public-taiji Anja Rosga

Historical aspects or legends:

The history of the origins of Taiji is largely contradictory in some areas and cannot be proven one hundred percent. According to legend, the Daoist monk Zhang Sanfeng is associated with the creation and development of the first Taiji, approximately between the 10th and 14th centuries. He is said to have discovered the principles of internal martial arts in the Wudang Mountains, purely from observing a fight between a snake and a white crane. Because Taiji belongs to the internal martial arts within the Chinese martial arts and is associated with the teachings of Daoism (also called Taoism, the "teaching of the way"), this may be a real historical aspect and not just a legend. The Daoist monks who still live in the Wudang Mountains today also claim that Taiji has been passed on, developed further and handed down traditionally in the Daoist monasteries since Zhang Sanfeng. This so-called Wudang style of Taiji also differs significantly from the other styles of Taiji. The individual styles of Taiji are also referred to as so-called family styles and are called Chen, Yang, Wu, and Sun styles, after their founders.

The emergence of so-called family styles:

Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Taiji became much more well-known and popular and spread throughout China. During this period, some of these styles changed in the way they were performed, with individual, detailed features, thanks to the most famous and greatest Taiji masters to date: Chen Changxing (1771-1853), Yang Luchan (1799-1872), Wu Jianquan (1870-1942) and Yang Chengfu (1883-1936), and as a result, these so-called and probably best-known family styles emerged: Chen, Yang, Wu and Sun styles. The Chen style is still one of the oldest Taiji styles and is still practiced and taught today. From this, the Yang style was derived and further developed; and the Wu and Sun styles are a further development of the Yang style.