Recently in History Category
I promised I will talk about the significance of the 24-step routine. Taiji is an ancient martial art, and like anything ancient, people have changed it over time based on personal taste, preferences, and new needs, resulting in many styles and flavors. I relate to that very much because the same thing has happened to music in my culture.
While having different styles and flavors is necessary in terms of authenticity and also the growth of an art form, it makes things hard when it comes to education, "common understanding", and competition.
Therefore back in 1956 a shorter version of the Yang style Taiji was developed as the "standard simplified form". Some of the harder physical moves were taken out to make it appropriate for pretty much any age, doable in about 6 minutes. This routine has 24 postures or "steps" and is therefore called the 24-step Taiji routine.
24-step is the most widely known and practiced form of Taiji these days. So if you travel to a country far far away (for me Australia!) and you happen to run into some people doing Taiji in a park, if you know the 24-step form you have a good chance of being able to join them and enjoy group Taiji.
I have heard - I hope I can see it some day - that in the mornings people get together in parks in Beijing and do the 24-step Taiji to music. The only way to achieve group practice at such levels is through having a standard, not-so-hard form. That's why if you're into Taiji you pretty much have to learn 24-step. Additionally, if you're doing a different style like Chen or Wu, 24-step will give you a flavor of what Yang style looks like without making you learn the really long 108-step original routine!
A detailed account of the 24-step form can be found here.
While having different styles and flavors is necessary in terms of authenticity and also the growth of an art form, it makes things hard when it comes to education, "common understanding", and competition.
Therefore back in 1956 a shorter version of the Yang style Taiji was developed as the "standard simplified form". Some of the harder physical moves were taken out to make it appropriate for pretty much any age, doable in about 6 minutes. This routine has 24 postures or "steps" and is therefore called the 24-step Taiji routine.
24-step is the most widely known and practiced form of Taiji these days. So if you travel to a country far far away (for me Australia!) and you happen to run into some people doing Taiji in a park, if you know the 24-step form you have a good chance of being able to join them and enjoy group Taiji.
I have heard - I hope I can see it some day - that in the mornings people get together in parks in Beijing and do the 24-step Taiji to music. The only way to achieve group practice at such levels is through having a standard, not-so-hard form. That's why if you're into Taiji you pretty much have to learn 24-step. Additionally, if you're doing a different style like Chen or Wu, 24-step will give you a flavor of what Yang style looks like without making you learn the really long 108-step original routine!
A detailed account of the 24-step form can be found here.
In case you're wondering why there are two different names for Taiji, it goes back to the history of romanizing (using a phonetic notation) for written Chinese. Because of unique characteristics of the Chinese (Mandarin, to be more accurate), it's practically impossible to transliterate the language into a western language. Romanization helps us transcribe the sounds, or pronunciations, of characters.
The first widely used romanization of Chinese was developed in 19th centuray through the (independent, but related) works of Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles. Many reference and well-known books printed in the west about China - before 1979 - used the Wade-Giles notation. In fact Wade, who was British ambassador in China, published the first Chinese text book in English using this system he devised. The transcription of the Chinese words for Taiji in Wade-Giles notation is T'ai chi ch'uan.
Later on, during the 60's and 70's, the Chinese government had a new effort in standardizing the romanization of Mandarin for teaching in schools. The results, officially in place in 1979, is called Pinyin and has replaced the older Wade-Giles system. It's more flexible in terms of transcribing Chinese sounds. In this system, the sound that was represented using ch in Wade-Giles is j, and the sound representing ch' is q. Therefore, in the Pinyin system one writes Tai ji quan.
Given the fact that Pinyin is the new standard which has practically replaved Wade-Giles, and also listening to how Chinese people actually pronounce the name, I have been consistently using Tai ji Quan or Taiji in short since over the past few years.
The first widely used romanization of Chinese was developed in 19th centuray through the (independent, but related) works of Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles. Many reference and well-known books printed in the west about China - before 1979 - used the Wade-Giles notation. In fact Wade, who was British ambassador in China, published the first Chinese text book in English using this system he devised. The transcription of the Chinese words for Taiji in Wade-Giles notation is T'ai chi ch'uan.
Later on, during the 60's and 70's, the Chinese government had a new effort in standardizing the romanization of Mandarin for teaching in schools. The results, officially in place in 1979, is called Pinyin and has replaced the older Wade-Giles system. It's more flexible in terms of transcribing Chinese sounds. In this system, the sound that was represented using ch in Wade-Giles is j, and the sound representing ch' is q. Therefore, in the Pinyin system one writes Tai ji quan.
Given the fact that Pinyin is the new standard which has practically replaved Wade-Giles, and also listening to how Chinese people actually pronounce the name, I have been consistently using Tai ji Quan or Taiji in short since over the past few years.
