Roots in Daoism, and the Modern Spread

Tai chi grew from the soil of Daoist thought and Chinese body-cultivation. It shares with the broader traditions of qigong and Daoist "nourishing life" practices the aim of circulating and refining qi, harmonising the body's energies, and attaining through softness what force cannot; the Daoist classic the Tao Te Ching is often quoted for its praise of the soft overcoming the hard and the yielding overcoming the strong, principles the art takes as its own. Its historical origins are debated, popular tradition credits a legendary Daoist immortal, while historians trace the documented lineages to family styles that emerged from the seventeenth century onward, and several major family styles, differing in pace and emphasis, are practised today.

In the twentieth century tai chi was simplified and promoted, in China and abroad, as a public health exercise, and its slow forms are now a familiar sight in parks around the world. This popularisation has tended to foreground the health and relaxation benefits and to recede the martial and Daoist dimensions, so that many who practise the form know little of its combat applications or its cosmological frame, a shift that has made the art accessible to millions while distancing it from its origins.