Taijiquan is ancient Chinese martial art based on the philosophical theories and closely related to traditional medicine. It is said that it is impossible to explain with words what it exactly is - it should be practiced. Taijiquan practicers are in most cases calligraphers and philosophers at the same time.

It seems as if the art of taijiquan have been disappearing and emerging a couple times during the Chinese history. It is believed that in the 14th century monks from the Shaolin monastery have restored the art of taijiquan to the level from which it have been developing to the contemporary existing forms.

In general, there are two kinds of martial arts - the ones that practice firm and strict attitude with fast movements - karate, kung fu, teakwandoo etc, versus the mild and slow movements of taiji.

One of the main ideas behind the art of taiji is imitating of nature phenomena and animals' movements, the main motto being: as quiet as a mountain, as fluent as a river.

Couple of different styles have gradually developed within the main taiji style set in the 14th century - the style that emphasizes long, soft and slower movements and the style that emphasizes short, fast and sudden movements - the other one is still practiced in Shaolin monastery, whereas the most common form of taiji practiced in China today is the first one. There are about 400 different taiji schools today.

The philosophical framework holds that the human life is a continuous struggle between the inner and the outer forces.

Practicing taiji is understood as practicing of yin and yang movements as to direct and control the qi, the basic energy that flows through meridians of the human body. It is mainly the preventive practice but could be used as a curing method as well. All the movements have basically originated form the animal world. The main purpose of practicing taiji is to make the human body as flexible as possible, to learn to focus the energy at one specific point of the body (the lower belly) - it is believed that by controlling that point it is possible to reach the balance of all parts of the body.

The key word is practice - the more one practices, the better, the process being compared with climbing the mountain - the more one climbs, better is the view he gets and the knowledge on the scenery increases. The desire to continue climbing comes from the desire to see more of the scenery and increase the knowledge about it…