Martial Tai Chi™

De-mystifying the Mysterious

What isn't Tai Chi?

Excerpt from William C.C. Chen's "An Incident In New York City", from "Body Mechanics of Tai Chi Chuan":

"Some years ago in the perils of the Big Apple I was surprised by an unfortunate incident. Happily I was able to defend myself without harm. But rumours spread throughout China Town and both Chinese Newspapers published a story that I knocked my attacker ten feet into the air without even touching him! I tell the story now in order to dispel the idea that I posses a mystical and invisible power.
... "Without warning, his father, a stocky middle-aged kung-fu expert, suddenly attacked me. At first I just blocked and neutralised his punches and pushed him away. With furious force he charged back into me. With reflex action I struck. My blow cracked his cheekbone and knocked him over five feet into the air. Falling to the ground he injured his knee. He got up and charged again. This time I broke his nose and fractured several of his ribs.
... "I don't have any mysterious force. My power resulted only from the use of my body weight in combination with speed, plus his incoming body power. This created the tremendous impact and lifting power that cracked the cheekbone and knocked him into the air.These are the fundamental principles of the Body Mechanics for the art of self-defence. The principles of my 60 movements of Tai Chi Chuan are based on them."

The above excerpt by William C.C. Chen of the Zheng Manqing lineage makes it clear that we are not quite the only people in the world who see Tai Chi Chuan as a rational, physical martial discipline.