Taijiquan

Ⅵ-11Traditional Sports, Games and AcrobaticsJiaozuo, HenanBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

Chen-style Taijiquan was created in the late Ming and early Qing dynasty by Chen Wangting, ninth-generation descendant of the Chen family of Chenjiagou in Wen County, Henan. Chen Wangting had served as commander of the local militia, and in his later years returned to his home village in retirement; taking the postures set out in the boxing treatise of Qi Jiguang's New Book of Discipline and Training, and drawing on the principles of yin, yang, opening and closing in the Book of Changes as well as on the methods of daoyin breathing and exhalation, he compiled them into a boxing set. From then on the art was practised by generation after generation in Chenjiagou, and by the time of the fourteenth-generation Chen Changxing it was settled into the first and second sets of the routine, and Yang Luzhan, who was not of the family name, was taught it — opening the beginning of the many schools that followed.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Taijiquan is a distinctive form of physical exercise that unites combat skill, strengthening of the body, fitness, benefit to the mind and cultivation of character, and it holds within it the profound content of Eastern philosophy. It brings into the martial arts the paired and unified contents of yin and yang, movement and stillness, front and back, presence and absence, form and spirit, and builds the body and keeps it fit through practice forms that accord with the laws of human movement, expressing the inexhaustible vitality of the Chinese nation.

The old frames and the pushing-hands books

The old first and second frames lead the syllabus along with pushing hands and weapons; the inheritors Wang Xi'an and Zhu Tiancai have published books and discs on them.

Silk-reeling spirals and spring power

Zhu Tiancai's art is soft outside and hard within, with silk-reeling spirals, alternating speed and a springing power used everywhere, especially in joint locking.

Chenjiagou and Chen Wangting

Created at the turn of the Ming and Qing by Chen Wangting of Chenjiagou in Wen county, the Chen style is the root from which the Yang, Wu, Wu (Hao), Sun and He schools later branched.

The lineages of Wang Xi'an and Zhu Tiancai

Wang Xi'an won over twenty national and provincial titles from 1972 and was the first to bring taiji to Japan and Europe; Zhu Tiancai studied under Chen Zhaopi and then Chen Zhaokui and has taught tens of thousands.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Taijiquan is a treasure of Eastern culture and an ancient and distinctive flower in the garden of Chinese martial arts; over the centuries it has given rise to many schools spread far and wide both at home and abroad, among them the Chen, Yang, Wu, Sun and He styles.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan · Taijiquan.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Chen-style Taijiquan appeared in the late Ming and early Qing dynasty; it was created through painstaking study by Chen Wangting of Chenjiagou, Wen County, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province. But because of the influence and impact of such factors as industrialisation, globalisation and the market economy, the contemporary development of Chen-style Taijiquan faces difficulties: its cultural content is gradually disappearing, its original cultural and ecological environment has been damaged, and many boxing and weapon routines are on the verge of being lost. In recent years the people's governments of Jiaozuo City and Wen County have adopted a series of protective measures in policy, funding and popularisation, but the state of Chen-style Taijiquan's development is still not encouraging, the endangered situation remains grave, and further protection is urgently needed. Wang Xi'an (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han nationality, born in 1944, native of Wen County, Henan. His performance of the forms is open and unrestrained, uniting form and spirit, and he is especially skilled in combat, in breaking throws and in projecting the opponent; his boxing is swift, fierce, agile and crisp, and its power is astonishing. He began teaching boxing abroad in 1983 and his footsteps have covered more than thirty countries and regions; he was the first to bring Taijiquan to Japan and to Europe. He successively founded taiji research and training centres at home and abroad bearing his own name, and at the same time served as coach and adviser to Taijiquan organisations in countries including the United States, France and Japan. He began entering competitions in 1972 and won the national and Henan Province Taijiquan form and push hands championships more than twenty times. Wang Xi'an has published a number of monographs and video discs, among them Old-Frame Chen-Style Taijiquan and Push-Hand Techniques of Chen-Style Taijiquan; his works have been translated into French, English and other languages, and he was awarded the honorary title of "International Grandmaster of Taijiquan". His disciples are to be found at home and overseas, and he has greatly promoted the development and flourishing of Chen-style Taijiquan. Zhu Tiancai (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han nationality, born in 1945, native of Wen County, Henan. He began studying Taijiquan in 1955, became a disciple of Chen Zhaopi in 1958, and became a disciple of Chen Zhaokui in 1973. The characteristics of his boxing art are: soft outside and hard within, coiling silk in a spiral; hard and soft united, fast and slow alternating; flashing, striking, springing and shifting, storing and releasing transforming into one; the qi sinks to the dantian and descends to the Yongquan spring; it moves through the whole body but is used at a single point; springlike strength is applied everywhere, and he is especially skilled in qinna and counter-qinna. Zhu Tiancai also authored books such as Chenjiagou Taijiquan and Secret verses of the Chenjiagou Taijiquan, together with a number of video discs including Old-Frame Chen-Style Taijiquan, First Form. He is a representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage project Taijiquan (Chen-Style Taijiquan) of the first national-level batch, and a senior martial arts coach. Zhu Tiancai has lectured and taught boxing at home and abroad for several decades and has trained students numbered in the thousands, of whom more than five hundred have been accepted as inner-door disciples; four of them have already become noted Taijiquan masters and teach the art in many parts of the world.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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