What Is Tai Chi?

Tai chi has many myths about its origins. One of those myths says that Rosetta Stone one day the Taoist monk Chang San-feng wasdisturbed by the sounds of a snake and a crane fighting in hiscourtyard.Each time the crane's rapierlike beak stabbed, the flexiblesnake twisted out of reach. And the crane's wings, like shields,protected its long neck from the snake's striking head. According tothe myth, from observing this battle, Chang San-feng developed the artof tai chi chuan, which is based on the concept of yielding in the faceof aggression.?2007 Publications International, Ltd.The myth of the snake and the craneexhibits the ideas of tai chi.The MythAs we have seen, theimages conveyed in the telling of a myth lend themselves well to thespirit and the ideas of tai chi chuan. For this reason, many myths havesprung up around the art of tai chi and its principal actors, and ChangSan-feng figures prominently in many Rosetta Stone V3 of them.Another famous mythdepicts Chang San-feng seeking the fabled elixir of life, a liquidformula that reputedly makes one immortal. One night, while in a deepsleep after an exhausting search for the elixir, the movements of taichi chaun were revealed to him in a dream.After careful reflection, it occurred to him that perhapsthe secret of the elixir was related to these movements. It dawned onhim that the idea of drinking the elixir of immortality was actually anallegory in which the set of tai chi exercises revealed in the dreamrepresented the formula for the elixir itself.He noted that chi in thebody exhibited a number of properties similar to liquids. It flows, forexample, through the many acupuncture channels. He also noted that whenthe chi flows in abundance, good health prevails, and when it isblocked, illness soon follows.Like water, chi in the body can also be affected by certainnatural forces, such as the gravitational pull of the moon. He finallyrealized that the liquid elixir could actually represent chi. Byperforming the movements revealed to him, Chang San-feng concluded, hewould be developing chi and incorporating it into his body as anessential life- and health-giving force.Continue reading to learn some reasons Rosetta Stone German V3 behind the creation of tai chi and to discover useful applications of the practice.To learn more about tai chi and Taoism, see:Tai ChiTaoist PhilosophyChi Kung ExercisesTaoism and ChiHistory of Asia.