Tai Chi itself is a way and method of Taoist practice. Taoist health practice has a long history. From ancient times to the present, people have been studying the relationship between man and nature.
The purpose of studying the relationship between man and nature is to improve the quality of life, the number of lives, and the quality of life. It is also for health preservation, for life and survival. It started tens of thousands of years ago.
Huangdi asked Guangchengzi
Then Emperor Fuxi formed the Eight Diagrams and created the Eight Diagrams. At that time, people had begun to study nature. The influence of nature on people has been studied very maturely. After Emperor Xuanyuan Huangdi asked Guangchengzi for advice. The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic clearly records that at that time, human research on the human body was very mature. These were all studied in the past.
Emperor Fuxi studied human survival, life and development from the founder of Taoism. Taoists have been studying it all the time. This is all in the category of health preservation.
In addition to nature, the direct cultivation of Taoist health preservation may also use inner alchemy. External alchemy is about nature, and the movements are selfless. Internal alchemy is simple meditation, and then slowly studying the human body. Science has already produced life science.
Wudang Tai Chi
Life science has studied this system in the human body clearly. It is a very developed system with many functions. It can create, optimize, and restore itself. It has this system, which is the transformation of our essence, energy, and spirit. Taoism calls it the three treasures of the human body, and we call this transformation alchemy, so this has a long history.
However, this also has some disadvantages. People in Taoism are very clear that sitting and meditating are static exercises. They are mainly based on sitting and regulating the mind, but this is also easy to enter the void. The so-called void may be just quiet, not practicing exercises, and it is separated from the exercises. This is called entering the void, which is useless. Another is that the thoughts are very heavy. When the thoughts are very heavy, we call it wandering fire. It may also gather in a certain place to cause adverse reactions in the body, and even cause pathological changes. It is also called “going astray and possessing a demon”, which is also a bit threatening.
When it comes to Zhang Sanfeng, the founder, he has already started to study this problem and solve it, so he invented a method of combining movement and stillness, and practicing both inside and outside. When practicing martial arts, after a certain period of time, if you practice martial arts alone without practicing inner alchemy, you will be injured all over your body, which is not good for your health. Then at a certain time, your functions will degenerate, and you will be unable to do what you want, unable to do anything, and unable to replenish. So did Zhang Sanfeng study how to replenish and extend it? That is to practice Wudang Tai Chi in the form of inner alchemy, and established the rule that martial arts is to nourish the body, not to consume the body, thus fundamentally solving the drawbacks of martial arts and sublimating the effectiveness of martial arts.