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OK.... "Chi" is difficult to translate because all of chinese is difficult to translate, and often they use one character for a variety of meanings... One meaning of Chi is "breath". In the context of Tai Chi it means the Ultimate (Tai Chi= Grand Ultimate) This is based on the chinese philosophy that nothing in the universe is really seperate from anything else...The "Chi" has never been in question by the martial artists who find it in themselves and learn the methods of using it.. There have supposedly been studies in China using modern medical equipment that "proves" the existence of Chi, but how that was done and the validity of it are beyond my knowledge.
I know of one Master who claims that the Chi is electrical in nature, but again I don't know why he thinks this. As for me, I have seen ample proof of its existence. Now onto the matter of breathing... there are many different "schools of thought" on this and the one suggested by the author is by far the simplest and most basic...just breathe... the others should only be taught by qualified masters..

Now a few comments.... the author stated that he felt that those who "try to feel their chi" are the ones who do not understand the physical aspects of the form...well I only want to say that those who don't try to feel their chi are quite unlikely to. There are many exercises that are meant to stimulate the Chi and increase it, thus making for a healthier and stronger practitioner. Which brings me to the "health" Tai Chi. The idea in learning Tai Chi is to transform the practitioner from the inside out (a useful definition of the "internal" vs "external" debate) a person who is not healthy cannot be a good fighter, so yes it is healthful to perform Tai Chi properly. This does not mean that mindlessly perfoming moves will lead to enlightenment. Here is a good rule of thumb: If you find that doing Tai Chi is not very physically demanding, you are in all likelyhood doing it improperly. It looks very beautiful and graceful, but it is NOT easy. You might even break a sweat doing it!

and a final comment about the use of 2 person forms... Yes it is true that the other person may do the "wrong thing" forcing you to also make a "mistake"...but the idea here is to learn distancing and timing and to adjust to the other person... so if they throw a punch at your head and it was supposed to be at your solar plexus, it is probably a good idea to block it anyway

Which Alice in Wonderland character said, 'A word means precisely what I intend it to mean?'

'Chi' is one of those wonderfully ambiguous words, and means anything from 'breath' to 'magical force'

Choppy-socky Chinese 'Kung-fu' movies have martial artists exhibiting incredible powers. The famous 'Boxer Rebellion' of China had young warriors believing their 'chi' could protect them from bullets.

On the other hand, in more recent times the famous founder of Aikido, Morehei Uyeshiba, at an advanced age could easily toss around much younger, faster and stronger men. He maintained this was due to his 'Ki', which is the Japanese cognate of 'Chi'

So there is very likely something to it, after all. Unfortunately, most of the 'demonstrations' of Chi are simlar to the slight of hand of stage magicians. Many of the so-called exercises intended to stimulate Chi are nothing more than wishful thinking, or a species of self-hypnosis. In any event, they are mostly subjective, or 'internal' exercises, with little practical value.

Mostly. There is no doubt that breath control exercises and certain kinds of meditation can dramatically affect physiological states and physical abilities, but none of this is 'magic', and most of it can be explained by purely conventional psycho-physiology.

Stuff like the 'delayed death touch' ( dim mak ), or 'distance punches', or the 'golden bell' of invulnerability are pure fiction. But the more subtle abilities, such as effortlessly 'flowing' in response to an attack, being able to defend oneself while blindfolded, or defending oneself against three or four attackers simultaneously, are perhaps instances in which some other force, perhaps 'chi', is present.

Hiram,
"... The Chi has never been in question by the martial artists who find it in themselves and learn the methods of using it ..." - I'm a Closed Door Disciple of 2 differing Chinese Martial arts. I've studied with Chinese masters in their own homes. I don't want to belittle another person's experiences, but believe me, these people simply don't talk in those terms. The only people I've met who do talk like that are people who can't cut the mustard martially. There is an amusing story of the "Chi" expert who had an interesting technique of repeatedly hitting the dim-mak point of his opponent's elbow with his nose!

As for breathing... The various Qi-Gong exercises have a weird and wonderful range of breathing techniques, many of them quite beneficial. In the context of a martial art, they're not terribly relevant. The only martial breathing I'm aware of are the Iron Shirt techniques of the Nei Gung, but those teachings are not taught to non-Disciples, and I'm not prepared to discuss them in any depth at all.

