Tai Chi--usefull for self defense..?

[Anbu Alex]

pardon the new guy from barging in but I read somewhere that some Tai Chi is just other Kung Fu styles done slower because untill the development of Wushu the practice of kung Fu was illegal in China so they hid it as a type of meditation it dont know if its true or not

[fallen_milkman]

Nope. In fact, there is a better than good chance Tai Chi Chuan is older than a lot of other Chinese arts. Taoists may have created it before Bodhidharma left India.

[JusticeZero]

I've been told that it's of middling age, neither ancient nor exceptionally recent, it seems to have ties with Long Fist gungfu, but it has it's own principles and materials and isn't just same-old-same-old done in molasses. Some of their practice is done pretty fast, it's not just sluggish forms.

[Sam]

like all "ancient" history - theres a lot of conflicting opinion, andthen not a huge amount of substantiative evidence..... there a couple of things you can say, but very little that is sepcific.

[dtstiachi]

Are you sure there isn't documented, specific evidence?

[fallen_milkman]

Later, in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220 to 265 AD) there was a physician Hua-tu'o who relied not only on medicine but also taught the 'movements of the five creatures' -- tiger, deer, bear, ape and birds -- a system he called Wu-chi chih hsi. He believed that the body needed to be regularly exercised to help with digestion and circulation and only by doing so could a long and healthy live be achieved. He advocated a system of imitating the movements of these animals to help exercise every joint in the body. His teaching, and its connection with the movements of animals, is probably the earliest pre-cursor of Tai Chi.

From http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/history.html. Claims Tai Chi was developed 6th century BC. Damo (Bodhidharma) came to China is the sixth century AD. It all depends where you draw the line of creation in a style.

[Sam]

cool good source .....

Good point as well - depends whether some guy practicing a style to promote a healthy life counts as the definition of the style, etc. etc.

Still nice to find a source with a bit of history in it.

[Spencer]

Fallen Milkman I'm not intending on being rude bu I dont know where you get your information from, but it certainly isn't from any credible historical evidence.

A better record of the history and legend of Taijichuan go here

http://www.zhenwei.org/History/HistoryTaijiquan.htm

For those that are going to quote the Da Mo himself "Bodhidharma" and state that he is the creator of Zen Buddhism let alone martial arts I shall feed you a piece of a thesis that I have that delves into the origin of chinese martial arts and some of the myths behind it.

One should regard the legend of Bodhidharma as "a literary piece belonging to the genre of hagiography," and posthumously embroidered upon "in order to give more legitimacy to the new school" by later followers." [7] This was a common practice in China, where the stature of a past master measured the prestige of a school. If the legend connecting Bodhidharma with the creation of Ch'an is not born out by the historical record, the one connecting him with Shao-lin boxing is even less substantial. [8]

The legend of Bodhidharma's association with the martial arts is no older than the last imperial dynasty (1644-1912). A book called the I-chin ching, bearing the date 628 and purporting to contain the words of Bodhidharma himself, does make the connection, but scholars cannot verify its existence any earlier than about 1800. It appears to have been a late Ch'ing forgery ascribed to Bodhidharma to enhance its value. [9] Bodhidharma's then-secure reputation as the first patriarch of Ch'an would have made him a natural magnet for such frauds.

[fallen_milkman]

Ok, I guess I shouldn't have said when Da Mo came to China, and should have said when he supposedly came to China. Like Sam said, there is conflicting evidence. One main problem is that A LOT of Chinese writers ascribed their works to historical figures, whether real or legend.

Also, after you posted that, I found several more sites, all with different dates. Guess I should have looked around a bit better before posting. My apologies.

[Cambeartx]

Hoping someone can help--I'm interested in beginning training in Tai Chi in the Dallas, TX area--and would like to train with an instructor that could, eventually, work with me on some of the possible self-defense uses for Tai Chi. I'm not having much luck finding schools actually in Dallas (most seem to be in the 'burbs). Does anyone have any recommendations as to schools or instructors WITHIN Dallas?

Thanks!