Who found TaiJiQuan 太極拳? Nobody! It is a gradual evolution emerging from two groups of knowledge… This question has been bothering the minds of all TaiJiQuan practitioners for many thousands of years. As a PhD. doctoral researcher into the topic, I really don’t wish to be dragged into all those senseless arguments. Why?... because it seemed that the claimants were only trying for personal gains, one way or the other.. Sadly, the main objective of [self-healing & health promotion 有病醫病 無病養生] has been pushed aside & forgotten, even today!.. Indeed, it is important to know where & how the knowledge has been evolved from. I have spent 7 years digging into the 5000 years of Chinese written culture of [knowledge of changes 易學] & [Daoism 道學]. According to archaeological findings & ancient literature reviews [TaiJiQuan] seemed to be a product of gradual evolution of Daoist philosophical teachings (mind) & martial physical workouts (body). It was also a gradual improvement of the understanding of Cosmic-human relationship. Ancient Daoist term named that as ‘Interactions between Cosmic & human energy 天人合一’. The earliest archaeological proof found was the 2700 years old ‘jade pendant’ [XingQiYuPeiMing 行氣玉佩銘]. There were 45 ancient Chinese characters carved on the surfaces that related to the skills of ‘TuNa breathings’ of different levels. This was named as [XingQiShu 行氣術], which was the forebear of today’s QiGong (今日的氣功). Then the second archaeological evidence was the 2300 years old ‘DaoYinTu silk brocade 長沙馬王堆導引圖]. The drawing recorded the exercises were known as ‘DaoYinShu 導引術’. On the ancient silk scroll itself, physical exercises of toady’s QiGong & TaiJiQuan were clearly visible. Recently, in another Han dynasty tomb, Chinese archaeologists found a collection of ‘bamboo strips’ of records (張家山漢簡引書). Unlike the [DaoYinTu] there were no drawings but all writings about the [DaoYinShu]. Evidently, the knowledge of XingQiShu (QiGong) & DaoYinShu(TaiJiQuan) emerged around +2700 years ago… My hypothesis was that during the long period of evolution, two groups of knowledge emerging from ancient Daoist scholars & warriors had merged together to form the basic XingQi DaoYinShu or QiGong/TaiJiQuan framework. The evolution has continued till today… Therefore, it is logical to name the knowledge as [XingQiDaoYin。TaiJiQuan] or [DaoYin TaiJiQuan] in short. It would be illogical & irrational to claim that today’s TaiJiQuan has been found by an individual or a single group. Indeed, more researches have to be done in regards of this discussion… As for the critics, kindly provide archaeological proofs and ancient literature reviews to support your claims... NOT just empty talks like.. according to the legend??....Thank you for your time… Dr. YK Leung PhD. research fellow in Daoist Medicine…
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 16:10:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015