THE HISTORY OF TAI CHI CHUAN

The practice of Tai Chi Chuan was allegedly created by Chang San-Feng (1279–1368 CE), a Taoist monk who lived at the Wu Tang Mountain—the site of many schools of internal martial arts training . Chang San-Feng had also studied at the Shaolin temple, but he reformed their external art techniques (Li power) to incorporate Fa Jin. The principle of including yin techniques in martial arts practice was a paradigm shift that led to notions of softness and yielding, and to the incorporation of slow, meditative forms.
Tai Chi Chuan is an internal martial art based on the philosophical and cosmological concepts of Taoism. The term Tai Chi is a philosophical term—arising from Taoist cosmology and creation theory—that is directly translated as “the supreme ultimate.” It represents the primal duality of yin and yang. According to Taoist cosmology, beneath the nothingness there is the Tao, and from the nothingness arose the yin and yang. The interplay of this duality to facilitate experience of the Tao is the reason why it is regarded as the “supreme ultimate.” The internal martial art of Tai Chi Chuan integrates with the philosophical and cosmological concepts of the Tao at many levels. The methods and experiences required to develop within the art of Tai Chi require a deep understanding of these concepts.
The Tai Chi Chuan Ching is regarded as the principal Tai Chi Chuan classic and is attributed to Chang San-Feng, though its true authorship is unknown. Many classics of Chinese thought are attributed to legendary immortals, though this cannot be proven in most cases. Perhaps adepts feel that they have been inspired by the forefathers of the discipline—or even that they have channeled the thoughts of the immortals—and humbly attribute ownership to them.
In the Tai Chi Chuan Ching, Chang San-Feng says:

Let there be no hollows or projections; let there be no stops and starts. Its root is in the feet, its issuing from the legs, its control from the yao (waist), and its shaping in the fingers.