Honestly

[Xue Sheng]

i mean qi's training is totally different training, such as qi gong or dao yin（导引）. in taiji's training, external movement will lead your breath or qi on the right way. my master always say: when you are thinking of qi, you lose it.
in taiji, there is a saying:there is your mind, there is qi（意到气到）.i suggest taiji practitioners pay more attention to the movement than to the qi.

I fully believe that for a beginner it is much more important to worry about form and posture and not so much about qi (or breathing) becuase they will follow as ones form improves and as one gets more comfortable in that form.

However in the flavor of Yang style I train, as it comes form Tung Ying Chieh (董英&#26480 there are seperate Qigong training exercises that are trained to more advanced students.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Hmmm. I'll have to mull this over for a while.

Yes, I train to strike on the exhale. I never perceived it as a problem before.

I would think in a more realistic setting, the breathing would take care of itself, but this comment gives me pause, all the same.

My Xingyi Sifu was a fighter and he watched everything that his opponent did and he watched the rhythm of attack as well as breathing and if someone only threw a punch or a kick on exhale he would watch their breathing and when they exhaled (no strike necessary) he would attack. He was constantly telling us "NOT" to tie our strikes (in Xingyiquan) to breathing, breath natural and strike.

My taiji Sifu, if you do any tuishou with him you will never notice any difference in his breathing. It is always rather soft and he is always rather relaxed but he is still very capable of knocking me on my butt and it generally comes as either a complete surprise or one of those "Oh I shouldn't have done that" moments when it is to late.

 

[ben]

The Chinese place heavy focus on chi, jing, shen and so forth. I am not nearly as knowledgeable as some of you guys in this subject. My question is, in your tai chi chuan practice and personal opinion, do you believe that chi is actually circulated through the body? ORRRR is it a more cryptic way of talking about proper angles, breathing and body mechanics?

My answer to you're question would be that chi simply means energy and yes, I do believe that energy is circulated through the body.

Tai Chi is never quite that simple though so here is a more in depth description of chi, jing, shen and yi

http://books.google.com/books?id=pa3YcawR72IC&printsec=frontcover#PPA14,M1

 

[Dean]

Yes, I believe Chi/ Qi/ Ki is circulated in the body. Chi/ Qi/ Ki is circulated in the body of all living things. With Tai-Chi Chuan practice it is refined. As far as body mechanics, proper angles and breathing are concerened you learn how to develop a better Chi flow to parts of the body.