Taiji & Taoism

Figure 1: This is Sixty-Four Gua.

Many people have heard about Taiji, and they believe that Taiji means Taiji Quan, which is one kind of ancient Chinese Martial Arts. However, Taiji is also an essential concept of Taoism. The position of Taiji in Taoism is much like that of God in Christianity. You can see the picture, “Ba Gua” (hexagrams) below. In the middle, it is the so-called Taiji icon. Its implication is both simple and profound. It’s simple because everything arises from Taiji based on the Taoism. Taiji gives birth to two Poles, one is Yang Pole, and the other one is Yin Pole. Everything in the world has two parts containing the same relationship as the two poles. If you fail to understand the concept of Yin & Yang inside Taiji Quan, you would have missed the essence of Taijiquan. For example, if you think that Taijiquan is only soft and never hard and symbolized as regarding Taijiquan as only Yin and never Yang -- you would probably be doing a Taiji dance rather than Taiji Quan. If you perform only the external form of Taijiquan without appreciating its inner aspects of energy flow and mind -- symbolized as performing only Yang Pole and missing Yin Pole -- you would practise a physical exercise rather than an internal art. In the collection of essays on Yi Jing, Confucius said, “One Yin and one Yang are called Tao” It talks about the relationship among the three---Taiji, Yin, and Yang. This concept is similar to the trinity concept in Christianity. As Lao-Tzu said, “Man follows Earth; Earth follows Heaven; Heaven follows Tao; Tao follows nature.” Actually, Taiji Quan teaches people to follow the rules of nature and to combine their bodies and their thoughts with our nature, which expresses the spirit of Taoism.

Since the strong relationship between Taiji Quan and Taoism, Taoist Taiji came out. It is a modified form of Yang Taiji Quan, desired by Taoist Monk Moy Lin-Shin. Nowadays, Taoist Taiji is more and more popular and spreading in about 25 countries by the lead of Taoist Taiji Society of Canada. A good example to show its popularity is the “Taoist Tai Chi Awareness Days” which has been proclaimed by municipal government across Canada.