# Taijiquan vs Tai Chi Chuan your thoughts?



## Blaze Dragon (Jan 8, 2013)

So what do you think it's spelled differently, and more important how do you spell it and why?

I've heard both, I've also heard them pronounced the same, though some times I hear Tai Ji pronounced "tie gee". I've read online that they switched to ji for most spellings so not to confuse the word in Tai Chi with Qi or ch'i.


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## mograph (Jan 8, 2013)

Chinese words have been Romanicized a number of different ways: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Chinese 

(Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T'ai_chi_ch'uan
_Despite having a single Chinese spelling, &#22826;&#26997;&#25331;, there are two different spellings in English usage, one derived from the Wade-Giles and the other from the Pinyin transliteration, with the West mostly being familiar with the Wade-Giles, t'ai chi ch'uan. This name is often shortened by Westerners to "t'ai chi" (or "tai chi," a common misspelling). This shortened name is the same as that of t'ai chi philosophy, sometimes resulting in confusion between the two. The chi in the martial art's name can also be mistaken for ch'i (&#27683, especially as ch'i is involved in the practice of t'ai chi ch'uan. The 'up-to-date' Pinyin transliteration, taijiquan, is not subject to such misinterpretation, as the spelling of the hanzi &#26997;, ji is quite distinct from that of &#27683;, qi. "T'ai chi ch'uan" (including "t'ai chi" and their misspellings) still remains the popular spelling used by the general public today, however, many professional practitioners, masters and martial arts bodies (such as the IWUF[13]) write it as taijiquan._)

The "ji" or "chi" means "extreme", "ultimate" or "opposite". The "qi" or chi'i" means "life energy", "energy", or "breath". Many Chinese-to-English translations are loose, and these are no exception.

Which Romanicization do we use? It depends on what we learned, what we know, what we're comfortable with, what reads more smoothly, and what we think our audience will understand.


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## Xue Sheng (Jan 8, 2013)

Taijiquan is a further westernization of the Pinyin, actually it is Tàijíquán

Tai Chi Chuan is a further westernization of the Wade Giles, actually it is T'ai chi ch'uan

Both mean &#22826;&#26997;&#25331;

Pinyin is the westernization of Chinese characters from the Chinese Government and Wade Giles is the westernization of Chinese form the British Government


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