Change of forum name

Discussion in 'Tai chi' started by gerard, Jun 16, 2005.

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  1. Brad Ellin

    Brad Ellin Baba

    Frankly, want to change the name? Want to call it taiji or chinese linedancing? Then start your own freaking forum. Then you can call it any thing you want and play all the semantical games you want and bicker all you want. :bang: :bang: :bang:
     
  2. Syd

    Syd 1/2 Dan in Origami

    ... orrrrr, maybe the forum should understand what Taijiquan really is before ignorantly lumping everybody together under an insulting banner like Tai Chi! :D

    It's like people in Thai Boxing going to a forum for them called Tai-Bo!

    "Hey! It's just short for Thai Boxing guys! ... if you don't like it, go get your own FORUM! :bang: :bang: :bang: "

    " :bang: :bang: :bang: " oooooookkkkkkkkk ... says it all. :D
     
  3. Sandus

    Sandus Moved Himself On

    Just leave it. It's something people with a cursory knowledge of the art will recognize. Besides, how often do you really look at the name of the forum anyway? The TKD forum was "Tae Kwon do" forever because nobody noticed. It works, people know which forum this is, that's all that matters.
     
  4. gerard

    gerard Valued Member


    Yes, Gong fu is more appropriate. I haven't suggested this change either because I don't go to that forum.

    :)
     
  5. nzric

    nzric on lookout for bad guys

    I really hope this is a joke thread
     
  6. Syd

    Syd 1/2 Dan in Origami

    My message is serious ... I can smile though. :)
     
  7. Shadowdh

    Shadowdh Seeker of Knowledge

    TBH I would think Taiji is more appropriate but at the end of the morning it really matters not much... either way its still Taiji... (or an abbreviation for Taijiquan Syd... :D)
     
  8. Syd

    Syd 1/2 Dan in Origami

    Hey mate! ... I could live with Taiji any day of the week. ;)
     
  9. onyomi

    onyomi 差不多先生

    "The Classics"

    I hate when people refer to "The Classics." What classics in particular are you talking about? The Daode-jing? You have to be much more specific.

    No Syd, Taiji is not an imbalance, it is the harmony of Yin and Yang. It is a reference to the state of there being polarity, which was supposed to have been preceeded by "wuji" or "non-polarity." Our universe is in a state of Taiji. The familiar Yin-Yang symbol is called a "Taiji-tu" (Taiji diagram) in Chinese. Do you really think so many martial artists and Daoists would be so fond of a symbol that was a diagram of imbalance? Taiji-QUAN is Taiji-style boxing--that is, boxing that expresses the two natural extremes of soft and hard, slow and fast, etc. If taiji referred to an imbalance then it would mean "imbalanced-fist."
     
  10. Syd

    Syd 1/2 Dan in Origami

    Oh goody ...

    The Taiji classics ( not the Tao Teh Jing or Mencius or the Doctrine of the Mean etc ) are what I am talking about and then also the Yang family classics. I am talking about Taijiquan not Taiji in it's philosophical sense and certainly not the modern idea of Tai Chi.

    You need to learn and understand before you assume ... Tai Chi in the modern western sense is not Taijquan. Much of what passes for Tajjiquan, Tai Chi as an expressive form, has nothing to do with Taijiquan which is a balance of internal and external practice ... both martial and civil as the classics state! Tai Chi has no martial aspect ( as taught by most and many! ) and therefore is not Taiji and cannot be Taijiquan. If you read the classics and the Yang family classics you would understand from this that modern Tai Chi is an inbalance of the principles of Taijiquan as an expressive practice ( containing both civil and martial ) and therefore cannot truly be Taiji or Tai Chi for that matter. It's just a w*nk! ...

    Thats what I am talking about because Tai Chi is what most people understand as Taijiquan ... purely civil ... out of balance. Do a search and you will see this discussed by myself and others here two years ago in much more depth. That is why I personally object to Tai Chi as a forum name.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2005
  11. Sgt_Major

    Sgt_Major Ex Global Mod Supporter

    *Wonders what part of this bit ^^ Gerard doesnt understand ....... :rolleyes:
     
  12. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    No. It's not really like that. Tai Chi and Taiji are in fact the same term. They do refer to essentially the same thing. The 'quan' or 'ch'uan' is what denotes martial content surely. Not the pinyin vs. Wade Giles romanization.

    But look at the Thai Boxing forum. It could be argued that it should be called the Muay Thai forum. But it's a lot of fuss over a small matter. People recognize Thai Boxing. Hence the name. In my experience, more laymen recognize the name Tai Chi than Taiji.