To reach a level of core competence in Tai Chi, relaxed natural breating is all that is necessary.

"...those who don't try to feel their chi are quite unlikely to..." - I think this is wrong. I have felt for myself many of the common "manifestations of chi" (eg skin mottling, buzzing sensation, heightened awareness, light-headedness) and I absolutely do NOT go trying to find it. I have also had some of the less pleasant effects of chi, such as nosebleeds, headaches and muscle spasm. Be sure I didn't go looking for them either I got those from incorrectly performing certain physical techniques. Concentrate on the tangible task in hand, and your "Chi" might manifest itself if you're doing it right.

Chi? Shmi.

As for the 2-person forms, you're preaching to the choir. My dislike of them stems from the fact that if you can break out of the routine at any time to respond to an error using correct technique, then you may as well just spar. The San-Shou is a starting point - students should relatively quickly progress beyond it as a training method.

I know of a great many masters who are extremely good at all aspects of martial arts, and whom I feel very certain you would not want to fight, that feel and use Chi all the time... one in particular is my master and another is his. They do not claim that you can develop and use chi easily and that it is not nneeded to have a very high level of physical training, quite the opposite. Chi only comes with many years of hard training, and not even then for everyone. I think anyone who doesn't "believe" in Chi just isn't training hard enough...I'm not talking about wishy-washy touchy-feely stuff here... breathing exercises, any accomplished master will tell you, are vital to the training of a martial artist, and if you ignore them it is to your own detriment...even non-martial artists can benefit from meditation, but for the martial artist the effects are immediate and very physical...this isn't psychology...more oxygen in the blood equals more energy to do work, correct? that is pretty simple... the chi building exercises I am referring to are not meditative breathing, beneficial as that is...no I am referring to things like I Chin Ching,
Yeh Fay Spa Kwan, and so on... VERY difficult exercises that incorporate breathing patterns... Lots of martial artists don't like to think about physical conditioning..they think they will just have the skills or something, which is ridiculous... If you can't do a push-up then just saying "my devastating chi will do it" is stupid...Chi is the life force and it grows with the body and the mind... physical conditioning is the key here....chi exists in everything, whether you feel it or not.....

p.s. you say you've experienced the feelings associated with Chi and still don't think there is anything to it... and you weren't trying... well if you were trying then maybe you would feel them even more... and who knows, you might even learn something about yourself instead of just drawing conclusions and saying "so there"...life is a beautiful and wonderful thing....just keeps your eyes open and experience it...try not to deny yourself of things just because you've decided they aren't there.... and if I seem a little snippy, I apoligize...I've had the most difficult week of my life and getting through it has taken a toll.. I really enjoy talking about these things immensely and welcome all opinions...

"breathing exercises, any accomplished master will tell you, are vital to the training of a martial artist" - ANY accomplished master? I've already told you that this isn't the case. I stand by my assertion.

"...you would not want to fight..." - you're right. But I would like to meet these people. If I could meet someone who could fire a "chi bolt" and knock me flat then I would kneel at his feet and ask to become his Disciple. I'd love to develop that kind of ability, and I always respect people who can knock me on my bum and then explain why. That's how I learn

You and I obviously have differing experiences in the martial arts, but we seem to come down to the same thing... real skill comes from real, disciplined physical effort. 'Nuff said. I'm not going to disrespect your art or anyone elses if it works.

You want to know something? I think our disagreement comes from different interpretations of what "Chi" is, and not from any differences on the requirement for proper training. We're on the same hymn sheet. As I say in the article, no style is inherently better than another.

Geoff

Agreed. Style makes little difference, the important thing is effort....

and no, I've never seen anyone who can fire a "chi bolt" out of their arm except in Dragon Ball and Street Fighter

My master can however break through 2 pieces of concrete held together suspended in the air, nothing bracing them, with a sidehand strike.... and I've seen a photo of his Master (Grandmaster Sin Kwang The) breaking through six without spacers.... Master Gary Grooms (my master) can easily put out a candle flame with all the joints in his arm locked out, and I've heard that Grandmaster can supposedly put out a table full of them.... This is not firing lightning bolts but its pretty damn impressive....

A few years back our lot had a phase of trying this candle-punching lark. It's not part of our training regime, but I think someone saw it on TV and we all decided to have a go. Never have I seen such swearing at a humble little flame!

