The Chinese fighting arts are called by the common name WUSHU. They can be roughly divided to external and internal styles. The Shaolin kungfu is an example of the external hard style. Popular internal styles are e.g. Tai Chi Quan (Taijiquan), Ba Kua, Liu Ho Ba and Hsing Yi.
Tai Chi Quan (or taiji) can be freely translated as ”Chinese boxing” or ”shadow boxing” . According to the story Zhang Shanfeng developed Tai Chi Quan at the end of the 14th century after having seen a fight between a crane and a snake. In the middle of the 16th century Chen Wanting from the Chenjiagou village in the Henan province developed the style that proved to be very efficient in the battlefield. This style is called the Chen style.
This fighting art was carried over from one generation to the next within the Chen family only. Its secrets were not disclosed to the outsiders. When the fire arms appeared in the battlefield the role of taiji as a fighting art diminished and it was regarded more as a health and longevity promoting activity.
Most of the 7 taiji forms created by Zhen Wanting required extremely good physical shape and their execution caused problems even to very experienced fighters. Because this fighting art was no more as useful as it used to be, it was not trained as seriously as before. Therefore, after a few generations even the Chen family masters were able to perform only some of these original forms.To save the remaining knowledge of these forms to future generations Chen Changxin (1771-1853) from the Chenjiagou village combined the knowledge of all the forms in two separate forms. These forms are called the old form 1 (Yilu) and the old form 2 (Erlu).
Gradually the secrets of the Chen taiji were disclosed also to people outside the Chen family.
Chen Zhaopei was among the first to start teaching Chen taiji outside the Chenjiagou village, when he in 1928 was invited to Beijing to teach taiji. After he was invited in 1930 further to teach in Nanjig Chen Fake continued teaching in Beijing. From Beijing various taiji styles quickly spread to other cities in China and to other countries. In 1958 Chen Zhaopei returned to Chenjiagou village to teach the 19th generation Chen style diciples. After his death 1972 Chen Fake’s son Chen Zhaokui continued teaching there.
When the Chen style teaching to the outsiders of the Chen family commenced several new styles modified from the original Chen style soon appeared. From them the Yang style is the most well known one and it has gained most ground in the world.
Yang Luchan (1799-1872) was a 15th generation Chen master. He was the disciple of Chen Changxin and the founder of the Yang style. He was the first person outside the Chen family mastering the Chen style.
Yang Jianghou (1839-1917) was the third son of Yang Luchan. He continued the teaching the Yang style created by his father and also developed this style further.
< p>Yang Chengfu (1883-1936) was the second son of Yang Jianghou. He further modified the style of the Yang family in 1920’s and 1930’s. The popularity of the Yang style was growing fast in the southern China, Hong-Kong and Taiwan owing to his and other family members’ efficient teaching.In 1956 commissioned by the Sports Committee of China the simplified 24 movement Yang style form was developed. The longer Yang style form was shortened to a version including 24 movements only. The purpose was to make it easier to learn the form but at the same time to maintain the essential principles of taiji.
In 1970’s taiji made its appearance in Finland.