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Taiji quan is a living and evolving art, like an ancient 500 year-old sequoia with roots reaching deep into the netherworld of Taoist alchemical realm. However, its latest cycle now moving into mainstream 21st Century marketing with such bizarre things as "Taiji in a box." That evolution has already resulted in various degrees of obfuscation and mystification of the art, loss of its essence and roots, dilution of its purposes even as it is embraced for those purposes by current and future generations of sincere practitioners. By deconstructing Taiji quan to its origins, historical context and intents, we can uncover the hidden alchemical layer pasted over by the more recent façade of athleticism, martial justification and New-Age simplicity.
The purpose of this essay is to refocus -- and thus, perhaps, reveal -- core essences of Taiji quan not only through a re-examination of its often hidden or lost history, but through the application of "forensic movement analysis."

Forensic movement analysis is a term that I invented which describes a discipline of using movements as evidence in tracing to its origin. For example, the gesture of greeting, a wave of our palm in a semi-circular arc originated from Native American’s way of greeting. Its semi-circular arc movement symbolizes the rising of the sun. If one studies European mode of greeting, the common form is of bowing at the waist or kissing each other’s cheek. With the dominance of American culture, the world has adopted this gesture as a universal sign of greeting.