Tai Chi, when done at its original level, deserves the modern name of "The Supreme Ultimate Boxing", but done as some sort of health dance or mystical experience, cannot be called Supreme Boxing.
The third area of one’s training in the internal martial arts, is the "medical" area. I regard this area as the highest level of one’s training. When I say "medical" I mean that the practitioner of Tai Chi can actually use the postures on someone to affect a healing. Not just giving the person a posture that will heal some ailment, but actually doing something to that person. This area takes many years to master and then some more. However, all one has to know are the self defence applications at a dim-mak level in order to use Tai Chi in this way. This is why the healing area should never be taken away from the martial area. In order to know how to use Tai Chi for healing others, we simply have to know the martial for two reasons. The first is that in doing Taiji at its upper levels, such as dim-mak, we develop an internal energy which attaches us directly to the ground via "energy (Qi) roots", these roots then direct what is called "ground energy" up through our own body and into the body we are trying to heal. But this expertise is only gained through training in Taiji at its highest levels of martial art.
The second reason for knowing the martial art, is that all we have to know, movement wise, are the dim-mak applications. If we know how to use for instance the posture known as "P'eng" , where we firstly take an attack using a low damaging block to our right side damaging his heart/lung meridian, thus draining energy from his body, then we further drain Qi (energy) from the heart/lung meridian by hammering onto wrist points of "Heart 5 and Lung 8" using a violent grab with our right palm. Then we strike to his "mind point" on the side of his jaw using our left back-fist thus causing him to lose consciousness through the action of the strike causing his central nervous system to stop sending signals to his brain. Then, to further the damage, the left wrist attacks to a point called "Conceptor vessel No. 22", thus causing death.
In order to use the above method for the medical area of Tai Chi, all we have to do is that exact self defence method, only at a healing level and not of course at a martial level as we would kill our patient instead of healing him.
We can use this exact self defence method to heal someone of low energy, listless etc., and also to heal someone who has emotional problems caused through some childhood trauma, like sexual abuse or abuse etc. I am in the process of writing a book on Medical Tai Chi which will show all of the applications from Taiji used in this way. The method for this healing involves still striking, very lightly the heart and lung meridians.
This is done only lightly though. Then there is the light grab on the wrist followed by the left palm scraping over the patient’s left cheek and out over the head.
The Medical area is the highest level of one’s martial arts training but sadly most systems nowadays have left this area out and I believe I am the first person in modern history to be taught this area and more importantly to document it for future generations. No other modern martial art including all of the karate styles has this area in their system, as the Chinese just didn’t teach it to the various masters who took what they learnt in China and invented their own systems. The main reason for this is simply that those people didn’t stick around long enough to be ready for this information, or to be ready to use it as the Qi was not at a sufficient level. Another reason is the Chinese simply didn’t want anyone else to have this information. So, why does a western person from Australia have this information? I have been taught this by some of the very best Chinese teachers, I have begged, borrowed, bought (mostly) and stolen (mostly) this information. I have done ‘favours’ for Chinese masters, like my main teacher, Chang Yiu-chun, himself one of only three (I believe), disciples of the great Yang Shou-hou, the son of Yang King-hou, himself the son of Yang Lu-ch’an. Just recently (May 1995) I was invited to become the first westerner to be taught the original Wudang Shan (Wudang Mountain) original style of "Qi disruption", which involves nine brief katas or forms that are said to have been the original forms invented by Chang San-feng. It took me nine years of correspondence since my last tour of China to finally be invited back to learn these forms of fighting and healing. Even so, I actually did it the hard way having to fight my way up to the master, Liang Shih-kan. Previously in 1985 I became the first westerner to be given the degree of "Master" directly from China.
The man who invented Tai Chi, or rather the forerunner to Tai Chi, as the name Tai Chi was not even invented until late last century (19th), was an excellent martial artist in the true sense of the word. Chang San-feng was also a great acupuncturist and healer. It was Chang who combined both of his talents to invent the very deadly point striking art of dim-mak, which later became known as H’ao Ch’uan or "Loose Boxing". Many years later, that name was changed to what we now know as Tai Chi. In collaborating with masters of acupuncture, I have combined my knowledge of dim-mak with their knowledge of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine in general. In doing so, I believe that I have re-discovered what Chang San-feng originally invented.
You cannot take the healing art away from the martial art, to do so, you only get half of a great art. Many styles of martial art have, over the years tried to only take the deadly part of dim-mak thus lessening the greatness of this martial art. Sadly, most schools of martial art nowadays, only look upon the more spectacular movements and even leave out completely the healing side of their art.
