Introduction
Taijiquan is a martial art, the quan means fist. Simply calling it taiji without the quan does not change what it is, this is just the more common abbreviated way of naming it in the West. In the Orient naming it with quan leaves you open to challenge to prove your martial ability.

Does learning taiji forms make you a martial artist? No, no more than skipping with a rope makes you a boxer. Boxers skip for exercise, footwork and co-ordination, essential skills for a boxer and great benefits for non-boxers who skip as well. Nor does speeding up the movements turn them into martial applications, mostly the true purpose and applications of each moves are hidden or disguised. Learning and practicing the forms with a teacher who can explain the many levels of the forms and moves will develop the benefits of agility health and co-ordination sought by the martial artist.

To get all the benefits of practicing forms they need to be done the same as if by the martial artist, they are not just choreography. To make it a martial art takes other skills, exercises and training. So learning taiji forms as a non-martial artist is fine, they are more challenging than skipping.

Behind the principles of taijiquan is much of the Chinese culture, philosophy, beliefs and traditional medicine. The I Ching, Bagua, acupuncture points, Daoism and more are inter-related. These need to be explained in context within the forms.

Spelling
Tai Chi, T'ai Chi, Tai Chi Chuan, Taiji, Taijiquan etc, don't worry too much about the spelling. It is only our romanised way of spelling what is originally Chinese Pictograms. If you really want to spell it correctly then use the original Chinese.

What's in a Name?
Tai Chi means 'Supreme Ultimate' Quan means 'fist' or 'fighting'. This does not translate to say that Tai Chi is the supreme ultimate style of fighting which would defeat all others. The term Supreme Ultimate came late to this art. In the 1850s Yang Lu Chan's style was so tagged by a poet in the Forbidden City in Beijing since it so displayed the principles, particularly yin and yang, within the Chinese concept of the 'Supreme Ultimate'.

The origin of the phrase tai chi is within the Book of Changes explaining the origin of yin and yang. Later a scholar named Chou Tun-Yi, a Neo-Confucionist in the Sung dynasty (close to the battle of Hastings for the non-Chinese historians) took much from religious Daoism to produce his 'Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate', the T'ai Chi T'u, and its accompanying text, the 'Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate', which describes the creation of all things. This brought together different Chinese beliefs such as yin yang, five elements, Daoism, the I Ching and more and made them integrated and complementary rather than separate systems. It must be noted that there was an earlier Daoist text of unknown authorship from the 8th or 9th century with virtually the same diagram. A possible explanation of this work was a reaction to the inroads made by Buddhism into China, an external religion which actually contradicted much of the Chinese social structure. Unifying Chinese beliefs would strengthen their opposition to Buddhism. Most westerners are only familiar with the basic yin yang symbol and possibly the trigrams of the Bagua.

To be continued