Everyone and everything has a history, and Tai Chi is no exception to that rule. The problem with the history comes with the part of what is true and what is not. The following is only one version of the true history of Tai Chi. The fact that the art is as old as the Chinese heritage itself has the history of Tai Chi shrouded in legend and mystery.

Birth of the Yin and Yang

The wise sage Chang San Feng had a dream one night. In his dream he saw two creatures battling, a crane and a snake. He was so enthralled by the sight, for the combatants had fought with so much skill, yet neither one could gain the upper hand. He had this dream every night, for a sufficient enough time to allow him to manage to learn the techniques and make the famous 13 postures of Tai Chi. The creatures were then symbolized as the teardrops of the Yin and Yang, symbolizing the infiniteness of the opposite powers.

Chang San Feng's martial arts techniques were subsequently named Tai Chi Chuan. The insight of this new radical martial art expresses these principles: use calm against action, soft against hard, slow against fast, and single against group. These principles opposed the current teachings of the era and thus attracted a considerable crowd.

The Yang Style

The history of Tai Chi continues with Chen Chang-Hsing combining Chiang Fa's Tai Chi with the Cannon Pounding form. He then taught Yang Lu Chan who, in turn, started the Yang style of Tai Chi. Yang Lu-Chan became very famous and skilled and was later known as 'Yang the Unsurpassed' or 'Yang the Invincible'.

The Yang style of Tai Chi spawned a long lineage of skilled and distinguished martial artists like the 19th century master Yang Cheng Fu, Lu Chan's grandson, who was responsible for bringing Tai Chi to the rest of the world and has contributed much to the history of Tai Chi. The Yang style is the most common traditional Tai Chi practiced today, and is called the most complete Tai Chi, having the simplified form, the short form and the long form.

The Chen Style

In the later part of the history of Tai Chi, a monk named Wang Chung-Yueh mastered the 13 postures and linked them into a continuous sequence, forming what today resembles the contemporary forms of Tai Chi Chuan. Chiang Fa, Wang Chung-Yueh's student, later passed this knowledge to ChenYou-Heng, who further developed the technique into a new frame style, and was called the Chen Tai Chi. Chiang Fa had 3 students, Chen You-Heng, Chen Chang-Hsing, and Chen Yao-Pun, all of which started their own corresponding schools of discipline.

The Wu Style

This style was created by Wu Quan-Yu. Yang Lu-Chan and Yang Pan-Hou  were his teachers who taught him their versions of Tai Chi. Wu Quan-Yu started teaching others, includinghis sons, when he became proficient in this new style. It was his sons who continued and passed on this independent style of Tai Chi.

But, regardless of which version of history you have heard or who invented what style or moves, the main fact that can't be ignored is that Tai Chi, with all those different styles and moves, is not only considered a martial art, but also a very good form of exercise for the entire family.