A short history of Taijiwuxigong
In 1957, when Dr. Shen was only 18 years old, a group of retired friends wanted him to teach them Taijiquan. It was difficult for these people to remember a long series of movements. Each time he had to repeat the same movements and still the elderly students could not reproduce them.
That is why he decided to teach five distinct Taiji movements from the form. This led to a very interesting discovery. While repeating the same exercise and each time returning to the initial position, several of them had strange reactions and began moving spontaneously.
The effect on their health was stunning! Many suffered from asthma, bronchitis, hypertension and muscular rheumatism and so on, but daily exercise brought them great relief. They looked younger, their memories functioned better and their bodies felt lighter.
The phenomenon of spontaneous movements was not new to Dr. Shen. He had had some spontaneous movements himself when starting to learn Taijiquan with Professor Yao Huanzi. Professor Yao taught Taijiquan concentrating on the development of internal forces. But when he came to realise, thanks to his elderly students, that there must be a link between these spontaneous movements and health improvement, he was eager to investigate further.
Over time Dr. Shen has done research on the phenomenon of spontaneous movement and its effect on health in various ways. Finally, this led to a complete system of exercises by which the whole body can be kept in a healthy condition. The system was called ‘Taijiwuxigong’. |