answers for multiple attackers and reinforcements. Systems that emphasize striking have serious stopping power but may not have adequate answers if someone manages to get inside the optimal striking range. Upright grappling systems generally require being able to get inside an optimal striking range while avoiding comprised ground grappling positions so that situational awareness and flexile defense options can be maintained.
Likewise, taijiquan’s weapon systems provide excellent training for adapting taijiquan principles to a variety of weapons and accessories. Using the same sort of principles, one can make effective use of a variety of improvised weapons in a self-defence encounter. The caveat, of course, is that taijiquan will not provide direct use against modern day ranged weapons though the general improvement in physical literacy may still be of use in preventing the use of ranged weapons. Within individual interpersonal barehanded conflict however, taijiquan can be a very effective option.
Taijiquan Philosophy
The philosophical contributions of taijiquan are potent for resolving conflict whether internal or external, physical or otherwise. The “taiji” part of taijiquan refers to the dynamic balance of yin and yang. Taijiquan seeks to maintain this dynamic balance through a variety of methods, some of which operate on multiple levels. Distinguishing between “substantial” and “insubstantial” can be useful in knowing what provocations to respond to and what to ignore. Connecting with and listening to an incoming force cultivates awareness, patience, and humility. Yielding, in order to lead an opponent into emptiness, and never meeting force with force encourages creative problem-solving, wisdom, and resilience. Overall, taijiquan philosophy emphasizes resolving conflict in a way that favours skill, empathy, connection, awareness, patience, and creativity.
If any of this inspires you to learn more about taijiquan, you can check out Hogg’s Chen Tai Chi Praxeum for additional resources and opportunities to practice.
The Dreamers' Corner 