The Chinese "Internal Chinese Martial Arts" such as Tai chi and Bagua are among the most deadly martial arts ever invented. Along with the practice of "Qigong", these arts also represent the very peak of the mountain as far as self healing and medical healing goes. But, looking around at what most people put forth as being representative of these arts, I one has to wonder.
Tai Chi for instance was regarded as the supreme ultimate boxing system of China. Now, we see men playing little boy’s games, dressing up in funny suits that have not been worn for centuries in China, all trying to show how good they are at their art, and how better they are than everyone else. They all go to the same meetings and competitions, to show their wares, they all write the same articles in magazines as to how these arts should be used, they all have the same serious expressions on their faces, and all take themselves and their arts very seriously. But not many, if any, have a clue as to the true nature of the internal martial arts.
The internal martial arts rise high above the way most people practice and propagate these once great arts. Real martial artists do not have to be seen to be serious martial artists, they are just normal people, confident in their art, caring for others, not having to show off at parties etc. Dim-mak is one of these great internal martial arts, one that was almost extinct, leaving behind only a shadow of its former glory in the form of Tai Chi or T'ai chi.
Tai Chi was once a great fighting art of self defence, however it took beating when it entered the modern western world. The "new age" era almost caused real Tai Chi to become extinct. Only a handful of instructors kept going, trying to reveal the true nature of this art. Now, in the later part of the 20th Century, Tai Chi, due to the dedication of a handful of teachers, is being revealed for the first time in modern history as the great fighting, self defence and healing art that it once was.
Most people only ever get to see a fraction of the first area of Tai Chi, i.e.., the "self healing" area, the slow movements we have become familiar with. Few people ever see the real martial arts applications and even fewer ever get to see the "medical" area.
All great martial arts used to have three areas of excellence. The first was the self healing area. Obviously one has to be healthy in order to practice a self defence art. In this area, we practice the forms and the pushing hands movements. There are slow forms, medium paced forms and explosive forms. There are two person fighting sets, also for self healing. At its highest level, the original Yang Style of Tai Chi, founded by Yang Lu-ch’an which was called "Hao Ch’uan" or loose boxing, becomes an explosive set of movements causing the practitioner to take on the appearance of a rag doll, with "fa-jing" shakes taking place all throughout the set of movements. Later, as Yang’s grandson took over the school, he changed the form leaving only the slow movements.
In order to become healthy through movement, we must have slow graceful movements as well as explosive, powerful movements, this gives us a complete set of movements based upon the yin and yang theory.
The second area of Tai Chi is the martial arts area. Not that which is presented by most Tai Chi instructors where we block and evade, then re-attack etc. But the extremely deadly use of dim-mak, or death point striking. But it’s not just the fact that we strike to very dangerous points, it’s the way that we strike to these points, and the explosive method that we use to attack an attacker before he has even the time to react to our defence. No forms are practiced in this area, although the original forms from the self healing area are important in giving us timing and co-ordination. In the self defence area we practice "training methods". These methods give us the ability to react at a reflex level whereby the attacker is attacked rather than defended against.
There have also been so many mis-translations handed down over the years, so we just don’t get the true meaning of the "classics", a bunch of sayings by old masters and documented so that we might have a better understanding of Tai Chi. For instance, the "classic saying" of; "if he moves up, you move up, if he moves down, you move down, if he moves forward, you move back, if he moves back, you move forward". The last two parts of this classic saying have been mis-represented in that the first two give us the idea that we do exactly the same thing as the attacker is doing, and this is correct. However, the translation then goes on in the second part to say that we do exactly the opposite to what the attacker is doing! The second part of this saying should read; "if he moves forward, you move forward, if he moves back, you move back". If he moves forward, he is expecting you to move back, so he is in his element, but if you move forward, doing something completely different to what he expects, then you have the advantage. And if he should move backwards, you do not wish to follow him right into his attack! You should move back so that he has then to move forward into your attack as he cannot harm you if you move back as he moves back. Another mis-translation as to the very way that we practice Tai Chi comes in the classis saying; "move like the great river". Most people have translated this as being that we move slowly and calmly as a gently flowing river. But when the Chinese talk about the "great river", they are talking about the Yellow River, which is parts is almost unnavigable because it is so wild and explosive. So, yes, we must perform the Tai Chi forms like, the great river, sometimes slow and calm flowing, sometimes explosive and dangerous.
