The Philosophical Implications of Tai Chi in the Perspective of Body Conception

The philosophy of an era reflects its cultural spirit,while the cultural spirit of a certain age is the best interpretation of its philosophy.Tai Chi was produced during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty.Tai Chi as well as Bagua-zhang and Xingyi-quan are the representative of traditional martial arts.The thought of boxing-building,boxing theory,boxing principle and inheritance mechanisms all corroborate Chinese traditional philosophy.Tai Chi sticks to ‘unity of mind and body'and emphasizes ‘getting refined internally and externally'.Its using of action method represents the methodology and epistemology of Chinese philosophy,which distinguishes from the unitary body view of western philosophy.Depending on the ‘perception'of the body,repeated ‘realization'and accumulated ‘acquisition'mentally and physically,Tai Chi reaches its goal of unity of body and mind as well as refinement internally and externally.Based on the perspective of traditional body view,Tai Chi is established in the objective body,by which it links up nature,society and oneself.Tai Chi lays stress on the highly unity of the objective body and subjective body,realizes life from physical practice,cares for the value of life,which is completely consistent with the view of the unity of body and mind in Chinese traditional philosophy and the thought of cultivating one's moral character in Confucianism and preserving one's health in Taoism.