{"id":99,"date":"2022-02-27T10:23:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T10:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/?p=99"},"modified":"2022-03-02T17:44:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T17:44:50","slug":"what-does-tai-chi-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/2022\/02\/27\/what-does-tai-chi-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What does Tai Chi mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does <span class=\"chinese\">\u592a \u6975<\/span> ,Tai Chi, actually mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second character, <span class=\"chinese\">\u6975<\/span> (chi), originally depicted the ridgepole of the roof of a simple house. The two ends of the ridgepole are opposites: the implication is that we are separating opposite energies, which in Chinese are called <em>yin<\/em> and <em>yang<\/em>, like the plus and minus on a battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"chinese\">\u592a<\/span> (tai) means <em>the greatest<\/em> &#8211; the most extreme. In other words, Tai Chi literally means the maximum separation of <span class=\"pinyin\">yin<\/span> and <span class=\"pinyin\">yang<\/span>: the condition of the highest possible energy, like a battery with the highest possible voltage, or the tallest possible waterfall. However Tai Chi is more than this: it&#8217;s a philosophical idea about the proper harmony and relationship between such opposites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Taijitu-svg-1200px-rising-yang-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-106\" srcset=\"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Taijitu-svg-1200px-rising-yang-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Taijitu-svg-1200px-rising-yang-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Taijitu-svg-1200px-rising-yang-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Taijitu-svg-1200px-rising-yang-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Taijitu-svg-1200px-rising-yang.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This idea is depicted in the Tai Chi diagram or <span class=\"pinyin\"><em>taiji tu<\/em><\/span> which shows the harmony of <span class=\"pinyin\">yin<\/span> (dark) and <span class=\"pinyin\">yang<\/span> (light) energies which nestle against one another like a pair of fish (note that Chinese culture doesn&#8217;t apply a pejorative connotation to darkness or to the colour black). The diagram shows this relationship as a cyclic alternation (imagine the image rotating), <span class=\"pinyin\">yin<\/span> changing endlessly into <span class=\"pinyin\">yang<\/span>, and <span class=\"pinyin\">yang<\/span> into <span class=\"pinyin\">yin<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the Taoists (a philosophical school associated with Tai Chi), such cyclic change was the nature of the universe and this harmonious relation between opposites was the great ideal, hence the phrase Tai Chi: <em>The Supreme Ultimate<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does \u592a \u6975 ,Tai Chi, actually mean? The second character, \u6975 (chi), originally depicted the ridgepole of the roof of a simple house. The two ends of the ridgepole are opposites: the implication is that we are separating opposite energies, which in Chinese are called yin and yang, like the plus and minus on <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/2022\/02\/27\/what-does-tai-chi-mean\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norfolktaichiacademy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}