For the record, after a bit of practice, the best guys managed to put out the flame best out of three. Me? About 1 in 10...tops.

We've never tried board-breaking:- our training emphasizes more of the "long" forces used to move people rather than the "short" forces used to break them. I bet we could push concrete boards a long way, though!

There are three types of power in martial arts....

what you call "long" force I refer to as thrusting power...

your "short" force I will call snapping power...

the last is called slicing power...

I feel that it is important to be able to use all of these effectively, and appropriately based on the situation...

As you said, the thrusting power is good for moving objects and requires your skeleton to be in a structurally sound position in order to accept the recoil... The snapping power is good for breaking things up, and it deals with recoil by just not being there at all..
In slicing power, the force is generated with rotation centrifugally and acts to "slice" through objects...

You can be very good at pushing someone away, but unless there is a cliff behind them or something, you will eventually need to strike for damage... I'm not saying that thrusting techniques don't do damage, they can be some of the most devastating if done well, but to focus on just one kind of power limits you to the techniques that use it... and by the way, concrete is not easy to break...don't try this at home kids... I've seen chinese masters who can break only a specific block in a stack, sending the energy of the strike through the others while leaving them intact and breaking one or more in the middle or bottom... very impressive... as for the candle, Master Grooms can also put it out by pointing a single finger at it very decisively, and can do so from over a foot away.... He is adament that Chi is very real, but takes a lot of time/effort to get anywhere with...and the amount of time/effort depends on the person.. It took him 15 years of intense training to reach such a level of proficiency with it...of course you have to have all the physical elements there first, or you are wasting your time trying to develop Chi...

15 years to be able to put out a candle!!?? Some people have far too much time on their hands...

These are all wonderful accomplishments, but are they demonstrations of a mysterious, intrinsic energy called 'chi' or 'ki'?

In one of the 'clubs' we used to practise breaking unsuspended boards, in order to develop both speed and power. It was also fun. It was not 'chi'

In another, we practised detecting and controlling the force of another, which was a great deal more fun than breaking stuff. This was still not 'chi'

I still maintain the board breaking and candle-put-outing is explainable by known factors and forces, such as harmonics, recoil, focus, vibration and even the human bio-energy field.

Learning conscious control of such things is definitely not an insignificant accomplishment. But as amazing as these demonstrations are, they are not necessarily evidence of the subtle flow of natural 'force' that is termed 'chi.'

I think you are far too concerned with terminology...call it Chi and its nonsense, call it a "human bio-energy field" and that explains everything silly.... You keep saying "it isn't chi, it isn't chi" I think you are in acute denial Putting out the candles is a relatively simple feat compared with the extreme sensitvity, control, speed, power and perception that are the proficiencies I meant... Chi is just a word, I'm sorry you don't like it....

Chi is just a word.. exactly... which is what I said in the first place...

And I never said I didn't like it, for pete's sake!

I like it, I like it!!

Whatever it is

And maybe it is bio-energy, after all -- it's just that many of the writings, teachings, and even contemporary teachers are irritatingly vague about the thing

I am not arguing here, or 'in denial'.. I have had experiences, both in highly intense sparring practise and in 'confrontations', that may very well be viewed as evidence of 'chi' And I have observed other individuals, in other situations, demonstrating what you and I would both agree is probably 'chi', too

My point was made up thread, regarding the misinterpretations and downright crapola that some would like us to believe is 'chi'

I do think there is substance behind all this, but I maintain it is something which exists naturally, and precedes the external manifestation. Which would go a long way to explain how 'chi' can appear in different forms -- what we see is not the 'chi' itself, but the result of 'chi'

I think you would agree that it is extremely difficult to discuss these things. I think that if we were to meet in RL, and work together, we would very likely be in complete agreement.

I second that. In Rl, with more toing and froing, I think we'd all be in agreement. Our emphasis, experience and terminology might be different, but I can read no real variation over what we think is "real", or how such skills can be achieved.

Then its final.... I completely with all these last statements... Certainly Chi exists naturally in all living things (and some believe in even inanimate objects) and certainly we can never see it, but only its results... I've heard a distinction between "internal energy" and "internal power" the first being the naturally pre-existant stuff, and the second being its external manifestation. A process called "condensing breathing" is what makes this supposed change, and from what I've seen the actual breathing part of it is only a small fraction of what is involved. One last thing to say... Cheers to all who keep the art alive!