(Famous portraits of the Yang masters)

I’ll start by saying that this is not a negative post. It’s actually an interesting subject and I think Tai Chi particularly the Yang style has been on the up. Meaning that I believe that practitioners are getting better and lifting the standard of the art.

However there is still this very evident split in the community which I believe runs deep and may not be healed quickly. It’s obvious for example when looking at the many Facebook groups and online forums with the constant arguments, mud slinging and stupid behaviour.

So what’s it about?

The easiest way to attempt to explain what the split in the Tai Chi community is all about is to say that in essence it amounts to an ideological argument around the nature of reality and therefore how we should think about Tai Chi. Some in the community would say it’s basically ‘Woo vs Materialism’.

This is a slightly provocative statement admittedly and actually to define both sides is not an easy task at all however I will try :

The ‘Woo’ position could be defined as belief in the ‘literal nature of the old Tai Chi writings often referred to as the ‘Tai Chi classics’. And a belief in the metaphysical quantities that are referred to - things such as Qi, Shen, Yi and so on, as real things that exist and not just metaphorical or abstract concepts. So ‘Qi’ as a substance rather than as a metaphor for something non tangible.

The ‘Material’ side views Tai Chi more through a Western Scientific lens where concepts such as Qi or Shen cannot be measured or shown to exist through our current scientific understanding or measuring instruments. And therefore cannot be said to exist.

Although I had a teacher who said that Qi was basically ‘ATP’ or Adenosine Triphosphate which is basically cellular biology - and to do with intercellular energy and metabolism or in other words how life/humans make and process energy.

Now I’m not a biologist and neither was he however it was interesting to hear this perspective and it provides one example of how the scientific or materialist view tries to understand Qi.

My teacher wasn’t a Tai Chi practitioner actually, we were practising predominantly Japanese Kempo and he wasn’t at all interested in metaphysical discussions about subtle energies or complex training methods for working with them. His philosophy was simply around how to efficiently win a fight or even to kill or maim an opponent with or without weapons.

I once asked him when he was explaining how to break an attackers arm ‘wouldn’t unnecessarily harming or using disproportionate force against an opponent bring about bad karma?’

He looked irritated and didn’t answer the question. His view was that if you’re being attacked then you have carte blanche to use maximum force.

You can probably tell that he and I had irreconcilable philosophical differences!

In case you haven’t guessed already, so you know where my bias lies I’ll say that I do consider things like Qi and Shen to be real and not simply imaginary or metaphorical.

However that doesn’t mean that I simply fall on the Woo side of the argument, the reason being that I have seen too many weird behaviours amongst Tai Chi people - and other martial artists I might add.

For example I’ve attended classes where I hardly touched my training partner during a drill and they flew off me as if zapped by electricity - the infamous ‘Fa Jin’.

There are certainly weird effects that can occur in training but it’s not all explainable by the ‘mysterious Qi’ as some might claim. Some of it (not all) in my opinion is to do with muscle memory or overly sensitive nerve impulses which can result from incorrect training methods rather than delusions. And some is probably due to a degree of suggestion. There are other causes too.

This is actually a really complicated topic and probably best left for another post.

So to criticise the other side, the ‘materialists’ , they can be overly dogmatic in dismissing the Tai Chi classics or other spiritual writings and from what I’ve seen many are not prepared to develop their view even when presented with evidence that contradicts it for example powerful application of skill.

They have a tendency to scoff at things they haven’t considered rather than seek to understand them. Some lack humility and are ultra combative in their approach to martial arts, only interested in fighting and winning and not much else.

But can they fight well you might ask? I would say yes many can however they have often sacrificed their physical health and carry numerous injuries, and sometimes their mental health - not finding peace particularly as they get older and their physicality starts to wain.

I’ve sadly seen many older players who can no longer compete physically resort to becoming keyboard warriors and spending way too much time arguing online.

So can the Woo people fight well? Some can from my experience but they are rare.

Although my position is a little on the fence as I find fault and merit with both sides I do generally prefer from a martial standpoint the materialist position because it is much more straightforward in assessing skill.

I have one foot in both camps so to speak and would like to see more cross training and respectful exchanges.

I plan to write another post on this as I have much more perspective to share and have barely scratched the surface of this complex topic. Thanks. 🙏