    But Tae Bo isn't short for Thai Boxing. It's short for Taekwondo and Boxing. So even if you try to make the argument that Tae Bo is a health and fitness version of Thai Boxing (the way you might be saying that Tai Chi is the health and fitness version of Taiji), the analogy is flawed.


    Stuart
     
  13. Syd

    Syd 1/2 Dan in Origami

    Listen, I've been through all this with other forumites years ago but one more time eh?

    Yes it is like that sadly, and yes to people who know and practise Taijiquan we know that Tai Chi = Taiji but to most westerners Tai Chi is pure health dance only with zero chuan and therefore not what this forum is about. I think I can make that statement safe in the knowledge that this website is called Martial Arts Planet and not Martial Arts bereft of anything Martial Planet? That being the case then, why not just give it it's due and call it Taijiquan? To me Tai Chi is something altogether different from Taijiquan and there is a good reason I have made the distinction which I might add has been necessitated by the total watering down of the original art into something other than Taijiquan ... it's called Tai Chi!

    Why continue to promote the wayward rather than assert the correct for the sake of laymen? This is a mentality I will never subscribe to ... who cares what laymen recognize, is this about maximum exposure to the detriment of authenticity? This is again one of the reasons I can't bothered with these places most of the time since the attitude that pervades is merely symptomatic of the greater perception; one feeding the other or the blind leading the blind ... woo hoo!

    It was an analogy to illustrate a point, the analogy didn't have to be water tight in order to make the point if only the eyes to see it or read it were willing ... the point is made. Tai Chi ain't Taijiquan ... and Tae Bo sure as hell ain't Thai Boxing either. The difference between Muay Thai and Thai Boxing is that both camps of people calling that art one or the other are in a general consensus regarding the fact that it is a martial art and that they are all pretty much practicing and talking about the same thing! Not so in Tai Chi or Taiji or Taijiquan! More people practicing Tai Chi have no idea or concept that it is a Martial Art ... you will find that those who call the art Taijiquan practice the art in it's purer original form. If this were a purely health and new agey type of forum I would wholeheartedly agree that the forum would and should be called Tai Chi ... yup! ... If this is a Martial Arts forum then it most certainly should be called Taijiquan. I spend little time here due to this reason and many others ... it's a joke. :D
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2005
  14. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    Yeah. Since I'm not the other forumites and all.

    Because the people looking for the forum are the ones who don't know the distinction. It makes little sense to exclude them because they don't know precisely the sort of thing they're coming to the forum to find out.

    The less water tight the analogy, the less point there is in it.


    Stuart
     
  15. Syd

    Syd 1/2 Dan in Origami

    Pretty useless smart a*rse statement ... which tends to determine what follows.

    Are you kidding? Ok so lets call a bus stop a rain shelter and let them work that out later then! *LOL*

    WOW!


    Errr no, this just means you have missed the point altogether or you can't see the bigger picture which is clear enough here. Let me reiterate for you then.

     
  16. Sandus

    Sandus Moved Himself On

    I agree. I think anybody who has experience with taiji would know where to find it, regardless of however it's written. But MAP isn't exclusively about the snobs and the so-called "masters." It's a community comprised of people of all different levels of knowledge and interest. The people who don't know taiji but have questions about it will 99% of the time be looking for "tai chi." Do you exclude them because they have no prior knowledge?

    Putting the forum on such a pedestal seems like a great way to perpetuate the myths about taiji by alienating those people who want to know the truth.
     
  17. YODA

    YODA The Woofing Admin Supporter

    Excellent post Sandus :D
     
  18. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    That's okay. I got it the first time. Good luck to ya.
     
  19. onyomi

    onyomi 差不多先生

    Taiji=Tai Chi

    What are the "Taiji Classics"? Chen Family Boxing manuals? What are they called in Chinese? 太極經? How can there even be "Taiji Classics" when the term Taiji as used to refer to anything other than a Daoist concept was only invented 150 years ago? What do you mean Taiji is not Tai Chi? They are two different romanizations of the same characters--太極. Is the "Chi" you're thinking of in Tai Chi the same as the 氣 in Qigong? In that case, you're just making up a word that doesn't exist. (太氣?) That would just mean "great qi" or "great air." Please use some Chinese characters if you're going to try to debate linguistics with me.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2005
  20. YODA

    YODA The Woofing Admin Supporter

    ^^^^ What he said :D
     
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