Tai Chi for Health

Tai Chi can be a beautiful graceful art similar to ballet. See the China ladies Yang style Chinese form champion from 2014 .

Tai Chi can also be a very effective martial art if trained the right way.

Mostly Tai Chi emphasizes the health aspects. So 80% of the art as practiced by most people is for health, fitness, relaxation and to fix various medical problems. Maybe 20% of the people train it for the martial art part.

When you train Tai Chi as an exercise, it is still good to understand what each movement was for otherwise the postures just are not correct. This means you will not receive the full benefits of the various movements. Incorrect postures will create unwanted tension in various parts of the body which will prevent relaxation and in fact cause lower back and knee problems.

One famous Tai Chi master said that when you do the Tai Chi form, you should imagine what you are doing with the movement. But if nobody has explained the function of the various movements, then there is no way you can do that.

Tai Chi is not just waving your arms around in a limp way like David Carradine used to do in the movies. He didn’t really know Tai Chi.

On the other hand when you do Tai Chi as a martial art with a partner, then you should pretend there is no partner and you are just doing the form. Often people are too tense or stiff in partner exercises or they are too competitive and then end up doing something that is not really Tai Chi at all. Again, no benefit will result if you are stiff and tense.

Various Chinese martial arts can be done in an external way or in an internal way. How it is done depends on the students understanding and personality and how he or she was taught.

In Chinese philosophy everything is thought to have both Yin and Yang aspects which are in some kind of dynamic balance. Yin is like he female part and Yang is like the male part. Also Yin could be the soft part and Yang the hard part. Or Yin is the passive part and Yang is the active part. Yin is like cold and Yang is like hot.

The Ying Yang symbol of shows a black part containing a white circle and white part containing a black circle. what this means is that the Yin part has a Yang part within it and the Yin part has a Yang part within it.

So Tai Chi in it’s softness also has a hard part to it. Hardness can come from extreme softness. Likewise harder aggressive looking arts like Wing Chun have a softer element within it otherwise it cannot possibly work against stronger opponents and besides, Wing Chun was supposed to have come from a lady so the use of brute muscular force cannot really be a part of this art.

I have found that Tai Chi people who learn some Wing Chun, have a better understanding of Tai Chi and likewise a Wing Chun person who understands something of Tai Chi will be much more flexible, relaxed and less limited in the applications of their movements.

Good martial artists use correct or accurate positioning, sensitivity (awareness) , proper timing, then speed (through economy) and finally strength.

These days many martial arts also include Tai Chi as part of their curriculum. I have seen this happen more and more in the Wing Chun world and also in the Karate world. Various even Olympic caliber Judo practitioners have said that Tai Chi has improved their Judo skills.

Raymond Chung Taught in Seattle

The Pacific Northwest has had several amazing t'ai-chi masters. In the 1960's and 70's there were two notable masters who were the top t'ai-chi teachers. They were Tchoung Ta-tchen and Raymond Chung. Both were well respected and had large followings in Canada and the United States.

Most CTCCA & NWTCCA students know that Grand Master Tchoung Ta-tchen is the one responsible for the Old Yang Style curriculum and for promoting the art widely around the world. There was another teacher by the name of Raymond Chung who also taught several of the NWTCCA teachers and is held in highest esteem by them. For example, two were Dave Harris and Harvey Kurland. Both were Tchoung's advanced students who also studied with Grand Master Raymond Chung. Dave Harris also studied Yang style with Master Fuk Yueng and Harvey Kurland also studied Yang style with Masters KY Tung and TT Liang prior to working with R. Chung. After studying with Chung they both studied with Tchoung Ta-tchen.

Raymond Chung taught the Yang Cheng-fu form that he learned from Yang Sau Chung. This form and system was a little different from what TT Liang or TY Tung taught both in terms of movements and pushing hands drills. (See the History article) Yang Sau-chung was the eldest son of Yang Cheng-fu and one of the top teachers of the system. Yang Sau Chung moved to Hong Kong in 1940 and started his own school. He was considered the highest authority on his father's system. Yang Say Chung died in 1985.

Raymond Tchoung taught the Yang Cheng-fu (1883-1936) (Yang Zhao Qing) long form, several specific pushing hands drills as well as walking pushing hands and a San Shou form. The San Shou form that Chung taught was slightly different than the one taught by Tchoung Ta-tchen and different from the one taught by TT Liang. This is interesting because Chung allegedly learned the form from Yang Sau Chung (Yang Zhen Ming), but other traditional Yang Family stylists claim the san shou form is not part of that system at all (See 2nd San Shou article). TT Liang and TT Tchung learned the san shou from Hsiung Yang-ho who was one of only a handful of students of Yang Shao-hou (1862-1930) (Yang Zhao Xiong). Yang Shao-hou was Yang Sau Chung's Uncle. (A description of the form is made by Chang in the 1st San Shou article).

Grand Master Raymond Chung was born in 1913 and studied the Orthodox Yang style since 1935. He primarily taught the Yang Sau Chung (1910-1985) (also spelled Yang Shao Zhoung) version of the system. He also knew several other styles including Sun style. He immigrated to Canada and started a school of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan in Vancouver in 1963 teaching in Victoria, Bellingham and Seattle. Chung was one of the main t'ai-chi ch'uan teachers at that time in the PNW. In Seattle, Chung taught at David Harris's North Seattle School of Karate near Greenlake from 1969 until 1972 and in Chinatown at the Seattle Tai Chi Association. Harris also studied with him in Vancouver.

When Grandmaster Tchoung moved to Vancouver in early 1970's several of Raymond Chung's senior students moved to the Tchoung camp. Then when Raymond Chung stopped teaching in Seattle, Tchoung Ta-tchen was asked to take over the Seattle Tai Chi Association in Seattle's Chinatown. Later the group was more interested in Wushu forms and competing in tournaments so Tchoung moved to Chinese Cultural Center near the University of Washington. Tchoung inherited several of Chung's advanced students including NTCCA teachers Dave Harris and Harvey Kurland and others. This was a long transition for them as Tchoung form was over twice as long and very different from the Standard Yang style form that Chung taught. Tchoung Pushing Hands drills and San Shou form was different as well. This lead to a unique relearning experience for them. They benefited from training in the two methods.

Other of Chung's most advanced Seattle students such as Richard Skinner chose not to continue with Grandmaster Tchoung and traveled to Vancouver to train with Raymond Chung. Others continued to practice on their own. They had learned the long form and his pushing hands and san shou so had a good & complete system to practice. Chung's schools continue to flourish in Canada.

Raymond Chung recently retired and his students continue teaching in Canada. In April 2002, Master Chung celebrated his ninetieth birthday.

For more information go to :

For Seattle Tai Chi History: http://www.wuji.com/taijihistoryseattle.htm

For Yang Family Lineage Chart (only family members are on this): http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/info/images/familytree.jpg

This is based upon information believed to be true and we apologize for any errors. Please contact us for additions and corrections.