Origins of Tai Chi

The history of Tai Chi is very broad indeed. There are many accounts as to when Tai Chi was created, and who created it. According to one legend, a man by the name of Chang San-Feng, who lived sometime between the ninth and twelfth centuries, created Tai Chi Chuan after witnessing a fight between a snake and crane.

Other researchers proposed that Tai Chi began as a meditation method called Qi Gong (Taoist alchemy), and then later developed into a martial art.

It was around the time of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) that Eastern Indian priests brought Buddhism and its meditation methods to China. From that time, Chinese Taoist monks incorporated many of these methods to create Qi Gong. Qi Gong became a method of internal energy work, which allows the practitioners to have a conscious influence over the different systems of their own bodies. This resulted in enhanced health as well as increased longevity.