Chinese Philosophy
Taiji and the Chinese philosophy 中国哲学
Chinese philosophy is as old as China, and it is one of the most ancient civilizations on the planet. The idea of observing the basic principles described in ancient philosophical treatises is still part of every action of Eastern man, whether it be calligraphy, poetry, music, medicine, history, architecture, government, nutrition and martial arts. Here we will reveal some of the main philosophical ideas and principles that we use as a theoretical structure for the movements in Tai Chi:
Wuji 無極
Wuji is the symbol of the borderless Infinite, the thing that contains in itselfeverything and gives rise to time, space, matter and its poles.
The Infinite is the mother of everything, the idea of wholeness and Infinity, from which everything springs and cyclically returns to Wu Ji. That is why the symbol of Wu Ji is the Circle, often painted as an infinite circle, that is, open at one end.
Taiji 太極
Tai Chi is the SupremeUltimate. It is born of the Infinite, when the idea of the two energies arises in it - Yin - Yang, the two poles of dark and light energy and matter, time and space are separated and interconnected with opposites. Tai Chi is the Oneness, the balance of opposites it contains. Tai Chi uses Yin-Yang's idea of unity and interconnectedness of opposites. They cannot and do not exist without each other, in each opposite there is a particle of the other, an intergenerating cycle of constant change. The Tai Chi symbol is depicted as a circle with a dot or as a circle with Yin Yang in it.
Bagua 八卦
Bagua or the eight directions and energies further developed the idea of interconnectedness.
Graphically, it all starts with Yin and Yang, they are presented not only
as a white and black semicircle, but also linearly can be represented as a"broken"
or "unbroken" line.
In the first row they are two strokes - one Yin and one Yang.
In the second row there are two strokes, biagrams - the unbroken and the broken
one are developed combinatorially into 4 double strokes - two strong, two weak
strokes and two with one strong yang and one weak yin, as well as one weak yang
and strong yin.
On the third row, trigrams are formed -
8 trigrams with three strokes, which correspond to the eight directions of the
world, but are also connected with the eight main ideas for energy of the hands
in Tai Chi - Peng, Liu, Ji, An, Tsai, Chow, Kao, Lie.
The trigrams form a combination of 64 hexagrams that describe the world,
energy, flow and change. It is important to consider in detail their
description in the book Yi Jing - Book of Changes.
Wuxing 五行
Wuxinginis the theory of the five elements – Earth (土 tǔ), Water (水 shuǐ), Metal (金 jīn), Fire (火 huǒ), Wood (木 mù).
These are the elements that create not only the Earth, but everything in existence, even our body.It has the supportive and destructive principle of the 5 elements.
In Tai Chi chuan as a martial art, the legs and feet correspond to the five elements.