, originally meant the breath, the act of respiration, so it really was the original character for qi (氣) as it relates to the breath, but the character is now obsolete and rarely used on its own.Explanation of the Title
Tai Ji Quan Treatise (太 極 拳 論, Tai Ji Quan Lun)
Tai (太)
Although Tai is usually translated as “supreme” or “most high,” to get the full context of the meaning, it is better to look at the construction of the character. First, the character is built on two radicals: yi (一) “the one” is added to the radical ren (人), a “person,” and from this the character da (大), meaning “great” is formed. In totality, this character can mean “the one great person.” For the character to become Tai, the stroke zhu (丶) is added down into the center of ren. Zhu means “a point,” as in the “point of a flame,” and basically represents “the one point,” or “the flame within a person”—i.e., the Dan Tian within a person’s abdomen. So the character Tai (太) in its totality is describing, “the one great person who has his or her center,” and is therefore as Daoists perceive “the Supreme One.” The character Tai is well chosen for the ideal of Taijiquan because the root goal is to discover the flame, or heat, in your center—the Dan Tian.
Ji (極)
Ji means “the ridgepole,” the center pole holding up and supporting the roof of a house or the main tent of the clan, without which the structure would collapse. Thus, the very top of the ridgepole is viewed as the ultimate or highest point, the peak of something, or to reaching the very height of something.
The components of the character Ji include the following:
Mu, 木, represents a tree; in this case, a wood pole or beam.
Qiao,
, originally meant the breath, the act of respiration, so it really was the original character for qi (氣) as it relates to the breath, but the character is now obsolete and rarely used on its own.
Kou, 口, means the mouth and/or an entrance to something.
You, 又, means the right hand, or the right side of a thing.
Yi, 一, means the one, but in this case it is representing the base, or floor, of the house upon which the ridgepole is rooted.
The character Ji means “the ridgepole,” but contains a much more expansive meaning. The idea here, in full, is “the breath is the supporting frame and base so the right thing can enter.” It is through this supporting frame (the ridgepole and breath) that the “ultimate” can be achieved. In brief, this can mean, “attaining the highest point through right use of the breath.” In Taijiquan, the very basis of movement is learning how to move in perfect unison with the breath.
Tai Ji (太 極) as a compound has come to be a reference term for both a philosophy and a symbol of that philosophy. 1 As a philosophical term it means the point when yin and yang separate and the Ten Thousand Things (all phenomena) are created. From Wu Ji (無 極) comes Tai Ji (太 極), and from Tai Ji comes the yin and yang (陰 陽), and from the yin and yang the Ten Thousand Things (萬 物, Wan Wu) are produced. Another way of presenting this theory is to say, “From absolute nothingness comes somethingness, from this somethingness two opposites come forth, and from these two opposites all things in the world are produced.”
Regarding Taijiquan practice, this means to first stand perfectly still (Wu Ji) and then once you begin moving (this is Tai Ji) the substantial and insubstantial (yin and yang) separate and the transformations of all the movements (Wan Wu) occurs, and these transformations are the functions of the Eight Diagrams and Five Elements. Finally, as you conclude the movements, you return to Tai Ji and then back into Wu Ji—Returning to the Source (原 歸, Yuan Gui). For this reason, Taijiquan is in all respects Daoist philosophy in motion.
Quan (拳)
Quan is a difficult term to translate. Normally, it is translated as “boxing,” “pugilism,” or “fists,” and the term Quan
has been attached to many styles of martial arts. The character is comprised of the main radical, lower ideogram, shou
(手), meaning “the hand” and/or “skill.” The upper ideogram, shou
(
), is also an old variant for the hand as well, and was derived into the character bai
(拜), meaning “to offer reverence with the hands” (later it came to mean, “to bow in reverence”). So, in one sense, Quan means to pay reverence with the two hands, a salutation. But there is also the idea of a hand hidden within a hand, a secret and undetectable hand, or an internal hand. Quan is the reason why in traditional martial art schools of China adherents would greet each other in salutation with the left palm covering the right fist as the appropriate method of reverent salutation, and non–martial art schools would place their palms together for the same purpose. So Quan should not be translated here, especially in connection with Taijiquan,
as boxing or fists, rather as something implying more of an internal meaning like “secret, concealed, or hidden hand.” Actually, it should be translated as “internal hands” or “internal skill.”
Therefore, translating Taijiquan yields several possible interpretations, including “The Supreme Ultimate of Internal Hands,” or possibly “The Secret Hands of the Supreme Ultimate,” or “The Secret Skills of the Supreme Ultimate.”
Lun (論)
Lun is comprised of two characters, yan (言), meaning to talk and speak; and lun (侖) meaning to arrange and put something in order. The idea here is an organized speech, a discourse. In Daoism, especially in connection with Taijiquan, generally four such qualifiers are used for written works:
1) Jing (經) means a book, classic, or scripture. If the text is attributed to a high heavenly immortal or deity, then the term “scripture” should be used. If attributed to a sage or someone of high skill, then “classic” is applied. If written by someone of just literary skills, then the term “book” appears.
2) Lun (論) is a “treatise,” “tractate,” or “discourse” used in connection with what a teacher said, usually written by a disciple of what they had heard.
3) Ge (歌) is usually translated as “song,” but is more like a poem, hymn, or verse.
4) Pian (篇) refers to the set of bamboo tablets on which a work was written, and simply translates as a “record” or “tablet.”
1 Again, for a more detailed look at the history and formation of the Tai Ji Symbol and philosophy, see T’ai Chi According to the I Ching: Embodying the Principles of the Book of Changes (Inner Traditions, 2001).