TRANSFORMATIVE TAI CHI

In tai chi and in kung-fu there are many types of training. The underlying principles that are the foundation for physical training exist in our everyday lives. We try to focus well, keep a balanced mind, and practice awareness. This is at the very heart of our training. One translation for kung-fu is time study; it is an art that involves effort over time. Tai chi is a kung-fu form, crafted by ancient kung-fu and qigong masters as a sequence of external self-defense techniques and internal qigong exercises. Tai Chi Chuan means Grand Ultimate Fist, and is authentic kung-fu that is passed down through a lineage.

While those who practice can only give as much time as we have to train physically, we all seek balance – between resting and waking, eating and fasting, working and playing; we all seek flexibility and strength – to yield or not to yield to pressures. Tai chi gives form to this process, a physical reality to our internal metaphor.

Sifu Alexander Knight tells us that tai chi has to be experienced directly. When we replace direct experience with metaphorical experience, then we are under a spell of words, and not in a state of awareness. This is why tai chi is practiced in silence, and is known as a moving meditation. When a student is more advanced in their tai chi, the unconscious is allowed to rise to the surface and come through the student. When we study tai chi with someone who is a master, then our progress will be authentic.

In kung-fu and tai chi training, the external changes can be more apparent, but the internal changes more profound. Embedded within the form itself is the Taoist principle of harmonizing the external with the internal.

In the Chinese language, this quality is described by the phrase yun deng. Deng is external, encompassing movement, action, and mobility. Yun means internal, and includes breath, circulation, mind control, and focus. Deng refers to muscle, tendon, bone, and skeletal structure; yun to organs, nervous system, brain, and feeling. Deng looks outward; yun looks inward. The two do not conflict, but are powerful partners, working together to harmonize the external with the internal.

Between each posture in the tai chi sequence, there is a turning point, at which the body must shift or become imbalanced. During training, students become aware of this turning point. In tai chi, the concept of balance is not static; in the constant shifting from one posture to the next, there is a moving balance. Balance becomes a verb, with action in it. Because of this balance in motion, it is sometimes said that is one movement in tai chi.


Babies and the elderly take small steps. As their balance becomes compromised, so does their willingness to take risks. When our sense of balance includes imbalance, when it is a moving balance that shifts, but returns to center, then we are able to reach out and take risks.

Tai chi is not only a bunch of movements, or a sequence of techniques, but also a way of living and thinking, of dealing with everyday problems and living harmoniously.


To transform means literally to change in composition or structure, to change in outward form or appearance, or to change in character. To train in kung-fu and tai chi is to do all three.

And so, the mindset during tai chi practice is very important. Sifu Knight tells us that the body’s energy flows most efficiently while the mind is in a relaxed state. If you can relax the mind, but not lose the form, then that is perfect. Tai chi is an opportunity to engage in a silent activity that is not attached to verbal agreement or disagreement. And because tai chi moves from one grandmaster to the next in a living lineage, the form has its own communication.

Sifu Knight’s lineage comes from Grandmaster Chang Teng Sheng. In 1928, China formed the Nanking Institute and gathered masters from all systems of kung fu. As China’s national treasure, the martial arts had been decimated by the Boxer Rebellion and other conflicts. The institute brought these surviving masters together to document and verify their lineages, and to provide an opportunity for them to teach one another their arts. It was here that Grandmaster Chang and Grandmaster Li Jing-Lin met. Grandmaster Chang held the highest title of Full Contact Grand Champion of All China for his whole lifetime. He was the grandmaster of shuai chiao, the most ancient martial art. Grandmaster Li Jing-Lin was the grandmaster of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. These two exchanged information, collaborating on the tai chi form to verify that each movement retained its original martial applicability and qigong benefits. The form in Grandmaster Chang’s lineage is called Chang Style Tai Chi, in honor of Grandmaster Chang, or Shuai Chiao Tai Chi, to describe its internal aspect - the large, circular, and energetic movements that represent shuai chiao sweeps and throws. Shuai chiao, as the most ancient martial art, is the essence of tai chi.

Sifu Knight had the honor of studying under, and earning his ranking directly from Grandmaster Chang Teng Sheng. Sifu Knight, besides teaching tai chi, also teaches shuai chiao, shaolin kung-fu, hsing-I, and weapons forms.

Cassandra Malec - Assistant Instructor