Tai-Chi's history can be divided into 2 parts: legend and fact. Unfortunately, the "fact" portion of Tai-Chi's history is just like the rest of Chinese history - difficult at best to substantiate. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. Posted here are the versions that have been passed down to Sifu Mark Cheng.

Jet Li in the "Tai-Chi Master"

Legend has it that a Taoist hermit named Zhang San-Feng (Chang San-Fong) was the creator of the earliest style of Tai-Chi. He was said to have first studied the techniques of northern Shaolin long fist sometime around 1300 AD, which would place him in the Yuan Dynasty. The legend regarding his life was made into a movie (Jet Li's "The Tai-Chi Master" or Tai Ji Zhang San Feng in Chinese).

Zhang then wandered about China, fighting the different martial artists that he came across. One master dealt him a painful loss, and Zhang retreated to the mountains to lick his wounds and ponder his defeat. In the mountains (some say he went to the Wudang Mountain), he came across a Taoist text that held the secrets of internal energy, or Chi (Qi or Ch'i), development and Taoist philosophy.

He spent months and months poring over the knowledge contained in that book, mastering every bit of knowledge contained in it. Zhang combined this knowledge of Taoist Chi cultivation and its yielding philosophy with his skills in the powerful Shaolin fist to create a new martial art.

Other versions of this legend say that he watched a crane and a snake fighting in the mountains. He saw the speed of the straight attacks and the fluidity of the circular movements used by both animals. The crane, although a larger animal, could not penetrate the snake's defenses, while the snake could not get its attack past the wings of the crane. Zhang then used the fluid, yielding movements of these animals and added an element of softness to his hard-style Shaolin training.

Regardless of Zhang's source of inspiration, his new art was radically different from any other fighting system in China at the time. He christened his art "Tai-Chi" boxing, meaning the "Supreme Ultimate" fist. Zhang went back to test his new art against the master that defeated him earlier, and redeemed his loss. From there, it is said that he went on to teach his art to others, who taught the men who would eventually found the Chen and Yang styles of Tai-Chi.

Yang Lu-Chan: "The Invincible" founder of Yang style Tai-Chi
No discussion of Tai-Chi is complete without acknowledging the role of the Chen family of the Chen Jia Gou village. The Chen family taught their own "Cannon Fist" system of martial arts within the walls of their family compound for many years, producing many formidable fighters in their bloodline.

One of their most formidable fighters was not a family member however. Yang Lu-Chan (born Yang Fu-Kui) was a local peasant boy from Hebei's Guangping who studied other fighting systems from a roving martial arts teacher and his uncle, who worked as a paid bodyguard for caravans and wealthy people.
Yang Lu-Chan later went to Chen Jia Gou village to study the Chen family style, after hearing of their reputation as awesome fighters. He asked for permission to study the family style and was flatly refused by the village elders. So he persisted in his quest and took a job as a manual laborer in the compound, hoping that one day his fortunes would change.

Interestingly enough, his fortunes changed in the nighttime, and not during the day. One night, after working late, he heard grunts of exertion and the sounds of combat. Yang rushed to see what the commotion was, but it was coming from the other side of a huge wall. He climbed a large tree to peer over the wall and found the family members practicing martial arts in secrecy.

Careful not to make a sound or let a single person know he was there, Yang scaled that tree every night and spied on the Chen family practice sessions for years. He'd run back to his room and practice the movements he'd seen every day. But one time, he was discovered hiding in the tree and his masters were furious.
They called him down in front of the whole extended family to explain himself. He told them of his intention to learn the family system and confessed to his spying. Further enraged, the elders made him fight the younger males of the Chen family. To their great surprise, he soundly defeated them. They then called out the best fighters of the Chen family, yet they met with the same results.

Yang Lu-Chan had studied the Chen family's teachings with such diligence that their own fighters could not best him. At that point, the elders accepted him as a recognized student, because of his dedication and proper attitude. He stayed for a number of years training with great intensity, leaving after he felt he had mastered the art.

Yang traveled all over China afterwards, testing his skills against the best fighters that he could find. His skill earned him the nickname "Yang Wu-Di", which means Yang the Invincible. Yet, there were still fiercer fighters than he, and a bitter defeat sent him back to the Chen village to resume his training for several more years. This cycle of training, victory, defeat, and more training happened 2 or 3 more times before he truly found no other who could beat him.

Time and experience helped Yang Lu-Chan digest the techniques he learned from the Chen family along with his own victories and defeats. Along the way, he modified the Chen system to suit his own personal attributes and created "Yang style Tai-Chi".

Historically, some say that no fist style was called "Tai-Chi" prior to Yang's system, as the Chen family fist was called Pao Chui "Cannon Fist". This is a hot topic of argument among some martial scholars, but there can be no argument that Yang Lu-Chan's grandson, Yang Cheng-Fu, was responsible for Tai-Chi's great popularity.

First made famous as a fighting system by the legendary Yang Lu-chan and popularized by Yang Cheng-fu, Yang style Tai-Chi grew to include weapons forms, such as the straight sword, broadsword, spear, and in some lineages, the staff or whip. Characterized by chou si jin and slower, more even tempo movements than the Chen style, which is known for its chan si fa jin, or silk-reeling explosive power, the Yang style (with its many derivative styles and cognates) is the most popular style of Tai-Chi in the world. In addition to tremendous internal and external health benefits for those who lack any great physical strength, it provides a well-rounded system of self-defense for those who choose to find the rare masters who have learned true Tai-Chi theory and application.