Champaign-urbana taiji qigong
ABOUT US
We are the continuation of the group started by Dr. Yang Yang in 1998 and teach meditation, qigong, and taiji (tai chi) in direct lineage to Grandmaster Feng Zhiqiang, who was a standard bearer of the Chen style in Beijing in the 1980s. In his later life, Grandmaster Feng was famous for establishing Hunyuan taiji, which fused his study of Chen style taiji with qigong and xinyi from his teachers, Grandmasters Chen Fake and Hu Yaozhen, both revered figures in Chinese martial arts history. The class is led by Scott Grubisich, who has been teaching in CU since 2005 and is coauthor of the book, "Taijiquan, The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power."
What we teach
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Our nine-week introductory course encompasses fundamental aspects of traditional taiji and qigong training, including meditations in sitting, standing, and lying down postures, qigong moving exercises, and a short introductory taiji form distilled from traditional Chen-style movements that was created by Dr. Yang for his research on the benefits of taiji and qigong here at the University of Illinois in the early 2000s. Importantly, we teach that taiji is not about choreography. Rather, it is about understanding the principles of taiji movement. In the introductory course we cover the five steps that are fundamentally essential to all movements of all styles of taiji (and all of the Chinese internal martial arts forms, as well). Once these are grasped, any movement can be taiji movement.
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As the famous saying goes, "relaxation and tranquility are the reasons why qigong can heal you", and the introductory course is suitable to persons of all ages and physical abilities. Our long-time students will attest to another famous traditional saying from the oral tradition of the internal Chinese martial arts: "The older, the stronger, the wiser, and the happier".