"The college is my brainchild," the 74-year-old told Beijing Review. He is an inheritor of Chen-style Taijiquan and an 11th-generation lineal descendant of the martial art's creator.

A living legend 

Chenjiagou Village in central China is the birthplace of Taijiquan. In the early 17th century, one of its villagers, Chen Wangting (1600-80), created a set of physical movements, which incorporated his family's martial arts with deep breathing techniques and the meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In TCM, a meridian is a bodily channel through which energy and other vital substances flow.

Taijiquan's movements feature a combination of strength and softness, which echoes the concepts of yin and yang as described in the Book of Changes, an ancient Chinese book of divination and a source of Confucian and Taoist philosophy.

In the 200 years or so after its creation, Taijiquan remained a family heirloom inaccessible to people outside of the Chen family. But in the 19th century, a kungfu enthusiast called Yang Luchan (1799-1872) managed to master the moves by working for the family. Yang later worked as a martial arts coach in the imperial army of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and popularized the sport among the upper classes of Beijing.

From then on, more and more Chinese engaged in Taijiquan, and some new schools, including the Yang, Wu, He and Sun styles, came into being. "Chen-style Taijiquan is believed to be the origin of all the other popular schools," Chen Zhenglei said.

Chen Zhenglei started practicing the martial art when he was 8. He achieved the highest duan in the Chinese Wushu Duanwei System, the national martial art evaluation and ranking system overseen by the Beijing-based Chinese Wushu Association. The system grades practitioners from low to high as follows: primary duan (first to third), middle duan (fourth to sixth) and advanced duan (seventh to ninth). He is also one of the Top Four Taiji Masters in Chenjiagou.

Taijiquan practitioners, to become resilient and nimble, must go through three steps: practicing routines, pushing hands—which involves pushing an opponent in order to destabilize them, and sparring. Routines, known as taolu, help practitioners learn about their bodies and become resilient. Pushing hands, known as tuishou, helps them to understand the rival's movements and how to evade direct attacks; sparring, known as sanshou, helps to defend against attacks and launch counterattacks through explosive actions.

"Taijiquan is not just about striking poses. Its goal is to build up internal power or qi. When the internal power is fully charged, it can burst forth with explosiveness. This is the essence of authentic Chinese martial arts," Chen Zhenglei said, "Taijiquan is a gem in the crown of Chinese traditional culture."

The martial art was listed as national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. At the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, 2008 martial artists performed Taijiquan. That same year, China started its efforts to get Taijiquan onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

This proved more difficult than expected. "We didn't understand the requirements and standards, and our application materials were inadequate at the beginning," Chen Zhenglei said. He was one of the experts who partook in the application process. But finally, after 12 years of efforts, Taijiquan was inscribed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage on December 17, 2020. 

Chen Zhenglei (front), an inheritor of Chen-style Taijiquan, also known as tai chi or Chinese boxing, practices the martial art with his students in Chenjiagou Village, Wenxian County, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, on April 2 (YIN KANG) 

Healthy heritage 

China has 129 kinds of boxing sports. So how does Taijiquan stand out and get to be the only Chinese martial art inscribed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage?

"Its essence lies in harmony, an ideal cherished by the Chinese people since ancient times," Chen Bin, President of the Henan Taijiquan Association and son of Chen Zhenglei, told Beijing Review.

"Practicing Taijiquan allows your whole body to relax, and balances and calms the mind. It can change a person's character," Chen Zhenglei said. Chen's view echoes an article published online by Harvard Medical School on May 24, 2022, "This gentle form of exercise can help maintain strength, flexibility, and balance, and could be the perfect activity for the rest of your life...it might well be called 'medication in motion'."

And Chen Zhenglei believes this is also good for society on the whole. "When someone can remain calm and peaceful, their family becomes harmonious. When families are harmonious, the whole of society, too, will be harmonious, right?" he said.

Taijiquan outperforms other traditional Chinese boxing sports in terms of popularity. Given it can be practiced anytime and anywhere without the constraints of equipment or venue, it has gained global popularity in recent decades. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, escorted by occasional quarantines and lockdowns, Taijiquan became an ideal exercise choice.

The number of its practitioners was estimated to be 400 million, spread across more than 150 countries and regions, according to a Jiaozuo government news briefing in September 2022. And every year, more than 800,000 Taijiquan enthusiasts visit Chenjiagou to learn the martial art.

Song Ziming, a sophomore at the Civil Aviation Flight University of China, is one of them. "Practicing Taijiquan brings me peace of mind and helps strengthen my muscles," the 20-year-old pilot-to-be told Beijing Review. He started learning Chen-style Taijiquan as a teenager. In April, he joined a six-day training course offered by the Zhenglei Taijiquan Academy, a training organization founded by Chen Zhenglei in 2015. Song is a 13th-generation registered student of Chen-style Taijiquan.

Popular heritage 

Chen Zhenglei hopes to engage more young people like Song in the martial art. He began teaching the craft at the age of 20. Hundreds of thousands of people have attended his classes over the years.

"Only those who possess the ability, the responsibility and the team spirit to carry on Taijiquan can become my students. This way, one student can engage lots of people in the martial art to spread it far and wide," the master explained.

According to him, people who have practiced the craft for over four years are eligible to apply to become registered students of Chen-style Taijiquan. A registered student is cultivated through training courses, competitions and free lectures, both online and offline, hosted by the Zhenglei Taijiquan Academy.

But Chen Zhenglei's ambitions extend well beyond national borders. He believes that Taijiquan can bring health to the world. In 1996, he started promoting and popularizing the martial art worldwide. So far, he has traveled to more than 60 countries and taught in over 100 related centers, including dozens of classes in more than 30 U.S. states. "Taijiquan is an invisible bond, a silent language that can unite people of different countries, races and languages," Chen Zhenglei said.

While practicing, overseas students asked Chen Zhenglei whether there were any study materials available because they couldn't remember all the movements. So Chen decided to organize his students to translate books on learning Taijiquan. "At this point, we've translated guidebooks into nine languages," he said.

As the craft has gained widespread popularity as a healthy exercise enjoyed by people all over the world, qualified coaches are in great demand. "To go global, we need coaches who can speak at least one language other than standard Chinese. That's the reason why I advocated building a special college to train Taijiquan talents 20 years ago," Chen Zhenglei said.

Now that the Henan Taijiquan College is under construction in Chenjiagou, Chen's dream is, in his words, "halfway realized."

(Print Edition Title: Making Moves)  

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

Comments to linan@cicgamericas.com